Avery:
The door shut behind him, and it felt like my lungs collapsed with it.
One kiss. That’s all I got. A kiss that tried to be strong, tried to be enough, but it wasn’t. It never would be—not when he was riding off into God-knows-what, not when every cell in my body screamed for him to stay.
I stood there, frozen in the center of the kitchen, staring at the empty space where he’d been, as if if I looked hard enough, he’d come walking back through the door.
He didn’t.
I made it three steps before I was doubled over the kitchen sink, emptying what little I’d managed to eat today. My stomach twisted again and again, but there was nothing left to give. Just bile. Just fear. Just grief for something that hadn’t even happened yet.
I rinsed my mouth, my hands trembling. They wouldn’t sto
