“Then stop trying so hard.”
She smiled.
And I kissed her.
It wasn’t dramatic.
There was no music, no sudden change in the weather, no perfect line spoken at exactly the right moment.
There was simply Karen’s hand against my cheek, my arms around her waist, and the quiet realization that something I had wanted for months was finally happening because we had both chosen it.
When we pulled apart, she rested her forehead against mine.
“Well,” she whispered.
“Well,” I repeated.
“That’s going to complicate things.”
“Probably.”
“Daniel is going to be unbearable.”
“He already is.”
She laughed and kissed me again.
And for the first time, neither of us pulled away out of fear.
Michael Returns With One Last Threat
For a few weeks, we kept things quiet.
Not secret.
There was a difference.
We weren’t hiding our relationship out of shame. We simply wanted time to understand what we were building before inviting the rest of the world to have an opinion.
