Her eyebrows pulled together slightly. “For what?”
“For ruining the mood.”
That sounded stupid out loud.
Rowan stared at me for a second.
Then:
“You know you don’t have to act normal every second of your life, right?”
That hit way harder than it should’ve.
Mostly because nobody really said shit like that to me.
Not directly.
Not honestly.
And the worst part?
For a second I almost answered honestly too.
ROWAN
He looked exhausted suddenly.
Not physically.
Just mentally tired in a way that made him seem older for a second.
And for the first time since I met him—
Mason didn’t look intimidating.
He just looked like a guy carrying too much shit.
That realization hit me right in the chest.
Which was bad.
Very bad.
“Hey,” I said before thinking too much about it.
Mason looked at me.
I reached up automatically and fixed the collar of his jacket where it had folded weird near his neck.
Tiny thing.
Barely anything.
Still—
the second my fingers brushed his skin, Mason went completely still.
So did I.
