Ava tried her best to keep her head down for the rest of the day. She spent most of the morning locked away in her room, pretending to scroll through her phone, though her mind was far from relaxed. Every time she heard footsteps in the hall, her heart jumped, and she forced herself not to look up, not to hope it was Leo coming near.
By the time noon arrived, hunger pushed her out of her room. She quietly slipped downstairs to the kitchen, hoping to make herself some lunch without running into him. But, as usual, there he was.
Leo was already sitting at the kitchen table, a book open in front of him. He wore glasses she hadn’t even noticed before. They gave him a new look—serious and focused. She blinked, surprised.
He looked up from his book and gave her a slow, amused smile. “Look who’s alive.”
Ava swallowed hard. “I—I was just upstairs.”
Leo tilted his head, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “Doing what? Writing more stories, maybe?”
Her heart skipped a beat at his teasing tone, bu
