Page 33 of The Prime-Time Experiment

“They’re not in order,” she said finally.

Declan’s mouth shifted slightly. “Yeah?”

She nodded, stepping closer, her fingers brushing lightly over the bands without fully touching them. “They go from light to heavy, but the colours don’t match the order.”

He pushed off the wall, moving to stand beside her. “Show me.”

She pointed, small but intentional. “That one should be here,” she said, indicating a shift in placement. “And that one there. So it makes sense.”

Declan adjusted them without question. “Better?” he asked.

Ebony looked at them again, longer this time. “Yes.”

She moved further into the room, her attention shifting to the open space in the centre. “Too much here,” she said, gesturing vaguely. “It’s empty but not empty.”

Declan let out a quiet breath, something in his chest tightening in a way that had nothing to do with the room. “Yeah,” he said softly. “I get that.”

Because he did. More than he had this morning. He watched her move again, making small, subtle adjustments in how she stood, where she looked, what she engaged with and what she avoided. It wasn’t random. None of it was. It was structured. Just not in a way most people recognised. Riley.

The thought surfaced without resistance. The way she’d described it. The layout. The sequencing. The way things didn’t sit right when they didn’t follow a pattern she could anticipate.

He had been right. He’d just needed to see it from her different angle. Declan straightened slightly, his focus sharpening as something settled into place.

“Alright,” he said, more to himself than to Ebony. “We can work with that.”

“Work with what?” Tyler’s voice carried down the stairs as he came into the room, one hand dragging absently along the railing before he stepped off the last step. He didn’t look at Declan straight away. His attention went to the gym setup, scanning it in that half-distracted way he usually did when he walked in.

His gaze moved again, more deliberately this time, like something wasn’t lining up with what he expected.

“… Wait.”

Declan glanced over, following his line of sight without saying anything yet. Tyler stepped further into the room, looking properly now. “Did you change this?”

“No.”

Tyler frowned slightly, still looking. “Something’s different.”

Declan tipped his head toward Ebony, who was crouched near one of the benches, adjusting something small with quiet focus. “She did.”

Tyler looked at her, then back at the room, then back at her again like he was trying to reconcile the two. “… Seriously?”

Ebony didn’t look up. “Yes.”

He let out a quiet breath, almost a laugh, shaking his head as he turned in a slow half-circle. “It actually makes sense now.”

Declan’s eyes narrowed slightly at that. Tyler kept going, not really thinking about it. “Like before it just looked like you’d put things wherever they fit. This actually…” He gestured vaguely. “Flows.”

Declan said nothing. Ebony nodded once. “It does.”

That did it. Declan straightened a fraction, something in his posture shifting. Tyler didn’t notice. He was still looking around, mildly impressed in a way that felt unfiltered. “I mean, it’s kind of wild she fixed it that quickly.”

Declan exhaled slowly through his nose, then turned toward the kitchen. “I was going to order food,” he said.

“Yeah?” Tyler replied, distracted.

“I’m not doing that anymore.” That got his attention. Tyler glanced over. “Why?”

Declan opened a cupboard, like the answer was obvious. “I’m cooking.”