11. Sloane #2
I keep my hand open where he left it. Theo retreats to Callie’s side with his cheeks pink, the yellow card pressed between his hand and the book cover. Andrea shifts near the doorway, but Garrett turns his head before she can speak.
“Give him the minute,” Garrett says.
Andrea lowers her eyes to the tablet. Theo looks at Garrett for longer than he has all afternoon, then drops his gaze to the book.
Garrett crouches beside one of the lower shelves, suit pulling across his knees as he reads the label tucked into the soil. “We checked the plants before today,” he says. “Low scent, no irritants.” He looks up at Theo from where he’s crouched. “Should we include the sunroom next time?”
Theo’s throat works. Callie stays beside him with her hand near the bottom edge of the cover, steadying nothing yet, ready if he needs her to.
“Yes,” Theo says, then adds, softer, “please.”
Garrett’s smile stays small. “Then we’ll include it.”
Callie taps the cover once. “I’ll leave this one in here. You can look at it again next time.”
Theo looks at her first, then Garrett, as if checking that next time has really been allowed.
Garrett nods, and Theo’s shoulders ease by another inch.
Callie’s smile opens across her whole face before she can tuck it away, and Theo goes still watching her, the yellow card pressed flat between his palm and the book cover.
After a breath, his gaze drops back to the page, pink climbing his neck. His finger finds the edge of Callie’s cuff again instead of the pocket where he hid his hand before.
Idris nods toward the rug near the loveseat. “The light’s better from there.”
Theo looks at the rug, then Callie. She lowers herself first, back against the loveseat, skirt tucked around her knees. He waits with the plant book hugged to his chest until she settles, then sits beside her with a few inches between them and the book open across his knees.
Callie leans enough to see the page. “I killed one of those.”
Theo looks up.
“Twice,” she admits.
His eyes widen, and Callie’s smile turns sheepish as she taps the picture. “The woman at the shop said it was easy. She lied to me very kindly, which made it worse.”
Theo’s mouth moves around the start of a laugh. The sound doesn’t quite make it out, but his shoulders drop again, and he turns another page while his finger stays hooked in her cuff.
Garrett rises from the shelf and brushes one hand over his knee. “The sunroom goes on the next-visit request,” he says to Andrea.
Andrea’s stylus moves across the tablet. “I’ll note that he engaged with the environment.”
“With the room,” Garrett says. “And with us.”
Andrea pauses, then nods. “With the room and with the pack.”
Theo’s finger tightens once in Callie’s cuff. Idris catches it too, his gaze dropping briefly to Theo’s hand before returning to Andrea.
By the time Andrea’s phone gives a low chime, Theo has turned through half the book. He isn’t relaxed, but he’s still there, shoulder close to Callie’s, yellow card resting on the page instead of hidden away.
Andrea checks the time and stands with the tablet against her chest. “We’re right on schedule. Close the visit, Theo. Just like we practiced.”
Theo’s face goes red, and the page bends under his fingers.
Garrett steps in before the instruction can settle too deep. “We don’t need a formal close today.”
Andrea’s mouth tightens. “Closing language helps with practice.”
“We’ll build that later,” Garrett says. “Today, staying was enough.”
Theo looks at him. Really looks. Then he turns to Callie.
She opens her hand beside the book, palm up.
Theo presses the yellow card into it for one second, letting her feel the shape of the thing that helped him speak without speaking.
Then he takes it back, folds it carefully into his pocket, and stands.
When he steps away from her, cardamom and peach blossom stay caught in Callie’s sleeve.
We walk to the foyer without crowding him.
Garrett stays with Andrea, speaking low enough that Theo doesn’t have to treat the conversation like another task.
Idris remains at my side, his hand brushing my back once when my Alpha pushes too hard under my skin.
Callie walks beside Theo, and he keeps one finger hooked in her sleeve until the front door opens.
At the threshold, Theo stops. Andrea is already halfway down the porch step, but Garrett waits beside the open door and gives Theo room to turn. He looks at Callie first.
“Bye, Theo,” she says.
His mouth opens. The word doesn’t come, but Callie’s smile stays with him anyway. Theo’s eyes move to Idris, then me, then Garrett. I lift one hand, slow and small, and his fingers twitch at his side before Andrea calls his name from the walk. He steps off the porch and follows her to the van.
Callie stays in the doorway until the van disappears down the drive.
I stay behind her with my hands loose at my sides, breathing through the last of the buffer and the heat under my skin.
Theo is gone, but the house still has pieces of him in it: lemon crumbs near his plate, the plant book left open in the sunroom, the faint bend in Callie’s cardigan cuff where his finger held on.
Garrett closes the door and rests his hand on the latch for a moment before turning back to us. “That was a strong first visit.”
Callie turns toward us with her whole face lit.
“He said please and stayed after the yellow card.” Her smile flickers softer, but it doesn’t disappear.
I put one hand against the wall before I trust myself to touch her.
The sound of her voice, Theo’s card, Andrea’s commands, the brush of Theo’s fingers against my palm, all of it pulls through me at once.