Page 183 of Ex Somnis

Once the bickering settles down, we quickly map out the rest of the plan. Jasper will go with Derek and Melanie to the Vaughn mansion, setting crystals and incense up in Tessa’s room so Derek can fall asleep right beside her and wait in 4D for the moment she slips out of elsewhere long enough to be reached and help her wake up.

The rest of us will go to the cottage, where Mabel and Seraphine can work the tea, the herbs, and whatever else it takes to get four dreamers stable enough to walk into the same dream at the same time without anyone’s subconscious setting the place on fire.

“Two nights,” Jasper says again, like saying it twice will make it feel less terrifying. “Then we’ll get Tessa back.”

Two nights.

Let’s hope her body has that much time left.

I look around the room at all of them, gathered around a coffee table with a photo of my best friend in the middle, like an offering, and think, not for the first time, about how Jasper once told me that we’re supposed to be family.

This is the strangest family I’ve ever had.

I love them anyway.

“I’m gonna swing by the inn real quick,” Nevan says as he stands. “Just to check on things.”

“I’ll come.” I’m on my feet in an instant. “I want to check the kitchen anyway.”

Ridge chuckles from beside us. “Workaholics.”

“There’s nothing to check.” Mabel’s not even looking up from where she’s refilling Seraphine’s tea. “No service tonight, just the three overnight guests and breakfast tomorrow. The kitchen’s fine, Lennon.”

I grab my cardigan anyway. “I just want to check.”

Nevan is already at the door, holding it open, and the look on his face says he understood exactly nothing about why I needed to say that out loud and also exactly everything about why I needed to go anyway.

The kitchen is quiet, the smell of bread still hanging faintly in the air. I run my hand along the steel counter out of habit, check the walk-in latch, confirming what Mabel already told me that everything’s fine, everything’s been fine. I needed my hands on it to believe it.

Nevan leans against the prep table, watching me do my little circuit, arms crossed, something working behind his eyes that he’s clearly been chewing on for a while.

“You know,” he says, finally. “I’ve been thinking about this. About when I have this place, now that I actually believe I will have it someday. I don’t want to do it alone.”

I stop and look up at him. “You don’t?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “I don’t. It’s not mine yet, and I know you’ve got your own plans, your own… whatever. This is only for manifestation reasons.”

I let out a startled laugh. “Are you Jasper now?”

“Rule two.”

I shut my mouth so fast my teeth click. “Okay.” I cross my arms right back at him, mirroring. “What exactly are we manifesting?”

He pushes off the table and closes the distance in two steps, hands finding my waist. Before I can finish the thought, he’s got me up on the counter, his mouth already on mine, warm and lemonadey in a way that’s becoming distressingly familiar.

“Can I manifest…” he murmurs against my lips, “… that this inn is mine someday? And the restaurant inside it is yours?”

I tilt my head back to look at him properly. “Mine?”

“Mm-hmm.” His thumb brushes along my jaw. “You could do whatever you want in here. Only dinner service, if that’s all you want, keep it tucked inside the inn, exclusive to guests, or make it a separate restaurant and something completely different from what it is now. Whatever you want it to be.”

“I… wow. Could I do that with Tessa?”

He smiles so broadly that it crinkles all the way up to his eyes, then kisses me again before he answers, “It can be whatever you want.” His nose runs up the bridge of mine. “With whoever you want. As long as you’re here.”

“Yes,” I whisper. “You’re allowed to manifest this. We’re doing this together.”

“I can’t wait for the future, baby.” He kisses me again before he straightens, presses one last kiss to my temple, and heads off toward reception, already pulling his phone out of his pocket, leaving me sitting on the counter in the quiet, half-lit kitchen that might someday actually be mine.