I unlocked the phone with the code he had given me.
The rapid-test panel was negative.
Relief hit me so quickly that I had to read it again.
Then I turned the screen toward him.
“All negative.”
His shoulders dropped so abruptly that I caught him at the waist.
“Everything?”
“Everything included in the rapid-test panel.”
“Negative?”
“Yes.”
He took the phone and read the message himself.
Once.
Then again.
His exhale warmed the side of my neck.
A moment later, my own phone chimed with the same notification.
I showed him.
A shaky laugh left Noah.
“I was never concerned.”
“Not remotely.”
“A model of composure.”
“Heroic.”
“I did not invent a wife and children in Idaho.”
“Your restraint will be studied.”
He kissed me.
Relief made the kiss deeper than I expected. His hand came around the back of my neck. His mouth opened against mine, and heat spread through me in a slow, immediate wave.
I held his lower back with one hand and his jaw with the other.
When we parted, he did not move away.
“The full panel is still pending,” he said.
“Yes.”
“But this was the result I feared most.”
