Page 127 of Wild Card 13

“That is oddly specific.”

“I’ve seen you do more with less.”

Her mouth twitched before she stopped it.

I took one careful breath and did not chase it too hard. “I just know when a room starts pressing in,” I said. “That’s all.”

Lucy went still. Like those words had slipped into a place I had not meant to reach.

For a second, the conference room disappeared. It was just her and me and all the years between us, crowded with things we had never said right.

Her voice was quieter when she answered. “You don’t know everything anymore, Ty.”

Ty.Not Mr. Burns.Not Buzz.

It hit so hard I had to look away for half a second. “No,” I said. “I don’t.”

The old me would have added something. A joke. A grin. A little charm to smooth out the honesty before it got too close to skin.

But I didn’t.

Lucy watched me like she was waiting for it too. When it didn’t come, something in her face shifted. Like she had expected one version of me and gotten another by mistake.

I slid my hands into my pockets because if I did not do something with them, I was going to reach for her, and I had lost the right to make any of this about what I wanted a long time ago. “Tell me where to be,” I said, “and I’ll be there.”

Her throat moved. Then she looked down at the folders in her arms.

“I’ll see you this afternoon in my office,” she said.

“My calendar already fears you.”

“Good.”

That one had less ice in it.

I nodded toward the door. “I’ll let you get back to terrifying the organization into functioning properly.”

“See you later, Ty.”

I smiled before I could stop myself. For one second, she almost did too.

Then a faint clicking sound came from the hallway. Tiny nails on polished floor. Dottie appeared in the open doorway, ears high, tail wagging like she had decided the meeting was over because she wanted a walk.

Lucy sighed. “Dottie.”

Dottie ignored her completely and trotted straight to me.

“Hey, trouble,” I cooed, scratching behind one of Dottie’s soft ears.

She sat on my shoe.

Lucy looked at her dog. “Unbelievable.”

I looked down at Dottie, then back at Lucy. “She has good instincts.”

“She eats sticky notes.”

“Complex woman.”