Page 147 of Silver Fox Puck

But Kenzie isn’t just some passing thought.

She’s under my skin.

And the fact that I’m sitting here, debating whether I should call her like a damn teenager? That’s all the proof I need.

I swipe my phone off the desk. My thumb hovers over her name.

One call.

That’s all it would take.

One call to hear her voice, to feel grounded again, to maybe, just maybe, tell her—

I stop.

Because if I do this, it has to be real.

Not just some impulse. Not just because I miss her right now.

If I call her, if I say what I’m thinking, I have to back it up with action.

I don’t want to give her words.

I want to give her something real.

I exhale, grip tightening around my phone.

Then, slowly, I set it back down.

Not today.

But soon.

Soon.

***

Later in the evening, Olivia is curled up on the couch, half-asleep against my side, clutching her stuffed bunny.

It’s our usual wind-down routine—a quiet night after a long day. Just the two of us.

Normally, it’s enough to settle me. To make everything feel right.

But tonight?

Tonight, my mind is somewhere else.

Or rather—with someone else.

I can still see Kenzie’s smile. Still hear her laugh. Still feel the way my chest tightened when I left her this morning.

And it’s in this moment—sitting here, holding my daughter, thinking about Kenzie—that I realize something.

It’s not just that I love her.

It’s that she fits.

She fits in my life. In my world. In this.

---