He’s quiet for a moment. Then: “I can’t promise I won’t want more.”
“I’m not asking you to promise that.”
“What are you asking?”
I turn back around and settle against his chest. His heart beats fast against my shoulder blade.
“I’m asking you to let me choose,” I say. “Every step. Even if it’s slow. Even if I get scared and pull back. Let me choose.”
His arm tightens. His breath stirs my hair.
“Yeah,” he says quietly. “I can do that.”
The ranch house draws close. Warm lights, solid walls, the promise of dry clothes and hot coffee.
“This is probably a terrible idea,” I murmur.
“Probably.”
“We’re going to make it weird at work.”
“Almost certainly.”
“Miss Maggie is going to be insufferable.”
“She’s already insufferable. This will just give her ammunition.”
I almost laugh. Almost.
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll move to Stoneridge.”
“Yeah?”
“On my terms.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
We ride the rest of the way in silence. But this time it’s different. His thumb traces slow circles on my hip, and I’m not stiff against him anymore.
I don’t know if this is going to work. I don’t know if I can trust it. I’ve spent ten years learning that good things don’t last, that wanting leads to losing, that the safest thing is to never need anyone.
But his heart is steady against my back. His arm is solid around my waist. And for the first time in longer than I can remember, I’m not bracing for the fall.
I’m choosing to jump.
Chapter 7
Daniel
Her whole life fits in two boxes.
I stand in the guest room at Havenridge, watching Delaney fold a worn sweater into a cardboard box that’s already half-full, and the math of it hits me like a fist to the chest.
Two boxes. That’s it. That’s everything she owns.
My room at Stoneridge has boots lined up in the closet, my grandfather’s watch on the dresser, a photo of my mom in a silver frame I polish every Sunday. Things that matter. Things that saythis is who I am, this is where I come from, this is what I’m building toward.
She doesn’t have that. Ten years of pouring everything into her sister, and she has two cardboard boxes to show for it.
