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“Wow,” Tyson muttered. “My own daughter.”

We chuckled and finished dinner with Noa chattering about which clouds were the clumsiest. When she started yawning, Tyson carried her upstairs while I tackled dishes. The storm intensified, and somewhere nearby a tree crashed down with enough force to shake the windows.

I gripped the counter, trying not to panic. Just wind. Just a tree. You’re not trapped.

“Sam?”

I spun to find Tyson at the foot of the stairs, looking uncertain. “Yes?”

He shifted his weight, hand rubbing the back of his neck. “Noa’s asking for you.”

Oh. I definitely hadn’t been expecting that. “What?”

“I know this is weird but after that sound she’s losing it and she keeps asking for you and I don’t know what that means but I, she…”

I moved toward him and touched his arm, cutting off his rambling. “Let’s go.”

Noa had worked herself into a proper panic, tears streaming as she clutched her stuffed elephant. I sat on her bed and pulled her into my lap.

“Hey, sweet girl. The storm can’t hurt you in here.”

“It’s so loud, Sam!”

“I know. But you know what? Your dad built this house, and he’s the best builder in Tennessee. This house isn’t going anywhere.”

We wrapped her in her favorite blanket and I held her, rocking back and forth while Tyson pulled up ocean sounds on his phone. Slowly, her breathing evened out. When she finally drifted off, we crept out and closed the door softly behind us.

Mission accomplished. I smiled, turning around to face him in the dim light.

“Thank you,” he whispered, his gaze moving between mine.

“Anytime,” I whispered back, “You know I love Noa.”

“She loves you too,” he said, and I knew there was a hidden meaning behind those words. I knew what he meant.

The weight of everything unsaid pressed between us. Three months of careful distance, of pretending my skin didn’t burn when he touched me. Of acting content with friendship when I wanted so, so much more. When he wanted the same things I did.

“Tyson…”

“I think about you, Sam.” The words burst out of him with the force of something that had been contained too long. Raw, desperate. Honest. “All the time. Every fucking day. And I can’t stop, love. I need you to know that.”

My heart stopped. At his words, at the pet name, at the small distance between us. At the way he was looking at me. The hallway suddenly felt too small.

“I…”

He shook his head, cutting me off. “No. I’m… I’m not asking for anything. I just needed to say it out loud before I lost my mind. You drive me insane, Sam.”

The words filled the air, impossible to take back. They were lodged deep into my heart, and nothing I could do could take them out. I opened my mouth to answer when, with comedic timing that felt cosmic, the lights flickered on. The hum of electricity returning should have broken the spell. Instead, it just illuminated everything we’d been hiding in the dark.

I bit my lip at the intensity of his expression. Tyson cleared his throat, gesturing vaguely toward the living room.

“Want to watch a movie?”

18

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Tyson