“Uh-huh.”I tilted my head.“Sure they do.”
He opened the door for me without thinking.I grabbed Mr.Moose and set him on the roof of the car, making sure the store was in the background, before snapping a picture.
There, with the yellow car reflecting brightly in the afternoon sun, I felt something unsettling settle in my chest.
In all my teenaged fantasies, this wasn’t a version of Tristan I had imagined and yet, here he was.
Grounded.Capable.Respected.
And somehow, impossibly, I hadn’t disrupted his world at all.Somehow, I’d slipped into it.
As we pulled away, he glanced over.“You were good back there.”
I shrugged, aiming for casual and missing by a mile.“I’m good at anticipating chaos.”
He smiled, softer than before.“Yeah,” he said.“I noticed.”
And that was the problem.
Because if I fit here, if we worked this well without even trying, then walking away wasn’t just practical anymore.
It was going to hurt.
Chapter Twelve
The ferry terminalwas louder than I expected.
Not in an overwhelming way, just more alive than I thought was possible.Engines idled.Seagulls screamed like they had opinions.Tires crunched over concrete as cars lined up in careful rows, everyone inching forward with the same shared goal: cross the water, get somewhere else.
Tristan rolled down the window and handed over our boarding pass, easy smile in place like he’d done this a hundred times before.Probably had.
“Upper deck?”the attendant asked.
“Always,” Tristan said, glancing at me.“Best view.”
I nodded, even though my stomach fluttered at the wordviewas if something was about to be revealed whether I was ready for it or not.
