My mum’s voice carried a soft thread of longing, tugging at something tender in my chest. I missed her too—missed baking side by side, our laughter rising with the smell of warm bread, missed strolling through shops with her, missed catching those random little videos of her after long shifts in her nurse’s uniform. The ache of it caught me off guard.
“Visit?” I echoed, blinking. “Mum, it’s only been two weeks since I was home.”
The thought alone exhausted me. The road trip always drained me, and with Jacob and I not speaking, borrowing his car was no longer an option. The idea of buses and trains, of dragging myself all the way to the countryside, made me want to burrow deeper beneath my blanket.
“Uh… next month, I suppose,” I said finally, running a hand through my tangled hair. “I’l
