MARIA POV
I was happy—happy in the way you feel on Christmas Eve, that fluttery anticipation mixed with warmth, even though it was the middle of November. A *home.* Dax had found us a home. Not a forever one, of course. The draft was just around the corner, and we all knew our lives were about to change in ways we couldn’t fully predict. But for now, this place was ours, a sanctuary carved out just for us.
Dax. My big, bad control freak. I was so proud of him. He’d taken this step for us, despite how strange it must have felt, living together as adults under the same roof. There were moments when I could see the tension in his shoulders, the weight of responsibility he always carried like a badge of honor. But this? Finding a place we could call home? It was his way of showing me, show
