She’d moved to Portland, remarried, built the urban life she’d always wanted. They shared custody of Liam with the kind of civil efficiency that probably…
Liam took a decisive bite of sandwich, studying his father with the unsettling perceptiveness 9-year-olds sometimes possessed. Are you worried about work? Sort of, Ethan…
Clare would laugh at one of Ethan’s dry observations about institutional bureaucracy, and the sound would be exactly the same as 17 years ago. Ethan…

In June 2024, a severe storm battered the Baltic Sea island of Usuzam, eroding coastal dunes and exposing structures that had been buried for decades.…
” – Part 8
The research forgotten and the cafe sounds distant. Someone’s phone rang. The espresso machine hissed. Life continued around them, indifferent to their small human moment…
” – Part 9
No elaborate vows or grand promises, just two people who’d loved and lost and found each other again, standing before their family and friends and…
” – Part 4
Productive. We should do it again before Wednesday. Make sure the presentation flows smoothly. Tomorrow? Ethan suggested. Same time. I can’t tomorrow. The girls have…
” – Part 5
They were colleagues. They were parents of children who’d become friends. They were two people with complicated histories trying to maintain professional boundaries. And they…
” – Part 6
He set down his own glass and moved closer, not touching her, but near enough that he could see the pulse jumping in her throat.…
” – Part 7
They sat on the bathroom floor together, taking turns holding Liam, refreshing the cool compresses, watching the clock creep toward midnight. The grant proposal seemed…

