The road to the city felt different that morning.
Not because it had changed — the uneven asphalt, the spaced-out trees, the absurdly blue sky — but because I had changed. Everything in me felt more sensitive, more alert, as if my body already knew something important was about to happen.
Marco drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting casually on my thigh, a simple, almost unconscious gesture that grounded me. He wasn’t talking much. He was focused, serious in that way he only got when he felt responsible for something precious.
“The clinic is one of the best in the area,” he said after a few minutes. “The doctor treats half the ranch. She’s discreet, competent… and she doesn’t do drama.”
I smiled.
“I like that.”
I still didn’t know if I would go back to the bi
