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Charm doesn’t glance around to see who noticed. She leans into my body and smiles while the coach decides he suddenly needs to speak with someone else. When people stare, her hand tightens around mine.
The simplicity of that choice cuts deeper than it should. She gives me everything I once begged her for without checking who watches or what they might decide about her for loving me. Every open touch should make closure easier.
Instead, she creates another memory I have no idea how to leave behind. For the first time, I wonder whether closure is another word for cowardice.
My hand tightens against her waist, and Charm lifts her face. Hope lives inside her eyes, but she doesn’t use it against me. She doesn’t ask whether I’m changing my mind or announce that the door between us moved.
I lower my mouth to hers and kiss her slowly. The wall around my heart doesn’t collapse, but it fractures enough for the woman in my arms to reach through.
The door moves one fucking inch.
17
Ryan
Dinner is served across the garden terrace beneath enough suspended lights to make the lawn look like someone dragged a ballroom into the open air. Round tables surround a polished dance floor bordered by flowers, candles, and low hedges overlooking the darkening gardens. Each table seats ten, although Bliss assigned eight to ours because Briggs apparently requires the dining space of three adults.
He confirms her judgment by collecting four rolls before the basket finishes its first trip around the table.
“You have one on your plate,” Lyric says.
“That one is emotionally unavailable.”
“It’s bread.”
“It knows what it did.”
Temple reaches across Rider and takes one from his hand. Briggs stares at her as she tears it in half.
“You stole from me.”
“You had four.”
“I was building security.”
“You were building diabetes.”
“That isn’t how bread works.”
Temple butters her half while Briggs looks around the table for support. He receives none.
Cade sits with Bliss at his right and Easton at his left. Aura occupies the chair beside Easton, while Briggs, Lyric, Temple, and Rider complete the curve. Charm and I sit together on the side facing the gardens, close enough to the dance floor that her chair nearly touches mine whenever someone passes behind us.
The fitted yellow tank stretches across her chest with MAID OF HONOR 1 printed over it in black, while high-waisted black slacks follow her hips before falling in wide lines over gold strappy heels. She looks polished, expensive, and completely unashamed of every curve Lance once taught her to hide.
She has remained close since we left her room.
Her anger hasn’t disappeared. It moves beneath every smile she gives Bliss and Aura, present without becoming punishment. Neither woman attempts to corner her into another conversation. Bliss asked whether Charm needed anything before dinner. Charm said champagne. Bliss brought the bottle herself, filled her glass, and returned to Cade without asking for forgiveness Charm wasn’t ready to give.
Current Charm doesn’t perform comfort so everyone else can stop feeling guilty.
I fucking like that about her.
My hand rests high on her thigh beneath the tablecloth while she discusses tomorrow’s rehearsal schedule with Cade, Bliss, and Aura. My thumb moves across the sleek black fabric, traveling close enough to the place between her legs to make her pause halfway through a sentence.
Cade notices.
His eyes drop toward the tablecloth before returning to my face.
