Page 115 of The Prime-Time Experiment

And just like that, he was done, turning slightly away, leaving the space open again. Declan didn’t hesitate. The moment Tyler stepped back, he moved. His hand found hers easily, like it already knew where it belonged, his fingers threading through hers without pause. The contact was warm, steady, assured in a way that carried no hesitation.

Riley felt it instantly, the certainty of it settling somewhere deep and quiet beneath her ribs. Her fingers tightened slightly around his in response, her body shifting a fraction closer before she consciously registered the movement at all.

Behind them, Leanne and Dee were still absolutely losing it.

“I KNEW IT—” Leanne was saying, gripping Dee’s arms again. “Tyler tried to tell me I didn’t call this—”

“RIGHT?!” Dee shot back, laughing. “I’ve been suffering through this for months—”

Tyler muttered something under his breath that sounded like, “This is never ending.”

Dee turned back suddenly, eyes bright with renewed chaos. “Okay, no. I need details again. I don’t care that I already got them, I want a replay.”

“Same,” Leanne agreed immediately, already stepping closer. “From the beginning. Do not summarise.”

“—and don’t leave anything out—”

“—I want specifics—”

The noise layered over itself, rising again, filling the space without restraint. Riley stood in the middle of it, her hand still in Declan’s. Her attention moved between them all; the overlapping voices, the movement, the complete absence of any coherent structure. Once, the chaos would have settled wrong beneath her skin. In this moment, something else settled there instead. Something that still felt unfamiliar in places, but no longer unwelcome.

Then she turned toward him, enough for her shoulder to press more fully against his, her voice low beneath the noise surrounding them.

“Oh my god,” she murmured softly, something almost disbelieving threading through the words. “What have we done?”

He looked down at her immediately, a small, knowing smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.

Riley held his gaze, and for a moment, everything else receded. Not gone, simply quieter. The noise. The movement. The unpredictability she once would have spent every second trying to control or escape. Now she didn’t.

Her fingers tightened lightly around his, grounded by the easy warmth of him beside her.

And with all the noise around her, all the disorder, all the unexpected ways her life had unfolded beyond anything she could have designed for herself, the thought settled quietly and completely into place.

She wouldn’t change a thing.

Chapter 25

Happiness

Riley

The living room was full before the show even began, occupied in the specific way this family always was; every seat claimed, every surface subtly rearranged to accommodate whoever had arrived last. Riley registered it automatically as she stepped inside beside Declan, her attention moving briefly across the room without needing to catalogue it quite so carefully anymore.

Leanne had already taken over one end of the couch, curled into the cushions with a glass of wine balanced near her knee like she intended to remain there all night. Charlie sat in the armchair with the remote held loosely in one hand, carrying himself with the quiet confidence of someone pretending he still had authority over the television despite everyone knowing Leanne would overrule him within minutes.

Ebony sat cross-legged on the floor, exactly where she always preferred to be, a blanket folded beneath her in neat, precise lines. Her attention was already fixed on the blank television screen, focused before there was even anything to focus on.

Dee leaned against the side of the couch with deceptive laziness, relaxed in posture but sharp everywhere else, her gaze flicking between people like she was tracking reactions before they happened. Tyler hovered nearby with his arms folded, expression already carrying the mildly sceptical look of someone who had arrived fully prepared to critique the entire experience.

Riley paused just inside the doorway and felt it; the quiet certainty of belonging here without needing to consciously earn her place within it. The sensation settled differently than it once would have. Softer now, familiar enough that her mind no longer immediately reached for structure or explanation.

Declan’s hand brushed lightly against the small of her back.

“You all good?” he asked quietly.

Riley glanced across the room once more before nodding. “Yes.”

The feeling stayed with her as she moved further inside, conversation continuing easily around her without demanding anything in return. No abrupt transition. No recalibration period where she needed to figure out how to exist within the room before she could relax into it.