If ever.
I tighten my jaw and flip the eggs, once more forcing thoughts of her out of my head.
She’s young.
She’s passing through.
Fuck. She’s Luke’skid.
That should be the only reason I need, and it’s the one thing I latch onto as I grab plates from the shelf over the counter.
I can handle this. I just need to remember who she is and what my job is here.
Keep her safe until Luke gets back.
That’s it.
Simple.
Tessa
I write faster, my thoughts tumbling out. About wanting to leave. About needing space. About the decision I’ve already made to blow up my life as I’ve known it and go traveling.
I need to disappear for a while and figure things out on my own terms.
All of this is temporary, I remind myself as I write. This little stop in Iron Peak is just a moment. It’s not my life.
I won’t see him again.
As the words appear on the page in my handwriting, they feel like permission.
I stare down at the page, pen hovering, my breath coming faster with the realization.
This feels like fate.
I’m not usually one to believe in things lining up perfectlyfor a reason.At least, I didn’t before now. But here I am, and it’s really hard to deny the timing of it all.
I’m in the middle of nowhere, led here by a spur-of-the-moment decision, sharing a cozy cabin with the man who’s lived rent-free in my head for years.
Holt was the first man I ever wanted. The one who set the bar so high that no one else quite measured up.
And now he’s real.
He’s no longer just a fantasy anymore. A thought I can tuck away and pull out whenever I’m lonely.
Now, he’s living, breathing, andreal.
It’s just the two of us in this cabin in the woods… I’m not usually one to over-romanticize a situation, but this oneispretty romantic.
He’s here, taking care of me, just the way he did so long ago.
And Idoneed a man.
Not forever. Hell, not even for very long. All I need is a moment where I don’t have to overthink every decision. Every move I make toward a future I don’t want.
That I don’t think Ieverwanted.
I’m leaving anyway. The decision has already been made, such as it is. As soon as I see my dad, I’m leaving.
