When Her "Death" Couldn't Break Him (Cecilia and Nathaniel)

Only then did Jocelyn's mind catch up with her racing body.

"No. No," she repeated, more to herself than to him.

He drew her closer until no light could slip between them. "I missed you so much," he murmured. "Did you think about me while I was gone?"

The question tangled her tongue. She had no idea what to say.

During the past month, they had shared only sporadic messages-routine hellos that felt like postcards from strangers.

"Um, I guess," she finally said after a breath's hesitation.

He reached for the switch. Soft light flooded the room, and he stared down at Jocelyn with an intensity that stole her next breath.

Yannick lowered his head, ready to claim another soft kiss, when Jocelyn suddenly slipped from the circle of his arms and ducked away as though the air had turned too hot to breathe.

"When did you get back? Have you eaten yet?" Jocelyn blurted, weaponizing small talk to cover the nervous beat of her heart.

The abrupt distance pricked him with disappointment, but Yannick smoothed the feeling away before it could fully form, masking it behind a calm, easy smile.

"I just got in a little while ago. Haven't had a bite. How about you?"

just came home from work myself-no dinner yet. I'll cook something," she said, already escaping toward the kitchen like

of

fumbled for vegetables and meat, while Yannick dutifully washed greens at the sink,

grandmother insisted that an engaged couple ought to live together to learn the rhythm of shared life-so

was an engagement conducted with cautious distance, a formality that sometimes felt more like

Go sit down and rest," Jocelyn urged, her

lightly, grin widening until

the tap's running water and

grilled me six ways from Sunday by now."

absence like a mystery

been up to these last thirty days?" Jocelyn asked,

she was asking for his sake rather than

wound up in more danger than I bargained for -came close to losing my life, actually," he said in a

wide, the color draining from her cheeks. "You're

nothing but genuine worry in her gaze, Yannick's chest warmed. He laughed

do you think I'd

her shoulders. She resumed cutting,

"Why would meeting a

heard of