Day forty-one felt like the house itself was holding its breath. The mist had burned off by mid-morning, leaving Willow Creek bright and green, but the air inside Maple Lane carried a sharper urgency. Amina had texted the night before: “Dinner tonight. Same time. I’ll bring pasta salad. Porch if it’s nice. Two weeks until I go back to college. Let’s not waste the time we have left.”
Elias read the message while I was still curled against his chest in bed. His arm tightened around me instantly, that familiar clingy grip turning almost desperate. His hazel eyes darkened with the knowledge that their dinners were now numbered.
“She’s down to two weeks,” he murmured, voice low. “This is real now.”
He didn’t wait for more words. He rolled me onto my back and pushed inside me in one deep thru
