Page 89 of Cinder
“I got you.”
His voice is low and close to my ear, and my entire body stills. Evan’s palm presses warm and sure against my side, fingers spanning my hip, and I pretend I’m not imagining what it’d feel like with less fabric between us.
“You weren’t joking about not letting me fall, huh.”
His breath huffs warm against the back of my neck. “I keep my promises.”
Me too.
I grab Pengie and straighten slowly, but I don’t turn right away. Not when his chest is still close to my back. Not when his hand hasn’t quite left my waist.
“You following me now, too?”
“When I came back, you weren’t there,” he says simply. “So I came looking.”
I turn, and he remains closer than he needs to be. The bay is dimmer here, the noise from the tables softened by the truck and metal.
“She was about to spiral,” I say quietly, gesturing to the penguin in my hand.
“I believe it.”
His hand hasn’t moved yet, and his thumb shifts once against my side before he seems to realize what he’s doing.
Behind us, Mason’s voice carries faintly over the top of the truck.
“If you two are making out over there, you don’t get leftovers!”
Evan closes his eyes briefly, and I huff a laugh, because the tension is too thick to do anything else with. His eyes open again, and warm hazel dances between mine, before he finally steps back to create just enough space for my pulse to level out.
We walk back toward the table together, side by side, and Elle spots Pengie in my hands immediately.
“You found him!”
“Engine One tried to recruit him,” I tell her. “He declined.”
Evan snorts softly beside me, and I notice Frankie biting her lip to keep from smiling. Remi looks deeply entertained, and Colt just shakes his head.
“Alright,” Remi says, clapping her hands to snap back to reality. “Time to wrangle small humans before someone melts down.”
“Not me,” Max declares immediately.
“Yes, you, in five minutes,” she replies calmly. “Go say bye to Grandpa.”
Elle yawns right on cue, clutching Pengie tighter as she leans into my side. “I’m not tired, though.”
“Mm,” I hum. “We’ll revisit that in the car.”
Evan brushes past me, grabbing his keys off the table. “Let’s get you home, bug.”
There’s a round of goodbyes more chaotic than necessary. Frankie hugs me like we’ve known each other for years, and Mason tells me I’m on dessert next time, while Luke gives me a signature small nod, quieter than the others but no less intentional.
“Drive safe,” Colt says, already turning back toward the grill to scrub it down.
“See you next week,” Remi adds, like it’s a given. “We’ll get coffee and steal all the good cinnamon buns.”
I chuckle as Mason protests loudly somewhere in the background, but her words still settle somewhere warm. Coffee. Next week. Plans.
I wrap an arm around Elle’s shoulders as she leans into me, and Evan’s hand finds the small of my back as we start toward the truck. It’s light, like he’s done it a hundred times, but I’m aware of it the entire walk.
