The night before the wedding, Ivy found herself unable to sleep, restless in the particular good way that came from anticipation rather than fear, and she finally gave up trying, padding out to the small balcony of the apartment she and Sterling had built together, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders against the cool autumn air.

She wasn't alone long. Her mother found her there twenty minutes later, having apparently made the same restless calculation, and settled into the chair beside her with the particular ease of someone who'd known this daughter through every version of herself.

"Can't sleep either," her mother said, not quite a question.

"Too many thoughts....