“You haven’t heard it yet.” He swallows. “It’s going to sound… strange.”
“It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, I’m here for you. Always.” I offer a soft smile. “You know that, right?”
“I think I do… yeah.”
He shifts toward me, slow and deliberate. His gaze locks onto mine like he’s searching for something in my face—permission, maybe. A reason not to pull away.
“It’s not just losing my dad. Everything’s changed now,” he says, voice low and rough. “There’s no going back… even if part of me still wishes things were different. That I could… thatwecould?—”
He stops himself and looks down, like he’s said too much.
“We could what, Hay? What are you saying?”
My pulse jumps, breath stuttering, as his hand lifts, tentative at first, fingertips brushing my cheek. Slow, tender. His thumb drags a slow line from cheekbone to chin, sending a spark straight down my spine. It’s like he’s waking something up inside me.
Then his gaze drops to my mouth.
Not quick. Not subtle. Not by accident.
Intentional.
His lips part slightly.
And just like that, Iknow.
It’s not a guess. Not a hope. Not wishful thinking or a daydream or delusion, but a certainty rooted somewhere deep inside. I feel it in my chest, in my bones, in the thrum of the air sparking between us. In the way time itself seems to pause.
This is real. He wants this.
He wantsme.
The space between us disappears in a breath. My eyes flutter shut, my lips parting on instinct as I lean in further.
And then… I kiss him.
Soft. Hesitant.
I don’t know what has come over me, what stupid, reckless impulse finally wins. I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’m about to ruineverything. But just as doubt threatens to overwhelm me, and I start to pull away, he kisses me back.
His mouth is urgent. Unrelenting. Desperate for me. Like he’s starving and has been waiting for this his entire life and can’t hold back any longer.
AndGod—I feel it, too.
All of it.
He groans into me, hands sliding behind my neck, fingers threading through my hair. His body presses into mine like he can’t get close enough. It’s heat and gravity and need colliding in one impossibly perfect moment. The world spins and cracks wide open. His arms are the only thing anchoring me as the floor slips out from under my feet.
It’s not just a kiss. It’s a goddamn reckoning.
The kind of thing that ruins you and makes you forget there was ever a before. Something that rewrites fate itself.
But then, too fast, too damn fast, he pulls away.
“Oh fuck. I’m sorry,” he says, stumbling back like he’s been shocked.
“Hay?”
I’m still reeling. Breathless, tingling. My heart crashing like waves in my chest.
