Page 80 of Theirs to Hunt (Girls Like Us #1)

Chapter eighty

The food arrived after the tension had already thickened, after Devon and Bobbie had disappeared with shared glances and half-smiles.

I handed the driver a generous tip and took the bags to the kitchen, barely noticing what I had ordered.

Did not matter. Not really.

What mattered was the ache behind my temples. The tightness in my chest I had not been able to name all night.

I went out back to call them in, still clutching the handle of the front bag.

The patio was quiet now, dimly lit by one flickering lantern and the haze of moonlight through the moss.

I was halfway down the path when I heard her voice.

"I used to pretend she was mine. That I just got dropped off in the wrong house by accident."

I stopped.

Reagan .

Her voice was soft. Unsteady. Not the sharp-tongued vixen who called me out and left smoke trails in her wake. No, this was something different. Something broken. Something buried.

And Brooks...

He just listened. No interruptions. No corrections. Just present.

"You are not gonna ruin anything," he said. "You are not broken, Reagan. You are just strong in a way most people never had to be."

It hit me harder than I expected.

I had seen her fight. Seen her run, hide, claw, survive. But this? This was surrender.

Not to me. Not to power or control or chase. To him.

I should have turned around. Given them privacy. But I did not.

I stepped back into the shadows, unseen, and watched as she shifted on his lap.

Her hips rolled, slow and deliberate, as she rose to her knees and worked him free with a comfortable ease.

Not urgent. Not vulgar. Just... theirs.

Brooks cupped the back of her neck like she was the most fragile thing he had ever held.

She sank down on him, lips parted, breath catching, and he exhaled her name like a prayer.

They were not in a rush. No demands. No performance.

It was intimate. Quiet. Painfully honest.

A mirror of everything I could not give her yet.

And then he said it.

"I love you."

It was not dramatic. No grand speech. Just fact.

And Reaga n...

She did not say it back. But she did not need to.

Her body said it.

The way she curled into him. The way she held his face between her hands like he was safety and light and something she had never believed she deserved.

That was her answer.

I swallowed hard. The air felt thick. Too thick.

I had not even realized I was still holding the damn food until the bag crinkled in my grip.

I set it down on the patio table, quiet as I could, and backed away without a word.

Because I could not watch anymore. Not without admitting the truth clawing its way to the surface.

She is not just his. But he may have gotten to her first.