“That looks like pacing.”
He turns his head then, slow. “Do you want me to sit down and pretend nothing happened?”
I swallow. “No.”
“Then let me work.”
There’s no softness in it. No apology. Just a command dressed up as logic.
My mouth opens anyway because I’m me. “You don’t have to talk to me like I’m?—”
“Ellie.” He says my name like a warning. Like a leash. “Stop.”
The single word lands hard enough to shut my mouth.
Wyatt holds my gaze for a beat, then his eyes drag down my body—flannel, bare legs, the fact I still don’t have my clothes—and he looks away like it costs him.
He grabs his phone from the counter and checks it again, thumb moving fast.
“You hear from Ethan?” I ask.
“Not yet.”
“Maybe it was just the storm.”
Wyatt’s gaze snaps back to mine, sharp. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Minimize.”
I flinch, because it’s too accurate. Because minimizing is how I survived Graham. If I pretended it wasn’t that bad, then I didn’t have to admit how trapped I’d been. If I joked, if I downplayed, if I called it a misunderstanding, then I could keep moving without falling apart.
Wyatt watches my face like he can see the exact moment the truth hits.
“I’m fine,” I say automatically.
He takes one step toward me. “No, you’re not.”
I lift my chin. “I’m standing.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
It’s infuriating—how he can be controlling and right at the same time.
I cross my arms tighter. “I’m not going to be some damsel who?—”
Wyatt closes the space between us until I’m backed into the doorframe. He doesn’t touch me. He doesn’t have to. His presence does it. His gaze does it. The heat of him does it.
“You’re not a damsel,” he says, voice low. “You’re stubborn as hell. That’s why you’re still standing. But you’re going to stop pretending this is small.”
My throat tightens. “You don’t get to tell me?—”
A knock hits the front door. Hard. Not storm-noise. Human.
Wyatt’s head turns instantly. His whole body shifts, the calm snapping into something more lethal. He gestures at me with two fingers—stay—then moves toward the door without a sound.
He opens it a crack.
