Brooks:
The cabin had settled into a peaceful quiet, the kind of stillness I hadn’t felt in days. The crackling fire in the stone fireplace was the only sound, aside from Hattie’s gentle breathing from the couch. Her faint snores filled the quiet room, her body curled under a thick quilt. Her cheeks were flushed from the warmth, and her hair cascaded around her head like she was adorned with a halo.
I should have felt calm too, but I wasn’t. My mind wouldn’t stop racing.
Dinner had been simple—canned soup and a couple of sandwiches—but Hattie had made it feel like a feast. She had insisted on lighting a candle she found tucked away in a kitchen drawer, and the dim glow had given the small wooden table an almost romantic ambiance. Her smile, tentative but genuine, had made my chest ache
