I woke up slowly, the kind of slow that made the morning feel soft around the edges. For a moment, with my eyes still closed, I wasn’t fully sure where I was—just warmth, faint sunlight, and the lingering scent of flowers that clung to me from the greenhouse. Then memory clicked into place in a rush so warm it pulsed through my chest: Ray’s mouth on mine, the taste of him, the way his hands had held me like he wasn’t entirely convinced I was real.
I pressed my face into my pillow to smother the embarrassing smile threatening to spread across my lips. I could practically still feel the ghost of that kiss like it had left fingerprints on my skin.
Oh God.
I kissed him.
No—he kissed me back. Full, certain, like he’d been waiting for it.
I lay there for I don’t know how long, too awake to
