Page 323 of Let Me In

Grounding us both.

The light has shifted now.

Early dawn fading into something golden.

Birdsong low and steady outside the windows.

She’s not asleep.

I can feel it in her.

The stillness isn’t heavy.

It’s listening.

And after a few minutes, she speaks.

“You okay?”

It’s so soft, I almost miss it.

But I smile.

God, I smile.

Because only she would ask that now—after everything I just gave her. After everything she gave me.

I press a kiss to her forehead, letting my lips linger there. Her skin is warm, soft, and it anchors me. The kind of kiss that says: you're safe, you're mine, and I'm not going anywhere.

“Yeah, baby. I am.”

Her fingers pause.

Then resume their quiet path.

Another beat of silence.

Then—

“You seemed far away, at first,” she murmurs.

“Like… like some part of you hadn’t come back yet.”

I don’t answer right away.

She’s not wrong.

But I want to get the words right.

I shift slightly, just enough to tilt her chin up so I can see her eyes.

“I was,” I say.

Honest. Bare.

“But you brought me back.”

A breath shudders out of her.

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