Page 33 of Unclench Me Softly

Miles sits down. “No comment.”

Then it’s Jonah’s turn. He moves slowly. Calmly. Rolls the card between his fingers. Then steps into the circle.

He doesn’t speak. He just... stands there. Still. He looks at each of us, one by one.

He doesn’t act.

He doesn’t perform.

He just is.

Until the stillness becomes unbearable.

Then he presses one hand to his chest, closes his eyes, and exhales.

Soft. Long. Like a weight he’s been carrying for a decade just left his body.

He opens his eyes and looks directly at me.

And the floor drops out from under me.

Jax crinkles his nose. “Was that supposed to be something?”

Miles cocks his head. “Subtle.”

“Devastating,” Asher says.

After a long pause Seb says, “Loss. But accepted.”

Jonah smiles. “Exactly.”

I look away.

Because if I keep looking at him, I’ll say something I can’t take back. Like “please destroy me spiritually with your well-processed grief.”

Instead, I rise. “Thank you,” I say, voice only slightly shaky. “That concludes Vulnerability Charades.”

Everyone claps.

Even Jax. Sarcastically.

I bow like I’ve just survived a psychic ambush.

And I think, how am I supposed to survive the rest of this week with these men if they keep unclenching this hard?

I don’t even make it back to my dome.

I plop down behind the koi shrine with my phone and a leftover intention rock, which I may or may not be using as a stress squeezer, and open the only sacred space I still trust:

GREMLIN COVEN 4EVER

ME:

okay so update we are now

five for five

and this last one might actually kill me

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