The truth is, love doesn't always fade away. Sometimes it lies dormant, lingering in the spaces we thought we'd long since closed off, hidden in a song or an old memory, waiting for the right moment to return.

Ella Evans hadn't thought about Jake Donovan in years or at least, she told herself she hadn't. She'd buried that part of her life along with the version of herself who'd believed love could be that all-consuming, that untethered. Now, after a decade of hard-won maturity, life was simpler. Cleaner. She'd built a career, a life on her own terms, and she was satisfied with it or close enough.