When she emerged in the late afternoon, she looked steadier.Still tired, still carrying the weight of everything, but more herself.She'd changed into the joggers and T-shirt from the bag Bree had dropped off, her hair loose and skimming her shoulders.
That night, the house settled around them in a way it hadn't yet.
Colby sat on the couch with one leg stretched out, flipping through channels until he found some cooking competition where everyone yelled about sauce, timers, and plating.The noise filled the room without demanding anything from him.
Sabrina walked in carrying a bowl of popcorn and the worn blue blanket he'd thrown over the back of the couch when he first moved in and never thought about again.Her hair was still down, catching the lamplight.
"I made peace with your microwave," she said, passing him the bowl."It only tried to burn one bag."
"Progress," he said.
She settled into the opposite corner of the couch, folding her legs underneath her.Then she flicked the blanket open and spread it across both their laps like it was the most natural thing in the world.
He adjusted automatically, shifted so she had room.Her knee brushed his thigh through the fabric.A small contact.Barely anything.
It felt like she'd put her hand directly on his chest.
On the TV, a contestant tried to stack food into something that looked like modern art and failed spectacularly.The tower collapsed, and the contestant's face cycled through five stages of grief in three seconds.
"This is chaos," she said.
"Organized chaos," he said."They know what they're doing.They just pretend they don't until the last ten seconds."
"Like you at the firehouse?"she asked.
"Something like that."
Her hand dipped into the popcorn bowl, her fingers brushing against his before she pulled back with a handful.
"Sorry," she said.
"For what?"
"For taking over your couch.Your kitchen.Your life."She rolled her eyes at herself."I feel like a barn cat that wandered in from the rain and decided this was my place now."
"I like barn cats," he said.
"You don't look like a cat person."
"I'm a 'things that decide to trust you after a rough stretch' person," he said."Species is optional."
She went quiet for a moment.On the screen, the show's host announced a twist that made all the contestants groan.
"I don't trust my own judgment right now," she said finally."I stayed with a man who treated me like a badly performing employee.I kept an inn running for years and still didn't see the fire coming until it was too late.My grandparents' house went up in flames, and I didn't smell smoke until the ceiling was already falling."She shook her head."Maybe 'barn cat' is generous."
He turned his head toward her."You got out of that relationship.You ran a place that gave people somewhere to rest.You woke up in a burning building and got your guests out alive."He held her gaze when she finally met his eyes."Don't rewrite yourself into the problem."
Her throat worked as she swallowed.She pulled the blanket higher, tucking it around her hips.The edge brushed against his hand where it rested on his thigh.He left his palm where it was.
"Do you have regrets like that?"she asked quietly."Ones that live in your chest and won't leave."
"Yeah," he said."Plenty.Calls I replay in the middle of the night.People I wish I'd reached faster.Things I should have said, or shouldn't have."He shrugged one shoulder, a small motion."Some days I carry them better than others.Some days I shove them in a box in the back of my head and pay attention to whoever's right in front of me instead."
"Who's in front of you right now?"she asked, but her voice had already gone softer, like she knew the answer.
"You," he said.
She turned her head, searching his face with those tired, too-perceptive eyes."Is it weird that I feel safer here than I did in my own house for the last year of my life?"
