“Raven!”
“What? I’m just saying.” She grinned. “You gottaste, sis.”
Kaisen walked over, smiling at me like I was the only person in the room.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey.” I felt my face heat up. “Kaisen, this is my sister Raven. Raven, this is Kaisen.”
Raven extended her hand, still grinning.
“Nice to meet you, Kaisen.”
“You too.” He shook her hand, then looked around the shop. “This your spot?”
“Yeah. Well, it will be. Still getting it together.”
“It looks good,” he said. “Real good. You got vision.”
Raven beamed.
“Thank you.”
Then she pulled out her phone and made a show of looking at the screen.
“Oh shit, I gotta make this call real quick.” She looked at me. “I’ll be outside. Y’all take your time.”
She walked out before I could protest.
The door closed behind her.
And, suddenly, it was just me and Kaisen in the empty shop.
He walked over slowly, his eyes never leaving mine.
“How you been?” he asked.
“Good. Tired. The morning sickness is—” I stopped. “You don’t want to hear about that.”
“I do.” He stepped closer. “I want to hear about all of it.”
My breath caught.
He was standing right in front of me now, close enough that I could smell his cologne—something clean and woodsy that made my stomach flip.
“I brought you something,” he said.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope.
Held it out to me.
I stared at it.
“Kaisen.”
“Take it.”
“I can’t.”