“Trying to what?” she asked quietly.
The silence stretched.
“To deserve the chance,” I said.
It wasn’t the word. But it was true. And right now truth was what I had.
Her expression did something complicated; something that moved through her face like weather, too fast to name each thing.
Her thumb moved across my knuckles.
Once.
Slow.
I exhaled. A short, hard breath through my nose, like a man who’d been holding something heavy for a very long time.
“You should get some rest,” I said. “Tomorrow will be a long day.”
A sound escaped her. Half-laugh and half-something else entirely.
Her hand tightened over mine for just a second before she released it.
I stepped back.
Put the distance between us that the rational part of me knew we needed and the rest of me wanted no part of.
