Ledger exhaled, jaw tightening like he’d felt it too.
“We should go inside,” I said softly.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Probably smart.”
Reluctantly, he let go of my hand.
The absence felt louder than the silence had been.
We walked the rest of the way in companionable quiet, the door to our apartment clicking shut behind us like punctuation.
Ordinary. Manageable.
Later, we slid into bed like we always did—careful, habitual. His back to mine. A respectable pillow wall between us that felt wider than it ever had before.
Sleep didn’t come.
I lay there staring at the ceiling, hyperaware of every sound. His breathing. The shift of the mattress when he moved. The warmth at my back that I pretended not to notice. My hand still tingled where his had been, like my body hadn’t caught up to the fact that the night was over.
The walk.
The way his fingers had laced through mine.
How close his face had been.
How for one suspended second, it had felt like he might lean in.
Had he felt it too?
The pull? The hesitation? Thealmost?
The question curled in my chest, dangerous and hopeful all at once.
I wasn’t just pretending anymore.
And lying there beside him, wide awake in the dark, I realized something else that terrified me even more.
I wasn’t sure how to stop.
CHAPTER 17
LEDGER
Morning came too fast.
Not because of an alarm or sunlight—our bedroom curtains did their job—but because my brain refused to shut up.
Roxie was warm beside me, despite the pillow wall, curled slightly onto her side, one knee pressed into my thigh like it had every night since we’d moved into this ridiculous arrangement. I’d gotten used to that part. The shared space. The breathing. The faint scent of her shampoo that lingered on my pillow even when I tried to pretend I didn’t notice it.
What I hadn’t gotten used to was the way my chest felt tight now. Strained. Like something had shifted and hadn’t bothered to ask my permission.
Last night replayed on a loop whether I wanted it to or not.
The walk home.
Her hand in mine.
The way she’d leaned in without realizing she was doing it.
