The phone record changed the case.

Unfortunately, it also changed the way I looked at Luca.

I sat across from him the next morning with the call log between us and tried to behave like a normal attorney. This became difficult almost immediately.

His sleeves were pushed up. I noticed.

He rubbed one hand over his face while reading the report. I noticed that too.

When he looked up, those ridiculous blue eyes caught me doing it.

I dropped my gaze to my notes.

"Anything interesting down there?" he asked.

"The evidence."

"Of course."

That tiny almost-smile was worse than flirting.

I tapped the call log. "You were telling the truth about Jenna calling. That does not explain why you went there yourself."

His expression changed.

"When Jenna and I broke up, I told her one thing. If she was ever genuinely afraid, she could call me."

"You made your ex a lifetime emergency contact?"

"I made her a promise."

There was no romance in the way he said it. That somehow made it land harder.

I asked what he heard that night. He told me Jenna was whispering at first. Her boyfriend had been drinking. The argument was getting worse. Then a noise, Jenna saying his name, and nothing.

"You could have called police."

"I did. From the car."

"But you still went inside."

"She stopped answering."

I should have been thinking about how easily the prosecution could paint that decision as reckless.

Instead I was thinking about the fact that he had apparently kept a promise to a woman who was no longer his.

"She denied the call and left you sitting in here," I said. "Why are you still protecting her?"

Luca looked at me like the answer was obvious.

"Because whether she deserves my help now does not change whether she needed it then."

I forgot what I was going to ask next.

That was becoming a problem.

For the rest of the interview, I kept catching myself looking at him when I thought he was focused on something else. His hands. The tired line of his mouth. The way exhaustion softened him when he stopped paying attention to me.

Once, his eyes flicked up without warning.

I looked away so fast I nearly lost my place on the page.

He said nothing.

That was somehow worse.

At home that night, I opened my laptop to work on the case.

Ten minutes later, I realized I had reread the same paragraph four times.

I shut the screen.

The call record was important.

The promise was important.

Neither explained why I was still thinking about the way Luca had looked at me when he caught me staring.

Romantic, reckless, or both? Tell us what you think of Luca's promise. ❤️