POV: Yessica | Location: Edinburgh
He knocked at six fifty-nine.
"You're a minute early," she said, opening the door.
"I'm working on it," Lewis said.
She stepped aside. He came in with nothing — no wine, no flowers, no offering. Just himself, coat still carrying the cold of the Edinburgh evening.
She'd noticed that. She'd asked for it and he'd done it.
"Girls?" he said.
"Rose is down. Claire's supposed to be drawing but she's been watching the door for twenty minutes."
From the hallway: "I WASN'T WATCHING."
"She was watching," Yessica said.
Lewis walked down the hall. She heard Claire's voice shift into the rapid-fire register she only used with him — something about horses, the drawing, a specific shade of brown she needed and didn't have. Lewis's responses were short and real,
