“You hiding from your boss again?”
Johanna smiled immediately. “Your definition of hiding is very dramatic.”
Blaze hummed thoughtfully behind her. “Ready to go home?”
Home.
She leaned back into him naturally while his hands rested low against her waist.
After all these years and that feeling still hadn’t changed.
The quiet emotional safety she fought so hard against in the beginning now felt like peace and certainty.
Blaze had stayed exactly like he promised.
He wasn't perfect or magical. He was consistent.
He showed up every day, through every hard conversation and every vulnerable moment.
Blaze kissed her temple. “What’s on your mind?”
The question still melted her a little every time. Blaze was always checking on her, always paying attention to the things she didn't say out loud.
Johanna turned in his arms slowly until she faced him fully.
God.
This man still stole her breath.
Most of the visible bruises had faded, though the injury still lingered in the careful way he moved, but something about Blaze had changed afterward.
He looked softer around her.
More open, as though surviving that night had burned away whatever fear he still carried about loving her completely.
“You know what I was thinking?” Johanna asked quietly.
Blaze’s hands slid slowly along her waist. “That I look exceptionally handsome?”
She laughed softly. “Your confidence really is exhausting.”
“But accurate.”
Unfortunately… yes. Then she finally said the thing that had been sitting heavy inside her chest since the fire.
“I was so angry at myself that night.”
Blaze’s expression softened immediately.
“At the fire?”
She nodded once.
“Because the whole time I thought you were trapped in that house…” Her throat tightened slightly. “None of the Seattle stuff mattered anymore.”
“I turned Seattle down.”
Johanna blinked.
