“There’s nothing wrong with me,” she barks.

“You obviously wanted me to find out. You wanted to get caught.”

I sniff. I catch her scent and follow it back to the pathway. Where the hell is she? There are too many figures. I can’t see her through the goddamn candy cane forest.

“So what if I did?” she says. “Maybe I got impatient waiting for you to figure your shit out. I didn’t know for sure, so it’s not like I could say, ‘Hey, my wolf memory is hazy. Could you confirm our moonlit rendezvous?’ I woke up the morning after and had a bad feeling. I went looking and found the boots in the woods, but no other evidence. Nothing concrete. Ash told me you were in some kind of accident, something about a bear. I wondered. Sometimes when we were together, I’d get a scent, but I couldn’t tell if it was you or me. Had I known you would react like this—”

“Like what? How did you expect me to react? You did this to me, and now you’re too afraid to face me.”

“I’m not afraid,” she says, appearing at the end of the driveway. “Like it or not, we’re in this together now. You need me.”

“Rory?” It’s Ian. I hear the front door close behind him. “Is everything okay? Are you okay?”

I spin around. “Nope!”

His face disappears in the cloud of his exhale.

I turn back to the driveway, and she’s gone. I need to go after her. I need to find her. I need, I need, I need . . .

I know it’s cold only because my tears freeze to my face.

“I have to go,” I tell him.

I attempt a long stride, but my knees buckle; my legs give. I collapse at the feet of animatronic Santa.

My shins are skinned, my palms. I’m dirty. I’m embarrassed. I’m furious . . . or at least I wish I were. The fury is fading and all that’s left is hurt. A raw, boundless pain. It’s crushing me.

“Are you okay?”

He comes around, steps in front of me. I can’t look at him. I can’t face him.

“Let me help you up.”

“No,” I tell him.

I don’t cry like this very often, but when I do, I apparently sound like a Muppet.

“Please,” he says. “Let me help you.”

He offers me a hand.

I can’t take it.

I can’t.

I shake my head. “No, I can do it.”

“I know you can,” he says. “Just let me help.”

“I don’t need help! I can do it on my own. Go back inside. Leave me alone.”

I get my feet underneath me. I push myself up, my bones croaking. I manage to stand but immediately topple over. He catches me.

“Rory, hey. What’s going on? What happened with Mia? I heard you got in a fight.”

“Why do you care?”

He sighs. “Good question.”

I take a wobbly step back and am about to lose my footing when he reaches out to steady me. I get a whiff of him, his scent, and it’s like coming home after a long trip, walking through the door. I inhale, and I’m home. There’s nothing I want more in this moment than to have him hold me and tell me everything will be okay. Tell me I don’t have to carry the weight of all this alone. But what if the house comes down on top of me?