Chapter 61: Am Already Here

Spencer's POV My phone rang at seven fourteen.I was at the kitchen counter with my first coffee, going through the Dominic updates from overnight, three new items on the Weston connection, an encrypted message from Richard about the agency meeting timeline, and a financial record flag that needed my attention before nine. Scarlett was still in the bedroom. The kids weren't up yet.I looked at the name on the screen.Sage Marie.I picked up. "It's seven in the morning.""I know what time it is," she said. "I've been awake since four. Flight time."I went very still. "Where are you?""Terminal B," she said. "The coffee here is terrible by the way. You'd think for what they charge for a ticket..""Sage.""I'm at the airport, Spencer." Her voice was completely unbothered. "Your airport. In your city."I closed my eyes for exactly three seconds."You didn't tell me you were coming," I tried to remain calm."You would have told me not to," She said like as if that was enough reason."And

Chapter 62: How Are You

Spencer's POV She pulled back and looked at me properly in the terminal light."You look terrible," she said."You said that on the phone.""It bears repeating." She picked up her bag from the floor and slung it over her shoulder. "Let's go. That coffee was genuinely one of the worst things I've ever tasted and I need something real."We walked through the terminal toward the exit, her rolling a single suitcase that was either very efficiently packed or she hadn't planned to stay long. I looked at it."One bag," I said."I travel light." She said."You once brought four bags to a three day trip to Edinburgh." "I didn't know what the weather would do," she said. "This is different. I know what I'm doing this time.""Which is what exactly?" I said."Walking to your car." She looked at me sideways. "Currently."We went through the automatic doors into the morning air. She pulled her grey coat tighter and looked at the sky with the expression of someone confirming a weather theory."It'

Chapter 63: You Built A Home

Spencer's POV We got back to the apartment at noon.Sage Marie walked in ahead of me and stopped in the doorway and looked at the kitchen. At the garden plan on the table. At Valeria's color coded system tacked to the fridge. At the drawing Aiden had left on the counter that he'd been working on yesterday, half finished, pencil still beside it.She turned around slowly and looked at the whole space.I stood in the doorway and watched her look."Spencer," she said quietly."Yeah.""This is a home," she said."I know," I said.She looked at me. "You built this.""We built it," I said.She held my gaze for a moment. Then she put her bag down and took off her grey coat and hung it on the hook by the door like she'd always known it was there."Right," she said. "Where's the chicken?"I made the lemon chicken while she sat at the kitchen table and looked at everything with the unhurried attention she gave things she was genuinely interested in. She picked up the garden plan and read it pro

Chapter 64: Are You In Love With Him

Scarlett's POV Aiden pulled Sage Marie to the table immediately, sketchbook already open, the formation spread across it before she'd fully sat down."Okay so," he said. "The Danny problem.""The Danny problem," she repeated."Danny is our striker. He's good but he's inconsistent." Aiden pointed at the diagram. "I want to move him slightly wider but Val says the defensive structure can't support it and she's wrong but nobody will listen to me.""I said it was statistically risky," Valeria said from across the table. "Not that it was wrong.""That's the same thing...""It really isn't," Valeria said. "Risky means the probability of success is lower than optimal. Wrong means it can't work at all." She looked at Sage Marie. "It could work. It requires Danny to run his line consistently. Danny has done that twice.""Three times," Aiden said."Twice reliably," Valeria said. "The third time he ran it in the wrong direction.""He course corrected...""After eight seconds," Valeria said. "Wh

Chapter 65: Let It Be What It Is

Scarlett's POV I was still at the table when he came back.He appeared in the kitchen doorway, jacket off, sleeves rolled up, looking at me with the expression he used when he already knew something was wrong and was deciding how to approach it.He came in and sat down across from me.He didn't ask what Sage Marie had said.He just sat there.The kitchen was quiet around us. The garden plan still open on the table. The lemon chicken pan soaking in the sink. The low lamp on the counter throwing everything amber."How are the kids," I said."Aiden was still drawing," he said. "I gave him ten minutes.""He'll take twenty." I said."He will," he said. "I gave him ten and walked away."I almost smiled.He looked at me. "You okay?""I'm fine," I said.He held my gaze for a long moment, didn't push it. Just let the fine sit there between us the way he let things sit when he'd decided not to make them into something."She's good with them," I said. "Sage Marie.""She is," he said."Valeria l

Chapter 66: I've Got You

Scarlett's POV I locked the door behind him.The room was dark except for the city light coming through the curtains. He stood just inside the door looking at me and I looked at him and everything from the kitchen, Sage Marie's question, Nicholas, the case, all of it, was still somewhere in the apartment.Just not in this room.He crossed to me first.His mouth found mine before I'd finished turning toward him and the kiss was nothing like the soft careful thing from the kitchen. It had everything in it. Ten years of showing up, of sunflowers and peonies and ocean water and floorboards and all the things he'd done without saying anything, all of it coming out at once, and I grabbed his collar and he groaned against my mouth and his hands came to my waist and pulled me so hard against him there was no space left between us."Spencer...""Shhh... I know," he said against my mouth.He walked me backward and I went. The back of my knees hit the bed and we went down together and his weigh