By the third day, everyone knew.
Not facts. Not details. Just the shape of it.
Rowan's back.
Rowan's trouble.
Rowan's walking too close to the edge again.
I felt it everywhere. Looks that lingered. Smiles that asked questions without words. People pretending not to watch me walk past with my head high and my pulse loud.
Cassian didn't help.
He walked beside me like he'd always belonged there, fingers brushing my arm every so often, like punctuation. Casual. Intimate. Deliberate.
"You're doing that thing," I said under my breath.
"What thing?"
"Acting like this is effortless."
He leaned closer, voice low. "It is. That's why it bothers people."
We stopped near the boardwalk. Wind tugged at my hair. The ocean was loud enough to drown out second thoughts.
Cassian turned to face me fully.
"You don't pull away," he said. "Most people do by now."
"I don't like pretending I'm smaller than I am."
A slow smile curved his mouth. "That might be the hottest thing you've said."
His hand slid to my waist. Not sudden. Not claimed. Just there. Warm. Confident.
I didn't step back.
Instead, I placed my hands lightly on his chest. Felt his breath shift under my palms.
This wasn't a kiss.
This was worse.
"Rowan," he murmured, forehead resting briefly against mine, "if you keep looking at me like that—"
"Like what?"
"Like you already know how this ends."
I tilted my head. "Maybe I do."
His grip tightened just slightly. Enough to make my breath hitch.
Then a voice cut through the moment.
"Are you done pretending this isn't obvious?"
Jude stood a few steps away, hands at his sides, expression tightly controlled.
Cassian didn't move his hand.
Neither did I.
Jude's eyes dropped to where Cassian was touching me. Then back to my face.
"I'm not asking you to choose," Jude said. "I'm asking you not to pretend this doesn't matter."
I exhaled slowly.
"Oh, it matters," I said. "Just not in the way you want."
Cassian's thumb traced a slow arc at my waist. Grounding. Provocative.
Jude saw it.
Something in his expression shifted.
Good.
Let it.