“I’ll call you if I have a sudden craving for pineapple cookies.”
He smiles. I give his shoulder a quick squeeze, then head for the door.
Outside, the cold air hits my face and it feels like a reset. I draw in a deep breath, lungs filling with clean air. As the noises from inside fade, my head finally settles.
Snow blankets everything. I move carefully, unsure what’s solid ground and what might be frozen lake. This is going to be a tricky walk.
I notice a trail of footsteps leading to the West House.
My pulse kicks up. I don’t know if it’s safe, but something tells me to keep going.
I open the cabin door, following a short hallway into the living area.
I stop dead.
The whole front wall is one long oval window with nothing but lake and forest in the panorama. The surface glitters icy-blue, snow-dusted pine trees in the background. I lift up my fingers, touching the glass. It’s so insanely beautiful, looking like something out of a fairytale.
“Heatherfell is a paradise,” a voice says beside me. “A place that shouldn’t exist, and yet here it is, untouched by the rough edges of modern life.”
I nod, taking it in. “I believe paradise is something you build out of everything that broke you. The question is how much of it is real, and how much is the illusion of hope we refuse to let go of.”
Effy’s mouth curves upward. She’s trying to connect with me, her energy pulling at me like a magnet. I sensed it on the trail; standing next to her, it’s stronger. Impossible to ignore.
“Do you love him?”
My head snaps toward her. “S-sorry?”
“Tom. I’ve learned to read his patterns. The details in his body language.”
Her eyes stay unreadable. The way she observes so calmly gives me an odd sense of recognition.
“When he runs a hand through his hair when he’s nervous, it means his thoughts are crawling under his skin. I see how he watches people, what he feels for them.”
She turns back to the lake.
“Joan.” She smiles. “Tom adores her, but she exhausts him. My father keeps him on a leash, always pulling him back. He hates him, yet still seeks his approval. And then there’s you…”
She walks a half-circle around me, those blue eyes stripping me down layer by layer.
“You’re different. He’s not nervous or insecure when you’re close. He looks at you like you’re the safe place he’s been searching for his whole life.”
I swallow, my throat dry. “I don’t think—”
“I think, for the first time, he’s allowed to be himself.”
I can’t believe she’s saying all this so plainly. I’m not sure how to feel.
This young woman is dangerous. Can’t say I’m surprised, she was raised by the mastermind of danger. Effy, Jay’s favorite. Tom told me that once. Not Joan, his biological child.
Evelyn McKenna.
Wait. She called Heatherfell her home. Jay consulted her about me. He called her princess. She and Luca aren’t together; they have an arrangement. Alex is part of it too.
It all makes sense. She runs this place. And she’s obsessed with Tom, which I’m sure is rooted in the pain of missing him.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. Fuck. I’m not even two hours inside these gates and I’m already losing my sanity. I don’t think Tom knows she’s leading the pack with Jay. He would’ve told me.
Effy laughs, my expression obviously giving away the realization I just had about her.
