The house had never felt so loud in its silence.
Every tick of the hallway clock was like a challenge. Every creak in the wood, every hum of the air conditioner, seemed to press in harder with each passing minute.
And on the living room couch, sprawled like she had no idea how dangerous this stillness had become, she sat, half-distracted, half-aware. Legs tucked up. Phone dimmed in her hand.
She didn’t know it yet, but she was being watched from the kitchen doorway. He leaned with a slouch that looked casual and effortless. But behind that lazy stance, his eyes traced the curve of her thighs beneath her cotton shorts, the bare skin of her shoulder where her tank top had slipped down slightly, the soft pout of her lips as she stared at nothing.
He hadn’t meant for this weekend to be a
