It had been a while since someone had asked her that, and Esme was caught off guard. For a moment, she just stared at him, surprised. He wasn't one to ask questions like this, and the effort he made to say something felt clumsy, like it didn't quite fit.
Esme quickly recovered, her practiced smile widening as she tried to brush it off. "Of course I'm okay," she said, her tone too bright, too polished, as if saying it out loud would make it true.
Ryan didn't say anything else. He just kept looking at her, his face not giving much away, but his silence saying more than his words.
