I nodded too quickly. “Yeah. Just tired.”
He didn’t press, and part of me was grateful, part of me disappointed. I wanted to talk about it, and I wanted to tell him how much it meant that he trusted me with the parts he’d shoved down. I was also terrified. Of saying the wrong thing. Of making him regret opening up.
A bag of snacks Hunter had picked up for the kids sat piled in the backseat, a reminder of the world waiting for me at home. My chest tightened with guilt and relief all at once. I’d missed them. Every mile closer felt like a knot unraveling. But another knot had formed too, one tangled in Hunter’s hand brushing mine, in his nightmares, in the way I’d felt safe in his arms even when he was shaking.
I watched him out of the corner of my eye, my chest tightening. To anyone else, I might have looked restless. But to me, it was more. It was the echo of battles I didn’t fully understand but could feel in the way he carried himself. And the part that undid me most was that even through his quiet storms, he still looked at me like I was something worth pouring into.
I wasn’t sure where this road was leading. I just knew I wasn’t letting him walk it alone. And I could tell that he felt the same way for me.
By the time we pulled up, I was half buzzing with anxiety, half desperate to scoop my kids into my arms. My mom met us at the door, her smile wide, the twins already wriggling in her arms, Zeke darting out with a hundred questions. Any guilt I held melted away the second I kissed their cheeks, breathing them in like I’d been gone for a month instead of a night.
Hunter stayed just long enough to help carry my bag inside and give me one of his signature grounding smiles and a quick kiss before heading out. He didn’t push. Just squeezed my hand and murmured, “Call me later,” before disappearing out the door.
And then, of course, Dani showed up.
She didn’t even knock, just breezed in like she always did, plopping onto the couch with her iced coffee. “Well? Spill it.”
I groaned, flopping into the armchair. “Hi, Dani, how are you? Yes, I missed you too.”
“Cut the polite crap,” she said, grinning like a cat who already knew the answer. “Overnight trip. Hotel room. Tell. Me. Everything.”
My mom chuckled from the kitchen. “I’ll leave you two to it. Don’t let her downplay it, Dani. She came back glowing.”
“Mom!” My face burned.
Dani gasped dramatically. “Glowing?!Oh, honey, we’re skipping straight to chapter twelve of your romance novel!”
I buried my face in a pillow. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, dragging out the sound, her grin pure mischief. She took a long sip of iced coffee, eyes gleaming over the rim. “So you mean to tell me you went all that way, stayed overnight with a six-foot-something former Marine with that voice, and what—played Uno until bedtime?”
“Dani!”
She lifted one brow. “What? I’m asking the important questions.”
I rolled my eyes, but she wasn’t wrong. My reflection in her oversized sunglasses probably gave me away: my curls tousled, skin flushed, that stupid little smile I couldn’t quite hide. A soft happiness that sneaks up on you after years of survival mode.
I hesitated, peeking out from behind the pillow. “Okay, first of all, you’re impossible. Second, it wasn’t… that kind of night.”
Dani leaned forward, all faux innocence. “So… itwasa night.”
A laugh slipped out before I could stop it. “Yeah. It was a night.”
That was all it took. She squealed, grabbing the throw blanket from the back of the couch and waving it like a victory flag. “Iknewit.”
“Okay, fine,” I admitted, sitting up and hugging a pillow to my chest. “It was… amazing. But also terrifying. I kept thinking,what if I don’t fit? What if his friends look at me and see a mess?”
Dani arched a brow. “Beautiful, smart, hilariously self-deprecating, you?”
“Messy, overthinking, single mom me,” I corrected.
She smiled while rolling her eyes dramatically. “And?”
I gave Dani a rundown of the party. How Hunter never made me feel out of place. How he just kept a hand on the small of my back, a grounding reminder that he was there with me. The way I fit into his world, talking with the other wives and girlfriends and meeting his friends.
Dani’s expression softened even more. “Cam…”
I shrugged, trying to keep my voice steady. “His friends were kind. Loud, but kind. They teased him like brothers do, but you could tell there was love behind it. And one of them, Logan, had his little girl there. She was this sweet, wild-haired kid who had me out there dancing with her.”
