“Yeah… sure,” I said, smiling the kind of smile you wore when your favorite mug broke and everyone told you it was fine because you had other ones.
“Fantastic!” she chirped. “We’ll get everything organized in the next couple of days”
As the room hummed again with conversation and planning, I just sat there frozen, my coffee now cold in my hands. A minute ago, I was invisible. Safe. Watching everyone else step forward.
Now I was front and center. Withhim.
Cavil finally turned, giving me a brief look—not warm, not hostile, just… unreadable. A flicker of something passed between us before he turned back, and it twisted something sharp and unwelcome in my chest.
The meeting ended in a blur of good intentions and glittering plans. Laughter echoed as people gathered their coats and cookies, already buzzing about the charity routes and Christmas concerts. I slipped out the back door without a word, needing space before someone asked me to join another committee or sing carols for the local nursing home.
Snow had started falling—just a dusting, soft and slow—blurring the lines between buildings and lamplight. I leaned against the cold railing outside; the metal biting through my sleeves, grounding me. I breathed in deep. The air was sharp and clean, not like the noise and heat pressing in from the community center.
Cavil was already out there, like he’d been waiting, leaning against the brick wall with all the ease of someone who had zero idea the chaos he’d just dropped into my lap. His arms were crossed, his breath visible in the cold, and his expression—infuriatingly calm.
“What was that?” I snapped, storming toward him, my voice low but laced with heat. “You never volunteer. Foranything.”
He didn’t flinch. Just raised one brow. “Didn’t realize I needed your permission to be useful.”
My hands curled into fists inside my coat pockets. “Don’t do that,” I hissed. “Don’t pretend you’re swooping in to help when you just want to play the hero. I don’t need saving, Cavil.”
He pushed off the wall with a slow shrug. “Good. Then this’ll be easy.”
My jaw clenched so hard it ached. “Keep it professional. Routes, delivery windows. No reminiscing. No heart-to-hearts. No…you.”
His lips twitched. “Sounds like a dream.” There was the smirk—the one that made me want to throw a snowball directly at his face.
Before I could unleash the full force of my irritation, the door creaked open behind us.
Leo.
Of course.
He sauntered out like the star of his own Hallmark movie, hands jammed into his pockets, eyes already dancing with amusement. “Cavil,” he drawled, grinning. “Trying to get some extra time with Callie? That’s adorable.”
“Shut up,” Cavil replied, deadpan, not even turning to look at him.
Leo chuckled. “What’s the problem? I think it’s sweet. Our very own brooding war hero can’t resist playing white knight.”
I rolled my eyes so hard it gave me a headache. “I don’t needanyof this,” I muttered, shooting daggers at both of them.
Cavil just looked at me, cool as ever. “No one said you did. You’re acting like this is some personal attack.”
“You’re acting like you know what’s best for me.”
“You’re twenty-five, not twelve,” he replied flatly. “But you’re throwing a tantrum like a toddler.”
I blinked, stunned for a second. “Excuse me?”
“You’re not a kid,” he continued, completely unfazed by my death glare. “So stop acting like helping you is an insult.”
I opened my mouth—ready to fire off something brutal and probably uncalled for—when Leo stepped forward, smirking like he lived for this chaos.
“Cavil thinks he knows everything,” he said with a lazy grin. “But I’ll tell you whatIknow—you two are a disaster waiting to happen.”
“Leo,” I warned.
He held up his hands in mock surrender. “Fine, fine. No commentary.” He turned back to me suddenly, all that teasing evaporating into something dangerously sincere. “But how about dinner?”
