After Madeline washed the sweat from the hot summer day off her body, even the cold water hadn't helped to wake her, or cool down the temperature she seemed permanently set at with Elijah in town.
She'd noticed her mom laying in her bed through the open doorway, and closed it behind her.
"You know we were just teasing the two of you, right?"
Madeline shrugged, hoping the small gesture was enough to make her appear casual about everything. "I figured."
Her mom sat herself up, collecting her curly dark strands to clip them back. "Truth is, I'm worried. I see the two of you together, how instantly connected you are to him, even with all the time that's passed. The first time he left, you cried yourself to sleep for months. You'd wake up in the middle of the night calling out his name, having the worst nightmares about all the terrible things that could happen to him.
"The love you have for Elijah, have always had for him, has the sort of intensity that crushes your heart. And I did watch it crush your heart. Time never could change how you felt about him. I was hoping you were young enough that your memories and feelings would fade, but every big moment of your life seemed just a little more empty, because he wasn't here to experience it with you.
"Now that you're an adult, I'm scared that love is going to evolve in a way that changes your universe, because you don't know how to love Elijah halfway, and you're incapable of guarding your heart around him."
Madeline shook her head, the wet curls sticking to her face, and walked over to her closet to grab something to wear. "Why are you telling me all this?"
"Because he isn't going to stay, Maddie. He's going to stick around just long enough for you to fall hopelessly in love with him, and then he'll go back home. That's where his life is. That's where his house, job, and friends are. I don't think I can watch your world shatter a second time.
"Phone calls and the occasional visit is going to keep you tethered to him forever, but that tether will always be loose, and the rope it's made up of is going to be miles long. You never were able to move on from your friendship, but this? This is going to be the worst pain you'll ever experience if you let that love morph into something you can't have. I'm not saying all this to be cruel, sweetheart. I just need you to understand the sort of suffering you're setting yourself up for.
"And I'm worried for him, too. When you were a child, I've never seen someone so protective of someone they weren't responsible for. He had nothing in his life worth caring about, except for the little girl next door who looked at him and didn't see all the broken parts inside. He mattered so much to you, that he pressed on through all the pain until he couldn't take it anymore. And there were times in his life where you were the only thing that mattered to him.
"Walking into your room this morning, seeing him holding onto you... his heart is on the line, too. If I thought there'd be some happily ever after in all this, I'd be nothing but supportive. Thinking of the two of you together for the rest of your lives brings me so much joy that I pray I'm wrong. But there's so many issues in his past, even ones you don't know about, that I don't know if he's willing to allow himself to trust in love.
"He's only been back for a day, so I know you haven't already fallen hopelessly in love with him, but I can't imagine it taking you long to get there. All I'm asking is for you to guard your heart until you know he's willing to let you completely in his own."