"He didn't meet me with a smile. He didn't say a word. He just stood there, looking like someone who'd spend hours hoping I'd come and still didn't believe it when I did." Summary: Ivy gets the message—and the map point. No instructions. No persuasion. Just space to choose. So she does. She steps off the bus and finds Jace already waiting, quiet, grounded, changed. And when he takes her home—not his dorm, but his real home—she sees the scars he never let anyone touch. There’s no kiss. No drama. Just truth, honesty, and the start of something neither of them has ever had before: Real connection.