Page 26 of After the Rain

Brook

Heard about your meeting. Garrett's a fucking harpy. Don't let her win.

Brook

Wade seems like a good man who's figuring things out. Maybe he's worth a conversation about what you both want.

Brook

Also, if you need character references for the inevitable school board meeting, I've got a whole list of parents who think you're the best teacher their kids have ever had.

Her encouragement warred with my carefully constructed defenses. I'd built my life around careful boundaries and professional protection for good reason. Cedar Falls wasn't as progressive as it pretended to be.

But lying in bed that night, I allowed myself to imagine different scenarios. Wade understanding and stepping back. Wade fighting for our connection despite obstacles. Wade revealing feelings that made the risks worthwhile.

Underneath all the speculation was a growing certainty that what happened between us Saturday was too significant to simply ignore. The way we'd moved around each other in his kitchen, the easy conversation that lasted for hours, the reluctance to say goodbye—that wasn't just friendship or professional courtesy.

That was connection. Real, rare, worth-fighting-for connection.

But it was also dangerous. Mrs. Garrett had made that clear.

Tomorrow would require decisions about whether safety or possibility should guide my choices. But tonight, I let myself remember the warmth of Wade's home, Cooper's laughter during story time, and the way Wade had looked at me like I was someone worth knowing.

Maybe Brook was right. Maybe some things were worth being brave for.

Or maybe some things were too dangerous to risk, no matter how much you wanted them.

The attraction I felt for Wade had grown beyond simple interest into something that scared me—the desire to know him better, to understand what made him laugh, to see if this connection could become something real.

But wanting to explore something and being able to have it were two very different things.

And right now, the distance between them felt insurmountable.

SEVEN

STORM'S EYE

WADE

Three days of minimal contact with Ezra had me feeling like I was coming out of my skin.

I told myself it was normal to miss a friend. People missed friends all the time when circumstances got complicated. But driving to Riverside Park Wednesday evening with Cooper chattering in the backseat, I couldn't shake the feeling that my reaction to Ezra's sudden distance was far from normal.

The work day had been a disaster. I'd made three calculation errors on the Henderson project blueprints and caught myself staring out the office window instead of focusing on structural load requirements. My partner, Marcus, had finally asked if I was feeling sick.

"Just tired," I'd told him, which wasn't exactly a lie. I'd been sleeping like shit since Monday, tossing and turning while my brain replayed every interaction I'd had with Ezra, looking for clues about what had changed and why it mattered so damn much.

Sarah had called during lunch to discuss Cooper's weekend schedule, and I'd found myself distracted even during thatroutine conversation. When she'd asked if I was seeing someone new, the question had hit me like a brick to the chest.

"Why would you ask that?" I'd said, probably too defensively.

"You sound different. Happier, but also kind of... unsettled? Like when you're working on a design problem you can't quite solve."

The observation was uncomfortably accurate. I did feel like I was trying to solve a problem, except the problem seemed to be myself.

The park had always been our safe space, mine and Cooper's. A place to clear my head and focus on what really mattered—being his dad. But tonight, even Cooper's excited commentary about school couldn't distract me from the restless energy humming under my skin.

"Tommy brought a real snake skin to show-and-tell today," Cooper was saying. "It was from his uncle's pet snake, and Madison screamed so loud that Mrs. Patterson came running from next door. But I thought it was really cool because you could see all the patterns and it felt like leather but thinner."

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