Jace: Of course we came.
Blake: You’re family, Knox.
Axel: Okay NO. Stop it. Do NOT get soft and gooey on us. I have a reputation to maintain.
Ryker: What reputation?
Axel: As an emotionally unavailable man with perfect comedic timing and no feelings.
Blake: You literally teared up in the waiting room.
Axel: SLANDER. LIES.
Jace: I saw it too.
Axel: You saw NOTHING.
Me: You cried over me?
Axel: I had something in my eye.
Ryker: For two hours?
Axel: It was a big something.
Blake: It was called “feelings.”
Axel: I’m muting this chat.
Axel: I want it on record that I hate all of you.
Axel: Except Knox. Glad you’re not dead, buddy.
Axel: But the rest of you? Dead to me.
Me: Love you too, guys.
46
KNOX
“Haven’t you examined my brain enough for two weeks?”
Harper glanced up from her tablet, one eyebrow arched. “We need to continue monitoring you for delayed neurological deficits.”
I smiled. She smiled.
This was our new normal.
Ever since Harper had spent not one, but two nights in a row checking on me every two to four hours, everything had shifted between us. There was a lightness about her now, something that had taken root and spread like spring after a brutal winter. The way she walked was different. Softer. The tone of her voice pitched a little higher, a little warmer.
But mostly, gloriously, she smiled. A lot.
And I fucking loved it.
She smiled when I came in for my daily neurological checks. She smiled when she got close enough to shine that penlight into my eyes. She smiled anytime our hands brushed together, like even that small contact was a gift she hadn’t expected to receive. And she smiled at the prospect of my restricted activity being lifted, so I could come back to work in her infirmary.
“Well?” I leaned back on the exam table. “Am I still a genius?”
