Page 64 of Fragile Heart

“What happened?” she asks.

My answer is no more than a whisper that settles like a stone between us. “She killed herself a couple months after Brandon died.”

She sucks in a breath.

“Melissa said it was awful,” I say, trying to keep myself detached from it all. It doesn’t stop my stomach from clenching thinking about what Caleb must have gone through. “She said Caleb was gone on a fire. Camden was four months old.”

Faedra nods like I’ve given her some solution to a problem.

“I don’t think he’s indifferent,” she says again. “I think he’s terrified.”

“What?”

I don’t mean to ask the question. But Ethan? Scared? I’ve never once seen him scared of anything. And ofme?

“I’m not an expert on any of this,” she admits. “I’ve never dealt with the type of loss Caleb and Ethan carry. But I can imagine it. If I lost Carter or Jude or Logan?” She shudders. “I’m not saying that you should walk on eggshells around him or anything. You deserve to be wanted exactly where and how you are. But what I saw of him yesterday and especially in the cafe on Sunday? It was an Alpha that is incredibly possessive and in denial of it.”

“Think it’s something I should bring up while here?” I ask. “The kiss, not Kayla.”

She shakes her head and loops her arm with mine. “I’d let him sit with it and see what he does. It’s not like either of you are going anywhere.”

I raise an eyebrow. “I could.”

She laughs. “But you aren’t. Your eyes are happy for the first time in years, Bri. And I’ve seen you smile more in the last week than I remember in the lastyear.”

Footsteps cut across the quiet space. This time, Caleb’s cinnamon scent does greet me. Faedra looks over her shoulder with a smile.

“Good morning.”

His voice draws me in like a moth to a flame. I drop Faedra’s arm and turn around. His eyes are shadowed by the baseball hat he wears, a plain maroon with a vintage airplane. His lips curl into a small smile, and my heart lurches.

“Good morning,” Faedra says.

“I was sent to let you know that breakfast is ready.”

Faedra nods. “I’ll head back and help with the girls, then.”

A smirk flashes across her lips before she weaves around Caleb and starts back toward the campsite.

“Good morning,” he whispers.

His voice is lower this time, and it shoots right through me.

I close the distance between us, and he wraps his arms around me, running his thumb around the shell of my ear as I let my eyes close and my cheek settle against his chest. His scent intensifies, and I go boneless.

He laughs into my hair. “We should head back before I decide pressing you up against a tree is a better breakfast.”

My cheeks are still flushed as we rejoin everyone else in the campsite.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

BRIELLE

“Bri! Bri! Watch this!”

Camden looks over his shoulder, making sure I’m actually watching him, before he jumps off one of the large rock outcroppings that hug the lake. He squeals a second before he hits the surface of the lake, water splashing out from him.

Rose squeaks and scoots away from the edge of the large rock, huddling into Logan’s side.

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