Sarah’s POV
The road home was unusually quiet. The city lights were slipping past us as if they were pretending not to watch.
Luke reached for my hand.
Not the casual way he usually did. Not joking. Not distracted.
This time he actually threaded his fingers through my own. It was slow. Deliberate. His thumb brushed on the side of my hand as if it belonged there. It was as if there was nowhere else that it needed to be.
My chest lit up.
This was against the rules.
We both knew it.
I didn’t pull away.
Instead, my heart took that as permission and sprinted ahead of me like it had been waiting for this exact second.
As my apartment drew closer, that spark inside me shifted. Warm turned heavy. Excitement softened into something sadder. Familiar streets became a countdown. Every red li
