Chapter 16 #2
He must have felt it too. His hand flexed at my stomach. His gaze dropped to my mouth.
I twisted my neck and tipped my chin up.
His eyes flared.
I leaned in.
The tip of his nose brushed mine. His breath caught as his other hand came up to cup my jaw. Thumb grazing my cheekbone as if I might vanish.
I didn’t pull away.
Our mouths met—soft at first, tentative. Just a press.
Then deeper. A small, real kiss. His lips parted mine just enough for a breath, for heat. His hand slid into my hair. Mine found his bare shoulder, fingers curling against muscle.
It was gentle and electric all at once—years of almosts finally tipping over the edge.
And then—
A truck engine rumbled outside.
Levi froze. His mouth left mine instantly.
I froze too as the engine cut and the door slammed.
I knew that truck.
“Tell me that’s not—” Levi muttered.
Matt’s boots hit gravel. Right outside.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
Levi pulled back instantly, running a hand through his hair. “Your brother is going to arrest me in my boxers.”
A shadow moved past the thin curtain covering the front window.
“Becca?” Matt called.
Levi was already moving. The cool air rushed in as he raised the window all the way open. “You owe me,” he muttered under his breath, but there was a teasing grin tugging at his mouth.
“You’re the one who climbed in, Romeo,” I hissed.
“Yeah, but you unlocked it for me, sweetheart.” He braced one hand on the frame, then paused halfway across the narrow gap between our trailers.
For a split second, he looked back at me—hair wild, lips still faintly red from mine, eyes soft. His expression softened. “We’ll talk about this later.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Later.”
He held my gaze one beat longer—long enough to say everything he didn’t have time to say—then disappeared through his own window.
I barely had time to yank the blanket up and attempt to look like a person who had not just kissed her childhood best friend before Matt knocked on my door.
“Becca?” he called, knocking on the door.
“Yeah!” I croaked, then cleared my throat. “Yeah. I’m up.”
I shot one glance toward the window. I just kissed Levi Barrett. I freaking kissed him.
His curtain shifted slightly. Like he was right there, waiting to make sure I was really okay.
My heart was racing again. But it wasn’t fear this time. It was the memory of how close we’d been to—I don’t even know how far we would have gone if Matt hadn’t shown up. And the certainty that next time, I wouldn’t hesitate. I was gonna do a whole lot more than kiss Levi Barrett.
Matt knocked again. “Becca? You okay in there?”
“I’m up,” I called, trying to sound like I hadn’t almost made a life-altering decision five minutes ago.
I yanked a sweatshirt over my head, ran my fingers through my hair, and cracked the door open.
Matt stood there holding a cardboard drink tray and a paper bag that smelled like bacon and coffee and comfort.
He studied my face immediately. He was switching between cop mode and big brother mode and trying to figure out where to land.
“You look flushed,” he said.
“It’s morning,” I replied quickly. “That’s how mornings work. Um, yeah. Anyway.”
He narrowed his eyes. Then stepped past me without asking, because of course he did.
“Brought you coffee,” he said, setting the tray on the counter. “And breakfast. Figured you didn’t sleep great.”
I swallowed. I had slept great. Eventually, thanks to my Levi-shaped space heater.
“Thanks,” I said, softer. “For breakfast and checking on me.”
He moved around the trailer—checking the lock without making a show of it, glancing at the window, assessing the space like it was an extension of me.
His gaze paused briefly to my open bedroom window with the curtain hanging out of it. Then flicked to the one next door. Then back to me. One eyebrow lifted.
I crossed my arms defensively. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” he asked mildly, lips tipping up in a knowing grin.
I gestured in the direction of Levi’s trailer. “Do the math.”
He huffed a laugh under his breath. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You thought something.”
“Maybe.” He didn’t look mad. If anything, there was something almost hopeful there.
Which made me more flustered. “I had a bad dream,” I said quickly, redirecting.
That sobered him. He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. It was just—” I hesitated. Not a lie. Just not the whole truth. “Stress.”
His jaw tightened slightly. “Becca. You can stay with me. I mean that. I don’t care for how long. I have a spare bedroom. We’ll figure this out. And before you say anything—no, I will not stop asking.”
I looked around my small trailer. My couch. My kitchen. My life. “I’m okay,” I said. “Especially with Levi right there.”
Matt’s mouth twitched despite himself. “Oh, I’m aware he’s right there.”
I rolled my eyes. “You told him to put it right there. I mean, that close. Didn’t you?”
“Maybe,” he admitted, nodding slowly, approving in a way he was pretending not to be. “It’s a good thing,” he muttered. “He’s a good guy.”
“You wouldn’t be mad if—?”
“At Levi?” He scoffed. “With you? Please. If something is going to happen in the middle of the night, I’d prefer it to be within sprinting distance of an EMT slash firefighter like him. Like I said, Levi is a good guy, Bec. But you already know that, don’t you?”
Heat crept up my neck again. “He didn’t… it wasn’t—”
Matt held up a hand. “I don’t need details.”
“Good.”
He studied me again, softer now. “You sure you’re okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah.” And I mostly was. The fear hadn’t disappeared. The laptop still felt like a violation sitting on my kitchen counter. But the image of Levi climbing through my window almost erased the fear.
“Why would anyone actually try to hurt me?” I added, half to him, half to myself. “It doesn’t make sense. That would bring more suspicion. More attention. Do you think someone is trying to hurt me?”
“No.” Matt leaned against the counter. “Because you’re right. Hurting you would not make sense,” he said.
“So, I’ll be okay?”
“That’s what we’re going to figure out. But being cautious is the right thing to do, yeah?”
Silence stretched for a second.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“You know what might help?” he said.
“What?”
“Start the podcast again.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Go live.”
I stared at him. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. Go live. Talk. Keep it normal. We monitor who comments. If someone’s nervous, they’ll be listening.”
I hesitated. “That feels like me becoming bait.”
“It’s not bait,” he said calmly. “It’s taking control.”
Control. I’d be in control instead of being the girl who got her file deleted. Instead of being the girl who panicked in the dark.
“You really think that will work?”
“I think if someone went to the trouble of accessing your laptop,” he said evenly, “they’re paying attention. And if it’s Travis, I’d love to catch that asshole in the act of doing something stupid I can arrest him for.”
A chill slid down my spine. From the corner of my eye, I saw movement next door. Levi’s curtain shifted slightly. He was still there. Still close.
Matt followed my glance, smiling faintly. “You’re not alone,” he said quietly.
“I know.” I wasn’t. And that realization felt bigger than I was ready to unpack.
Matt pushed off the counter. “Think about it. I’m going to get cameras set up outside. You’ll go live, and we’ll have eyes on this place. If anyone shows up, we’ll catch them. But don’t do it until I give you the all clear.”
“And if nothing happens?”
“Then we learned something.”
“And if something does happen?”
His jaw tightened. “Then we still learned something.”
He squeezed my shoulder before heading for the door. “Call me,” he added. “Anytime. Day or night. I’ll be here in minutes. Promise me.”
“I will. I promise.”
After he left, I stood there in the cool morning air, coffee warming my hands, the scent of bacon lingering in the trailer.
The window between mine and Levi’s was still cracked open, a thin stream of cool air slipping through and brushing against my wrist. Outside, Sweetbriar was waking up.
Gravel shifting under tires somewhere down the road.
A screen door slamming. The distant bark of a dog.
Last night, fear had felt like something breathing down my neck. This morning, it felt more like a problem to solve.
I wrapped both hands around my coffee and let the warmth sink into my palms. I had spent so much time proving I could handle my own life that I hadn’t stopped to consider that maybe handling it didn’t mean handling it alone.
I wasn’t powerless.
I wasn’t reckless.
And I wasn’t losing my mind.
Something had happened. A file had been deleted. That was real.
But so was this—Levi across the narrow space between us. Matt was never more than five minutes away if I needed him. And I lived in a town that would notice if anything truly went wrong.
I let my gaze drift past the row of trailers toward the line of trees beyond the gravel drive. In the clear light of morning, they looked harmless. Just trees. I told myself that was all they were. That they weren’t hiding danger. That I would be okay. And for now, I chose to believe it.