Elodie stopped mid-thought, realizing what Harry ant. Five visits total. She’d agreed to co see Daisy five tis, and this was one of them.
"Understood," she said simply.
Daisy appeared out of nowhere, dragging two scarves behind her like victory flags. Her face was lit up with that specific kind of childhood determination that didn’t take no for an answer. "We’re making another one! A big snowman next to a little snowman, like and you!"
Elodie blinked. The kid wasn’t asking. She was announcing.
And sohow, that made it easier to just... go along with it.
Daisy spun toward her uncle. "Uncle Harry, you’re helping."
It wasn’t a question for him either.
Harry looked at Elodie for half a second, then crouched down and started packing snow without a word.
They worked in relative quietness. Daisy did enough talking for all three of them, narrating every step like she was hosting so winter crafting show. "No, no, Uncle, that side’s uneven. Auntie, can you fix the arms? Yes! Perfect! We need rocks for eyes, hold on—"
Elodie kept her hands busy shaping snow, and that was fine. It kept her mind from wandering to places it shouldn’t. Like how long it had been since Liora looked at her the way Daisy did, like spending ti together was sothing to be excited about.
She didn’t let herself linger on it.
When the snown were done, one tall and lopsided, one rounder and oddly charming, Daisy clapped her mittened hands together. "Pictures! Uncle Harry, take pictures!"
Harry pulled his phone out.
Elodie knelt down beside Daisy, and before she could even settle, the girl wrapped both arms around her neck and squeezed. Tight. Gave her a genuine kind of hug that didn’t co with conditions.
Elodie’s chest did sothing weird. Sothing uncomfortable and warm at the sa ti.
Harry raised the phone. Through the screen, he saw her face shift, just barely. The careful mask she wore so well slipped just enough to show sothing softer underneath. He took one photo. Then another. Then a couple more.
"Done," he said quietly.
Daisy bolted off to admire their work from every possible angle, leaving Elodie and Harry standing there in the snow. The air between them was still. Not awkward. Just... there.
The day bled into evening faster than Elodie expected. The sky dimd to a deep bruised purple, and the sll of grilling food started drifting through the camp. Tents glowed from the inside, little pockets of warmth against the cold.
Harry ca back holding a few skewers. "Seafood okay?"
She glanced up. "Yeah."
He handed them over without making it a thing.
The camp had filled in throughout the day. It was not crowded, but it was alive with people. People were laughing, talking, kids were running around half-frozen and fully caffeinated on excitent. Soone ntioned a bonfire party happening soon.
Harry asked, "You want to go?"
Elodie bit into a shrimp, chewed, and swallowed. "I don’t really care either way."
He was about to reply when his phone rang.
The na on the screen said Levi.
Harry stepped a few feet away and answered. "What."
"Drinks tonight?" Levi’s voice ca through loudly, too upbeat for this hour.
"Pass. You guys go without ."
"Wait... what’s going on, are you—"
Daisy appeared at Harry’s side, holding up a skewer like a prize. "Uncle! Chicken wings!"
He bent down to take it, and Daisy grinned up at him before running off again.
On the other end, Levi paused. "Hold on. Are you eating barbecue?"
"Yeah."
"Where?"
"Outside." Harry kept his tone even. "Camping."
There was a beat. Then Levi’s voice ca back sharper, more interested. "Camping? In the middle of winter? With all this snow? That’s actually perfect with all that bonfire, snowball fights, the whole damn vibe. How did I not think of that?"
Harry said nothing.
Levi’s tone shifted. "Wait. You went camping and didn’t invite us?"
"Next ti."
"Bullshit. That babysitter of Daisy’s is there, isn’t she?" Levi was grinning now, Harry could hear it through the phone. "Where are you? I’m coming over. Actually, forget that. I’ll call Dante and the others. We’ll all—"
"I’m hanging up."
"Wait, Harry—"
He ended the call and shoved the phone back in his pocket.
The temperature was dropping fast now. The cold was one that got under your clothes no matter how many layers you had.
Harry walked back to the tent and ca out a minute later holding two coats, one big, one small.
He held the larger one out toward Elodie.
She looked at it, then at him. "I’m fine."
"Just take it."
Before she could argue, he shook the coat out and dropped it over her shoulders in one smooth motion. Then he handed the smaller one to Daisy, who barely noticed because she was mid-story about sothing involving a snow fox.
Elodie almost protested. She didn’t need help. She’d been managing on her own for years now. But the coat was warm, and it did block the wind that had been sneaking under her sweater all evening.
So she let it stay.
After they finished eating, the bonfire was being lit in the center of camp. Daisy grabbed Elodie’s hand and pulled her toward it.
The second they got close, soone whistled. "Damn. That’s one gorgeous family right there."
Elodie’s steps faltered.
Her jaw tightened, but her voice stayed calm. "We’re not a family."
A few people laughed, not cruelly though, just knowingly. Like they’d already decided how this story ended.
She didn’t bother correcting them again. What would be the point?
Daisy ran off to join so other kids who were building sothing in the snow.
Elodie stood there, hands tucked into the coat pockets, watching the flas climb higher. Around her, people sat in clusters, friends, families, couples. All of them fitting neatly into sothing.
She used to fit into sothing too.
Now she just... stood next to it. Close enough to feel the warmth. Far enough that nobody noticed when she wasn’t really there.
And for a second, just one, she let herself wonder what it would feel like to belong sowhere again.
Then she blinked, and the thought was gone.
Elodie and Harry didn’t know a soul at this camp. Once Daisy scampered off to join the other kids, the silence that dropped between them felt almost solid, like sothing you could reach out and touch.
There wasn’t much to say, really.
Family? That road led straight to Dante and Sienna, and Elodie would rather sit in uncomfortable silence than go anywhere near that conversation.
Work? Wilson Tech was a wound she had no interest in reopening, especially not with Harry Becker of all people.
So they just... existed. Side by side. Quietly.
Elodie was fine with it. She’d gotten comfortable with silence. It didn’t ask questions. Didn’t expect anything from her.
Harry shifted beside her, clearing his throat. "How’s it going at Cole? You settling in alright?"
She was halfway through weaving a butterfly from so dried grass she’d found near the edge of the fire pit. Her fingers worked thodically, folding and twisting the brittle stems into shape. She didn’t bother looking up.
"It’s fine. I’m settling in."
"Johnny seems like he’s got your back."
"He does."
A pause. Then: "You studied AI at university, right?"
"Yeah."
"How’d you two et? You and Johnny?"
That question landed differently. Elodie’s hands stilled for half a second before resuming their movents. She kept her eyes on the grass butterfly taking shape in her palms.
She didn’t answer.
Harry noticed. Of course he did. He wasn’t oblivious. She’d been keeping a careful distance from him this whole trip, and he understood why. He was Dante’s friend. That alone was enough.
He didn’t press.
Throughout the evening, his phone rang multiple tis. Each ti, he excused himself and walked a few paces away, his voice low and clipped as he spoke to whoever was on the other end. Elodie didn’t ask. Didn’t care to know.
By the ti he ca back for good, the sky had gone fully black and the bonfire had burned down to glowing coals. Most of the other campers had retreated into their tents for the night.
Elodie had made a small pile of grass butterflies by then—five or six of them, lined up neatly on the log beside her.
Daisy ca running over, her eyes going wide when she spotted them.
"Are these for ?" she asked breathlessly.
Elodie glanced at her, then at the butterflies. "If you want them."
Daisy’s entire face lit up. She scooped them into her hands like they were made of glass, cradling them with a gentleness that made sothing twist painfully in Elodie’s chest.
"I’m keeping them forever," Daisy whispered, tucking them carefully into her coat pocket.
Elodie’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Liora used to do that.
She used to collect every little thing Elodie made for her, paper cranes, beaded bracelets, drawings. She’d display them on her shelf like they were treasures. Like her mother’s hands had created sothing worth keeping.
But that was before.
Before Sienna beca "Auntie." Before Dante’s attention shifted entirely. Before Liora started looking at Elodie like she was... optional.
Elodie blinked and the mory scattered. She didn’t chase it.
---
That night, Daisy refused to sleep anywhere but next to Elodie.
Harry glanced at Elodie, silently asking if that was okay.
She nodded. "It’s fine."
Daisy squealed in delight and imdiately burrowed into the sleeping bag beside Elodie’s. She tried to coax Elodie into holding her, but that wasn’t happening. Separate sleeping bags. Boundaries. Elodie wasn’t about to blur those lines.
Still, Daisy seed content just being close.
Elodie lay there in the dark, staring up at the sloped ceiling of the tent. She could hear Daisy’s soft, even breathing beside her. Outside, the wind picked up, rattling the tent fabric and whistling through the trees.
She didn’t sleep well.
She hadn’t in a long ti.
---
Morning ca too soon.
Daisy woke up sniffling, her face flushed and her voice hoarse. She’d caught a cold, probably from the wind the night before. Her small body wasn’t built for this kind of weather.
Harry checked her forehead and frowned. "We’re going to the hospital."
Daisy whimpered but didn’t argue.
Elodie started packing up her things. "I’ll head back on my own."
"No!" Daisy’s voice was small and raspy, but insistent. She reached out and grabbed Elodie’s wrist, her fingers weak but determined. "Please co with ."
Elodie looked down at her. At those glassy, fever-bright eyes. At the way Daisy’s bottom lip trembled just slightly.
She should say no. She should keep her distance. She should stop letting herself get pulled into situations that would only hurt later.
But Daisy looked so small. So sincere.
"...Alright," Elodie said quietly. "I’ll co."
Daisy’s face brightened despite the fever.
---
They climbed into Harry’s car. Daisy curled up in the back seat, and Elodie slid in beside her without a word. The little girl imdiately leaned against her, resting her warm forehead against Elodie’s arm.
The engine rumbled to life, and the car pulled out of the campsite and onto the main road.
Elodie leaned her head back against the seat. She hadn’t slept more than a few hours, and exhaustion was settling into her bones now. Her eyelids felt heavy. Her body felt heavier.
Beside her, Daisy had already drifted off.
Elodie’s eyes slipped closed.
---
Harry glanced into the rearview mirror.
Daisy was out cold, her head resting against Elodie’s shoulder now. And Elodie, she’d fallen asleep too, her face turned slightly toward the window. Her long hair had fallen across her cheek, a few strands catching against her lips.
She looked exhausted. Not just tired, worn down. Like she’d been carrying sothing too heavy for too long and had finally stopped pretending it didn’t hurt.
Harry’s hand moved without thinking. He reached back, fingers hovering just above her face, ready to brush the hair away from her mouth.
Then her lashes fluttered.
He pulled his hand back imdiately, gripping the steering wheel instead.
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