"What did he say to you?" I asked as we walked to the truck.
"That you're the most important thing in his life, and if I hurt you, he knows how to make bodies disappear." Daemon said it deadpan, then grinned at my expression. "I'm kidding. Mostly. He told me you've been carrying the family for too long, and he appreciates that I'm trying to lighten your load."
"Oh." My throat felt tight.
"Also, that I have an open invitation to Sunday dinners, and I should teach him that trick with the pipe wrench I used on the sink."
We'd pulled onto the main road when he spoke again. "What was that with your sister in the hallway? I know it wasn't about me, because I never make you go pale like that."
"She was asking about the surgery bill. Whether she could help cover some of it."
Daemon's hands tightened on the wheel. "Can she?"
"No. She's stretched too thin." I stared out the window at the darkening streets. "It's on me."
"And your parents?"
"Property taxes. General expenses. Dad's hours have been reduced since last year, and Mom's part-time position at the school district wasn't renewed." I laughed, but there was no humor in it. "It's a lot of plates to keep spinning."
"Nadia—"
"I know what you're going to say. That I can't save everyone. That I need to take care of myself first." I kept looking out the window. "But that's Emma in there. Fifteen years old, and she tried to handle an infected wisdom tooth alone for two weeks because she didn't want to worry anyone. How do I not show up for that?"
"You don't." He reached over and caught my hand. "Because you're not built that way. It's one of the things I—" He stopped, cleared his throat. "One of the things that makes you who you are."
I noticed the slip, the way he'd almost said something else.
"The thing is," I continued, "Elevate's offer would solve all of this. The salary alone would cover Mom and Dad's expenses, Emma's braces, and give Holly breathing room. I wouldn't have to choose between keeping my business afloat and helping my family."
"But you'd lose your independence. Everything you built."
"Yeah." I turned to look at him. "Is it selfish that I don't want to give that up? That I want to keep fighting even though taking their offer would be the smart, practical thing to do?"
"It's not selfish to want something you built with your own hands." He pulled into his driveway, put the truck in park, and turned to face me fully. "But I also won't tell you what to do, Nadia. This is your choice. Your business, your family, your life."
"What if I make the wrong choice?"
"Then we deal with it together." He cupped my face, thumb brushing my cheekbone. "But for what it's worth? I think you're going to figure out a way to have both. To keep your business and help your family. Because that's what you do. You find solutions when everyone else sees walls."
I leaned into his touch, letting myself take comfort in his certainty even as my own wavered. "Your faith in me is more than I could ask for."
"Good." He kissed me softly. "Means I'm doing something right."
We went inside, past Sofia's garden gnomes and through the door decorated with a ceramic plaque that read "Built for Speed!" In his small living space, surrounded by doilies and ceramic cats, I felt some of my tension ease.
"Your family's great," Daemon said, pulling me down onto the pink loveseat beside him. "Your dad's a good man, your mom's scary in the best way, and those kids are hilarious."
"Emma liked you. That's big. She's usually shy around new people."
"Jack's convinced I need to see the new dinosaur movie with him. I got the entire rundown of the plot during dessert."
I laughed, picturing it. "He doesn't usually warm up to people that fast."
"What can I say? I have a gift with six-year-olds and their dinosaur obsessions." He stretched his arm along the back of the chair, and I curled into his side. "Seriously, though, your family's solid. Holly can't have been much older than Emma is now when she had her."
"Fifteen," I said. "The same age Emma is now, which I try not to think about too hard."
"And then Jack came along ten years later."
