Page 151 of Sage Haven
“What’s going on?” His voice was casual, but there was a thread beneath it. Suspicion.
He was reading me.
He always did.
I raised an eyebrow, catching the orange again before setting it down on the counter. “What do you mean?”
He cocked his head slightly, leaning against the doorway like he had all the time in the world. His arms crossed over his chest; sleeves pushed up to reveal the tattoos inked deep into his skin.
“You’ve got this stupid-ass grin on your face,” he said, nodding toward me. “And unless I’m mistaken, you’ve never had a woman in your bed until this morning.” He tipped his chin toward my room. Making his meaning very clear.
I lowered my head, trying to school my expression.
But it was useless.
The grin slipped through anyway.
Unbidden. Unchecked. Real.
I was happy.
No—more than happy.
I was fucking alive.
The feelingcracked me wide open, and it was dangerous.
But I couldn’t seem to care.
For a moment, it was like I was back in the world before all of this—the one I’d barely dared to remember.
Mom in the kitchen, flour on her hands.
Dad’s laugh booming through the house.
Cas and me in the snow, boots kicking up powder as we raced toward the sled hill.
Mom’s pizzelles baking in the oven.
The twinkling lights of Christmas strung haphazardly over the porch, casting their own quiet magic.
And that last morning.
Before it all changed.
Waking up before dawn.
That warmth—that feeling of being tethered to something real, something good—that’s what I felt now.
Because of her.
I lifted my gaze to Castor’s.
He was still watching me. Waiting.
“I’m just living life, brother,” I said, smirking. “Enjoying the beauty of today before I go to work and do it all over again.”
He stared at me.
