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I stopped breathing for a second.

Patty waited.

I tried to laugh, but nothing came. “We haven’t said that,” I managed.

“That doesn’t make it untrue.”

I rubbed my thumb against a spot of dried sauce on the napkin. Love had become easier to feel than name. It existed in the way I checked whether Hudson had eaten before asking about his day. In the way I knew the difference between his tired silences and his peaceful ones. In the way my entire body relaxed when I heard his truck outside.

I loved the line that appeared between his brows when he tried not to interfere.

I loved that he took Caldwell seriously and loved him fiercely.

I loved that he had begun protecting his own time because I had asked him to.

I loved that he gave me space and still came back.

Admitting any of that made the danger larger.

Patty leaned closer. “I want this to be real for both of you.”

“It is real.”

“Not all of it, Sloane.”

“My feelings are real,” I said, my voice thick.

“I know.”

“Hudson’s feelings are real.”

“I know.”

“Then what are you saying?” I asked.

“I’m saying the foundation isn’t real, and you know it.”

Anger rose before I could examine why. “I didn’t plan for all this to happen.”

“I know.”

“You act as though I created some elaborate scheme to make Hudson fall for me.”

Patty raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that exactly what you did?”

That hurt, because even though I hadn’t planned it that way, she was right. I pushed back from the table.

“What do you want me to do, Patty? Walk into the hall and announce that I’m human? Tell Hudson I lied from the first day we met? Explain that the Loany they’ve all come to know doesn’t exist, and every time someone asked about my past, I made something up?”

“Yes.”

I stared at her. She looked frightened but didn’t back down.

I swallowed hard, fighting back tears. “You want me to destroy everything.”

“I want you to tell the truth.”

“So they can destroy it for me?”