And yet, there were times when she’d catch him lost in thought, his brow furrowed and his eyes distant, as if he were carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. In those moments, he seemed vulnerable, almost fragile, and it awoke a fierce confusion within her that she didn’t quite understand.

She just wanted to feel steady around him. Juniper’s heart clenched with a confusion that bordered on frustration. But he kept shifting… confident and commanding one minute, playful and charming the next, and then suddenly distraught and burdened. Each change left her more destabilized, more desperate for something solid to hold onto. It’s like trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces, only to find out someone hid the last piece.

Her eyes slipped shut for a heartbeat, trying to clear her thoughts and focus on the task at hand. But even as she arranged her materials on the child-sized table, her mind kept drifting back to Daniel, to the way his presence both unsettled and thrilled her, to the way his mercurial moods left her constantly guessing and yearning for more.