When I woke, the world was quiet.

The first thing I noticed wasn’t the golden light spilling through the half-drawn curtains but the warmth at my back—steady, rhythmic, grounding. Kristen’s arm was slung around me, his breath grazing the curve of my neck. For a long time, I stayed still, eyes open but mind lost somewhere between dreams and the pull of reality. The silence between us wasn’t heavy; it was the kind of quiet that hummed with what had been said without words.

He ...