Chapter 17 Mac I sat at the kitchen table at six in the morning with coffee I hadn't touched. Outside, the mountain was doing its pre-dawn thing—the creek running loud in the silence, the first birds testing the air, the sky going from black to charcoal gray in...

Chapter 16 Arek I couldn't stop touching my cheekbone. It was Monday morning and I was standing at the bathroom mirror, shaving, and my free hand kept drifting to the spot where Mac's thumb had been. There was nothing there. No paint residue, no mark, no physical...

Hey you 👀 I wanted to pop in with a little something just for my Nora After Dark readers 💕 The White House Men special editions are available to order, and I’m still so proud of how these turned out. These editions are something really special to me, and seeing...

Chapter 15 Mac I didn't sleep well. Not nightmares this time, but my mind. Would. Not. Shut. Off. It ran the same loop of the parking lot, Arek's face when I told him he mattered without being useful. The way his eyes had gone bright and his hand had stayed on the...

Bonus Chapter: Visit to the Fair Tore Despite the fact that I’d grown up watching American movies and TV shows, there was still so much to discover in this fascinating country and culture. So when Farron suggested a visit to the county fair, I gladly accepted—after...

Chapter 14 Arek The week had tried to kill me with the slow, grinding accumulation of need after need after need until I felt like a sponge that someone kept wringing out and dipping back into the water. Saturday morning, I woke up with a deep tiredness, the kind...

Chapter 13 Mac   Arek left around noon. I walked him to his car the way I always did, and he looked at me with those green eyes that were so warm and kind, and I nodded because I didn't have words for what he'd given me that morning. Then he drove down the...