Dani smiled, soft but mischievous. “That’s not just attraction, babe. That’s a man choosing you, even when he doesn’t have to.”
“Yeah,” I said, voice barely above a whisper. “And that’s the part that scares me.”
For a moment, my mind drifted back to that night, the part I hadn’t told Dani about. The night I woke to Hunter thrashing beside me, his breath ragged, his eyes wild and far away. The way he’d snapped awake, gasping, and how fast he’d pulled back, murmuringsorrylike it was a reflex. I hadn’t pushed him. Just placed my hand on his arm, slow and steady, until he came back to me.
He never told me what the dream was. And I never asked.It wasn’t my story to demand.
Dani’s voice broke through my thoughts. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said quickly, forcing a smile. “Just thinking.”
She tilted her head but didn’t press. That was the thing about Dani, she could read me like a book but knew when to let a page stay unturned.
I exhaled, “You should’ve seen him at the end of the night,” I said quietly. My thoughts drifted back to the barbecue. Hunter standing there with his friends, beer in hand, that low laugh of his, it hit me that I wasn’t seeing the careful version I usually get. This was his world, and he looked at home in it. But he still looked for me. “Every time I moved across the room, his eyes would find mine. Like he was making sure I was okay.”
Dani’s smile turned soft. “That’s not just attraction, babe. That’s someonechoosingyou.”
“Yeah,” I said, voice barely above a whisper. “And that’s the part that scares me the most.”
“Why?”
“Because,” I said slowly, “I want him to stay. I want to believe he will.”
Dani was quiet for a long moment before bumping my shoulder. “You know what I think?”
“What?”
“I think he’s got you by the heartstrings.”
I groaned. “Don’t say that.”
“Too late. It’s written all over your face.”
She grinned again, playful. “So, was he at least good at Uno?”
I threw another pillow at her. “Get out!”
The pillow hit her square in the chest, and her laughterfilled the room — wild, bright, alive. And somewhere under it, mine joined hers.
It wasn’t the brittle kind of laughter that used to break under its own weight. It was lighter. Freer.
And beneath all the teasing and fear and hope tangled inside me, I realized the truth.
Hunter Bennett had started to become the quiet in my chaos, and I didn’t know if that terrified me more than it saved me.
Chapter Forty Four
Hunter
If someone had told me a year ago that this would be my life, I would’ve laughed them out of the room.
Laying on the floor surrounded by blocks and stuffed animals, Zeke narrating some elaborate battle plan with his toys, the twins squealing with delight every time I pretended to “lose” to them. Sitting at Camille’s kitchen table, textbooks spread between us, quizzing her like some kind of fake professor while she rolled her eyes at me and tried not to smile. Me: carrying diaper bags and strollers without thinking twice, like it was second nature.
Yet here I was. And the craziest part? I liked it. It didn’t feel like babysitting someone else’s chaos. It felt like being part of it.
The kids had wormed their way into me faster than I expected. Zeke, with his endless questions, testing me on sharks and space like I should have a degree in both. The twins toddling after me with their curls bouncing, calling out “Hunty!” like I was their favorite discovery.
And Camille… She was the center of it all. Strong and stubborn, always pushing forward even when I could see the exhaustion in her eyes. She carried so much, but when she let me shoulder even a piece of it, I felt like maybe I was finally doing something right, and I hadn’t felt that in a long time.
