EPILOGUE

After a few days of recovering, where she does little else but sleep and he does little else but fret, she dresses herself in one of the more comfortable sweaters, holding out his oversized wool jacket to him.

He takes it, his eyebrows raised.

“I don’t want to sit here anymore,” she says, declaratively. “I don’t want to hide right now.”

His lips twitch up into a smile.

“Where do you want to go?” she asks, and his eyes go thoughtful. “Back to that base? To Chloe?”

“Yes,” he says, slow, plodding his words out, and by now, she knows enough to wait. “But first…”

His eyes steal to hers, stealing her breath.

“How about to that library?”