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He’s still for a long second.

I can feel how exposed I’ve made myself, and I can’t seem to regret it.

“I can’t do this if you leave,” I say, quieter now. “I can’t do any of this.”

He stares at me. Then he stands.

My heart drops for one horrible second.

But instead of stepping away, he comes closer. One hand braces on the mattress near my hip, the other sliding lightly to the back of my neck.

Then he kisses me.

Not desperately. Not like the party, not like the room in Alester’s house, not like either of us is trying to outrun something. He kisses me like he’s finally too tired to lie.

I kiss him back before I can think better of it. My fingers catch in the front of his shirt. His mouth is warm and careful and familiar enough to hurt.

When he pulls back, his forehead rests against mine. “I love you,” he says.

Everything in me goes still.

I stare at him.

He doesn’t look away. “I love you,” he says again, even quieter. “More than makes sense. More than is useful. More than is going to make any of this easier.”

My eyes fill all over again. “Dalton⁠—”

The curtain jerks open.

“I told you to stay away from her.”

Alester’s voice cuts through the room cleanly enough to feel like something sharp.

Dalton straightens at once.

I turn my head. Alester stands just inside the curtained bay, one hand still holding the fabric back, expression composed in a way that is somehow worse than anger.

For one second nobody moves.

Then the monitor beside me gives a bright, rapid beep as my heart rate jumps.

Chapter Twenty-Six

DALTON

Alester’s voice lands in the room like a blade.

“I told you to stay away from her.”

For one second I don’t move.

Not because I don’t want to. Because I know exactly what happens if I react too fast in a hospital room with Maggie in the bed and a monitor already starting to complain about her heart rate.

Then Maggie says, quietly, “Is this why…”

I look at her. She’s staring at me, not at him. Her face is pale, eyes too wide, and I can see the exact moment the pieces start sliding into place in her head.

Alester steps farther into the room, letting the curtain fall closed behind him. His face is calm in that way men like him think is superior to anger. As if volume is for people with weaker positions.