Kaia didn’t know what to do with that confession.
For hours afterward, Rowan’s words stayed lodged painfully beneath her ribs.
I thought distance would keep you out of this.
Not rejection.
Protection.
At least that was what he wanted her to believe now.
The problem was…
Kaia no longer knew which parts of Rowan were truth and which parts were survival.
The storm finally broke sometime after midnight, leaving the mountains wrapped in heavy fog by morning. Thin gray light filtered through the cabin windows while the scent of wet pine drifted through the cold air.
Kaia stood alone on the small back porch wrapped in one of the blankets she’d found draped over the couch earlier.
The forest stretched endlessly below the ridge.
Beautiful.
Silent.
Dangerous.
A floorboard creaked behin
