The answer landed clean and sharp.
I swallowed around the strange tightness in my chest. “That a hard no?”
“That’s a smart no.”
There was no heat in it.
That somehow made it worse.
“Tessa—”
“Every time trouble hits this town,” she said quietly, “you Rangers are standing in the middle of it.”
I opened my mouth.
Closed it again.
Because she wasn’t wrong.
Her grip shifted on the flowers again, knuckles paling slightly beneath the stems.
“I built a quiet life here,” she continued. “I’d like to keep it that way.”
Something low and protective twisted hard in my chest.
“I’d never let anything happen to you.”
The words came out rougher than I intended.
Too honest.
Tessa’s eyes searched mine for one long second.
And for the first time since I’d met her…
she looked tempted to believe me.
That scared her.
I saw it happen.
Saw the exact moment she pulled back emotionally.
Like someone shutting a door.
“I’m sure you mean that,” she said softly. “But sometimes meaning it isn’t enough.”
Then she stepped around me.
The flowers brushed lightly against my arm as she passed.
I turned and watched her walk away, sunlight catching in her curls while the bell above her shop door chimed softly again.
Not afraid of me.
That was the problem.
Tessa Bloom was afraid of wanting me anyway.
