LOGINEvelyn's POVI could feel the heat from the fire against my face, and for a second I wasn't entirely sure whether my eyes stung because of the smoke or because of everything else.“Because that's what I remember most,” I admitted, staring into the shifting orange light. “Not the cheating. Not even Sebastian.”The confession surprised even me.“What I remember is feeling small.”The words hung there for a moment.“I remember standing in that room and feeling like every ounce of dignity I'd spent years building had been stripped away in front of strangers, and no matter how straight I stood or how calmly I spoke, everyone could still see exactly how devastated I was.”The fire shifted again, sending a shower of sparks upward into the darkness.“And maybe that's why I can't let this go,” I continued, my voice roughening despite my efforts to keep it steady. “Because if Julian really arranged all of that, if he deliberately put me in a position where I would experience that humiliation, t
Evelyn's POVThe concern in her voice made something twist inside my chest.For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.The wind moved through the trees.Someone in another campsite laughed.A guitar strummed somewhere in the distance.And eventually, I let out a long breath.“Okay.”The word escaped me more like surrender than agreement.“Okay,” I repeated softly.Because maybe I was tired.Maybe I was lonely.Maybe I was exhausted from carrying the same thoughts around in circles every day without ever saying them out loud.“It's because he lied to me.”The confession hung between us.A burst of sparks rose from the fire and disappeared into the darkness overhead.Maddie didn't interrupt.Didn't rush to fill the silence.She simply waited.And somehow that made it easier to continue.“You know what happened in Seattle?”My voice felt strangely tight now.Like speaking the words gave them more weight than they already had.“Well, it turns out Julian was the one who brought them there.”I
Evelyn's POVShe stopped suddenly.The sentence remained unfinished.The fire continued popping softly.I stared into the flames.Maddie stared at me.Several seconds passed.Then she finally spoke.“Evelyn.”“Mm?”“You do realize I just spent the last five minutes talking, right?”“Mm-hmm.”The answer left my mouth automatically.The moment it did, I knew I had made a mistake.The campground suddenly seemed very quiet.Maddie didn't say anything.Didn't move.Didn't even blink.And somehow that silence felt far more dangerous than any lecture she could have delivered.I tried waiting it out.That strategy failed immediately.After several painfully long minutes, I finally accepted the fact that Maddie was genuinely annoyed.“I'm sorry,” I said quickly, sitting up straighter. “I was listening. Mostly. Kind of. I mean, I heard everything except maybe the last—”“Okay.”Her tone was calm.Too calm.Which was never a good sign.“Really, I'm sorry.”“That's not actually the problem.”I fr
Evelyn's POVShe sighed wistfully and stared into the fire.“Honestly, though, this one was annoyingly close to my type.”“Uh-oh.”“I know.”The disappointment in her voice sounded almost genuine.“He had the whole package. Broad shoulders, tiny waist, legs that should probably be regulated by federal law, an eight-pack that looked photoshopped even in person, and one of those faces that belong in an Abercrombie campaign where some suspiciously attractive college student is smiling while holding a football for absolutely no reason.”I laughed despite myself.“That's very specific.”“Because that's exactly what he looked like.”She pointed her marshmallow stick toward me again.“And the worst part was that he knew it.”“Dangerous.”“Extremely.”Maddie shook her head.“He was nineteen.”“Ah.”“Exactly.”That single syllable carried all the tragedy necessary.“Maybe it's because he was so young,” she continued, “but he was unbelievably stupid, and you know how much I hate stupid men. A b
Evelyn's POVMaddie raised one eyebrow.I immediately corrected myself.“Fine. Even if I am thinking about him, it's only a tiny amount.”Her other eyebrow joined the first one.“An incredibly tiny amount,” I insisted.“Tiny.”“Microscopic.”“Practically undetectable.”Maddie nodded solemnly.“Like the Grand Canyon.”“Exactly.”She pointed at me.“That's not helping your case.”I groaned and dragged both hands down my face.“Okay,” I said, finally surrendering a little. “Maybe I've been thinking about him slightly more than a completely healthy person should.”“Slightly.”“Yes.”“The man whose messages you've reread enough times to qualify as literature?”I ignored her.“The point is,” I continued firmly, “I've decided this is a bad habit and I'm going to fix it.”Maddie looked delighted.Which should've been my first warning sign.“Really?”“Yes.”“No more Julian?”“No more Julian.”“No more Lemon?”“No more Lemon.”“No more checking Instagram to see whether somebody's posted a suspi
Evelyn's POVI had already lost count of how many times this had happened, but somehow Julian and I had managed to stumble into another cold war.For days, I ignored every phone call he made. Every message he sent remained unread or unanswered. And because Julian Hawthorne possessed the kind of persistence that could probably be weaponized under the right circumstances, he naturally attempted several carefully engineered “coincidental” encounters, all of which failed because I had spent the past week leaving home before sunrise and returning long after dark with the single-minded determination of someone conducting an avoidance campaign.Julian, at least, wasn't like Sebastian.He didn't show up outside WHR waiting for my shift to end. He didn't send flowers. He didn't ambush me in parking lots and demand emotional negotiations against my will.I would never admit this out loud, but part of me was disappointed by that.A few days later, Maddie and I were sitting beside a campfire at a
Evelyn's POVI think something in my brain short-circuited completely.Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen him in too long.Maybe it was the warm scent inside the car, something dark and expensive and dangerously familiar after two weeks away.Maybe it was exhaustion from traveling and filming and s
Evelyn's POVAfter his words faded, the air inside the car seemed to sink into a quieter kind of stillness, the kind where even breathing became slow and strangely noticeable.I didn’t answer him.I just lowered my eyes toward Lemon again.She twitched slightly in her sleep, one small paw brushing
Evelyn's POV“And you did it well.”Julian said it so naturally that the words landed before I could prepare for them. He was looking at me with that quiet smile again, the one I had somehow grown dangerously familiar with over the past few weeks, the slight curve at the corner of his mouth softeni
Evelyn's POV“You’re worried we’ll wake her up?” I asked softly.“That’s part of it.”“Part of it?” I repeated.Only then did he finally look at me directly.And something about the way he looked at me felt different tonight—not intense exactly, not deliberate, but steadier somehow. His gaze linger







