EMMA
I didn’t answer him right away.
The words knew your soul lodged in my chest like a splinter I couldn’t pull free. I wrapped my arms around myself, nails biting into my coat, grounding myself in something physical because my emotions were spiraling too fast to hold.
“Say it,” I said finally. “Say what you’ve been dancing around this entire time.”
Gabriel’s expression tightened—not with fear, but with restraint. He looked like a man standing in the path of an avalanche he’d chosen not to run from.
“You felt safe here,” he said quietly. “From the moment you arrived.”
I scoffed. “You don’t get credit for being decent to a woman after her boyfriend humiliated her.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“I know,” I snapped. “That’s what scares me.”
He took a slow breath. “The safety you felt w
