“Good,” I say.
Leo is quiet beside me — present without filling the room, which is new, which is its own thing. He catches me looking and tips his head slightly.
I lean into him more fully. He pulls me closer and I close my eyes and feel the four of us.
RJ’s name sitting in the room. Unspoken. Loud.
“I’m working on coming back,” I say. “All the way.”
Jake’s hand closes around mine and stays there.
“I know,” Leo says quietly.
Jim doesn’t say anything, but something in his bond reaches warmer.
I let myself have this.
The room. The heat. The weight of Leo’s hand at my waist. Jake’s shoulder against mine. Jim’s quiet gaze when I open my eyes. The particular peace of being held in multiple directions at once by people who already know the worst things about me and are still here.
Leo shifts beside me and his hand slides from my waist to the side of my neck.
“You smell different,” he says.
I glance up at him. “That a complaint.”
“Not even a little.” His mouth pulls. “Just true.”
“Different good or different suspicious.”
“Different mine,” he says.
Jake makes a sound beside me that might be a laugh.
I look at him. “You’ve got something to add.”
“You came back in black jeans and boots like you’re about to ruin somebody’s life,” Jake says. “I’m adjusting.”
Jim’s mouth twitches.
Leo looks down at me. “He’s not wrong.”
“I wore clothes,” I say.
“You wore a warning,” Leo says.
Jake’s fingers tighten once around mine, amused now instead of careful. “And if you think we didn’t all feel it through the bond the second you walked back in here, you’re out of your mind.”
I look between them.
Jim finally says, “You feel… sharper.”
The room goes quiet again, but easier this time.
Sharper.
Leo’s thumb drags once, slow, at the side of my neck. “You do.”
“I ‘m not sure how long Dalton will be meeting with Gavin.”
