~Fallon~
I was curled up on the back patio in Reid’s old hoodie, the sleeves tugged past my hands, the hem covering most of my thighs. It was slightly too warm for it, but I didn’t care. The hoodie was soft in a way most things weren’t these days. Familiar in the ways people couldn’t always manage to be.
The LA breeze skimmed my skin, dry and weightless. It smelled like citrus and pavement and something nostalgic I couldn’t name. Nothing like Savannah. But the sun—it was the same. That gentle press of light that made you feel like the world might be okay, even if just for a moment.
I hadn’t posted anything about being back. Hadn’t responded to the work emails piling up. The only people who knew I was here were Mia… and Reid.
I thought I’d earned a pocket of peace.
Until I heard the voice.
“Is she here?”
It came from the grand entrance of the house. Clipped. Familiar. Cold in that tight, elegant way that only one woman had ever mastered.
My mother.
I froze.
A second later, another voic
