Page 126 of Tessa and Nash

I don’t know what I’d even say.

Hey, just checking in after we uncovered the origin story of a generational feud and also had sex in your creepy family house.

No.

I shove my phone back in my pocket.

Because what happens when this becomes a fight again?

What happens when her uncle turns this into a weapon?

What happens when my family reacts as McCoys and her family reacts as Longs, and we end up on opposite sides of a line that was drawn by dead men who never bothered to write things down properly?

I swallow hard.

Because I don’t want to fight her.

I don’t even want to pretend I do.

And that’s a problem.

I’ve known Tessa Long for most of my life. She’s been a thorn in my side since we were kids, sharp and relentless, always two steps ahead and absolutely incapable of letting me get away with anything.

And somehow, somewhere between a fake engagement and a winter storm and a dusty drawer in a haunted house, she stopped being my rival and started being…

More.

But if the feud resurfaces, if the town divides, if my family circles the wagons and her uncle pushes for blood… more might mean losing the dream.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Tessa

January 20th

I’m pretty sure I haven’t stopped hiding since Juniper House.

After the journal, the map, the signatures, the way the past opened its mouth and swallowed us whole… I’ve needed space. Not from the land issue. That’s everywhere. In my head, in my bones, in every quiet second where I remember Jonah’s name in ink and the way Nash’s face looked when he read it.

Space from my uncle.

So I claimed exhaustion.

Which is technically true, if you count the kind of exhaustion that comes from discovering your family’s righteousness was curated like a museum exhibit.

I stayed in my room, moving slowly and drinking tea while Grandma hovered like I was ten and feverish, and I didn’t even argue, because arguing would require energy I didn’t have.

Thomas has been trying to check in on me, but I haven’t given him anything.

But now he’s out of the house, and honestly, cabin fever might destroy me.

“Grandma,” I tell her as I button up my coat. “I’m going to see Maeve.”

“Are you okay?” She narrows her eyes at me. “Are you feeling better?”

I nod without meeting her eyes. If I catch her gaze, she’ll see right through me, and I cannot have that right now.

“Okay, well, have a good time then.”