ELEANOR POV
Roland has aged.
Not badly — he looks good, he looks healthy but I can see the years in the set of his jaw and the particular way he holds his shoulders, like a man who has been carrying something heavy for so long the posture has become permanent.
He is twenty-nine years old and he has been the head of our family since he was nineteen.
“You look Good,” I tell him.
“You look different,” he says. His eyes move over me with the attention of someone who has been watching me my entire life and knows when something has shifted.
"What changed.”
“Sleep,” I say.
"I’ve been sleeping properly.”
He looks at me for a long moment with the expression that means he has decided not to push. He has always known when I am managing something.
"Happens when you're jobless" I smile and
