For a moment, no one notices. I'm just another body in the dim light. I could turn around. Leave. Pretend I tried.
Then someone at the bar glances over.
Their gaze catches. Holds.
I watch recognition flicker across their face before they lean toward the person beside them, mouth moving. That person looks up. Then another.
The awareness spreads like a ripple.
Conversations don't stop exactly. They just... shift. Lower. My name surfaces in fragments I'm not supposed to hear.
"Is that—"
"She's back?"
"I heard she was in town, but I didn't think—"
Heat crawls up my neck. I force myself to keep moving, weaving between tables toward the bar like I have a destination, like I belong here.
A woman I vaguely recognize—someone's older sister, maybe—steps into my path and pulls me into a hug before I can react.
"Look at you," she says, pulling back to study my face. "I heard you were back."
I manage a smile. "Word travels fast."
"Always does." She squeezes my arm. "How long are you staying?"
"Just visiting. Helping Mae out for a bit."
"Well, it's good to see you."
She drifts away, and immediately someone else appears. Then another. Hands on my shoulders. Questions I don't have answers for.
"You still in Denver?"
"What brought you back?"
"Are you staying?"
I nod. Smile. Deflect with practiced ease, the same way I handle clients who ask too many questions in meetings.
When I finally reach the bar, I order without looking at the menu. The bartender—older now, grayer, but the same—slides the drink toward me without comment.
Like I never left.
I take the first sip too fast. It burns going down, but I welcome it.
"There she is!"
I turn and Shae is already there—all red curls and bright energy that cuts through the noise of the bar like she brings her own light source. She pulls me into a hug that smells like her perfume, something floral and sweet, exactly like her.
Relief loosens something in my chest.
"I can't believe you're actually here," she says, stepping back to look at me with those sharp green eyes that miss nothing. "Thought you'd bail."
"You didn't give me much choice."
She grins, wide and unapologetic. "Damn right I didn't."
