Joy’s heart isn’t into getting ready for the day. She keeps it simple: a blue and white floral sundress with a square neckline and puff sleeves.

Downstairs, she keeps her routine, making a pot of coffee and waiting for Fox. The cabin doesn’t feel old—it doesn’t creak or groan with dead secrets. It’s eerily silent save for the soothing sounds of the coffeemaker. Outside, the water looks as calm as ever and the sun shines like it’s never seen a cloud in its life. There’s so much peace all around her and she can’t feel any of it.

Joy hears Fox’s footsteps before she sees him. “Hey, hey. Welcome to the second meeting of the Early Morning Risers Club.”

He laughs. “Is that what we are?”

“I like naming things.”

Fox is next to her now, standing while she sits at the island. “How are you?”

“Mostly okay.” She scrunches her face in discomfort. “Feelings are a little raw. Exposed. Like a pack of wolverines went to town on my chest, you know?”

“That’s . . . okay. Wolverines. Got it.”

“And, um. Would you laugh at me if I said I was scared?” she asks. “I’m scared.”

Fox moves closer to her, until their arms touch. He places his hand over hers, thumb caressing her skin. He speaks softly, voice so low and a comforting murmur at her ear. “What are you scared of?”

“He’ll finally leave me.”

“I don’t think he’ll do that.”

She won’t look at him, but she heard the gentle smile in his voice. “Yeah. I know.”

“What are you really scared of, Joy?”

She doesn’t even have to think about it. “Everything will always be exactly the same.”

“Hmm.”

Joy turns to look at him. For once he’s searching her face, trying to find something, his eyes the kindest she’s seen them so far. “We can’t keep living like this. He realized it before I did, and he’s right. But he also needs me? I don’t know what to do. I wanted to be able to wake up this morning and say, Yep, totally over him. Completely detached now. And it would happen with, like, accelerated manifestation. Instead, I got wolverines.”

And at that, Fox has nothing to say. He sits with her in the quiet caused by releasing that piercing truth she’s refused to accept for so long until she’s had enough. He goes for his walk, and she heads upstairs. She lays on top of her made-up bed, swaddled in a quilt. Since Grace isn’t awake yet and Joy’s life is in shambles, the only logical thing to do is sit there until she turns to stone or her problems magically get solved on their own. That could happen.

Maybe.