Chapter FourSloane’s POVI woke determined to put space between us.The decision felt solid in the morning light. Whatever had passed in the car the night before—the locked doors, the unfinished reach of his hand, the sharp twist of jealousy when I heard him speaking with our mothers—needed to end before it grew teeth. Jasper was temporary. The connection between our families was not. I dressed, went downstairs, and built a careful routine of absence: early walks, closed bedroom door, polite but brief answers whenever he entered a room.It lasted less than a day.Jasper adapted without comment. When I carried boxes of old textbooks to the garage he appeared beside me and took the heavier ones without asking. When I stretched out by the pool with a book he chose the lounge chair nearest mine and stayed there reading his own, the quiet between us denser than conversation would have been. After dinner, once Claire and my mother moved inside with wine glasses and familiar laughter, he li
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