A volunteer walks by carrying a bundle of old wiring and gives us a wide berth, probably sensing the tension radiating off Jude.
He finally says, “We both like her.”
“Yeah.”
“So now what?”
I let out a breath. “I guess we figure out how she really feels.”
He nods again, this time slower. More grounded. More accepting of the thing neither of us planned for. The thing none of us asked for.
He tucks his glasses into his shirt pocket and shifts his stance, bracing himself for the inevitable. “We should talk about the hall.”
“Yeah.”
We move toward the blueprint table. The shift feels strange—like walking after being underwater too long—but necessary.Jude leans over the plans, tapping the section where Chase wants to widen the doorway.
“We need support beams here,” he says.
“Chase thinks we can move them.”
“He’s wrong.”
“He usually is.”
One corner of Jude’s mouth lifts.
I point to the structural diagram. “If we add a steel post in the middle, it’ll hold.”
“Metal is expensive.”
“Dorian offered to help with materials. Apparently, he knows a cheaper supplier that he got in contact with when he was working on the project in Astoria.”
Jude glances up. “Of course he did.”
His tone carries something I recognize—jealousy. Possessive tension he doesn’t know where to put. The tiniest sting of resentment that someone else might catch Norah’s eye at the wrong moment.
I tap the blueprint again. “Look. Her and Dorian have some kind of issue going on. And I don’t know how exactly that works out for us, but I think it would be dumb to throw the whole thing away without even giving it a try.”
He gives a low, frustrated sound.
“You like her,” I say. “And I do too. But you knew that.”
He blows out a breath and straightens, hands on his hips. “I’m not used to this.”
“Liking someone again?”
He doesn’t look at me, but he doesn’t try to deny it.
I continue. “Dorian’s in it, too. Whatever’s happening between them, he’s part of this. But that doesn’t mean you bow out.”
He rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Then don’t.”
“It’s not that simple.”
I shrug. “Nothing ever is.”
