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“Don’t you dare!” I sit up quick on her bed. “I love your eyes just the way they are.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Round Eyes.” She shakes her now-wavy head, and I frown.

“You are beautiful. Stop picking yourself apart.”

“Aw!” She stands and walks over to kiss my forehead. “Thanks, sis. Now. Let’s get you changed. You don’t have to call a guy, but you’re going out with me.”

“Nothing in me feels like going out.” I allow her to drag me off the bed.

Unlike the universe, my bestie is always willing to help me… in a very meddling and pushy way. A lot like her mother.

“Your hair looks good.” Standing side by side in the mirror, our hair looks almost identical, except mine is light blonde. “Try this on.”

She tosses me a super short, high-waisted mini with a long-sleeved cropped shirt. “This is kind of… revealing.”

“Sexy.” She says the word on top of my observation. “You’ll look amazing in that.”

“I don’t really want to look amazing. I’m not trying to meet anybody.”

“That’s the worst attitude I’ve ever heard in my life.” I watch as she changes into a velvet sheath dress.

It slides down her petite frame, and I step over to pull on the skirt and long-sleeved top. She’s right about it looking sexy. The top stretches over my breasts, and the skirt makes my legs look a mile long.

With a little sigh, I wish Gray were here. He loves my curves.

“Okay, so where are we going on this girlfriend date?” I walk to her makeup mirror and touch some powder on my nose. “You hate everywhere in Oakville.”

“I do not hate everywhere in Oakville. I just know everyone in Oakville. There’s a difference.” She pauses to slide deep red lipstick over her rosebud lips. “The Red Cat is super funky and vintage. Have you ever been there?”

“It’s really more of an old person’s bar, isn’t’ it?” My nose curls as I touch up my bright pink lips. “We always went to places on the lake.”

She squeezes my shoulder. “Tonight we’re doing something new. And you’re going to love it!”

With a sigh, I give myself a reassuring look. Come on, universe. Don’t let me down this time.

Chapter 32

Gray

It’s a nine-hour drive from my family’s place in Delaware south to Oakville. I’m going to make it in a day.

I’ve spent the last two weeks settling my aunt’s affairs and acquainting myself with my newly acquired property. The house… strike that. The forty thousand square foot mansion is pretty ridiculous.

From what I’ve learned, my great grandfather was in the steel business… and a bootlegger on the side. That second bit of information I found while digging in one of the old studies on the third floor. The place has a hundred and fifty rooms.

Sister Constance didn’t tell me it came with a butler, a cook, and a housekeeper on call. I did call them, but more to help me figure out where everything was than to act as my servants.

Walking the halls of the old mansion, looking at all the furniture draped in sheets, gave me an unfamiliar sense of family pride. It’s something I’ve never experienced before, and for the first few days, I allowed it to sink into my brain, restore a sense of belonging I’d lost after my uncle died.

Mack never told me about all of this… I’m not exactly sure why, since he went through so much trouble making sure I’d inherit it after Genevieve died. Maybe he thought I’d be reckless with it?

More than anything, I feel a quiet sense of awe. A growing sense of security. A need to find healing so I can bring Drew here. The idea I had in Constance’s office faded the longer I walked the dark wood hallways, looking at portraits of familiar-looking people I don’t know.

I don’t want to be like them. I don’t want to be a recluse, growing old in a castle no one knows about, completely alone. Plus, Drew would shit twice and die if she saw the library in this place.

My assignment to keep a journal has helped me more than I believed it would. In the evenings, I walk down a flagstone path, past concrete urns bigger than me overflowing with vines, into a thick, wisteria-lined garden. It’s cold, but the snow has stopped, and I sit on a wooden bench looking out over the vast property down toward the large pond where a boat sits waiting to be used.

Then I write.