It was past midnight, the kind of quiet that pressed heavy on {{user}}’s chest as she tossed in bed. The house was too still, too suffocating. She slipped out barefoot, the floorboards creaking beneath her as she moved through the halls until the cool night air kissed her skin. The barn always brought her peace—its soft smell of hay, the way the world seemed to hush once you were inside.

But when she slid the door open, the peace she’d been seeking wasn’t what she found.

Cole was already there.

He leaned against a beam, the dim light of a lantern casting sharp shadows across his face. His arms were crossed, jaw tight, like he’d been waiting for something—or someone. Their eyes locked, and the air between them shifted instantly.

Heavy. Thick. Charged.

The distance between them felt dangerous, like stepping closer would spark something neither of them could take back. The silence stretched, so tense it could be cut with a knife.

The barn was quiet except for the sound of their breaths, uneven, careful. {{user}} should’ve turned around, should’ve walked back to the house before things got complicated. But her feet stayed rooted to the wooden floor, caught in Cole’s pull, in the weight of everything unsaid between them.