Page 4 of You Found Me in the Dark
I shut the car door behind me.
The truck sat there for a moment longer. Reed waited for me to unlock the door before pulling away quietly, taillights fading into the night. He left me feeling like maybe I didn’t have to carry all of this alone.
4
REED
Iwatched her walk up the porch steps, slower than usual, shoulders drawn in like she was trying to shrink from the light overhead. When she paused at the door, I wondered if she’d turn around, look back, and say something more.
She didn’t, and somehow that made it harder to drive away.
I didn’t know what I was doing anymore with her or with this…thingbetween us. There had been this lingering tension between us for years now. It hid in stolen glances, sarcasm, and shared silences. It wasn’t supposed to matter, wasn’t supposed to mean anything, but it always had. I keep pretending it doesn’t because pretending is safer. It’s safe for us. Safer for the friendship with Cam I’d be risking if I ever said any of it out loud.
But tonight, something cracked open.
She’d cried, and I hadn’t asked why. Maybe that made me a coward. Or maybe it made me the only person in her orbit who knew not to touch a fresh wound with dirty hands. Either way,she didn’t pull away. She didn’t tell me to leave. That counted for something, didn’t it?
The way she thanked me for not asking? That hit harder than anything else shecould’vesaid. It meant she trusted me to just be there, to sit with her in the mess without trying to fix it. That trust felt dangerous because I wasn’t sure I could hold it together forever without wanting more.
I sighed and finally put my truck into gear. Drove off slowly, careful not to glance back in the rearview mirror. The road was quiet, headlights stretching just far enough to see what was in front of me. Not far enough to show me where this was going.
The whole drive home, I kept replaying her voice, that last look, the way her hand lingered on the door like maybe she wanted to stay in the truck just a few minutes longer. Or maybe that was just me, projecting something that wasn’t there.
It didn’t matter. The damage was already done.
Because Wren Willow Callahan wasn’t supposed to matter to me, she was my best friend’s little sister. My little sister’s best friend. She was loud and stubborn and too smart for her own good, yet somehow always in the middle of something. She was all fire and motion, but tonight, she’d been nothing but stillness and shadows. This wasn’t some harmless crush. It wasn’t something I could joke away or bury beneath my loyalty to Cam. It was real, and I didn’t know how to un-feel it.
I wasn’t used to seeing her break like that. Now I couldn’t get the image out of my head.
I tapped the steering wheel, becoming impatient with my thoughts. This was supposed to be just a drive. A quick, quiet drive. Make sure she gets home safely, then move on with my night. That was it. But the silence betweenus had felt… different. Like it was saying more than words could. Like maybe she needed someone to be there, just in case.
I wasn’t good at being that guy. The one people leaned on. I wasn’t built for softness. My world didn’t have space for emotional detours.
But with Wren, I didn’t feel like I had to say the right thing. I just had to show up. Somehow, that felt easier, especially with her. It had always been like this, even years ago when we kissed after she had gotten out of that shitty relationship. I’m not sure how that even came about. It went quickly from comforting her tothat.
I pulled into my driveway, shutting off the truck, and leaned my head back against the seat. For a minute, I just sat there, trying to get my thoughts in order. And I knew, without fully understanding why, that tonight had shifted something.
5
WREN
Iwas halfway through reheating a cup of coffee I didn’t even want when the knock came.
I sighed.Not now.I wasn’t in the mood for anyone, not my best friend, Harper, and her hovering, not Reed after last night, and definitely not?—
Another knock. Then a voice, way too loud for the dull ache in my head.
“Open up, Callahan. I know you’re in there because I saw your car. There’s no use in pretending you aren’t home!”
I groaned and let my forehead rest against the wall next to the coffee bar. It was Lena, go figure.
Dragging my feet toward the front door, I cracked it open just enough to see my cousin standing there with a grocery tote slung over one shoulder and the most unapologetic grin plastered on her face.
“You look like you’ve been through an emotional blender. Still gorgeous, though. Let me in, Wrennie. I brought food.”
She breezed in as if she owned the place, like we hadn’tskipped a few weeks of real talking. After toeing off her boots at the foyer, she dumped the tote on the kitchen counter and spun around to face me.
Lena always looked like she belonged in a moody magazine spread. Her long, wavy hair in rich streaks of copper, black, and platinum blonde tumbled down her shoulders. She spent a fortune trying to look like her calico cat. Her light skin was dusted with pale freckles from head to toe. Her silver septum and nose ring made her stormy gray-blue eyes stand out even more.
