Luke:
The garage had gone quiet hours ago, but sleep never came.
Alex lay against me, a warm weight, breath steady where her cheek pressed my chest. I kept one arm curved protectively around her, the other resting across the small of her back. Every time she shifted, the scent of motor oil and whiskey drifted up from her hair.
I’d thought exhaustion would drown me. Instead, Jett’s words replayed on a loop.
She’s the spine of this family. You break her, the whole thing bends.
I’d promised, out loud, to Jett, silently to myself, that I wouldn’t.
But promises don’t quiet a mind when the night stretches thin. I lay there counting her breaths, watching shadows crawl across the ceiling, cataloging all the ways this thing between us had gone from spark to wildfire in days.
It didn’t matter
