LILA
As I looked at him, the humor drained out of me before I could even pretend to hold onto it. His expression did not shift. There was no trace of teasing in his eyes, no hint that he had said anything lightly.
“Oh,” I said, my voice coming out weaker than I intended. “You weren’t joking.”
Callum didn’t look away.
“I don’t joke about something as serious as you, Lila.”
There it was again.
That intensity.
It pressed in on me in a way that felt too heavy for something that had only started a few days ago. I shifted slightly on the park bench, suddenly aware of how close we were sitting. His shoulder brushed mine every time he moved, and the cast on his arm sat in my peripheral vision like a warning sign I couldn’t ignore.
He was too much.
Too intense, too attentive, too invested.
