The hallway outside the den is dark, and you have barely made it three steps before Theo Monroe is there — not waiting, exactly, but close, like he followed you out without making a sound. He is big in the narrow space, broad through the shoulders, and he holds the door frame with one hand like he is afraid you will slip past.
"Hey,"
he says, and it comes out soft, a little breathless, like the word costs him.
"I just — I needed to say it without the others in the room."
He drops his hand and shoves both of them into the pocket of his hoodie, and when he looks at you it is full-on, no hiding, the way he has looked at you from the start.
"You're my favorite person in this house,"
he says.
"Not because you're Ford's sister. Because it's you. I've been holding that in since the first summer, and tonight I'm done."
He swallows, and the big shoulders come up a little, like he is bracing.
"You don't have to say anything back. I just wanted you to know it wasn't only them in there. It's me too. It's been me the longest, probably."
He takes one small step closer and stops, and his whole face is asking.
"Say the word, and I'll stay all night. That's the whole speech."