“Yes.”
“You don't know what I was going to say.”
“Doesn't matter.” My voice came out breathless. “Whatever it was, yes.”
His mouth curved into the most beautiful smile, and then his arms were around me.
The hug happened all at once—his chest against mine, my face pressed into his shoulder, his hand splayed across my back. Solid and warm andrealin a way that made my knees forget how to work properly.
I wrapped my arms around his waist and held on.
Cal made a sound low in his throat, something between relief and surrender, and tightened his grip. His chin came to rest on top of my head. I felt his breath hitch, then steady.
Tucker wagged his tail against my leg.
We stood there like that—too long for casual, not long enough for what it actually meant. His hand moved up to the space between my shoulder blades, fingers spreading wide, like he was memorizing the shape of me.
I turned my face slightly, my nose brushing the collar of his shirt. He smelled like soap and coffee and something woodsy I couldn't name. My heart hammered so hard I was certain he could feel it.
Movement caught my peripheral vision. Two women approached my booth, scanning the table, looking for someone to help them.
“I should—” My voice came out muffled against his shoulder. “I have customers.”
Cal's hand stilled on my back. “Yeah. You should.”
Neither of us moved.
His thumb traced a slow line along my spine, and my entire nervous system short-circuited. The women at my booth picked up a bundle of herbs, examining it. One looked around for me.
“Cal.”
“I know.”
Still, his arms didn't loosen. If anything, they tightened a fraction, like he was giving himself one more second. Just one.
I pressed my forehead against his chest, breathed him in one last time, then forced myself to step back.
It felt like the hardest thing I'd ever done.
My hands slid from his waist. His arms dropped away slowly, reluctantly, his fingers trailing across my back before falling to his sides. The space between us felt wrong, cold and empty, like we'd left something essential behind.
Cal's eyes held mine. Dark and steady and full of things neither of us were ready to say yet.
The air crackled.
I turned toward my booth before I could do something reckless, like step right back into his arms and stay there. My legs felt strange. My hands shook slightly as I reached for the herbs the customer was holding.
“Sorry about that,” I said, my voice coming out steadier than I had any right to expect. “How can I help you?”
The woman smiled. Started asking about my herbs and greens.
I answered her questions. Gave appropriate suggestions. Wrapped her purchase in brown paper.
The whole time, I felt Cal watching me.
When I glanced back, he stood exactly where I'd left him, Tucker beside him, his expression unreadable except for the faint curve at the corner of his mouth.
Like heknew.