I moved through the shop, turning off lights and adjusting displays, letting the rhythm of the closing routine calm my thoughts. The warmth still lingered in the air, like an echo of the laughter that had filled the space just an hour ago. But under it all, a knot of unease twisted in my stomach.
I reached for my phone, half-expecting a message from one of the guys saying they’d left something behind. Instead, Leo’s name lit up the screen.
Heard the open house went well. Dinner?
My breath caught.
Dinner?
Like nothing had happened? Like he could just walk back into my life now that things were going well again?
I didn’t reply.
The quiet in the shop felt different now—thicker. Like it had absorbed my hesitation and was waiting for me to admit something I didn’t want to say aloud.
I slid the phone back into my pocket and tried to push the thoughts away, but they came anyway. The memories. Leo’s smile over candlelight. The easy charm that slowly turned into something else. The promises he broke. The ones I kept long after I should’ve let them go.
But it wasn’t just about Leo.
It was about Cavil too.
And that scared me more than anything.
Because when I looked at Cavil now, I didn’t see Leo’s shadow. I saw someone quiet and solid. Someone who listened. Who showed up. Who didn’t ask for attention but earned it, anyway. Someone who didn’t realize how deeply he’d started to settle into the cracks I thought were long healed.
And yet… they were brothers.
That truth lingered like smoke in my lungs.
What if I was wrong again?
What if I mistook something good for something safe?
I reached for the door and turned the lock with a click. As I turned back to grab my bag, a shape stepped out from behind one of the shelves.
I startled.
“Hey,” Cavil said, voice low, eyes gentle.
I forced a smile, hoping it looked more convincing than it felt. “Hey.”
“You okay?” he asked, watching me like he already knew I wasn’t.
“Yeah,” I lied, too easily. “Just wrapping up. How was the meeting?"
"Good." He didn’t move. Just stood there in that steady, quiet way of his—as if offering something I didn’t know how to ask for. "Walk you to your car?"
"Sure."
And even as my heart fluttered at the sight of him, fear whispered in the background.
They were still brothers.
And I didn’t know what that meant yet—not for him, not for me, not for this thing between us that felt a little too much like hope.
Chapter11
Cavil
