They found quiet two floors up, at a narrow window that overlooked the service ramp. The hum of the hospital softened to a workable hum.
“You want to breathe?” Rafael asked.
“I want to steal five minutes and pretend we live here,” she said.
“We just did,” he said gently. “Downstairs.”
She let her head rest against the glass. He stood close enough that she could feel his heat without looking. The glass cooled her cheek; his palm warmed the back of her hand. Secret and simple.
“I keep waiting for the part where I regret this,” she said.
“This?”
“You,” she said, not shy, not dramatic. “Us.”
He turned her hand over and pressed his mouth to the center of her palm. “You’re late.”
She laughed under her breath. “Good.”
Nora ruined nothing by being timely. “Sorry to interrupt: the judge’s
