The drive home was different from how they had left earlier that evening.
Before, there had been a quiet kind of excitement between them—an anticipation of the night ahead.
Now, as Starry pulled the car into the driveway, the excitement was still there, but it had changed.
It was warmer.
Softer.
The kind of feeling that came when two people finally stopped pretending.
Chloe didn’t know how or the exact minute it had happened, but sometime between the restaurant and now, she had let her guard down completely. She was a happy woman. She could forget all the things that might have been unpleasant between them and focus on the moment they were having, the joy that they seemed to be sharing in that evening.
And Starry?
He had been letting her in all night. He was suddenly chatty and she
