All Chapters of Never Mine To Love: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

River’s Pov.I woke up to the smell of coffee.For a moment, I forgot Karden was in the house. But then I heard the soft sound of a cupboard closing, a spoon clinking against a mug. Everything from last night came rushing back. The knock at the door. His face. I thought I was actually dreaming but sadly I wasn't.The awkward way he stood with his bag in hand. And my own decision, if you could even call it that—to let him stay.I sat up slowly. My room felt colder than it usually did in the mornings, or maybe it was just something inside me. The sheets were twisted around my legs. I stared at the ceiling, my heart beating in that dull, flat rhythm I had grown too used to lately.Eventually, I pushed myself out of bed. I pulled on a hoodie, not even bothering to check if it matched the old sweatpants I wore. My feet were bare as I stepped into the hallway, the wooden floor cool beneath my soles.Karden was in the kitchen. He looked too comfortable for someone who had just moved in l

Daniel's POVKarden.His name hit harder than I thought it would. Like being pulled under water when you weren’t ready. I felt it in my chest first, like something caught there and wouldn’t move.My heart didn’t skip a beat. It flipped. Fell. Maybe even cracked a little.I hadn’t seen him in years. Not since that summer. The one that left me standing in the dark, wondering what the hell had just happened. The one we both tried to erase like it didn’t matter.But it did.Now here he was. Standing in front of me like no time had passed. Like we weren’t two people with a history that still burned if you looked too close.He was taller.Maybe not physically. But he stood like someone who knew exactly who he was now. He had this calm look on his face, but his eyes gave him away. There was a slight flashin them. Memory. Curiosity. Something more.I said his name before I even meant to.“Karden.”It came out soft. Too soft. Almost like I didn’t want to believe it.He smiled, slow and easy

Noah's Pov.I hadn’t paced this much since high school.Back then, it was about final exams and soccer tryouts and waiting to see if Megan Wells would say yes to homecoming. Now, it was about something else entirely.I moved back and forth across the tiny living room like a man possessed. From the couch to the hallway and back again. I stopped in front of the mirror one more time, tugging at the collar of my shirt. Then I sat down, bounced my knee, stood up, walked around again.This wasn’t just a night out.It was a date.A real one.The first in years. Not just another party, not a late-night hookup after too much tequila, not a one-night thing I’d laugh about later. This was different.Emily.Freshman. Bright eyes. Loud laugh. She smelled like something warm and citrusy, like sunshine if it had a scent. After we’d hooked up last weekend, she asked if I wanted to get dinner sometime. I should’ve said no. I almost did. But instead, for reasons I still wasn’t sure about, I said yes.S

River’s POVSleep just didn’t come easy that night.I tossed, turned, kicked off the blanket, pulled it back, then kicked it off again. I stared at the ceiling until the lines between the shadows started looking like animals. For a second, I saw a lizard. Then it looked like a cat. Then just a crack in the paint.The envelope Daniel gave me sat across the room, on the edge of my desk, half of it sliding like it might fall off. I hadn’t moved it since I looked through it earlier. The papers were still there, scattered, the way my thoughts were scattered. All those names and phone numbers and places. Stuff he’d searched for me—no, not just for me. For us.He did more than I asked. Maybe more than I expected. Maybe more than I deserved.I told myself I didn’t care. I told myself it didn’t matter.But here I was, lying wide-eyed at nearly three in the morning, wondering why my chest felt too tight and why I couldn’t stop going over every little thing he said. The way he looked at me. The

River’s POVMy heart was beating too fast. The kind of fast that made everything else feel slow. Like I was stuck in a dream, one where you know something big is coming, but you can't move fast enough to stop it.Daniel stood there, framed in the soft golden glow of the porch lights, looking like a man who didn’t belong here. Not in my world. Not tonight. He looked like he’d stepped out of a magazine cover entirely— it was giving vibes of the commercial ads of Calvin Klein that got all the girls tripping except he was decent.But the thought of what's underneath his formal outfit, oh boy take me to heaven.His presence made the air feel tighter somehow, more serious, like something important was about to happen.He closed the car door slowly. Like it was on purpose. Like he knew how just seeing him made my stomach twist and my brain raced with memories I’d tried to lock away. Things I told myself didn’t matter anymore.Max, ran up beside me, tail wagging like Daniel showing up was