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That knot stays there as he pads toward the door and disappears into the hallway. It stays there while I locate a pair of underwear, some sweatpants and a t-shirt from the bag I packed in my apartment last night, pull them on, sit down cross-legged on the bed, and wait for him to return.

When he finally comes back into the room, he’s wearing a pair of worn jeans and a plain black t-shirt. He crosses to look out the wall of windows facing the Sound, and stays there for a few long moments before speaking.

“About what happened between us last night…”

My stomach drops. I know we talked about it a little before falling asleep, but now, in the bright light of day, maybe he feels differently about how everything went down. Maybe he regrets it, or wishes I hadn’t pushed him so far.

“I’m still sorry,” I blurt. “If you felt pressured, or if I shouldn’t have—”

He’s across the room in a few long strides, reaching the side of the bed and pulling me into him. “I was a willing and active participant, if you recall.”

My cheeks heat up. I do recall. All too well.

“I just don’t want intimacy between us to be…” he trails off again, searching for the right words.

“Tainted by everything that’s happening?”

His eyes darken. “No, Nora. That’s not it at all. But I don’t want to rush things. Emotions are high, and all of this is happening much faster and more intensely than I planned.”

That last comment has an improbable smile turning up the corners of my lips. “Oh, you had it all planned out, did you?”

He catches my thread of teasing and tugs on it, hands sliding down to squeeze my ass. “Yes, siren, I did. I wanted to court you, woo you, make you believe I was worthy of you.”

His words are teasing, but the idea behind them still makes my chest clench painfully.

“You didn’t have to, you know,” I tell him.

He laughs gruffly. “Be that as it may… I don’t know if things should have gone as far as they did between us last night.”

“So… what?” I ask, feeling the first stirrings of self-consciousness and doubt creep in. “You want to dial it back on the physical stuff?”

Like he can sense exactly how I’m feeling, Elias pulls me tighter to his chest.

“I’d like us to have the time to get to know each other, to let things develop at what other people might consider a ‘normal’ pace.”

“What part of anything between us has beennormalso far?”

Elias threads a hand into my hair, gently tipping my head back so he can look into my eyes. “The best parts. Spending an evening with you at the aquarium. Eating breakfast with you in my kitchen. Walking along the seashore and sharing little bits and pieces of our lives with each other.”

Unexpected tears prick at the back of my eyes. Elias cups my jaw in his hand, pressing his thumb to my chin and bringing my lips up for a brief, soft kiss.

“You don’t know how much I crave normal with you, Nora.”

Normal. A normal life. With Elias. What would that even look like?

The answer comes easier than I would have expected. It takes shape like the long exhale of the breath I’ve been holding for years, like the life I once thought I might have had.

In that life, maybe I’d finally go back to school and finish my degree. Maybe I’d work at a nonprofit like I’d always intended to, instead of sitting on some hands-off board of one because I was with someone important. Maybe I’d come home to a kraken with his tie loosened, jacket discarded, and shirtsleeves rolled up, ready to pull me into a hug and dance with me in the kitchen just because we could.

“Normal, huh?” I ask him. “What’s that look like to you?”

Elias’s smile is wide and bright and devastating. “Normal looks like days and years and decades with you. It looks like all the freedom to simplybewithout worrying about any shadows waiting around the corner. Normal looks like bliss, little siren.”

Elias’s arms are steady, his voice is even and measured, his presence here with me enough to have the rest of my doubts sliding away.

“So,” I say, kissing a trail up his neck. “What do we do now?”

“Now we enjoy a couple more days together. How does that sound? You don’t have to go back to work until Monday, right?”