I grab her, both arms wrapping around her hard enough to pull a soft sound from her lips as I bury my face against her neck.
And the second she tightens her arms around me? Years of tension finally snap loose inside my chest.
My eyes burn unexpectedly.
Fuck.
I tighten my grip on her instinctively.
Peyton lifts one hand, her fingers sliding slowly through my hair while she holds me there in the middle of the kitchen.
“I’ve got you,” she whispers softly.
The words nearly fucking destroy me.
Because that’s what I’ve been trying to be for everyone else my entire life. And suddenly someone is trying to be that for me instead.
My breathing turns rough against her throat.
Peyton’s fingers continue moving gently through my hair while silence settles softly around us. The kind of safe silence I never had growing up.
I don’t know how long we stand there like that.
But it’s long enough that my heartbeat slows.
Long enough for the shaking inside my chest to ease.
Long enough that when Peyton tilts her head back to look at me again, I realize I’ve never loved anything more than the way she’s looking at me right now.
Like I’m worth staying for.
My forehead drops against hers.
And for the first time in years… I don’t feel alone.
60
DALTYN
The tea Peyton made sits forgotten on the counter while we move quietly around each other inside the cabin. Like we both understand something changed tonight. Something permanent.
Peyton disappears into the bathroom first.
When she comes back out twenty minutes later wearing leggings and one of my old Avalanche shirts, my entire brain short-circuits.
Her damp hair falls over her shoulders. Her cheeks are still pink from the shower.
She looks so comfortable here, it physically hurts.
I stare too long.
“What?” she asks.
My throat tightens. “Nothing.”
It’s a lie, and after what I just told her, I can’t do it anymore.
“You look beautiful.”
