(Aspen’s POV)
I replayed the kiss in my head so many times it stopped feeling real.
The way it was soft and intense. I could feel the warmth of his mouth against mine and the way my body had reacted before my mind could catch up.
And it ended the same way it always did.
With Slade walking away.
I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling, fingers curled into the blanket, heart racing for no reason at all. My thoughts wouldn’t slow down. They kept circling the same moment, the same mistake, the same impossible question.
What did it mean?
I couldn’t ask my sisters. Winter was almost seventeen, yes, but she was still my little sister. Holly was about to turn fifteen on Christmas Day and still believed in magic in a way I’d lost a long time ago. They didn’t need this weight. They didn’t need
