Page 200 of At First Catch

“What happens now?” I ask.

His attention returns.

“I honestly don’t know yet,” he admits. “But I know I want you in whatever comes next.”

Relief flickers through me so intensely it almost embarrasses me. It seems a part of me needed reassurance more than I realized.

“You’re not temporary to me, Hadley,” Nolan states firmly.

The words hit hard enough to physically ache. I know how much it costs him emotionally to say things like that aloud.

I step closer again until my forehead brushes his lightly.

“Neither are you.”

Emotion flashes openly across his face. Warm enough to wreck me.

Something sharp and burning fills the kitchen.

I blink once.

Twice.

Then glance toward the stove.

“The pancakes are on fire.”

Nolan whips around. “Jesus Christ.”

A startled laugh bursts out of me before I can stop it while Nolan lunges for the pan.

Smoke curls toward the ceiling. The pancakes are absolutely destroyed. The sheer ridiculousness of it snaps something lighter back into place between us.

“You’re very emotionally distracted,” I inform him helpfully.

“I’m going through something.”

Warmth flickers through my chest again.

We remake breakfast together after that. Nolan burns one more pancake. I steal strawberries directly off the cutting board.

“You know what Bailey told me yesterday?” I ask while reaching for syrup.

Immediate suspicion flashes across Nolan’s face. “That sentence has never improved my life.”

A laugh slips out.

“She said we’re in our stress-test relationship era.”

Nolan stares at me. “That sounds fake.”

“She reads too many romance novels.”

“Concerning behavior.”

I catch Nolan watching me from across the kitchen, his raw emotion stealing the breath from my lungs, just as his phone lets out a sharp buzz against the counter.

Everything shifts. I feel it happen physically. The tension returning to his shoulders. The flicker of stress behind his eyes. The marina office number lighting the screen. Pressure sliding back between us before either of us says a word.