-ALEC-

Early morning light blinds me through the open curtains, and I have a distinct, overwhelming desire to be zipped inside a tent away from the sun. But when Leena curls up against my side, sleep-warm and barely awake, I feel like everything else doesn’t matter as much. Only her.

“Mmm, bacon,” are Leena’s first, slurred words of the morning, eyes just peeking open and her mouth pulled in a tight line with her hair a tangled bird's nest; I feel myself ...