Page 202 of Let Me In

The words fall through me like heat. Like shelter.

He pulls me in.

Breathes me in.

And when he speaks next, it’s almost to himself. “I won’t lose you.”

The room is quiet, but the kind of quiet that leaves you alone with your thoughts.

The kind that holds you, cradles you, lets you rest in it.

Cal doesn’t speak again.

Doesn’t move.

His hand stays at the back of my head, fingers sliding slowly through my hair like he’s memorizing the weight of me there.

Like he doesn’t want the moment to end either.

And neither do I.

I tuck myself tighter against his chest. Feel the steady rise and fall of his breath. The warmth of his body, still wrapped around mine like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

The rules don’t feel heavy.

They don’t even feel like rules.

They feel like… roots.

Like something I can wrap around myself when the wind comes.

And God, the wind has come for so long.

But right now—

Here, in his lap, with his arms around me, and that low vow still echoing in my chest—

It’s quiet.

Safe.

Still.

The quiet settles deeper.

Cal’s hand keeps moving in my hair, slow and sure. His breath is soft at the crown of my head.

And then—gentle, almost a murmur:

“How’s your heart, little one?”

His voice is barely above a murmur, soft and low like he's speaking to something fragile in the dark. His eyes search mine as he asks it—steady, full of warmth, like the answer matters more than anything else in the world.

The question catches me somewhere I didn’t expect it to.

I blink, swallow, and shift slightly, enough to see his face.

He’s watching me the way he always does. Like there’s nothing else in the room but me.

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