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Rissa wasn’t surprised when everyone spoke up, wanting to know more and help however they could. The Malssum family was magnetic. Once you were in their orbit, you wanted to do what you could to stay there. Forever.

Burke couldn’t stop touching Rissa in front of the others. He squeezed her hand with his, put his arm around the back of her chair, and touched his moccasins to hers.

Maybe it was the excitement of his discovery or the lack of sleep, but he had even more clarity this morning. He wanted to convince Rissa to stay. Wanted her to stay with him, for him, for them. He could travel with her to fulfill her in-person contracts, and they could spend the rest of the time here on the farm.

He’d fallen hard and fast, although maybe he’d never fallen out of love with her. It was time to convince her to feel the same. That had been a teenage crush, but his current feelings proved he hadn’t been a complete dumbass back then. Too bad he’d let life and his emotions pull him away from her.

First, he pulled out his phone and smiled at Rissa. “Can I add you to the Apple Gang chat? It’s a group chat with everyone here. Makes it easier to give out group information or requests, like asking everyone to meet here this morning for breakfast.”

Her eyes filled with emotion, and her smile was instantaneous. “I’d like that.”

When her phone beeped with the message, she accepted the invite and grinned at him. “Thanks.”

After breakfast, they cleared the dishes and cleaned the table. Once everyone was back in their seats, Burke passed the books around. “After I finished some work last night, I picked up one of Jay’s books on Abenaki history. Fox owned many of the same books. Like Fox, Jay had a habit of making notes in the margins.”

Knox nodded. “I noticed that, but I didn’t see anything important.”

Burke shrugged. “Neither did I at first. I was having fun reading his notes and thinking that it was likely Fox had written very similar notes in his books.”

Amber smiled. “Mom did the same in her cookbooks. I still have some of them.”

Burke’s heart warmed. He was glad so much of their family history remained, whether in books or in the people themselves.

“Jay had the same kinds of phrasing, marking down where he felt the books were wrong or making notes to tell Thea about some concept.”

Thea gasped. “Really? He mentioned me?”

Burke nodded. “I found five or six mentions of your name. One note was about indigenous farming practices, another about healing the earth. All of his comments showed me how much he respected you and your ideas.”

Knox pulled Thea into a sideways hug as she blinked away tears. Burke didn’t know her entire history, but his brother had mentioned she’d grown up in foster care without family. He was glad to have found proof of Jay’s respect for her. “We know Jay considered you his family. I’ve noted down all the books and pages for you.”

Thea rolled her lips together and nodded her thanks, wiping away a tear that slipped out.

Beside him, Rissa lowered her head and sucked in a deep breath, a sure sign she was swallowing her emotions. Burke had to clear his own throat before he could speak again.

“The next note I caught mentioned family. The line was ‘Like our parents taught us.’”

Amber sucked in an audible breath. “Our parents, not my parents. He still thought of him and Fox as a unit.”

He wasn’t surprised Amber picked up on the pronoun. “Exactly. So I started going through the books more carefully rather than a casual flip.”

Lawson nodded. “Something none of us has bothered to do. While I think we’ve all flipped through them, we haven’t studied them.”

Jolie laughed. “Not Burke-style, anyway. He’s always had the best eye for detail.”

Burke shrugged and turned the attention back to the mystery. “I found a lot of derogatory comments about the author's ideas or intelligence.”

That brought a chuckle from everyone, while Charlie’s eyes popped wide at the thought. At that age, Burke had assumed everything in a nonfiction book was fact. He hadn’t learned about author bias until he was older. With an author for a mom, Burke figured Charlie would learn and understand it earlier than most.

“There are several mentions of Linda. Does anyone know anyone in the area with that name?”

When everyone replied in the negative, Burke sighed. “That’s too bad. I was hoping for another clue there.”

Jolie nodded. “I’ll ask Stan Phail. He’s Troy’s great-uncle and used to have his own apple farm. He’s lived here forever, and he might be able to help if those notes are from Jay’s time here.”

“That would be great.”

Charlie spoke again. “What did you find next? This is like a mystery.”