Exhaustion dogged Corinne’s steps as she slipped quietly into her mother’s house after ten that night. Automatically, she avoided the third and eighth steps as she went up for bed, knowing the old wood would creak beneath her weight. That skill had been mastered well before she’d finished high school, back when she’d ruled the school, before the Universe had proved she’d been a big fish in a microscopic pond. One easily chewed up and spat back out.
Quiet as she could, she opened Kurt’s door and looked in on him. In the glow of the firetruck night light, she could see the crescent of his dark lashes closed in sleep. His limbs stuck out at all angles in a forest of stuffed animals, with the stuffed Chewbacca doll tucked tight in one arm. For long minutes, she stood in the doorway watching h
