He showed her the reply an hour later. The client had backed down halfway—still frosty, still implying Callum should be grateful for the work, but the fee schedule held.
"Not forgiven," Callum said. "Contained."
"I'll take contained," Briar said. "I'm becoming an expert in it."
They played a ridiculous board game with the Keanes that involved plastic mountains and cards that made Arlo shout. Briar lost on purpose once, then won for real, then laughed when Callum's token fell off the table and Sable declared him "avalanched." Redmond refused to play and scored everyone from his chair anyway. Piper joined for one round and relaxed enough to tease Brendan's strategy. The lodge, for an evening, felt less like a trap and more like a place.
Near nine, Briar and Callum returned to the plaid chairs without announcing it as ritual. The fire was lower. The garland lights looked softer.
"I keep waiting to feel finished," Briar said. "The form is signed. My body is tired. My brain is still on the crust edge."
"Finishing is a story people tell after the fact," Callum said. "Tonight you're between chapters. Between is allowed."
She turned her head on the chair back to look at him. "When you put your hand on those skis, I thought you were the kind of man who smiled his way into other people's reservations."
"I might be, on worse days. Friday I was mostly a man who didn't want to go back to an empty shop with a voucher unused. The smile was habit. The custody joke was stupid."
"It was a little funny," she conceded. "After I hated it."
"I'll take delayed funny."
A log settled. Sparks rose and vanished.
"I'm not ready to make you a pillar of my life," Briar said. "I'm ready to see whether coffee in two weeks still feels like a direction."
"I'm not ready to be a pillar," Callum said. "Pillars hold up other people's buildings. I'd rather be a door that opens because both sides agree."
She snorted. "That was almost poetic."
"Blame the Fair Isle. It goes to my head."
They sat until Piper began extinguishing lamps. Briar stood first. This time, when Callum walked her to the stairs, she touched his sleeve—not a grab, a marker.