CARMEN
The idea hit me like a blow, worse than Arthur’s fists or his venom. Tim hating me would break something I couldn’t repair. It’s surreal that I found myself already that attached and feared losing him. We only just met.
Mr. Bear shifted beneath me, the movement gentle but deliberate, and I realized I had gone still.
I looked down at him. “Sorry,” I whispered. “I am thinking too hard again.”
His nose nudged the side of my arm, and I laughed softly through the ache in my chest.
Maybe that was what this place was doing to me.
Maybe Jasper was not just a town, not just a beautiful pocket of mountain air and star-filled skies. Maybe it was a place that broke down self-built walls one at a time, ready or not. Maybe I felt strange here because I was finally coming apart enough to be
