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“Naturally.” I nudged her shoulder with mine. “You’re quiet tonight.”
“Mm.” She exhaled, stretching her legs out under the small table in front of us. “It’s weird, that’s all. Seeing everyone together again. It feels like slipping into an old life, but the fit’s off somehow, y’know?”
“Yeah,” I agreed, tilting my head back against the seat. “Everything’s the same, but different.”
She hummed. We sat there for a long moment, just listening to the train, the steady hum of metal and movement. Egret did, indeed, begin snoring, his sudden gasping for breaths somehow mirroring the rhythmic clatter of the wheels on their tracks.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Then—
“What about you?” she asked suddenly, her voice quiet but clear.
I blinked. “What about me?”
She turned her head toward me, watching me like she was trying to solve something.
“You and Thomas.”
I froze for half a second, then forced myself to relax, because of course she would ask. She was Sparrow. She noticed everything. Our relationship had likely been the worst kept secret among our team, despite us never speaking about it openly.
“What about me and Thomas?” I said, a teasing grin already working its way onto my face. “Are you asking if we had a whirlwind romance full of longing glances and barely contained passion?”
She rolled her eyes, but I could see the amusement flickering there, too.
“I mean, I know you’re together,” she said. “But I don’t think we’ve ever talked about it.”
“Because I’m a picture of restraint and subtlety.”
She snorted. “Yes,Calloway. You are the most subtle man I know.”
I grinned. “Glad you noticed.”
She nudged me, pressing. “Come on, tell me. What’s it like? You two have been doing this thing for a while now, right?”
I let out a breath, glancing at Thomas’s sleeping form. His face was calm, his brow smooth in a way it rarely was when he was awake.
It was almost painful, really, how much I loved him.
“Yeah,” I said. “A while.”
She didn’t say anything, just let the quiet stretch, let me find the words I wanted to say. I could feel her eyes on the back of my head as I watched Thomas sleep. Her smile snaked its way into my heart.
I sighed, sinking lower into my seat, tilting my head back.
“He’s—” I started, then stopped, huffing a laugh at myself. “God, he’s the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Her smile blossomed before me, soft and knowing.
“He drives me insane,” I continued, grinning to myself. “When we’re . . . working . . . he’s always thinking six moves ahead, always serious, always the one keeping me in line, but then we get home, and it’s just—”
I gestured, searching for the right words.
“It’s quiet,” I said. “It’s so good, Spa—Juliette.”
She grinned at my quick correction but didn’t interrupt.
I exhaled, staring at the ceiling.