He straightened but kept me boxed in, and I was perfectly happy there. “Why aren’t you running?” Lines of concern cut across his forehead, and the crinkles around his eyes deepened. “Forcing me to chase after you? Slamming a door in my face?”

“Would you chase after me?”

“Would you slam the door in my face?”

“Do you see me running?”

He quietly stared at me, not volleying another question my way.

“My stepbrother,” I spoke up a few quiet moments later. “He’s taken justice into his own hands before, too.” Kind of does it for a living. “I don’t judge him for his life choices; I still love him. I’d never stop him from being in my life or Colin’s because of his decisions.” I hoped I was making myself clear.

“Love.”

Those four letters punctured the air and slammed into me, forcing me to reassemble them back into a word I’d never said to anyone outside my family. And I was left wondering why he’d latched on to that word instead of all the other ones I’d said.

“Why don’t we start over? It’s my fault we skipped the basics and went straight for the jugular.”

He lifted his brows as if unamused (or heck, maybe amused) at my phrasing on that.

“You want to hold off learning more about what happened at the rave, then?”

I thought about it, and it took me three seconds to answer. “We’re safe here for now, yes?”

“You’re safe with me, yes.” The subtle switch of his wording wasn’t lost on me.

“Okay, then let’s wait to discuss more. My heart can only handle so much in such a short amount of time. I could use something longer than a commercial break between the heavy.”

He lowered his gaze to my chest. “We wouldn’t want anything to happen to your heart.”

I sucked in a sharp breath when he unexpectedly lifted my hand from the counter and held my wrist.

“Pulse feels strong.”

Even stronger now with you touching me. “Did you just go nurse mode on me?”

And just like that, we were back to playful banter. We’d abracadabra’d our way from a place of pain to comfort.

I wasn’t sure how he was truly steadying my pulse after what he’d shared, but he’d injected a feeling of safety into my veins and gave me new life. And now I wanted to stay here just like this. Keep the dark where it belonged, not bring it with us into the here and now.

“Basics. Let’s start there. Like back to when you were born. Which was when? How old are you anyway?”

Keeping hold of my wrist, he replied, “Forty-three as of last December.”

“Ever married?”

“No.”

“Long-term relationship?”

“Will you judge me if I say no?”

Well, that response felt oddly personal, honest, and not very basic.