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I needed to get in my car and drive away before I did something stupid like close the distance between us.

Instead, I stood there, staring up at him. “So where does that leave us?”

“I don’t know. I just know I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s…” He glanced past me toward the building. “I should go.”

“Yes.”

But neither of us moved.

Finally, he stepped back. “Goodnight, Ellie.”

“Goodnight.”

He started to turn toward his truck but stopped and looked past me. Crim watched us both. Brashe’s expression didn’t change.

Brashe nodded once.

Crim stared for a long moment, then nodded back.

Brashe walked to his truck without looking my way again.

I got into my car and watched him drive out of the lot.

Crim was gone when I looked back at the entrance.

I sat in my car, touching my temple where the freckle was, where his finger had traced this morning.

Someone knocked on my front door at 10:15 PM.

Marzipan’s head lifted from my lap, her ears swiveling in that direction. I wasn’t expecting anyone. Crim would’ve texted first. Patty was still home with her daughter.

I checked the peephole, and my heart leaped against my ribs.

Brashe stood on my front step, still wearing his team hoodie and sweats, his hands shoved in his pockets. He looked like he’d driven here on autopilot and was only now realizing what he’d done.

I should not open this door. The thought was as clear in my head as if Crim’s voice had taken up residence. Brashe showing up at my home without texting or calling, just appearing like he needed to see me, overrode everything else. A romantic gesture I’d have fallen for at sixteen. At twenty. At twenty-five.

But I wasn’t any of those ages anymore. I was twenty-eight, and I’d spent ten months believing he’d rejected me.

My hand went to the deadbolt.

Marzipan meowed, a questioning sound.

“I shouldn’t,” I whispered to her.

I opened the door anyway.

“I know it’s late,” he said. “I know I should wait. I need to prove something to myself. But I just…” He dragged a hand over his face. “Now I’m standing outside your door like a creep because I needed to see you.”

“You’re not a creep.”

“I should’ve texted first.”

“You should come inside.”

His eyes darkened. “Ellie, if I come inside⁠—”

“I know.” This… I was done trying to make all this fit. Perhaps it was time to breathe and see where fate took me.