Especially the pauses.
Chase started the engine and the car hummed softly to life.
Headlights cut across the empty street.
He pulled away slowly, glancing once more in the rearview mirror as the house disappeared behind him.
Inside, the party was still going.
But the moment that mattered had already happened out on that patio.
Chase drove for a few blocks before realizing something that made him shake his head with a quiet laugh.
For the first time in a long while, he wasn’t thinking about whether something would work.
He was wondering what it would look like if it did.
And that thought followed him all the way home.
Chapter Ten
Logan
Logan waited until they were halfway down the street before speaking.
The house disappeared behind them in the rearview mirror, porch lights shrinking into warm blurs as the quiet neighborhood settled around the car.
Tommy leaned back in the passenger seat, shoes kicked off, one knee pulled loosely toward his chest. He looked tired , not drained, just full.
Processing full.
Logan drove for a minute without turning on music.
The silence wasn’t uncomfortable.
Tommy traced idle shapes along the fogged edge of the window.
“You okay?” Logan asked.
Tommy nodded. “Yeah. Just… a lot.”
“Yeah,” Logan said softly.
A stoplight turned red ahead, washing the inside of the car in muted color.
Logan exhaled slowly.
“I keep thinking about the patio.”
Tommy glanced at him. “Good thinking or bad thinking?”
Logan huffed a quiet laugh. “Neither. Just thinking.”
He paused, then said what had been sitting in his chest all night.
“You standing between us like that… it didn’t feel tense.”
Tommy’s shoulders loosened. “No?”
