The second I step into her embrace, I melt; there is no other word for it. Her hug is warmth and familiarity and the safetythat comes from someone who’s known every version of you. I didn’t realize how badly I needed this until her arms were around me. We fall into an easy chatter that feels like slipping into an old sweater. Selene eyes the flannel tied around my waist and smirks. “Cute, that’s definitely not you style so I’m assuming you’re borrowing your bodyguards clothes? Should I expect wedding bells soon?”
I swat her shoulder, trying to look offended. “A woman is allowed to change her aesthetic. Yes, I wear matching sets, but today I wanted to wear—” I gesture vaguely at the flannel. “—this.”
Theo emerges from behind the counter, wiping his hands on a towel, his grin bright enough to warm the whole café. Before I can brace myself, he wraps me in a bear hug and spins as he lifts me clean off the ground.
“Good to see you both back in here,” Theo says as he gently sets me down. “What can I get you?”
Lucian steps forward, I can feel the tension humming off him, tight and territorial in the way his jaw ticks after watching Theo pick me up.
“Actually,” Lucian says, “I need to talk to you.”
Theo arches a brow. “Sure, shoot.”
“There was a friend of yours,” Lucian says, frowning slightly like he’s trying to remember specific details about her. “She works at the sheriff’s department? Shorter woman… black curly hair?”
“Oh—Mo?” Theo brightens. “Yeah, man. What about her?”
Lucian glances at me, just for a heartbeat, then back at Theo. His voice stays steady, but I feel the weight behind it like a hand pressed to my spine. “I was hoping to get her contact info. I think she could help me with something.”
Theo doesn’t pry; he just nods, already reaching for his phone. “Sure. She’s good people. I’ll text her, let her knowyou’ll reach out.” Theo sets his phone down and claps his hands together like he’s resetting the room’s energy. “Alright, now that business is handled, what can I get you two?”
Lucian steps up to the counter, his hand brushing mine in a grounding way, without thinking. “I’ll take whatever punches the hardest.”
Theo snorts. “So… rocket fuel. Got it.”
After I place my order, Selene hooks her arm through mine, tugging me toward her booth by the window before I can protest. “Come on,” she says, already sliding into the seat. “I need to hear everything. And I meaneverythingwhile we have a second alone.”
I laugh and fold into the seat opposite her. Sun pools across the wooden tables as the café hums low and warm around us. Lucian lingers at the counter, talking with Theo, but I feel him glance over now and then, and I can’t tell if they’re small check-ins or cries for help.
I tuck the thought away and let the conversation take me. Outside, the pines press close, and the memory of the woods waits at the edge of everything, but here, for now, there is warmth and the soft, ordinary ritual of being with family. When the bell over the door chimes again, it sounds less like an alarm and more like a promise: whatever comes next, we’ll meet it together.
* * *
The bell over Ms. Josie’s door gives a bright little jingle as we step inside her floral shop. Warm, earthy air hits usimmediately, almost like she bottled sunlight and potting soil and decided that was the cure for everything.
Selene inhales like she’s been waiting all morning for this exact smell, and I’m not far behind her. She always has fresh flowers floating around her house, and it’s nice to be able to see where they come from. The place is overflowing: buckets of flowers crowding the floor, petals scattered like confetti, a radio humming something soft that sounds like it’s been playing since the seventies. It’s chaotic in an intentional way.
Theo and Lucian drift in behind us. Theo hasn’t stopped talking since we left Bear and Brew, and Lucian keeps giving him those low, noncommittal sounds that to Theo count as a full conversation. They look like two mismatched bookends someone keeps putting on the same shelf.
Ms. Josie looks up from a bucket next to the register, eyes bright like she’s been waiting all morning for some entertainment to keep her going. “Well, look at this crew,” she says, and I can’t tell if she means it as a compliment or a warning.
Selene says hello to Ms. Josie and is already halfway to a display of bright, frilly blooms when she gasps. “Oh my god. Celeste. Look.”
I groan as I see what she is pointing at. “Nope. We can’t. Don’t even start.”
“Yes,” she insists, already reaching for one. “Do you remember how much Orion hates these?”
I do, becauseweare the reason behind his hatred. “He said they were… what was the phrase?”
“‘Sentient little nightmares.’” Selene says proudly.
Theo, who has drifted close enough to hear, double blinks at us. “But they’re flowers.”
“Not to Orion,” I say. “When it came to preteen Orion, we used them as psychological warfare.”
My sister snorts. “Because we made themtalkto him.”
Theo’s eyebrows shoot up. “I’m sorry, you what?”
