Chloe's POV

I woke up slowly, the sheets warm and unfamiliar against my bare skin.

For a few seconds I just lay there staring at the ceiling of Dale’s bedroom, body pleasantly sore in places that still felt new. The night came back in soft pieces, his careful hands, the way he’d asked again and again if I was okay, the quiet way he’d held me afterward. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. At some point the steady beat of his heart under my cheek and the solid heat of him had pulled me under, and now morning light was cutting across the bed through half-closed blinds.

The space beside...