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Seriously?

“I’ll take a written apology,” Sadie said.

“I promise to grovel as soon as I’ve checked it out.” I stroked Brynn’s head, then jogged over to catch up with Dave.

Gravel crunched under my boots, and the wind lifted my hair. Behind me, Luke called my name. I turned and walked backwards for a few steps, my hand resting on the knife at my belt. “Keep setting up. I’ll yell if it’s a horde.”

His expression suggested he didn’t find that funny in the slightest.

I blew him a kiss and turned back around.

Norm barked again before tearing past Dave and zipping straight down the drive.

“Can you see if it’s one person or a group?” I asked.

He shaded his eyes. “Just one, from the looks of it. A woman.”

“What?” A strange feeling took hold of me as I reached him.

The full driveway came into view, and on the other side of the security gate, a woman in all black waited, a hoodie shadowing her face. A car sat half across the entrance, as if she’d just stopped wherever and jumped out.

A small dog wandered around beside her, sniffing the gravel.

Norm’s barking turned even more excited, and my stomach tightened.

Dave walked another few steps before he stopped and looked at me. “Do you know her?”

“I…” My heart gave a hard thump as the woman pushed back her hood, revealing black hair with faded purple ends.

“What is it?” Luke shouted.

I couldn’t answer. Could barely even think.

“Ava?” The woman’s voice travelled across the space between us, and I forgot how to breathe.

Dave lifted his brows. “Should I leave you to it?”

“Yes. It’s fine,” I said. “It’s… everything’s perfect.”

I’d barely finished the sentence before I took off running. Norm was already at the gate, bouncing around, delirious.

The closer I got, the more my throat seemed to close over.

She was here. She came.

“Four-one-nine-eight,” I called out, my words jolting in time with my steps.

“What?” she yelled back.

“Four-one-nine-eight! Punch it into the keypad.”

She laughed or cried. Maybe both.

The gate slid open—too slowly. I squeezed through the gap the second it was wide enough, stumbling as Norm barged through beside me. When I collided with Kirby, her arms locked around me, and we held onto each other as hard as we could.

A laugh burst from me, breaking somewhere in the middle and coming out more like a sob. She was warm and solid. Alive.

I held her even tighter. “What are you doing here?”