Page 60 of Second to None

“Well, hey.” I curled my fingers around the curve of his hip. “Guess I should send my trainer a thank-you note. Anytime you want to grab me like this? Feel free.”

For some reason, that made him frown. “It’s not just, like—you’re hot, yeah. But you’re more than that.”

He’d used to tell me that a lot when we were younger.‘You’re more, babe. You’re so much more than a pretty face.’Always building me up, protecting me when I let some stupid headline get to me or scrolled through comments I should ignore. Years later, and he was still looking out for me.

Of course I loved him. How could I not?

“Thank you,” I said, and kissed him so I wouldn’t spill the rest of it, words tumbling around my head like the LEGO designs of an insane architect.

We moved inside some minutes later, turning off the pool lights and locking the terrace door. I pinned Emily’s drawing to the fridge before following Levi toward our side of the house. Everything felt like a secret. We paused in front of our doors, and I knew I shouldn’t push, knew he’d drawn a line just this morning.Casual.

Hand on the door to his bedroom, he seemed to watch me—green eyes dark in the dim light of the hallway, cheeks still faintly flushed. “‘Night, Cass.”

“Yeah. I, uh.” I could ask, right? I could ask, and he would say no, but at least I’d have put myself out there. “Hey, we could sleep in the same bed? Not like—nothing heavy. Just nice to share, right? I haven’t done that since…”You. “Not in a long time. Other than a couple nights ago, of course.”

And I’d just thoroughly dismantled my own argument, hadn’t I?

Levi rubbed the back of his neck, glancing away, and visibly hesitated before he spoke. “Last time I did that—before Friday, I mean—the guy made off with all the cash in my wallet.”

“Shit. That’s…” Christ, I didn’t even know. Jealousy swirled in my blood like heady wine. At the same time, I wanted to smooth the wrinkle between Levi’s brows with my thumb, undo whatever he must have felt that morning—waking up to find he’d been used.

“To be fair,” he said, a bitter note of self-deprecation running through his voice, “I was absolutely wasted that night. No clue what he even looked like, just grabbed some willing body. Might be I didn’t even get it up, can’t say I remember.”

Oh, fuckinghell. I didn’t think, just closed the gap between us and touched his shoulder, waited for him to look at me. “Hey.Hey. None of that means you deserved it.”

He sucked in a breath, loud in the silent hallway. “I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol in years, Cass. Not since… Not since the second opinion we got for Jess.”

There was nothing I could say, so I folded my arms around him. He melted into me, our bodies flush from hip to shoulder, cheeks pressed together. We stood like that for seconds, maybe minutes.

When he drew away, he brushed a thumb under his left eye, then met my gaze. “Emily sometimes sneaks in,” he murmured, and I needed a moment to get it.

Oh. So… no, then. I nodded and stepped back. “Okay.”

“It’s rare, though.” He cleared his throat. “So, yeah. It’s probably okay if we share a bed.”

“Yeah?” I tried to temper my smile to something reasonable. Based on his quiet chuckle, I failed.

“Yeah,” he said, and maybe it meant nothing to him, just skin contact and the quiet rhythm of someone else’s breathing beside him.

But it felt like I’d won something.

* * *

Sardinia,late August

The days blurred like Emily’s watercolor attempts to paint distant sailboats, splashes of purple and yellow that melted into shades of blue.

We cycled through a wetlands park to watch large colonies of flamingos wading in the shallows, their pink feathers brilliant in the afternoon sun. A private boat tour took us into a vast marine cave with stalactites and stalagmites flickering in the low light, an underground saltwater lake shimmering in the dark. We drove inland to an agriturismo, a baby goat nibbling at Emily’s shoelaces while a shepherd explained how they produced pecorino cheese using age-old methods. There were lazy afternoons by the pool and board games that Levi and Emily had picked up in town while I waited in the car, baseball cap pulled low to shield my face.

Levi and I folded back into each other in a way I hadn’t dared to hope for. Stolen moments behind half-closed doors and slow pieces of night once it was just us, quiet mornings with sunshine and reality pressing in. Light and easy, he insisted, even when I dropped silent words into his mouth and slept with my head on his shoulder.

For the first time in years, I could breathe.

* * *

Porto Cervo,Thursday, August 28

“Your music is sad.”

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