Callen turned slowly, hands on his hips, and met Nell's wide-eyed stare from across the room.
She looked shaken.
"I swear, I'm gonna kill her," he muttered.
Nell let out a breathless laugh, but she still looked wary. "So, she got to you too?"
"Dragged me in here," Callen admitted, crossing his arms. "Apparently, we're both idiots."
Nell fidgeted. "I—I don't know what she told you, but—"
Callen sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was so tired of dancing around this. So he decided to stop.
"She told me you've been in love with me for years."
Nell froze.
Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. "I—she—I—"
"And she told me I've been acting like an idiot because I've only just figured out how much I care about you."
Nell's eyes snapped to his. "What?"
Callen let out a slow breath. "She's not wrong."
Nell blinked slowly, her brain clearly short-circuiting. Callen stepped closer. "I don't know when it happened. Maybe it was when I saw you with Jake and hated it. Maybe it was when I took that bullet for you and it didn't even occur to me to do anything else."
Nell's lips parted, her breath shaky. "Callen—"
He reached for her hands. "I don't want to keep pretending I don't feel this way."
Nell squeezed his fingers. "You—you mean that?"
"Yeah," he murmured. "I do."
For a long moment, she just stared at him—like she was searching his face for any sign that this wasn't real.
Then, slowly, she smiled.
And Callen knew—he wasn't walking away from this.