He was standing over me, his phone still in his hand, staring down at me like I had just fallen from the sky.
Shock flickered across his face.
He had been stepping toward the mansion.
I had been walking out, distracted, tangled in my own thoughts.
Neither of us had been paying attention.
He reached for me immediately.
"Are you okay?"
I stared at him.
This wasn't how this was supposed to happen.
He wasn't supposed to be here.
I canceled.
"You said you'd reschedule," he said carefully.
"I… was going to."
His eyes scanned my face the way they always did — slow, observant, professional but personal at the same time.
"You look shaken."
"I'm fine."
"You don't look fine."
My ankle throbbed slightly, but I ignored it and pushed myself up without taking his hand.
He noticed.
Of course he noticed.
"Alyssa," he said quietly, lowering his voice. "What's going on?"
"Nothing. I just have somewhere to be."
