“Good.”
Bliss hugged me one more time, softer now. “You okay?”
I looked at Easton.
He stood in my kitchen, soaked and exhausted in a KFU Fury hoodie, his bruised mouth healing, wrapped knuckles at his side, eyes on me like he had walked through every version of his anger and still ended up at my door.
“No,” I said honestly. “But I want to hear him.”
Bliss nodded, kissed my cheek, and let me go.
Charm touched my arm as she passed. “You don’t have to solve everything tonight.”
Easton’s voice came quietly from behind us. “I know.”
Charm looked at him, then nodded once.
That was all she gave him. For Charm, it was practically a signed treaty.
The door finally closed behind them, but their voices carried down the hall almost immediately.
Bliss whispered, “I’m telling you, five minutes.”
Charm whispered back, “Seven if he keeps talking about forgiveness.”
“I still think five.”
“Ryan is picking me up in three, so I refuse to be involved in the timeline.”
I closed my eyes. “They know we can still hear them.”
Easton’s gaze stayed on the door. “I think they want us to.”
“Subtlety has never been their ministry.”
“Noted.”
Their footsteps faded, along with another burst of whispering that sounded suspiciously like Bliss saying, “Use protection emotionally and otherwise,” before Charm shushed her so loudly it defeated the purpose.
Then the apartment settled.
No movie. No snack bags crinkling. No Bliss and Charm turning terror into commentary so I didn’t have to stand alone inside it.
Just the kitchen.
The rain.
Easton.
Me.
He looked at me from across the small space, water dripping from his hoodie onto the floor between us, and whatever almost-laughter had been in his face faded into something rawer.
“I didn’t come here to ask you to make it easy for me,” he said.
My fingers curled around the edge of the counter. “Good, because I don’t know how.”
“I know.” He swallowed, and the movement dragged my eyes to his throat before I forced them back up. “That’s why I’m here.”
