“You do not hesitate,” I say, my voice steadier than I feel.
Maceo tilts his head slightly, studying my face with an intensity that makes my skin prickle. His gaze lingers on my mouth, then flicks back up to meet my eyes. There’s something unreadable in his expression, something that makes my chest tighten.
“Should I have?” His voice is low, rough around the edges.
I shake my head, surprised by my own certainty. “No,” I admit, my fingers brushing against my collarbone like I can still feel the heat of his hand there. “I think that might actually be good for me.”
A slow, satisfied smile spreads across his face, and he shifts closer, his knee brushing against mine. The contact sends a jolt through me, sharp and electric. “Good,” he murmurs, his voice dropping to something darker, richer. “Because I don’t plan on stopping.”
He leans in and brushes his lips against mine once more, then studies my face for a moment longer before leaning back onto his heels, giving me space to breathe and think and remember that we supposedly came here for lunch.
After a moment he reaches for the picnic basket with hands that are perfectly steady.
“You know,” he says, opening it with practiced efficiency, “we hiked all this way for food.”
I laugh softly, some of the tension leaving my shoulders. My body feels suddenly boneless, like I’m dissolving from the inside out, every nerve ending still tingling from his touch. It’s almost embarrassing how quickly he’s managed to turn me from a functioning adult into whatever this is.
“That does sound like something we should address before I pass out from hunger.”
He pulls out sandwiches wrapped in brown paper, a container of fresh fruit that looks like it came from someone’s private orchard, a bag of homemade cookies, and two glass bottles of what looks like fresh lemonade. Everything is arranged with the kind of care that suggests he put actual thought into this picnic rather than just grabbing whatever was available.
We sit together on the blanket while the afternoon stretches lazily around us, eating in comfortable silence punctuated byoccasional conversation about the food, the view, the way the light falls across the distant hills.
The forest moves quietly around us. Leaves drift through the clearing on invisible currents. Somewhere in the distance a bird calls, and another answers. The sun is warm on my face, and the blanket is soft beneath me, and for the first time in days my mind feels still.
I sit there beside him, sunlight warming the grass, and let everything settle.
Somehow, these three men have slipped past every defense I thought I had. It wasn’t deliberate. It wasn’t calculated. It was their simple, persistent presence. Through showing up when I needed them most, through seeing me in ways I’ve never been seen before, through making me feel like I might actually be worth choosing.
I think about Maceo’s hands on my face just minutes ago, the way he kissed me like he’d been thinking about it for weeks. The careful way he packed this picnic, the thoughtfulness in every detail, the way he looks at me like I’m something precious he’s been waiting his whole life to find.
Ezra in the shop yesterday, his hands gentle as he helped me understand the flow of magic through the town’s infrastructure. The way he looked at me like I was a fascinating puzzle he was honored to help solve.
Lucien standing in his doorway two days ago, looking at me like we are already a foregone conclusion and the rest of us simply have not caught up yet.
Something inside my chest shifts quietly into place.
I cannot pretend I do not feel it anymore.
All of it.
The pull toward each of them, different but equally real. The way my magic responds to their presence, settling andstrengthening in ways I never expected. The way Ruby Springs feels like home in a way nowhere else ever has.
Maybe that makes me selfish.
Maybe it makes me reckless.
Maybe it makes me exactly what this town has been waiting for.
Sitting here in the quiet of the forest with the picnic basket between us and the whole afternoon stretched out ahead, I realize something that feels both terrifying and wonderful.
There is no world where I walk away from this town.
There is definitely no world where I walk away from them.
Chapter
Twelve
