Page 121 of Tessa and Nash

I lean back in the chair, exhaling slowly.

My chest feels… strange. Terribly unsettled. The foundation under my life shifted, and I’m still waiting for the rest of the house to creak.

“So what do I do?” I ask quietly, even though I already know the answer.

Grandma’s gaze doesn’t waver.

“History doesn’t need protecting,” she says. “It needs correcting.”

The words land like a bell tolling.

I glance down at the journal again, then at my grandmother, then toward the doorway leading to my uncle’s office.

And I realize something with a kind of quiet clarity that scares me:

Choosing nothing is still choosing harm.

“I have work,” I say suddenly, standing.

Grandma watches me closely. “You’re going to Town Hall?”

“Yes,” I say. “Because if I sit here and think too long, I’ll start rationalizing again.”

A small smile tugs at Grandma’s mouth. “That’s my girl.”

I pick up the journal and map and slide them back into my bag carefully, like I’m carrying a fragile truth.

At the door, I pause.

Grandma’s voice stops me.

“Tessa.”

I turn.

Her eyes are soft, but direct. “Be careful with your heart.”

My pulse stutters.

She doesn’t say be careful with Thomas or the land. She says, “heart”.

She knows there’s a McCoy-shaped complication standing in the middle of my chest and making it hard to breathe.

“I’m always careful,” I say automatically.

Grandma’s smile turns knowing. “No. You’re always controlled. Those aren’t the same thing.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Nash

January 17th

The ranch looks the same when I get back, which shouldn’t be a surprise. Land doesn’t rearrange itself just because you found a century-old journal that makes your stomach feel full of barbed wire.

The pasture is still white in patches where the snow didn’t melt. The fence line is still straight where Dallas fixed it last fall. The barn still leans a little to the left because Grandpa McCoy built it when “level” was more of a suggestion than a rule.

Rusty is on the porch as if he’s been waiting to judge me specifically.