Chapter 44. Crazy in Love

Evelyn

The ride home felt like stepping back in time.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him, just like that first moment years ago. Back when I was a teenager with a hopeless crush on my dad’s best friend—the man who seemed larger than life. Whether it was his words, his smile, the way he laughed, or the sight of him swimming on those warm, sun-drenched picnic days, Jacob Adriano had always been the center of my world.

And now, sitting beside him, I felt like that younger version of myself all over again—heart pounding, filled with a giddy kind of love that knew no limits, no fears. I used to daydream about the impossible, about one day being older, wiser, and somehow stealing him away from the world, like something out of a forbidden romance.

But he was mine now. Even after all these years, it was hard to believe. Who would have thought that the silly teenage crush would blossom into this? That I’d be able to call him mine? The missing piece of my sou