“I love you,” he said plainly.
She almost didn’t know what she’d just heard at first. Then it hit her all at once. Her eyes filled with tears before she could stop them. She turned toward the window, trying to hold them back. They came anyway, spilling down her cheeks.
She wasn’t crying because she was scared. She was crying because someone loved her and said it out loud like it was the simplest thing in the world. He hadn’t made a speech. He hadn’t asked for anything back. He’d just told her the truth while cooking breakfast. She knew how to be useful and easy and no trouble. She didn’t know how to be loved like this.
When he noticed she was crying, he grabbed a roll of paper towels, tore off a few sheets, and crossed over to her. She took them from his outstretched hand, pressed them to her face, and laughed, wet and furious at herself.
“I’m okay,” she said. “Sorry. This is so stupid.”
“It’s not.” He waited beside her, giving her space. She lowered the wad of towels. His face was calm and focused on her.
“I can’t say it back,” she said. Her voice came out thick. “Not yet. It’s not that I don’t.”
“I know. I didn’t say it so you’d say it back.” He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I’m here for you, no matter what. You don’t owe me anything. I love you, and I wanted you to know.”
He treated this the same way he treated everything else. Honest and direct. He loved her, so he told her. Now she knew. The oven timer went off, startling her. Axel hurried into the kitchen.
He pulled the puffed pancake in a cast-iron pan out of the oven. It was puffed high and golden at the edges, then slowly sank.He set it on a heatproof pad and spooned peaches and whipped cream over it. He then dished their breakfast onto plates.
They ate at the table by the window, sunlight spreading across Main Street below. The puffed pancake was warm and buttery and sweet with peaches and cream.
She reflected as they ate, expecting something to feel wrong after crying like that, but nothing did. They were sitting peacefully at the table eating breakfast. No one was angry. No door had slammed. The food was perfect.
Not long ago, she’d watched Blaze put new shoes on Stella’s feet. She’d gone home that night wanting that kind of devotion for herself. She’d wanted this. A slow, easy morning and somebody loving her without expecting anything from her. And now she had it. But she still didn’t know if she could accept it.
Chapter
Fifteen
Axel stoppedat the Fate Mountain Lodge on his way to Reese’s apartment. He didn’t know what she’d want, so he bought several options. Braised beef over mashed potatoes, roast chicken with herbs and pan gravy, trout in lemon butter, mushroom risotto, smoked salmon chowder, roasted vegetables, fresh bread, a mixed salad, a berry tart, lemon bars, and a slice of German chocolate cake filled three bags on the passenger seat.
She opened the door when he knocked, and he carried the food inside.
The apartment was small, clean, with sparse furniture. A brown couch stood against one wall beside a floor lamp. A framed lighthouse hung above it. A short hallway had two doors to what must be the bedroom and bathroom. The small round table was set for two.
Axel put the bags on the counter. “That’s a lot of food,” Reese said as he unpacked the bags.
“You’re eating for two.”
“It’s a good excuse.” She smiled as she opened the beef dish. “You bought enough food for six people.”
“I wasn’t sure what you’d want.”
They sat and shared the food, their knees brushing under the table.
For a while they ate in comfortable silence. The open window let in the sounds of evening traffic. A truck rolled past. Someone laughed on the sidewalk. Axel nodded toward the onion jar.
“You doing some window gardening?”
“It’s an old trick I learned from my mom before she remarried. You can cut green onions to nothing, and they grow back. It was my answer on the mate.com vegetable question. What was yours?”
“Asparagus. You plant it and wait three years before it gives you anything. After that, it comes back every season for decades.”
She looked across the table at him. “Makes sense why the algorithm matched us.”
When they finished eating, they put the leftovers in her fridge. When everything was cleared away, she grabbed a composition notebook from the bedroom. She shuffled through the pages. Axel noticed that they mostly contained to-do lists, notes, and budgets. She opened to a page with names written in a column. All were crossed off but three.
Jane. Maeve. Elsie.
