And in this moment, watching my sister process what Cody is saying, I realize that maybe I did knock some sense into him.
Now
I'm in the lake house now, and the morning light is filtering through the windows.
Adela is still sleeping between Cody and Beckett, her hair spread across the pillow, her breathing deep and even.
I watch her breathe.
I think about the pavement. The hospital. The waiting room. My mother's face. Nessa in that facility. Cody showing up at my gate.
Everything it cost to get here.
Worth it.
Every single moment.
Worth it.
Because as much as I’d hate to admit it, I really like Adela Kalkaska.
She’s a pretty little thing that I don’t plan on letting go anytime soon.
Chapter 69: Adela
I'minthelibrarywhen my phone buzzes.
I’m not at our carrel. I’m at a different one on the second floor with worse light and a view of the parking lot instead of the quad. I haven't gone back to our carrel yet. I'm not sure I will because I’m not that naïve girl anymore.
Theo: Come to practice right now.
Not a question. Not a request.
Very Theo.
I stare at the message for a long time.
Then I pack up my books and go because I would do almost anything if he asked me to.
The practice rink is colder than I expected.
I've never seen him play. Never wanted to, if I'm being honest. There was a time — during my recovery, when I was still angry about everything — when the fact that he played hockey and never told me felt like another manipulation. Another secret in a relationship built on too many of them.
But I'm here now.
I climb the empty stands and sit near the top, pulling my jacket tighter against the cold.
The team is already on the ice.
I spot Beckett first. He’s moving through drills, and when he sees me in the stands, he waves. I wave back with a touch of a smile.
Then I see Theo.
Number 4. Skating with a such ease that it makes everyone else look slightly off-rhythm by comparison.
I watch him move.
The control I've been trying to crack since the library — the composure, the certainty, the confident arrogance of him in every space he occupies — it comes from this.
