Page 70 of Smoke Signals

I keep my eyes on the street for a second before looking at him. “Hey.”

“You okay?”

My voice catches when I try to answer.

“I heard,” I say instead.

His expression shifts instantly. “Heard what?”

“You and your mom.”

The porch goes quiet except for the distant hum of a car passing.

He runs a hand slowly through his hair. “Hartley.”

“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop,” I add quickly. “I just came to see what was taking so long.”

He leans against the railing beside me, close enough that our shoulders almost touch.

“You weren’t supposed to hear that yet,” he says quietly.

The word yet tightens my chest again.

“I don’t know what to do with that,” I admit. “Love is a big word.”

“I know.”

“I lost someone I loved,” I continue, my voice rougher now. “The last time I trusted that feeling completely, brother or not, the universe took it away from me in the worst way possible.”

Stellan turns toward me fully. “Hartley.”

“I’m not saying this to make you take it back,” I say quickly. “I just needed you to understand why my brain is freaking out.”

His hand slides over mine on the railing. “I’m not taking it back,” he says. “I meant it.”

I swallow.

“You barely know me.”

He shakes his head slowly. “That’s not true.”

“You know parts of me.”

“I know enough to know what I feel,” he says quietly.

The porch light casts a soft glow across his face. The certainty in his eyes hasn’t changed since the first night he showed up at the apartment.

“I didn’t plan this,” he continues. “I didn’t wake up one morning and decide to fall for a guy and his niece. It just happened.”

Emotion builds in my chest so quickly it almost hurts.

“You make me better,” he says. “Both of you do.”

My eyes burn.

“And I’m not asking you to say it back tonight,” he adds gently. “I just needed to be honest.”

I exhale slowly.