CHAPTER 15
Timeline: 16 Days Until 18
“You’re staring.”
Cole didn’t look away. He sat across from me at the kitchen table, his hands wrapped around a mug of coffee, his eyes soft and hungry and relieved all at once. “I’m making sure it’s real. That I’m actually here. That I’m not going to wake up in my truck parked at the edge of the woods and realize I imagined all of it.”
“It’s real.” I reached across the table, my fingers brushing the back of his hand. “You’re home. Knox said so. And no one’s taking it away from you.”
He turned his hand over, lacing his fingers through mine, slow and careful, like he was relearning the shape of me. “Sixteen days. And for the first time since I walked out that door… I can count them and not feel like I’m losing.”
The kitchen door creaked open and
