She wasn’t wrong. He’d spent years building silence around himself and then throwing himself into noise the moment someone needed him. Both were him.
“Yeah,” he said. “I do.”
She set her glass down on the table and leaned back. “You’re full of surprises.”
He lifted his shoulders, swirling whisky in his glass.
“You paint when you’re not saving people.”
“Also coffee. Or pie. I keep busy.”
“I can tell.” She smiled at that. “You live here alone.”
“Yeah.”
She hummed under her breath. Another small smile. “I figured.” She looked straight at him. “You like it.”
“I do.” He sipped. “It’s quiet. I sleep.”
She laughed softly. “Must be nice.”
She shifted, and her head tilted toward his shoulder, her hair fragrant with the scent of his shampoo. He adjusted without thinking, arm coming around her, anchoring her there.
His hand settled at her waist over the blanket. The weight of it felt right. A second later, her hand covered his.
Logs popped in the stove, and snow drifted past the railing in slow spirals.
She sighed as her body relaxed fully into his—the last thread of tension unwinding. He brushed his thumb along her sleeve, down across the top of her hand, and in reply, her fingers laced through his.
“You okay?”
“Mm-hm.” Her voice was already drifting. “Don’t move.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Minutes passed. Her breathing slowed, her weight settling fully against him.
Jen stirred and looked up at him, her eyes heavy. “This is the part,” she murmured, “where you’re supposed to tell me to go to bed.”
“I was going to carry you,” he said.
Her mouth curved faintly. “Bossy.” Her tongue darted across her lower lip. “And very hard to read.”
“I try.”
She tilted her face up.
He didn’t move, giving her time to change her mind.
“Wyatt.”
He lifted his hand slowly, letting himself cup her jaw. His thumb settled on the smooth sweep of cheekbone.
She closed the distance first.
He met her halfway.
The first touch was barely contact. Testing. Her mouth was soft and warm against his, sweet with whisky and fire and something he hadn’t let himself want for far too long.
