Page 131 of Tessa and Nash

“I need updates, Tessa.”

“I’ll have them,” I say. “When they’re real.”

“You’re stalling.”

I keep my expression neutral even though my pulse is sprinting.

“I’m being thorough,” I correct. “You taught me that.”

A beat.

Then, colder, “Don’t get clever with me.”

“I’m not,” I say. “I’m doing the work.”

His silence presses through the phone.

Finally, he says, “Right, well, I’ll see you at home.”

He hangs up before I can respond.

I lower the phone slowly.

Maeve stares at me, eyes huge. “Wow, he is… tough.”

I roll my eyes. “Tell me about it.”

Maeve hesitates, then asks carefully, “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do next,” I admit. “If I tell my uncle, he’ll weaponize it. If I don’t, I’m… betraying him.”

Maeve’s gaze holds mine.

“Or you’re protecting the truth,” she says.

“And what if the truth ruins everything?”

“Buckhorn’s already ruined,” she teases. “It just hides it under chili cook-offs and Christmas lights.”

A laugh tries to escape me. It comes out thin.

“Also,” she says teasingly, “you went to Juniper House with Nash McCoy. And now, your uncle is basically ordering you to spend more time with him…”

I go still.

“And you’re… not turning into a rage monster,” she continues.

My cheeks warm. “Don’t.”

Maeve leans in, delighted now.

“Oh my goodness,” she whispers. “You have a face.”

“I always have a face.”

“You have a face,” she insists. “A face that says something happened.”

I open my mouth, then close it again because I don’t know how to say it without making it real.