Andy swallowed. “I’m not... weird about it. Okay? After everything...” His gaze flicked to Brian, guilt flashing again. “You saved her.”
Brian’s expression didn’t change. “I wasn’t going to lose her. And I wasn’t going to let you lose her either.”
“I know.” Andy nodded quickly. “I just mean—it’s fine. I’m fine.”
He wasn’t entirely. Tess could still see the weight sitting on his shoulders. But he was trying to ease the tension. Trying not to be another thing she had to worry about.
His phone rang in his hand. He glanced at the screen, and his cheeks flushed even more. “It’s.. uh... It’s Kelle.”
Tess gave him a small, steady smile. “Don’t forget to invite her for pizza tonight.” She doubted that was possible. Her brother evidently had it bad for the girl.
He nodded, strode to the back door, and stepped out onto the porch to take the call, Jinx immediately trailing after him like a self-appointed chaperone.
Brian guided Tess back to the couch. She lowered herself carefully, and he sat beside her, his arm sliding around her shoulders without hesitation. She leaned into him automatically, her body recognizing the shelter of him before her mind fully processed it.
The house was quiet again, but no longer unsettled.
Outside, Jinx barked once—high and happy—followed by the murmur of Andy’s voice on the porch. Normal sounds. Safe sounds.
Brian’s thumb traced slow arcs along her upper arm, back and forth, like he needed the reassurance that she was really there. Then he exhaled—long and controlled, like he’d been holding it in since yesterday.
“I was scared,” he admitted.
She lifted her head to look at him.
His gaze was fixed on the blank TV hanging on the living room wall above the fireplace, his jaw tight, his eyes glassy.
“When that flash-bang went off, and everything went white...” His voice was thick and raspy. “When I pushed through the smoke and saw him with the gun near you...”
The memory punched through her.
The concussive explosion. The blinding burst of light. The ringing in her ears that had swallowed every other sound. Smoke and dust hanging in the air. The gunshot followed by Diego’s body hitting the floor.
Brian swallowed, and his arm tightened around her. “I thought that day I was almost shot was the worst fear I would ever feel.” His voice dropped. “I was wrong.”
Her chest ached for a different reason now.
She hadn’t thought about what it looked like from where he stood—coming through haze and chaos and seeing her on the ground with a gun inches from her head.
Her fingers curled into his shirt. “I thought you might not get there in time.”
“I will always get there in time,” he said quietly. “I love you.”
Her heart stuttered, and the words seemed to hang between them.
“I never thought I’d say those words to a woman who wasn’t family. But you...” His mouth curved faintly. “I didn’t know I was looking for someone until I found you. I can’t imagine my future without you in it. I don’t want to imagine it.”
A shaky laugh slipped out of her before she could stop it. Not disbelief. Just the overwhelming weight of everything settling at once.
“You’re sure?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Completely.”
The certainty in his voice steadied something deep inside her. She lifted her hand and traced the line of his jaw, her fingers brushing over the faint stubble there, memorizing the feel of him. This man. The one who somehow became her safe place.
“I love you too.”
The words didn’t feel dramatic. They weren’t forced, rushed, or born out of chaos, but inevitable and true.