I’ve known it for a good part of my life. That’s the first time, though, that I really, really think about it. I think about the fact that I am in love with Manmayi Velasco, and I choose to forget about the logistics. In that moment, it doesn’t matter that I might leave and she might put her guard back up. All that matters is that I am unconditionally and unabashedly in love with her.

I wake to the sound of the shower running, and I run a hand over the space next to me – empty, save for a lingering warmth from the heat of May’s body and the indentation she left in the sheets. I check my phone. Fuck. It’s seven-thirty a.m. on a Tuesday. She has class, and I have a ton of my MBA stuff to work on.

I find a shirt somewhere on my desk chair and pull it on, stumbling bleary-eyed towards the stairs and down to the kitchen. Sav has a seven-thirty class that she’s probably already at. Pop’s shift at the hospital started at six-thirty. The Velascos head out early every morning to tend their remaining cattle and oversee construction of their new ranch. And Ma’s likely just left to teach her eight a.m. lecture, leaving no one but the two of us in the house. Sure enough, my mom’s signature sticky note is slapped on the side of the fridge: Pancakes and berries inside. EAT THE BERRIES, COLT. Feed May.

Great. It’d be nice to have a distraction or two running around the house right about now.

‘Colt!’ her voice comes from upstairs.

Nonchalant, I recite my mantra for the day. I can’t risk scaring her away. Unfortunately, that lasts about two seconds. I run right up the steps like my life depends on it. ‘Yeeeaahhh!’

‘Colt!’ May’s still yelling from the bathroom. ‘I can’t find my hair towel!’

I mentally curse my sister. Always moving shit around in there so she can get dressed up for all of three lectures. May’s towel turban, purple with white and yellow daisies, is definitely not outside on the towel rack. ‘Savannah!’ I hiss, rifling through the linen closet in desperate pursuit of the offender.

‘Is it out there?’ May calls, as exasperated as I am right now. I’m basically throwing half the closet over my shoulder looking for this thing. If it doesn’t show up …

The bathroom door creaks open behind me. I whip around, and I am decidedly unprepared for the sight that greets me.