Page 127 of Tessa and Nash

Outside, the air has that post-storm crispness. Too clean, too bright, as if the whole world has been scrubbed down and reset.

As if anything could be reset after what I read.

The library bell chimes when I push through the glass doors, and warmth wraps around me like an old blanket. Radiators hum, and the room smells like paper, binding glue, and the faint bitterness of whatever Maeve insists counts as coffee because it’s hot.

Maeve looks up from behind the desk, sees me, and immediately narrows her eyes.

“Oh,” she declares with surprise. “You look stressed.”

I drop my bag onto the chair nearest the desk and lean in, lowering my voice.

“I’m not stressed,” I say. “I’m just… historically inconvenienced.”

Maeve blinks, then her grin widens.

“That,” she says, “is the worst phrase you’ve ever said. And I love you for it.”

I try to smile, but it doesn’t quite happen.

Maeve’s grin fades like someone turns down a dimmer switch.

“Okay,” she says slowly. “That’s not normal. What happened?”

“I need a table,” I say.

Maeve’s eyebrows lift. “A table?”

“Yes.”

She studies me for a beat longer, then nods once.

“Back reading room,” she says. “No one’s there except Mr. Carrack, and he’s been asleep in the genealogy section since 2009.”

I start walking before she can change her mind.

Maeve follows, swinging the gate open behind the desk with a practiced flourish and grabbing her mug like a weapon.

We cross into the back reading room. Long tables, green shaded lamps, chairs that make you sit up straight out of fear of disappointing librarians.

I sit at the far table closest to the window and unzip my bag.

Maeve slides into the chair across from me, setting her mug down carefully.

“Alright,” she says. “Talk.”

I slide my phone across the table and open my camera roll.

Maeve leans forward.

The first photo is the map, unfolded and flattened, pencil lines and shaded pasture, the creek curling.

Then the close-up of the bottom corner.

McCoy. Long.

“What is that?” Maeve whispers.

“My problem.”