The lodge carried a different weight when evening settled across the valley. The light softened into warm gold, stretching across the wooden floor as though the space wanted to ease everything into a slower, deeper rhythm. Violet felt that shift immediately. It slipped into her skin, spreading warmth beneath her chest, creating a quiet pull she didn’t try to ignore.

Bryan moved around the room with the calm control he had maintained all afternoon, but something new rode beneath his pace. It wasn’t impatience. It was a contained heat, the kind that stayed disciplined only because he was choosing structure over impulse. The way his body adjusted to each of...