He considered the question.She liked that about him.He didn't reach for easy answers the way most people did.He turned things over, examined them from angles, and then offered something honest instead of something reassuring.
"The visibility gets easier.The rest of it stays hard."
"That's not very comforting."
"You didn't ask for comfort.You asked for the truth."
She took a drink of the iced tea.It was sweet.She'd told him three days ago that she took hers unsweetened, and he'd ignored her completely, and she'd let it go because the sweetened version was better and they both knew it.
"My mother thinks I'm staying," she said."In Blossom Springs.She asked, and I didn't correct her."
"Are you?"
"I don't know.I haven't thought past the next story.Past Kellerman.Past whatever Graham is going to uncover at the hospital."She set the glass on the arm of the chair."I've been surviving so long, I forgot what living looks like."
"I tried to walk away once," Caleb said."After the NSA.After Rachel.Eight months in a one-bedroom apartment in Asheville, trying to be a person who read books, went grocery shopping, and didn't check the mirrors every time he left the building."
"What happened?"
"Ronan called.Said he had something that needed doing.And I realized the apartment wasn't a life.It was a waiting room."
"So you came here."
"I went to Ronan, it wasn’t here at the time."
She looked at him.He was watching the water, his profile sharp against the afternoon light.He'd shaved that morning.She'd heard the razor running while she was making the call to her mother, and the absence of stubble made him look younger, and somehow more exposed.
"Caleb."
"Yeah."
"Thank you for telling Diana it was my decision.About going public."
"It is your decision."
"I know.But three weeks ago, you would have made it for me.You would have told her no before I even knew she'd called."
He didn't deny it.She reached over and put her hand on his forearm.His skin was warm from the sun.He went very still under her touch, the way he always did, as if any sudden movement might break whatever fragile thing was forming between them.
"I'm still figuring this out," she said."All of it.The story, the investigation, Blossom Springs."She paused."You."
"Yeah."
"I'm not good at this.At letting someone in.I've been my own perimeter for so long, and opening the gate feels like inviting a breach."
"I'm not a breach."
"No."She squeezed his arm and let go."You're not."
They sat on the deck and watched the afternoon light move across the water.A car passed on the road beyond the trees, and Caleb's eyes tracked it automatically, and Harper noticed the tracking, and neither of them mentioned it.
There was work to do.There was always work to do.But for the first time since she'd started running, the work could wait another hour.
Harper picked up her iced tea and drank.
Chapter 25
Ronan and Lila’s cottage smelled like garlic and rosemary when Caleb and Harper arrived.
