“Yeah.”
I take another sip and rub the back of my neck. “And I forgot how the altitude hits you here. I’ve been back a few weeks, but I still lose my breath just climbing the arena stairs.”
Kristy leans back, watching me for a moment. “So… how’s it really feel, being back?”
I glance out the window. “Weird,” I admit. “This town still feels like Mom in a hundred small ways—the grocery store, the rink parking lot, even the radio station she liked.”
Her expression softens. “Yeah. I figured it might hit different this time.”
“It does,” I say. “But it’s… okay. I think I needed it. To come home and not feel like everything’s frozen in time.”
Kristy nods, quiet for a beat, then lifts her mug again. “That’s a lot all at once—being back, starting with a new team, and then Declan on day one. Is he making it harder than it has to be?”
I purse my lips, then shrug. “He’s not the first difficult patient I’ve handled.”
She grins and nudges my foot. “Well, it’s a good thing you don’t mind tough cases.”
I snort. “Even the six-foot-three kind with a bad knee and trust issues the size of Canada.”
We both laugh, and for a minute, it’s easy. Just the two of us, like old times. The familiarity of it steadies me in a way nothing else has since I got back.
Kristy lifts her mug. “To homecomings. Even the complicated kind.”
I clink mine against hers.
She grins. “He’s lucky you’re licensed now. When we were ten, you tried to ‘help’ by icing his knee with frozen peas and duct tape.”
I gasp-laugh. “He called me a ‘relentless shadow.’”
“And look at you now—still haunting himprofessionally.”
We both dissolve into laughter, the kind that settles in your chest after years of shared history. I didn’t even realize how much I missed this—missedher—until right now.
I lean my head back against the cushion and close my eyes for a beat.
This isn’t how I pictured my first week—walking into a storm I didn’t cause, facing someone who looks at me like I’m the enemy.
But I’m not rattled.
I’m rooted.
In the town I love.
In the work I’m good at.
With people who remind me why I came back.
Declan didn’t see me coming. But I’m here now.
And I don’t scare easy.
Chapter Four
DECLAN
The sizzle of eggs hitting the skillet is steady, soothing, and familiar—one of the few parts of my morning routine that hasn’t changed, even with everything else unraveling.
Sophie’s at the kitchen table, hunched over her tablet, earbuds in, one foot tucked under her like always.
