I didn’t sleep.
Every time I shut my eyes, I saw him standing in that doorway, boots planted, shoulders filling the space like the house itself had called him into being. His words kept spinning, burning deeper the more I tried to push them away.
Because I can’t stay away.
The old Victorian seemed to breathe around me, floorboards settling, pipes creaking faintly in the walls. I lay in bed with my hands tucked under my pillow, staring at the faint water stains above me. The house had its ghosts, but none of them compared to the one Rouger left behind when he walked out.
I rolled over, groaning into the mattress. My chest ached like I’d been holding my breath all night. When the clock on my phone read nearly four in the morning, I gave up pretending.
Padding barefoot down the hall, I f
