"She said she wanted slow," I say.
"She said she was scared. Those are different things. Slow is a pace. Scared is a barrier. You don't remove barriers by waiting. You remove them by showing up."
"When did you become a relationship counselor?"
"When my best operator started walking around like a ghost. Go. Fix it. That's an order."
"You can't order me to?—"
"I just did."
Channel 16 buzzes as I leave Calder's office.
Riggs: Calder just told me Tucker's going to see the writer. CONFIRM??
Decker: how do you know that already
Riggs: I have sources
Calder: Riggs, my office door is glass. You were literally watching.
Riggs: my sources are excellent
Decker: good luck Tucker.
Riggs: GO GET YOUR GIRL
The drive to Charleston is three hours. I make it in two and a half, because priorities have shifted and the mission is clear.
I stop at a Thai place on King Street—the good one, not the tourist trap—and order enough food for two. Pad see ew, green curry, spring rolls. Not because I think food will fix things, but because showing up empty-handed feels like showing up unarmed, and that goes against every instinct I have.
Her apartment building is a three-story walk-up in a neighborhood that's equal parts charming and crumbling. I find her name on the buzzer and press it before I can talk myself out of it.
Static. Then her voice, tinny through the speaker. "Hello?"
"It's Tucker."
Silence. Five seconds. Ten.
"Tucker?"
"I'm not letting you hide. We need to talk."
More silence. Five seconds. Ten. Fifteen.
The door buzzes open.
Chapter 13
Kassidy
Tucker Brennan is standing in my doorway holding Thai food.
My brain performs a hard reboot. One moment I'm alone on my couch in mismatched socks and an oversized cardigan, surrounded by a nest of notebooks and empty coffee cups, deep in a chapter where Sophie finally tells Ethan she loves him. The next moment, the buzzer goes off, and the voice on the other end is the voice I've been hearing in my sleep for two weeks, and now he's here. In my hallway. With spring rolls.
"Hi," he says.
"Hi."
