Page 74 of Silver Secrets

“I am. I’m sorry about that.”

“You don’t ever need to apologize.”

“Doc’s right,” Gage agreed. “We understand. And if anyone should be apologizing, it’s me. I fucked the command code up and sent this place into an electrical outage simulation when I meant to cause a fire hazard.”

Sloan smiled. “This place is wild. I think I might be done here for today, but I’d love to come back one day and watch a team run through a simulation.”

“Oh,” Stone laughed. “You should come when we run evasion drills. I hold the record.”

“For takedowns?” Sloane asked, watching as a smirk made its way across Stone’s face.

“Nope. For evasions. I’m the only one to ever successfully evade another member of the team. You should have seen Hawk’s face when he realized I’d gotten past him. That memory is up there with the rest of my favorites.”

“You know that was only because he was hung over,” Gage said from over her shoulder.

“Hung over, and Cap knew it too. So he made him participate in twice the number of drills as the rest of us. Remember how green he looked after that one simulation with the strobe lights?”

“Well, I’d love to watch the next time you guys run it. I’ll have to make sure Mae is invited that day too.”

Sloane loved the way Stone’s face lit up at that idea.

They made their way back to the control room, Sloane sitting right next to Gage as he worked to clear the glitch. Ten minutes later, the lights all came back on, flooding the simulation floor with light.

“Christ, about time.”

“Alright, you two, if you’re good now, I’m going to head out. Hawk sent a text in the group chat about needing some help over at the clinic, and Nash is on office duty with Mae until Reap gets back from that meeting with Cap.”

“Yeah, go. We’re good here.” Gage nodded over his shoulder.

“See you later, Sloane. You did really well in training today. Don’t let the blip at the end get in your head, got it?”

She bit the inside of her cheek and stood, wiping the palms of her hands off on her leggings.

“You good?” Gage asked.

“Yep.” She went up on her tiptoes and then back flat-footed.

“What’s going on?” Stone’s eyebrows wove together, creating a worry line between his eyes.

“I was wondering something.”

“Okay?”

“I want you to know that I feel really safe with Gage.”

“That’s great, Sloane. We all are happy you two have each other.”

“Thanks.” She smiled. “But the thing is, I also feel really safe with you. And I was wondering…” The question stuck in her throat. “I’m working so hard to get over my touch avoidance and earlier I shouldn’t have pushed you away. I could hear your voice. I knew it was you. I should have let you help me, and I was wondering if I could try to give you a hug. Maybe my brain will slow down in the future and remember if I’m ever having a panic attack that your touch is safe too.”

She finally looked up, relief pouring through her at the dopey smile on Stone’s face. His arms were outstretched and she walked right into them. He wrapped them around her shoulders just as she closed hers around his back.

“Yup,” she sighed. “Just like I thought.”

“What? Am I bad at giving hugs? Has Mae said something about?—”

“No,” Sloane laughed. “I just knew I’d feel safe. That’s all.”

Stone gave her an extra squeeze, holding on until Gage cleared his throat.

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