Page 126 of Let Me In

Still warm from his mug. Still firm.

“You did good, sweet girl,” he says, quiet.

That phrase…

It goes straight to my chest. Something shifts inside—tight, then yielding—before it softens into something deeper.

I glance up at him, unsure if I can speak without breaking.

But I manage it.

“Thank you.”

He tilts his head slightly.

“For breakfast?”

I nod, but my voice comes again, barely there. “For all of it.”

His eyes hold mine.

And I feel him searching—not for lies, not for masks. Just for me.

He nods once. “Always, little one.”

The endearment wraps around me, warm and unexpected. A strange ache rises low in my belly, unfamiliar and sweet. It’s not just what he says. It’s how he says it. Like I’m already his.

Silence drapes around us again. In that always.

It’s heavier, but not tense. Full of what we haven’t said yet. Things I know we still need to talk about. Yesterday, and everything that happened.

The field. The tracker.

Cal coming for me when I couldn’t say yes.

He waits. Doesn’t push, just gives me the space to reach.

Just lets me choose.

And I do.

I lift my eyes again. “What happens now?”

He doesn’t answer right away.

I’m not sure what I expected. Maybe a shift in tone. Maybe for his expression to harden, just a little. But he’s still just… Cal.

Steady. Quiet. Watching me like nothing I say or do could make him let go.

Then he squeezes my hand.

Just once.

Grounding.

“We talk about what happened,” he says, voice low and even.

My pulse trips, a warm flicker lighting in my chest.

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