Soren walked back from the service hall with Cassidy's last line still in his ears and did not tell any of them.
He walked into the shared room and Maren looked up from a recipe at the same time that Dani looked up from the terminal.
Selah's eyes tracked him from the floor where she was still drilling the trace on her fingers.
Grimm's shut eyes twitched toward him from the rug.
Joan looked up from the book she'd been reading and did not say anything.
Mona was in the fruit bowl again.
"Long walk?" Maren Asked.
"Long walk," Soren agreed.
That was how he told them nothing.
He put the same word Maren had used back on the plate, and Maren watched him do it, and she chose not to ask a second thing.
Maren was going to ask him tomorrow.
He knew that.
He was going to answer it tomorrow.
He wasn't going to answer it tonight.
◆◆◆◆
He took the seat next to Selah on the floor, back to the couch.
Selah tilted her head against his knee half a beat later.
