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The first contact hurt, though not physically. Gavin was solid and warm beneath the cold leather of his jacket, and one of his hands spread over the back of my head the way it had when I was a kid and had managed to scare myself badly enough to admit I needed him. I held on hard.

His jacket smelled like cold air and the stale warmth of a long drive. His chin pressed briefly into my hair.

“God, Georgia.”

My eyes burned as I buried my face against his shoulder for another second before pulling back enough to see him.

Up close, I found lines beside his eyes that hadn’t existed at twenty-five and a small pale mark near his jaw I didn’t recognize. His mouth moved as though he had too many things to say and no idea which one belonged first, which was exactly how I felt.

“You’re really here.”

“I told you I was coming.” His voice was rougher than it had sounded over the phone.

I touched the side of his face because looking still wasn’t enough. Gavin closed his eyes briefly beneath my hand.

“I’m sorry, Sis.”

My throat tightened, but there was no way seven years belonged in the front doorway of a crowded restaurant.

“We have seven years for that conversation. You don’t get to fit it into the doorway.”

A shaky laugh escaped him. “No. I guess I don’t.”

I hugged him again, shorter this time but no less fiercely.

When I let go, Gavin looked past me, and the change in his face was immediate.

I followed his gaze to Meredith.

She had risen from her table with one hand resting on the back of the chair and the other lying over the curve of her stomach. She had gone pale, but she stayed where she was.

Gavin stopped breathing for a moment.

“Meredith.”

She swallowed. “Hi, Gavin.”

Nothing more came, and the seven years between them remained exactly where they were. I wasn’t going to push either of them across that distance in the middle of a crowded Halloween party.

Rex moved then, removing the fake fangs with one hand and pulling loose the clasp of the cape with the other. Case appeared beside him without being called, took the cape, and turned back toward the bar before curious guests had a reason to wonder why the vampire had abruptly abandoned his costume.

Rex crossed the room in his own black clothes.

I watched Gavin see him coming, recognition hardening his expression without turning it hostile.

“McCord.”

Rex stopped a few feet away without reaching for him. “We need to step somewhere quieter.”

Gavin looked at me.

The happiness of seeing him was still inside me, so sharp it almost hurt, but yesterday’s conversation with Rex came back with equal clarity. He had told me what might happen instead of hiding it or deciding I couldn’t handle the truth.

“I’m coming with you,” I said.

Rex nodded once. “I know.”

Gavin’s eyes moved between us as though he’d noticed more than I wanted to explain in this moment, but he didn’t ask.