The drive home should have felt normal.
It didn't.
The truck moved quietly through the sleeping town, headlights cutting through the darkness as empty streets disappeared beneath them.
Noah kept both hands on the steering wheel.
Ava stared out the passenger window.
Neither spoke.
Neither trusted themselves to.
The silence wasn't uncomfortable.
That was the problem.
It never was.
Silence with Noah had become something else entirely.
A language.
A conversation that existed without words.
Ava hated how much she understood it.
Outside, streetlights blurred past.
Inside, tension settled heavily between them.
Not bad tension.
Not awkward tension.
Something worse.
The kind that came from wanting to say something and knowing you absolutely shouldn't.
Ava glanced toward Noah.
I
