A Promise kept

CHAPTER TWELVE

ETHAN's POV

6:40 PM. INSIDE LUCA'S TRUCK

"I'm going back to Reno," I told him.

Luca didn't look at me. Just pulled out of Grandview.

"You're leaving tonight," he said.

"8:00PM" flight to Reno."

He hit the steering wheel. "You're running."

"I'll be working."

"Bullshit." He glanced in the rearview. "You just touched her face and walked away."

"I had to."

"Did you?"

We didn't talk the rest of the drive.

Streetlights. Silence. The words "don't say maybe next time" on loop in my head.

7:00 PM. AIRPORT DROP OFF

Luca killed the engine.

"You could stay," he said quietly. "For her."

I grabbed my bag. "Can't."

I shut the door before he could answer.

8:00 PM. RENO FLIGHT

Window seat. 30,000 feet.

Phone on airplane mode.

Nox was tearing at me under the skin.

He hasn't slept since Saturday. Since she smelled like someone else.

I'm an i***t. I wasn't giving her space. I was scared.

Scared that if I got two feet close again, I wouldn't stop at her cheek. But now I was going to be 500 miles away. And all I could hear was:

What should I say?

And me, saying nothing.

AURORA POV

8:30 PM. IN MY ROOM

House quiet. Mom's on a red-eye. Dad's on call.

Blush dress on the floor. Makeup in the sink.

My phone was face down.

6:15 PM: 'East Terrace. 5 minutes.'

6:45 PM: Nothing. He left.

I picked up the phone. Thumb hovered.

AURORA

'Did you make it to Reno okay?'

Send.

Delivered.

No 3 dots.

No "read."

Just nothing.

I set the phone down. Picked it up again 10 minutes later. Still nothing.

"Coward," I whispered to my ceiling.

Then, quieter: "Me too."

I went to sleep.