Derek

<p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em><u>My house is a mess my underwear is mixing with hers in the laundry and my safe quiet haven now smells of burnt candles and her.</u></em></strong></p><p></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><u>Indy</u></strong></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>I'm not chasing love. I'm chasing survival.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Running The Crown Project - a nonprofit for kids who've lost too much - is the only thing that makes sense anymore. Not my health. Not my friendships. Definitely not the grump who works with my brother.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Derek Rowe is infuriating off-limits and unfortunately... magnetic in all the worst ways.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>He's made of walls and silence. I'm made of too many feelings.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>I don't get to be the princess.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>But maybe I can still give someone else their fairytale. Even if I never get mine.</span></p><p></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><u>Derek</u></strong></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Chaos ruins everything.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>I learned that the day my wife slept with my best friend.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Since then I've built a life of routine control and zero vulnerability.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>But Indy doesn't follow rules.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>She crashes into my world with her colors and her hope and her heartbreaking smile-and I make the mistake of letting her stay.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>In my house. In my space.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Not in my heart. That's locked up for good.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Fairytales are for people who don't know what loss tastes like.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>But the longer she's near me...</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The more I wonder if some kinds of chaos are worth the fall.</span></p><p></p>