Control your voice.
Control your face.
I nod once, slow. “Yeah,” I say carefully. “I did.”
Rafe’s gaze flicks over me like he’s trying to find the lie. He doesn’t, because there isn’t one.
“It mattered,” I add, voice steady even as my chest shakes inside. “It matters. And… it’s something I can do while I still have visibility.”
Something soft and wounded crosses Rafe’s face. Understanding. Not because he knows my secrets, but because he knowswhythis would matter.
To him.
To his family.
To the parts of his history that I held sacred even while I stayed silent.
Cal blinks, glancing between us. “Okay,” he says, amused and intrigued, “so you two know each other, right?”
My stomach drops. For half a second, I can’t move.
Then Eli saves me. He leans forward, grinning too wide, and drops his voice into something breezy like this is the most normal thing in the world. “Oh yeah,” he says. “College. Ollie was the basketball golden boy, and Rafe was the music menace. We all kind of… orbited the same circles.”
The audience laughs lightly at that.
Eli continues before Cal can ask anything sharper. “We haven’t seen him in a hot minute, though. It’s been, what, years?”
“Quite a few,” Miles says smoothly.
Drew nods. “Too many.”
Rafe doesn’t speak, but he’s still looking at me.
Cal claps his hands once like he’s delighted. “Well, look at that! A little reunion on the couch.”
Ha.
Yeah.
Reunion.
Adrian Vale jumps in, charming as ever, and the conversation shifts toward him—his upcoming movie, his intense training schedule, something about doing his own stunts. I nod at the right places, laugh when the audience laughs, but I’m barely paying attention. How can I when Rafe is right there.
My skin feels too tight, and every second is a battle not to turn fully toward him and forget the cameras exist.
Miles leans in and bumps his shoulder lightly into mine, fingers briefly squeezing the top of my arm before he pulls back.
A silent message:Breathe. Stay with us. You’re okay.
I swallow hard and force myself to look at Cal again.
And then Cal turns back to the band, grin widening. “All right,” he says, excitement in his voice, “we’re not going to waste any more time because Steel Saints are about to play for us.”
The audience cheers.
Cal leans forward. “You’re performing ‘Velocity’ tonight, right?”
A cheer goes up at the title alone.
