Chase smirked faintly.
“Not the same reason. Different kind of room-reading. But you learn to see it when someone else is doing it.”
He nodded slightly toward Logan.
“You’re the one he drifts toward the most.”
Logan didn’t deny it.
“He trusts you,” Chase added.
Logan leaned back against the bench again, letting that sit.
Trust.
That was the part that mattered.
“Tonight,” Chase said after a moment, “he didn’t drift as much.”
Logan looked over.
“No?”
Chase shook his head.
“You were already steady. So he relaxed sooner.”
He paused.
“Which is probably why he was joking with me on the patio instead of pretending he was fine.”
Logan exhaled slowly.
That matched what he’d felt all night.
Chase pushed away from the locker, grabbing his bag.
“I’m not trying to mess with that,” he said.
Logan watched him.
“With what?”
Chase gestured vaguely toward the door.
“Whatever you two built.”
He slung the strap over his shoulder.
“But I’d like to stand in the room with it,” he finished.
The honesty in the statement was almost disarming.
No pressure.
No claim.
Just a clear line.
