Avery:
The first thing I noticed was the weight.
Not crushing. Not heavy.
Just… there. Solid. Warm.
Anchoring.
It took a second before my eyes opened, before the blurry haze of sleep sharpened into awareness. And when it did, I saw him.
Cruz.
His chest rose and fell beneath my cheek, slow and steady. His arm was slung around me, palm heavy at my lower back, as if even in sleep he needed me close to him. Claimed. Protected.
But it was more than that.
He hadn’t left me.
Not when the fever broke. Not when the bleeding stopped. Not when I curled up beside him sometime well past midnight and thought, Please don’t be gone when I wake up.
He stayed.
And it undid something in me I hadn’t even realized was knotted.
I let myself watch him in the quiet—his face softened in sleep, lashes
