The villa is silent except for our uneven breaths and the faint rustle of sheets.
“So what happens now?”she asks, voice soft, still edged with sleep and something vulnerable.
I press a kiss to her hair, breathing in the scent of her shampoo, her skin, her everything.Before tonight, I would’ve said I didn’t know.
But I do.
“Now we stop pretending,” I murmur.“Stop running.Stop being afraid of what this is.”
She lifts her head, eyes searching mine.“And what is this?”
I tilt her chin so she’s really looking at me.“It’s us finally getting it right.It’s the beginning of everything we should’ve been all along.”
She smiles—soft, genuine, the kind of smile that feels like forgiveness—and settles back against my chest.
“I like the sound of that,” she whispers.
As she drifts into sleep in my arms, I stare up at the ceiling and try to wrap my head around the fact that she’s here.
That she’s choosing me.
I thought I’d lost her for good.
And now she’s lying on my chest, trusting me with all the parts of her I used to think I’d never earn.
Querenciais the Spanish word for the place you return to because it feels like home.The place where you’re most yourself.
I used to think I’d find that somewhere out there—in music, in recovery, in the next version of myself.
But looking at Nora, breathing softly against my chest, I realize I was wrong.
My querencia isn’t a place, it’s a person.
It’s her.
Maybe her world is painted in blue horizons and mine in green certainties, but together?
Those colors make something new.
Something that couldn’t exist without both of us—like the ocean meeting the shore.And the beauty of it isn’t in how we look.
It’s in how itfeels.
And with her?
It feels like coming home.
CHAPTER9
A FIVE STRING SERENADE
NORA
The first thingI register when I wake is the absence.
Not coldness—just the space where Nate should be.My hand finds nothing but sheets that have already lost his warmth, and it tugs me into consciousness faster than any alarm.Soft morning light spills through the villa’s curtains and for a moment I can’t remember what country I’m in, what day it is, or why my heartbeat feels like it’s humming in my throat.
Then last night hits me in full, dizzying clarity.
