“Me, too.”I close the space between us until there isn’t any, until every breath, every shift belongs to both of us.
I don’t rush what’s building, let the heat rise on its own and create the space for the moment to hold.This isn’t about forgetting.It’s about staying in it together.
Chapter33
Maddox
It’s been days since the memorial, days since I stopped pretending I don’t need her exactly where she is.
The front hallway is quiet except for the sound of Grace laughing against my mouth, her hands pressing lightly against my chest, a half-hearted attempt to create distance neither of us wants.
“You thought you could sneak out.”I tighten a hand on her waist.
Eyes bright and a little flustered, she tilts her head to look up at me.“I wasn’t sneaking.You weren’t supposed to be this fast.”Her lips curve.“Besides, your mother is right down the hall.”
“Uh-uh, she’s at the clinic all morning.”I slide my hand along her jaw and tip her face back up to mine.
And when she lets me kiss her again, it’s slower this time, the kind that starts soft and builds into something that makes everything disappear.She makes a small sound against my mouth that does nothing to help my case for letting her go.
Then she pulls back, and this time, there’s more resolve in it, though her fingers curl briefly into my shirt before she releases it.
“And why aren’t you at school?”Her brow arches.
“I’ve got two frees today.My usual classes are on a field trip.”I brush my lips along her jaw, just below her ear, and feel her breath catch before she turns her face away with a quiet laugh.“I thought I’d get some Grace time.”
Again, she laughs, low and reluctant this time, and tilts her face toward mine one more time before catching herself and stepping back with the determination of someone overriding their own wishes.
“I have to go.Zoe is waiting.”
“You’ve been spending more time with Zoe than me.”
“Are you jealous?”
“Yeah.”The word comes out easier than I expect.“Never thought I’d say it, but I am.I want you to interview me.”
“The interviews are done.”She smooths the front of my shirt, a small, absent gesture.“I’m writing now, fact-checking, and Zoe needs direction on the layout.We’ve got a week to get this thing done.We’re?—”
Her phone lights up on the side table, and when she glances at it, whatever was left of her hesitation evaporates.“That’s her.I really have to go.I wish I’d known we’d have the house to ourselves.”
I cup her face in both hands, tilting it up, and kiss her forehead slowly.My lips rest there long enough to feel her exhale settle, long enough for her to lean in rather than away.
“You okay?”My thumbs trace along her cheekbones, and I feel the moment she softens, the small surrendering of tension in her shoulders, before I make myself pull back.
“Yes.”
She got an email from Toby yesterday saying they were pulling her off the Trintol story.The one she’d spent a little over a year building from nothing.The one tied to her brother and everything that came after losing him.
“You’d tell me if you weren’t, right?It’s a lot to process.A story like that doesn’t just get handed off without leaving a mark.”
When she told me, what I saw in her face was closer to acceptance than devastation, and that worried me.I know what that story meant to her.
It wasn’t a career win she was chasing—it was personal in the way only grief can make something personal.Everything about that story was tangled up with her brother and the need to make something right that can never fully be made right.
“Mad, I promise, I’m fine, and yes, I would tell you if I wasn’t.”
“Okay.Go.”I keep my hands where they are for one more second, her face warm in my palms.“Work.”I press one last kiss to the corner of her mouth.“I’ll see you later.”
She gazes up at me, her expression warm and a little distracted, her mind already shifting toward Zoe and work.