EMILY
The silence in the car wasn’t oppressive, exactly, just… full. Full of everything unsaid between us. The ghost of the graveyard still clung to me, soaked into my clothes, the faraway memories of Jake, sometimes all of this still felt unreal. Like I would wake up one morning and I’d be back at the Stevens house, Jake would be downstairs, hogging all the pancakes, but that day never came.
My eyes were raw from crying, and my heart felt like it had been stretched too thin. But despite all that, I kept stealing glances at Nicholas.
He was focused on the road, his profile carved in shadow and passing streetlight. Sharp jawline, lashes that would make most women rage with envy, that quiet intensity he always carried like armor. But something about him had changed, no, shifted ever sin
