“I won’t.”
Not loud.
Not dramatic.
Just certain.
Mason studies him.
“You think this fixes everything?” Mason presses.
“It’s not about fixing everything,” Gabriel says. “It’s about building something solid.” He looks at Mason directly. “Look, I’ve been around. Married. Kid. Divorced. I see things differently than you do. You’re out there dating, screwing around, having fun. I did that. I’m past it. I don’t move fast unless I mean it.”
Mason scoffs. “That sounds rehearsed.”
“It’s not,” Gabriel replies. “I asked Natalie because she’s the only person I trust with my daughter. And I know her well enough to know that matters. I like her. And that's more than enough to mean this.”
That shifts the air.
I feel it.
Not the words themselves.I like her. I trust her with my daughter.But the way he says them. Like they’re facts. Like they’ve been true for a while.
Heat creeps up my neck before I can stop it.
He didn’t have to say that in front of Mason.
He didn’t have to make it personal.
But he did.
Mason feels it too.
He hates that he feels it.
“You trust her,” Mason mutters. “That’s not the same as loving her.”
My heart thuds once.
“This isn’t a rom-com speech,” I say quietly. “We’re not standing in the rain. We’re making a choice.”
“Fast,” Mason shoots back.
“Yes.”
He runs both hands through his hair.
“God. This is insane.”
He looks at Gabriel again. “You don’t just skip the whole middle. You don’t go from barely-more-than-acquaintances to husband. She’s my sister, not someone you see around the rink. That’s not how this works.”
“And you,” he says to me, “you don’t blow up your life because he’s scared.”
I don’t flinch.
“I’m not blowing up my life,” I say evenly. “I’m expanding it. There’s a difference.”
Mason’s jaw tightens. “You call this stable?”
