He steps forward and tilts my chin up, so I have no choice but to meet his gaze. Those green eyes burrow into me. I clutch the magazine tighter to my chest, using it as a flimsy shield.

“I mean it, Evie. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just…sore.” I wince. That wasn’t something I meant to share with him. It’s just something I’m suddenly aware of as my body responds to how close his is.

Gray’s expression softens, then shifts to an emotion I can’t discern. “Do you regret it?” The question hurls at me abruptly.

And…here it is. My chance to hurt him back. To take revenge for years of disappointment and second-guessing—for last night. An opportunity to hurt the guy who isn’t affected by anyone, much less me.

I can’t do it.

Because I don’t regret it. I wish it had ended differently. But I wouldn’t change it.

“No.”

He nods. Something that looks a lot like relief flashes across his face until he schools it into the indifference he usually wears like a mask.

“Do you think it was a mistake?”

“No.” His answer is swift. “I shouldn’t have said that. I was—I’m sorry, Evie. Really. I was an ass.”

I don’t dispute it. He came, he apologized, and now he’s silent. The quiet allows for too many thoughts, so I break it. “Why are you wearing your uniform?”

I’ve never seen him in it before, and, yeah…he wears it well. It dregs up memories I’m trying very hard to repress.

Gray glances down at the camouflage print that has Phillips and U.S. Air Force stitched on the front. “I had a meeting at the base this morning.”

“Oh.” All of a sudden, I’m at a loss for what else to say to him. Our expected interactions—brief and surface level—don’t look like this. Things have shifted between us—irrevocably. “I won’t tell Noah.”

His brow furrows like crumpled paper, forming twin lines between his eyes.

“That’s why you’re here, apologizing, right? I played the best friend’s little sister card last time something happened between us, and now, you’re feeling guilty and worried I’ll tell him. I won’t, okay? He’ll never know.”

Gray nods. “Okay.” Then, he steps forward and kisses me, which I was not expecting. At all. It’s barely more than a light graze, yet it leaves a sear of sensation behind. “Noah isn’t why I’m here though.”