I want to hold her, but I wait for her to invite me in.
“Zane?”
“Yes.”
“I thought it would hurt more,” she says, looking out the leaded glass at the rain. “Letting go.”
“It’s not really letting go,” I say. “You’re choosing what matters.”
She snorts a choked, little laugh. “You should write speeches for politicians.”
“I’d rather pivot to lifeguarding.” I rub my chin. “That is, of course, if Lucas will sign me up for certification classes. I’ll probably need a job too once Ravenwood finds out about this and fires me.”
She glances back at me. “You can’t stay on as my bodyguard?”
I shake my head and offer her a grin. “I think they’ll find it a massive conflict of interest. Besides, once the contract ends, I don’t want to be assigned elsewhere. So lifeguarding it is.”
It’s just like being a bodyguard, only I’ll be dodging seagull shit instead of paparazzi.
I check my phone. Four missed calls, two texts. All from Cole and Lucas.
“Do you want to call them?” I ask.
She shakes. “Can we just go? Now? We’ll be back before they know it.”
“Yeah.” I pick up her bag and sling it over my shoulder. “Car’s still warm.”
We head down. Neither of us looks back. At the bottom of the stairs, Helena pauses and squares her shoulders.
“He’ll be okay,” I say.
“I know,” she says. “But we’ll be better.”
The storm has let up. I tuck her into the car, close the door softly, and slide into the driver’s seat. With the engine started, I put the Starling Estate behind us.
Helena’s hand finds mine. “Take me home.”
I drive.
CHAPTER 24
Lucas
It’sa little after one in the morning when I scent her. Not on the breeze off the dunes, not down at the bakery, where cinnamon clings to my hair, butinsideCole’s house. The one in which I rent a room and now she’s here, too. After leaving us without explanation.
How’d she even get inside?
Zane.Obviously.
I’m on the couch with a bowl of cereal balanced on my knee while the TV mumbles something about Cornish surfing legends. But all of it is obliterated the second Helena steps inside.
She opens the door and stands with one foot over the threshold, suitcase dragging behind her, hair all windswept and wild, like she’d run the whole way from the city. Or at least, Cole and I assume it was from the city. Her face is tired, but there’s a pink bloom in her cheeks and her blue eyes are bright the moment she sees me.
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Hey, sorry for the late arrival and missing-in-action behavior.”
I forget how to breathe. “Hey, yourself.”
Cole is in the kitchen rinsing out some dishes. Now he barrels into the living room when he hears Helena. He doesn’t even slow down—just lifts her clean off the ground, suitcase and all, spinning her around until she’s laughing and squealing.
