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She’d tried to talk.

I’d kissed her forehead and told her she’d driven eleven hours on half a bagel, which disqualified her from all decisions except which side of the bed she wanted.

She’d informed me that wasn’t a recognized medical standard.

I’d told her Doc would back me.

Then she’d fallen asleep while trying to explain why he wouldn’t.

Now she was here.

That fact kept moving through me without settling. Priya in my bed. Priya’s bag by my door. Priya’s phone on the shelf because she’d put it there herself last night, at eight forty-seven, without looking at me first.

She’d come back.

I moved my hand an inch over her waist. Her breathing changed. Her fingers curled against my ribs, gripping the cotton of my shirt as if I might leave before she opened her eyes.

I wasn’t going anywhere.

Outside, a meadowlark started up. The sound came thin through the screen. The creek answered, quieter than it should have been in August, but still moving. Beyond it, a cow complained about something in the steady, unreasonable way cows did.

Priya’s nose wrinkled.

“That cow has a grievance,” she mumbled.

My chest hurt.

Not the bad kind. The kind you got when joy arrived before you’d made enough room for it.

“She’s a Calloway employee,” I said softly. “Grievance is part of the benefits package.”

Priya opened one eye. Dark brown, sleep-heavy, no concealer and no professional distance in it. “Your benefits package is terrible.”

“You got housing.”

“The mattress lean,” she tried.

“You like where it leans.”

Her mouth shifted against my chest. Almost a smile.

I waited for it.

Then diesel came up the drive.

Not one of ours. The engine had a rattle in the lower gears and a loose panel somewhere behind the cab, metal ticking over the gravel. I knew most trucks in the valley by sound. This one belonged to Earl Hansen and had since I was fifteen.

Priya’s eye opened all the way.

“What time is it?”

“No.”

She lifted her head. “That wasn’t a time.”

“It was the answer to the next six things you were going to do.”

“Cash.”