DEVLIN

“A good shower is all I ask. Let’s go.”

Right. A good shower.

We all need one of those.

The drive here was long and dusty, all the more reason to need a shower, and because I need a moment to breathe without her scent filling my lungs and making my resolve crack like dry earth under boots.

She looks at me with those eyes, and the weight settles in heavier than any rucksack I carried in the service that I can’t pull it off.

I will not touch her. Not like that. Guilt ...