Her chest swelled with emotion. “Have I mentioned lately that I love you?”
“Not in the last hour. I was starting to worry.”
She turned in his arms and kissed him—deep and thorough, pouring every ounce of gratitude and love and hope into the contact. Carson responded immediately, pulling her closer, his hands sliding into her hair.
“We should finish unpacking,” Nora murmured against his lips.
“We should,” Carson agreed, making no move to let her go.
“The boxes can wait.”
“They really can.”
He backed her toward the bedroom, never breaking the kiss, both of them laughing andstumbling over boxes scattered in the hallway. They’d clean up later. Right now, this was more important.
Being together. Being present. Being home.
***
The afternoon sun filtered through the bedroom curtains, casting golden light across the bed where Nora and Carson lay tangled together.
For the first time, there was no danger hanging over them. No case consuming Carson’s attention. No fear driving them together. Just love. Just choice. Just them.
“This is different,” Nora said, tracing patterns on Carson’s chest. “Better.”
“Yeah.” His hand moved lazily up and down her back. “No adrenaline. No crisis. Just us.”
“I like just us.”
“Me too.”
They lay in comfortable silence for a while, both processing what this meant. That they’d made it through the hard part. That they’d chosen each other not out of desperation but out of genuine love and commitment.
“Move in with me,” Carson said suddenly, then laughed. “I mean, officially. Permanently. Not just because it’s convenient or because you’re in danger. Move in with me because you want to build a life here. With me.”
“I already said yes to that. That’s why I’m here.”
“I know. But I wanted to say it properly. To make it clear—this is real. This is forever. This is me choosing you every single day.”
Nora propped herself up on her elbow to look at him. “And what if you have a case that demands everything? What if Shaw wasn’t the last time you get consumed by work?”
“Then I’ll recognize it. I’ll talk to you about it. I’ll make adjustments.” He cupped her face. “I won’t be perfect, Nora. I’ll still have moments where work pulls at me. But I’ll never go back to the way I was before. I can’t. Because I finally understand what I was doing and why. And I can’t unsee that.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay. I believe you.” She kissed him softly. “Not because you’re perfect. Because you’re trying. Because you’ve shown me you can change. Because I trust you.”
“I won’t break that trust.”
“I know.”
Carson pulled her close again, and they stayed like that until the sun shifted and shadows lengthened across the room. Eventually, they got up and finished unpacking, working together with easy cooperation, building their shared space.
That evening, they christened their new arrangement by cooking dinner together—Carsonhandling the pasta while Nora made salad, both of them moving around the kitchen with practiced ease.
“This is what I imagined,” Nora said as they sat down to eat. “When I thought about what a real relationship would look like. This. Normal moments that feel extraordinary because we’re together.”
