Chapter twenty-two
For a moment, I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. His voice had cracked the silence, but everything else felt out of reach, uncertain. He hadn’t looked at me when he said it, still staring at the worn surface of the table, fingers tapping rhythmically against the coffee cup.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. Was he going to tell me something I didn’t want to hear? Or was this some attempt to explain away what had happened between us?
“About earlier…” he said again, quieter this time, almost like he was unsure if he had the right to bring it up at all.
I swallowed hard, my heart skipping. The memories of the kiss, the desperation of the moment, the way everything had blurred together in that split second of panic… all of it rushed back, flooding my mind. But I couldn’t just focu
