By the time I reached the corridor, the replay loop in my head had eased enough that I could finally think forward instead of backward.
Not completely.
Luka still lingered there beneath everything else,
The brief smile I’d managed to coax out of him. The glimpse of the person hiding underneath all that restraint, impossible to dislodge now that I’d seen it.
But as I stepped outside into the Milan evening and headed toward the Metro, another thought slipped in alongside it.
Claire had always seen through me faster than most people.
Which meant I had roughly thirty-five minutes before she started asking questions.
Claire was already halfwaythrough a cup of coffee by the time I arrived.
“You look terrible,” she announced.
“Hello to you, too.”
“You were expecting a hug first?”
“I was hoping for basic human warmth.”
Claire grinned and stood, arms opening without hesitation.
I stepped into the hug, and the familiarity of it hit harder than I expected. Same perfume, same easy confidence. Same sense that Claire noticed far more than she ever admitted outright.
I sat in the seat opposite her, and she slid a coffee toward me. “Caffeine. You’re welcome.”
I picked up the cup, took one sip, and blinked. “You remembered my order.”
Claire appeared offended. “Please. I remember your order, your Starbucks ranking system, and the fact you alphabetized your playlists in college.”
“That happened once.”
“You made categories.”
“In my defense, there were a lot of playlists.”
“There were spreadsheets, Dean.”
There was no point in arguing that one.
For the first time all day, my shoulders loosened.
“What brings you to Milan?”
She gasped. “That’s all I get for flying all this way to watch youfinallywin a gold medal?”
I gave her a searching glance. “You really came to watch the Games?”
Claire bit her lip. “Okay—the shoppingmighthave played a teeny tiny part. Plus the fact that a whole heap of friends were coming here, and someone pulled out at the last minute.”
I guffawed. “Ah, now it makes sense.”
“What interests me more is that look I saw when you walked over here.”
“What look?”
