“I know.” Her smile is teasing. “That’s why I thanked you.”
The boat rocks gently beneath us. Above, I can hear the muffled sounds of Judah and Mason and Atticus—voices I can’t quite make out, movements I can’t quite parse.
None of it matters.
What matters is this. Phoenix in my arms, warm and alive and safe. The steady rhythm of her heartbeat against my chest.
I never want to let her go.
But tomorrow, she’s supposed to fly away.
FORTY-FIVE
JUDAH
The kitchen lightis already on, which isn’t a surprise.
I’m just not expecting who I see sitting at the table.
Mason has both hands wrapped around a mug of coffee, staring out the window at the harbor. He’s wearing my flannel and his hair is still rumpled from sleep. Without his glasses, his face looks much younger.
And much more like the boy I fell in love with.
He looks up as I hesitate in the doorway, and something moves behind his eyes before he schools his expression into careful neutrality.
“I’d forgotten how early your mornings are.”
I shrug, my heart suddenly pounding for absolutely no reason at all. “Nothing ever changes around here.”
Mason’s mouth twitches. “I made coffee.”
As if I’d been waiting for his permission in my own damn kitchen, I cross to the counter and pour myself a cup. At least this gives me something to do with my hands that isn’t reaching for him.
I lean back against the counter, hesitant to sit with him at the table. It feels like even the more benign action on my part might spook him and I’m terrified of misstepping.
Silence falls. I force myself to sip lukewarm Folgers instead of breaking it.
“Phoenix has been a little difficult to get out of bed this morning,” Mason says finally. “Sorry there’s no breakfast waiting for you.”
“It’s fine.”
He sets his mug on the table. His fingers tap a nervous rhythm against the ceramic. “I did want to say goodbye properly. Without an audience.”
The wordgoodbyelands like a punch to the sternum.
I knew it was coming. Of course I knew. They have lives to get back to, two thousand miles from here. Mason has been Phoenix’s assistant for three years. He’s not going to throw that away for a fishing village and a fuckup alpha who couldn’t hold onto him the first time.
But hearing him say it out loud is another thing entirely.
“Yeah.” My voice comes out rougher than I intended. “Figured that was coming.”
More silence. The kind that’s heavy with everything neither of us knows how to say.
I take a breath and force out the words I’ve been rehearsing in my head all night.
“My whole life is here.” I gesture vaguely at the window, at the harbor beyond, at the town that’s been Daniels territory for three generations. “The boat. The business. Mabie. Everything.”
Mason nods slowly. “I know.”
