Page 24 of One Impossible Moment
Chapter 10
Finn
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Finn woke before dawn, same as always.
The house was quiet.He moved barefoot through the kitchen, making coffee out of habit rather than need.The air smelled different this morning.Charged.Restless.
Highly aware that he'd had a visitor in the house last night, he chalked up the changes to Kallie's presence.
He carried his mug down the hallway and stood outside the spare room.The door was cracked open.Soft morning light spilled across the floorboards.
Kallie was curled on her side, hair fanned across the pillow.He studied the curves under the blanket, noting the rise and fall with each slow, even breath.She looked younger when she was asleep.The stubbornness she carried in daylight had melted away in sleep.
He sipped the coffee, trying to ease the tightness in his chest.As much as he wanted her here, he shouldn't have let her stay.She needed to go back.
Yet seeing her like this, safe, warm, and content, made it hard to regret his decision.He gave her one night.That's all he could give her.
"Kallie?"He knocked lightly on the doorframe."You awake?"
She stirred, blinking against the light."Yeah."
"You hungry?"
She nodded, pushing herself up to a sitting position on the side of the bed."A little."
He caught a glimpse of her panties as the shirt rode up while she slept, and he looked away.There was no shyness about her.She moved around the house, half-dressed, believing she was safe with him.
"Go ahead and get dressed.I'll make something for you to eat."
She followed him out, rubbing sleep from her eyes, and headed toward the bathroom.The morning felt almost normal.Two people in a real house, in a real town, living a real life.
But there was something behind Kallie being here.Something let her in.
He cracked eggs into a pan.She shuffled into the room and sat at the table, watching him with a softness he didn't know how to handle.
"Do you always get up this early?"she asked.
"Old habit."
"From before when you were in prison?"
How easily she accepted that he'd had a life prior to arriving in Everstill without questioning anything else.Her age and lack of experience led her to accept the oddness of this place and ignore the dangers surrounding him.
But maybe it was different for her.She still contained her emotions, while none of the men in Everstill did.
