Page 113 of Shadow

I stare after him, watching the way his backside fits his jeans. He glances back, catching me checking him out, and gives a knowing grin.

“Yeah,” I say quietly, “I really do.”

Xanthe sighs dramatically. “You two give me love envy.”

I laugh again, leaning back in my chair and closing my eyes as the breeze brushes my skin. “You have Fury,” I remind her.

“But he doesn’t look at me like that, and he doesn’t whisk me off for lunchtime sex.”

I laugh harder, rolling my eyes.

I used to think peace was silence, the absence of chaos.

But it’s not.

It’s laughter.

It’s grease and music and people who show up when you fall apart.

It’s belonging somewhere you never thought you could.

It’s this.

When I open my eyes, Shadow’s watching me from across the yard. He doesn’t smile this time, just nods, slow, steady. A silent look that’s asking me if I’m good, if I’m okay.

I smile back, and his shoulders relax. He winks before going back to the bike he’s working on.

I watch him for a long moment, this rough, impossible man who became my safe place.

And for the first time in my life, the future doesn’t scare me.

It feels wide open. Ours.

I breathe in the warmth, the noise, the love circling this broken little yard.

We didn’t just survive.

We found home.