Finally living

Previously

…She tidied the area where he had stood, her gaze lingering on the faint smudge of charcoal he’d left on the counter. It was a tangible reminder of his intrusion, a spark that had ignited something dormant within her shy heart. Her focus had shifted, irrevocably. The stories on the shelves, once her sole companions, now seemed to whisper of a world beyond their pages, a world that Liam, with his wild spirit and his perceptive eyes, had briefly illuminated. Her carefully constructed world had been breached, not by force, but by a gentle, luminous intrusion. The spark had landed, and Elara, for the first time, felt the bewildering, exhilarating possibility of a flame.