Every Mile Back to You (Version 2)

Verse

Porch light fading in the rearview glass

Your screen door slamming, gravel under gas

Two coffee cups still steaming on the rail

One for staying, one for saying farewell

You said "call me when the mile markers turn to home"

I said "I will" with my hand still shaking on the phone

Pre-Chorus

So how do I leave without leaving you behind

How does a heart split down a yellow line

Tell me how the road can pull and still feel right

Chorus

It's every mile back to you

Every exit sign, every song that gets me through

Every mailbox blur, every county line I cross

Just brings me closer to the porch light I once lost

This road was never goodbye, it's just the long way through

It's every mile back to you

Verse

Three hundred miles and the radio's gone thin

Static like a heartbeat underneath my skin

Your last text lighting up the dashboard glow

"Drive safe, come home" — the sweetest word I know

Diner coffee, cold before I take a sip

Counting water towers, counting on this trip

Pre-Chorus

So how do I leave without leaving you behind

How does a heart split down a yellow line

Tell me how the road can pull and still feel right

Chorus

It's every mile back to you

Every exit sign, every song that gets me through

Every mailbox blur, every county line I cross

Just brings me closer to the porch light I once lost

This road was never goodbye, it's just the long way through

It's every mile back to you

Bridge

Maybe leaving was the proof I'd return

Maybe distance is a lesson I had to learn

Every town I pass, I'm learning how to choose

The ones we love are the roads we don't lose

Chorus

It's every mile back to you

Every exit sign, every song that gets me through

Every mailbox blur, every county line I cross

Just brings me closer to the porch light I once lost

This road was never goodbye, it's just the long way through

It's every mile, every mile back to you