Page 12 of Bloom in Darkness

Caelan goes quiet without hanging up. The bell sounds again somewhere behind him, followed by a roar from the crowd that swells and then thins until I can hear his breathing on the other end.

“You can go watch,” I say. “You don’t have to babysit me until he’s done.”

“I wasn’t planning to hang up unless you wanted me to.”

That makes me glance at the phone even though there’s nothing to see. “You don’t even know me, so why are you checking whether I’m okay?”

Caelan is quiet for a beat. “Because you called Bryn, and Bryn cares about you.”

Every answer circles back to Bryn. Bryn cares, so Caelan answers. Bryn worries, so Caelan offers to go get him. Not once does he say he wanted to stay on the phone with me himself.

“I wonder if you do that a lot.”

Caelan goes quiet. “Do what?”

I rub my thumb along the seam of the phone case. “Act like you’re separate from everything. Like because you’re just an Alpha who happens to be standing next to Bryn, none of this is yours to worry about.”

Caelan lets out a quiet breath. “I don’t know you like Bryn does.”

“I know.” I lower my chin until the water warms the underside of it. “You still answered.”

“I did.” The crowd rises again, but his voice stays close in my ear. “And I know of you. I’ve heard your name enough times to know you make him smile.”

A laugh slips out of me and comes back faintly from the tile. “Bryn smiles?”

“What Bryn considers smiling. He does it more when you’re around.”

I grin at the ceiling and wonder what Caelan smells like when I’m standing close enough to get it directly from him instead of whatever Bryn carries home.

“I can see why he likes you,” I say.

“Likewise.”

My thumb stops against the edge of the phone. “You barely know me.”

Caelan gives a quiet laugh. “No, but I liked you this morning.”

For a second, all I can hear is the distant crowd and water ticking from the faucet. I smile anyway, then reach down and pull the plug before the bath gets any colder.

“I didn’t even do anything this morning.”

Caelan is quiet for a second, the noise of the Forge swelling behind him before his voice comes back through. “You asked if you were ruining anything,” Caelan says. “Most people would’ve pretended they didn’t care.”

I lean back against the edge of the tub. “That’s what you liked?”

“Part of it.” His voice softens slightly. “You were watching Bryn more than me. You wanted to know he was okay.”

My fingers tighten around the phone. “I was worried I was stepping into something that already belonged to the two of you.”

“I know.” He pauses. “You asked us instead of deciding for us. I liked that.”

I step onto the bathmat and reach for my towel one-handed, wedging the phone between my shoulder and ear while I dry off. The noise behind Caelan suddenly spikes again, someone shouting close enough to his phone that I pull mine away from my ear.

“What the hell is happening over there?”

“Bryn nearly broke a man’s nose in the first round because the idiot keeps dropping his guard and leading with his chin.” Caelan sounds far too calm about it. “He spent the entire break lecturing the man through his mouthguard.”

I snort while dragging on my underwear. “He lectures people? Bryn barely talks.”