Chapter 1 - The Porch LightThe porch light buzzed softly, casting a warm yellow halo across the damp gravel driveway. Sloane Mercer stood beside my open car window, her hospital badge swinging gently against her maroon scrubs. The name glowing on her ringing phone screen—BRENDAN MERCER—seemed to freeze time between us.
Sloane swallowed hard, her eyes darting from the glowing phone to my face. The vulnerability in her eyes was striking.
“Are you going to answer it?” I asked quietly, keeping my hands restlessly on the steering wheel.
“He only calls when he wants something, or when he’s about to break a promise,” she whispered, her thumb hovering over the screen.
She tapped the decline button and slipped the phone into her pocket. The quiet of the October evening returned, broken only by the distant hum of the highway.
“Thank you, Caleb,” she said, her voice softer now, stripped of the defensive wall she had erected earlier. “For driving Theo. For the granola bars. For... caring when I couldn’t be there.”
“You don’t have to thank me for being decent, Sloane,” I replied. “He’s a good kid. He deserves someone to show up.”
She looked at me for a long moment. There was an unspoken connection forming between us—a quiet understanding between two people who spent their lives looking out for everyone else.
“I should get inside,” she murmured. “He probably has homework.”
“I’ll see him at practice on Thursday,” I said, putting the car into gear.
May you like
As I backed out of the driveway, I watched her walk up the wooden steps toward the front door. Through the window, I caught a glimpse of Theo sitting at the kitchen table, his head bowed over a textbook. Sloane placed a gentle hand on his shoulder before turning off the porch light, plunging the driveway into darkness.
I drove back toward my apartment, the hum of the tires on the asphalt filling the silence. But Brendan Mercer’s name stayed with me, a dark cloud hanging over the quiet life Sloane and Theo were trying so hard to build.
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