Something tightens hard in my chest.
Before I can think better of it, my hand slides over hers where it rests against her leg.
Slow.
Careful.
Giving her every chance to move away.
She doesn’t.
The storm disappears.
The mission disappears.
Everything narrows down to the warmth of her hand beneath mine and the way she’s looking at me now.
Open.
Tired.
Dangerously soft.
I lean toward her slowly.
Enough time to stop me.
Enough time to change her mind.
She doesn’t.
Her breath brushes my mouth.
“Olivia!”
Hannah’s voice cuts through the shelter sharp enough to break glass.
Olivia jerks back immediately.
“The boy,” Hannah says urgently. “Something’s wrong—he’s struggling to breathe—”
Olivia’s already moving before the sentence finishes.
Of course she is.
She disappears across the cramped shelter and drops beside the child without hesitation.
Just like that, the moment’s gone.
I sit there staring at the empty space beside me while my pulse refuses to settle down.
Damn it.
That should not have happened.
Could not happen.
Not here.
