“Then we stay here until you figure it out,” Jessi said quietly.

Brianna pulled her knees up, wrapped her arms around them. “I want to not care. I want to wake up one morning and not feel like I’m already three steps behind everyone else.”

And maybe that was enough. Maybe love wasn’t about fixing the broken pieces. Maybe it was just sitting in the wreckage together, saying I’ll stay when every part of you wanted to run.

“You’re going to give my mom a heart attack,” Jessi said, climbing the last rung of the makeshift ladder. “Again.”

“She loves rescuing you. There’s a difference.”

For a long moment, the only sound was the wind and a distant tractor on the next farm over. Then Brianna leaned her head against Jessi’s shoulder, and Jessi felt her exhale—slow, shaky, real.