COMING JUNE 8, 2027!
I never planned on Mark.
I had a plan: finish the school year and then go home to Dalton; stop stretching a paycheck that was never quite enough across a city I never quite chose. Three years of teaching kids I loved in a life that didn't fit.
And May 31 was the finish line.
Then I spilled a drink near Mark’s guitar case and he looked at me like I was already a complication he didn't need.
He was right. I was.
But the thing about Mark is…he shows up. Every time, on time, with whatever is needed—whether it's a sound check, a school fundraiser, or a conversation I keep trying to avoid. He's the kind of man who solves a problem three weeks in advance and mentions it only after it's fixed. And somewhere between the planning meetings and the late-night dinners and the way he listened like he actually meant to…I stopped feeling ready to leave.
Then when he talked about his mother—about commitment, about staying, about finding what fits and seeing it through—I realized I would never be enough for a man who valued that kind of loyalty.
I'd made a wish I didn't even know I was making. And I was doing everything in my power to talk myself out of it.
