Right now, I don’t have a single word.
Worse, I don’t want my control back.
It’s terrifying.
The biggest relief I’ve ever felt
Neither of us moves for a long time. I let myself stay exactly where I am, which is its own kind of confession.
“What are we doing?” he asks.
I glance down. Our hands are still tangled together. I don’t remember doing that but I don’t fix it.
“I don’t know. But I’m done pretending I don’t want to.”
His thumb moves once against my hip.
“Yeah,” he says.
Then my phone rings. Too loud. Too real. I close my eyes for a second. Jax doesn’t move. Doesn’t let go. I reach for it anyway. His hand stays where it is. Warm. Steady.
I check the screen. My editor.
Fuck, of course.
I hesitate, then answer.
“Hey.”
The network wants more. A personal angle. The journalist embedded with the team.
Me.
The relationship that developed.
Us.
“It writes itself,” she says.
I stare at the ceiling.
“Got it… I’ll think about it.”
I hang up.
Jax is watching my face.Jax is watching my face, then something shifts — like he just remembered something.
“You good?” I ask.
“I have to go feed Brick,” he says.
“Come with me.”
So I go with him.
I don’t say anything about the call. I can’t. Not yet. But I know he saw something. He always sees something.
“What,” he says.
