Easter~
I couldn't breathe. My gaze locked on Jacob, disbelief widening my eyes as if the truth he'd just spoken had cracked the air between us. The moonlight slanted through the jasmine vines, scattering silver across his face—so beautiful, so achingly familiar, and now so unbearably distant. My chest thudded with frantic rhythm, like a bird thrashing against its cage, wings battering bone and rib. Around us, the night seemed to dissolve—the glowing spirit orbs dimmed to a blur, the Seine's whisper faded to nothing. There was only him. Only this moment.
My curls, damp with night mist and sweat, stuck stubbornly to my cheeks. That blush I could never shake—Jacob always teased me about it—now burned hotter, a fever born of fear and confusion.
"Jacob…" The word slipped out as a whisper, weak and trembling, carried off by the restless wind stirring the garden. "Say that again. Please… tell me I didn't hear you right."
