Page 134 of Reckless
And whatever she saw there made the edge in her face shift.
Not disappear.
Maybe uncertainty.Maybe fear.Maybe emotional chaos.
What she got instead was me, glowing like an idiot and too gone to hide it well.
I sat down and accepted the tea Hope pushed toward me with the sort of reverence usually reserved for the injured.
“I am not dying,” I said.
“No,” Hope said softly.“You , aren’t.”
I gave her a look.She lifted both hands.
“No commentary.I know.”
That was the other miracle of the morning.No one pushed.
I looked like a woman who had made one and liked it very much.
And maybe that was enough to stop people from turning concern into control.
Britney came around the table slowly and set a hand on my shoulder.
Once.
Firm.Brief.
I looked up at her.
She held my gaze for a second and then said the nicest thing she’d probably ever said to me with that little softness in her eyes.
“Good.”
That almost got me.
And this wasn’t even approval exactly.
I put my hand over hers for one second and squeezed.
No one said anything.
And because the universe had decided one emotional near-death experience wasn’t enough for a weekend, that was the exact moment Xerses walked in.
He was in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled and dark pants and looked like the kind of man romance novels should be embarrassed to invent because reality had no business giving women that much to work with.
He saw me.I saw him see it.
The glow.The answer.
Miley leaned toward me.“He just walked in looking like a man who got very good news last night.”
“Shut up.”
“I’m a lawyer.I notice evidence.”
“This is not a courtroom.”
