He leaned forward, resting his elbows against the table. “It stopped mattering.”
“But not enough to turn down the job offer.”
The quietness in her tone unsettled him more than yelling ever could have.
Blaze sat there staring at her because now he understood exactly where her mind had gone.
Not to the present.
To the past.
To every moment she’d ever spent loving him while wondering whether some bigger dream would eventually pull him away from her.
Blaze reached across the table for her hand.
Johanna let him touch her. But her fingers no longer curled naturally around his.
That tiny difference punched through his chest.
“You really think I’d spend all this time trying to get you back while planning to leave?”
Johanna finally looked at him. And there it was.
Fear lived in her eyes now, not the dramatic or irrational kind, but the quiet sort that settled deep enough inside somebody to permanently change the way they loved.
“You didn’t tell me,” she said softly.
Blaze opened his mouth.
Then closed it again.
Because there wasn’t a good answer for that.
Johanna swallowed slowly before forcing a small nod. “That’s the part that bothers me.”
“Baby—”
“You looked me in my face every day these last few weeks.” Her voice tightened slightly now. “Baltimore. Staying at my apartment. Talking about futures and feelings and all this…” She gestured vaguely between them. “Meanwhile, there was still a possibility you could leave.”
Blaze’s jaw tightened. “It wasn’t like that.”
“But you interviewed, and I overheard you say you’re still considering their offer.”
The truth settled heavily between them.
Unmovable.
Blaze lowered his voice. “I interviewed before things changed between us.”
Johanna’s eyes lifted again.
Their history was filled with almosts, timing issues, fear, distance, and love that never stayed settled long enough before life pulled them apart again.
And now Seattle had found its way between them too.
Blaze leaned forward again while frustration crept quietly beneath his calm exterior.
“What do you want me to say, Jo?”
