Kat:
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
He said it.
I love you, Kat.
The words echoed in my chest louder than thunder. They weren’t just words. They were everything. They cracked me open like lightning splitting a tree. My body went still in his arms, except for the tears that rolled down my cheeks.
I didn’t mean to cry. God, I didn’t mean to cry.
But that man—the stubborn, guarded, leather-and-steel man who never said too much—he just told me he loved me.
And he meant it.
I could feel it in every word. In the tremble of his voice, in the way his fingers tightened on my back like he was scared I’d vanish. Like saying it out loud might make me slip away if he didn’t hold on tight enough.
“I love you too,” I whispered, voice cracking. “So much.”
He exhaled like he’d been holding th
