Page 51 of Click of Fate

I don’t like being caught off guard.

And Claire? She’s always known how to make an entrance. A strategic, deliberate, inconvenient-as-hell entrance.

It’s not just that she showed up today.

It’s that she already knew things. About the space. The branding. Me.

Like she’s been circling for a while, waiting for just the right time to strike.

I’m not sure what I expected when I pictured seeing her again—if I ever did.

A flicker of closure, maybe. Some kind of peace with the fact that I almost built a life with her, and then watched her walk away from all of it like it hadn’t mattered.

But what I got?

Business in a pantsuit, calculated charm, and a handful of franchise buzzwords.

She says I don’t dream big anymore.

But what she doesn’t get is that…this place? Itisthe dream.

Building something slow. Intentional. Human.

I didn’t come to Indy to make Squeaky Bum into some cold, cookie-cutter climbing chain. I came here to make a space where people actually want to show up.

Where I want to show up.

And yeah, part of that is thanks to Stella.

I’m not trying to name it or box it in—but the way I feel when she’s around, it doesn’t leave room for reruns.

Especially not ones that end with someone walking out the door before I can ask the question I should’ve asked months earlier.

And Maddie, she sees through Claire like glass.

That little moment between them when she showed up without my knowing? A warning shot. Claire hasn’t changed. She just got better at pretending she has.

I don’t know if this is just a visit… or the start of something she’s not saying.

But whatever it is, I’m not letting her pull me back into a version of this place—or of myself—that I’ve already outgrown.

Chapter 13

THAT ARTISTIC GLOW

STELLA

It’s almost embarrassinghow fast I say yes.

Cassie doesn’t even finish her sentence. “So, the couple you shot last-minute? They raved. And their frie?—”

“I’ll do it,” I cut her off, the words tumbling out before I can second-guess them.

She blinks. “Wait… really?”

I sigh, dragging a hand down my face. “Don’t make a thing out of it.”

But of course, she makes a thing out of it. Cassie tries to smother the grin, but it creeps across her face anyway.

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