Her eyes lift to mine, softer than before. Her mouth opens, but she lets me speak.

Just like that summer night, I let myself be completely honest with her.

“You remember when we said that life sucks sometimes? Well, life has sucked pretty bad for me—for all of us—recently.” Dad, Ma, Callie… They’ve gone through the wringer. In the snap of a finger, everyone’s life changed. “We really, really need a win right now. And you’re the one who can get us there. I know it.”

She swallows.

“I know I’m being persistent,” I say, my whole body leaned forward, pleading, “but what if this was your parent? Wouldn’t you do everything to help them?”

She stills. The heavy silence of the forest smothers me for a second, then another.

Please, please, please.

Finally, she looks at me and tells me the four most beautiful words in the world. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Wren

This is bad.

This is really bad.

I’ve been driving for close to two hours, and I still haven’t wrapped my head around what happened exactly. How is it possible to be such a sucker?

I lean an elbow against my window as I stop at the red light closest to my place, the red-bricked buildings of the South End neighborhood welcoming me. My back hurts from driving this long back and forth, and apparently, that’s not going to be a rare occurrence from now on. I should’ve stood my ground and said I truly couldn’t take such a big and semi-long-term project so far from my home.

But when he brought up the fact that this was his father and he’d do just about anything for him, I already knew I’d say yes.

The light turns green, and I finish the drive back to the triplex unit I’m renting. It’s nothing big or fancy—the black paint around the windows is chipped, which irks me to no end—but it has parking and is within walking distance from work, so I can’t complain.

Once my car is parked, I climb the three sets of stairs to reach my floor, then open my door.

The moment I step inside, a chorus of barking fills the space. It immediately makes me smile, some of the tension I’ve been harboring for the past hours leaving my shoulders. After removing my boots in a hurry and placing them neatly to the left of the mat, next to my pair of running shoes, I make sure to put my keys on the hanger, then walk to the crates holding the two little beasts that own my heart.