What greeted her was a landscape of decay; the air was heavy with the scent of neglect, a pungent mixture of old food, musty fabrics, and something indefinably sour that made Cheyenne’s nose wrinkle in distaste. Together.”
“Okay,” he responded, the single word laden with newfound hope, a subtle acknowledgment of the thread that tied his fate to the hands of the compassionate, fearless woman before him. Before him was this beautiful woman, he had known since her family moved in and she was twelve years old. Cheyenne watches her friends, their distinct energies melding into a force of change. She had done this on the first pass, but he was still so out of it that Larry had not noticed. And Larry, despite himself, felt the pull, an echo of a time when desire wasn’t shrouded in mourning—a time he thought was lost forever. With Larry naked, Cheyenne turned her attention to herself. The changes to come in his life seemed daunting, but for the first time in a long while, they also seemed possible. Sunlight spilled through the now-clear windows, casting a soft glow on the newly revealed hardwood floors.
