Reese closed her eyes for a second. She wanted it to be that simple. She wanted to believe him, but part of her was still afraid that feeling relieved meant something was wrong with her. When she opened her eyes, Axel was still watching her.
“I think I know that,” she said. “I just don’t know how to feel it yet.”
“You don’t have to figure it out tonight.”
The record kept playing. Reese looked down at their joined hands, then back at the food spread across the table.
Reese took a bite of the pot roast. “All this food is ridiculous.”
Axel glanced at the table. “Still not hearing a complaint.”
That made her smile, just a little. She took another bite of green beans. For a few minutes, they talked about the meal because it was easier than talking about anything else.
The pot roast was better than it had any right to be. The mac and cheese was too rich and still impossible to stop eating. The honey butter made the rolls taste like dessert before they had even opened the cobbler.
Axel had made the apartment warm, beautiful, and safe. A week ago, that safety had scared her badly enough to run. She took another bite of chicken, thinking about the night she’d decided to leave.
“I think I know why I ran,” she said, taking a deep breath.
She’d resisted telling him this since returning to Fate Mountain. Through the investigation and his recovery. Through the OB checkups that confirmed the baby was fine. She still hadn’t been able to face the mistake she’d made that night.
“When the listing showed up on the people-search site, Fate Mountain stopped feeling safe. Everything I’d established here, the diner, my friends... you. It all felt temporary again. Like the whole life I was trying to build could disappear because my name was online.”
Axel nodded.
“And then you said you were going to arrange a safe house.” Reese looked down at her plate. “I know you were trying to keep me safe. And let’s be honest, it would have been much better for everyone if I’d accepted the offer. But all my body heard was that someone else was going to have control over me.” She swallowed. “So, I did the only thing I knew how to do. Run.”
Axel was quiet for a moment after she said it.
“It scared the hell out of me when I couldn’t find you,” he said. “And I’m not going to pretend I wouldn’t try to protect you again.”
Reese looked up at him.
“I don’t want you to stop protecting me,” she said. “I just need to learn the difference between being protected and being trapped.”
Axel’s expression softened. “And I need to remember that safe isn’t safe if you feel like you’ve lost your choices.”
Reese looked at him across the table, at the man who had thrown himself into the line of fire to protect her. In that moment, safety did not feel like a locked door.
The conversation settled after that. Not finished, exactly, but no longer pressing against her mind. Reese ate until she was stuffed. Axel made a serious attempt at the pot pie, thenadmitted defeat halfway through. But Axel then insisted there was always room for dessert.
He dished the peach cobbler into two bowls and added small slices of chocolate bourbon cake to the side.
Reese took one bite of the cobbler. The peaches were warm and soft, the crust buttery enough to make her close her eyes for a second.
“You were right,” she said. “There is always room for dessert.”
Axel smiled and took a bite of cake. The record kept playing behind them, piano moving gently through the apartment.
“I love you,” she said.
Axel went still, the fork hovering in midair. For a long moment, he only looked at her. Then he lowered the fork and smiled. “I love you more every day,” he said. “I’m glad you waited to say it until you were sure how you felt.”
“So am I,” she said, letting out a long breath.
Reese sat with the words between them and waited for panic to follow. It didn’t. Saying she loved him didn’t make her feel trapped. It didn’t make her want to take it back. It made something inside her settle into place, quiet and certain.
Since matching on mate.com, the mate bond had felt overwhelming. Permanent. Final. Another thing that could happen to her without her consent. But she was ready now. It was not because Wade was dead or because Axel had saved her, but because she was still choosing him now.
