“Yes.”
Jackson immediately steps in.
“Obviously.”
Zach smiles.
“Lead the way.”
And just like that, we step away from everything. From everyone. From the noise.
Into something that is entirely ours.
seventy-one
Liana
The house feels different from the inside.
Quieter.
Not empty, but waiting.
Every step we take echoes just slightly against polished floors and high ceilings, the kind of space that hasn’t quite settled into being lived in yet. It doesn’t feel cold, though. Not with them around me. Not with Elijah’s hand resting at my lower back, guiding me forward like he’s already decided this is where we belong.
“This way,” he murmurs.
We move through room after room, each one more expansive than the last. A formal dining space that looks like it belongs in a magazine. A lounge that opens out to the gardens we just stood in. Windows everywhere, letting in soft evening light that turns everything golden.
“It’s too much,” I breathe, half laughing under it.
“It’s not,” Elijah replies quietly. “It’s enough.”
I glance at him.
He means it.
Of course he does.
Zach trails his fingers along the back of my arm as we walk, a quiet, grounding touch, while Jackson whistles softly behind us.
“Yeah, I could get used to this,” he mutters.
Elijah doesn’t respond.
He just keeps moving.
Until we reach the staircase and something in the way he pauses tells me this is where he’s been leading us.
My stomach flips slightly.
“Upstairs?” I ask.
His hand tightens just a fraction.
“Upstairs.”
The bedroom steals the air from my lungs. It’s not just big. It’s… expansive.
