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She knew that someone had helped her into a robe and out of the thermal suite building, then seated her in an ironwork chair overlooking the cloud-shrouded mountainside. But she didn’t know who did it or what they said to her. She wasn’t even sure how long she’d been sitting there.

Why was this so much worse than finding Jeremy? His face. Jess had seen Chad’s face, the blank, slack mask of it, while Jeremy’s had been obscured from her. She’d known him a little better than Jeremy, but it wasn’t as if she liked Chad. Maybe she felt guilty because she’d been so rude to him that morning? Or maybe finding Chad felt worse because she hadn’t had a chance to process the first dead body she’d found?

A hand closed around her numbed fingers, willing warmth into them with firm squeezes. It was Sis, telling her firmly, “Take a deep breath for me, OK?”

“It’s Chad,” she whispered. “He was on the floor and I told him he was embarrassing. Oh, God, he’s…”

It was all she could do not to vomit right there.

Nope, she was vomiting.

“We know. We’ve got it. You’re going to be OK.” Sis held Jess’s hair back as she expelled the contents of her stomach onto the grass. She rubbed Jess’s back and told her, “All right, OK, that’ll help. Good girl.”

Lenore jogged up, water bottle in hand. She wrapped one of the spa’s oversized robes around Jess’s shoulders. “Here. We don’t want her going into shock.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m acting this way,” Jess mumbled, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand. She took a drink of water and swished it around her mouth. “I didn’t even like him.”

Lenore shushed her. “It’s all right. Seeing a dead body is pretty upsetting, even if you weren’t particularly close to the person.”

“This is my second one,” Jess whispered. “I promised Dean I wouldn’t see any more dead bodies on the property.”

“I’m sure Dean will understand,” Lenore told her.

“Am I the Golden Ash jinx or something?”

“I’m sure you’re not a jinx.” But Jess saw the little quirk of Lenore’s mouth that showed even she didn’t fully believe that. Poppy stepped out of the thermal building. When had she gotten there?

“Honey, I’ve called the sheriff’s office and you’re going to have to talk to them. But how about we go get you changed into clean, dry clothes?” Poppy told her, helping her stand up. “Deep breaths, OK?”

“Someone needs to find Sev,” Jess said. “Sev is his family.”

“We’ll take care of it, Jess,” Sis assured her.

And yet Jess was still talking: “He might not seem upset at first, but neither did Susan, and it turns out she was pretty torn up about Jeremy. So, if Sev is all stoic and stony, we should try not to judge him too much.”

“When did you have a chance to talk to Susan Treadaway?” Poppy asked.

Sis shook her head. “That’s not important right now. We just need to get you warm. Blister’s on his way.”

“Great.” She sighed. Jess did not want to be wearing a damp bathrobe while talking to the police. That was not an enviable position in life.

“Jess!”

She heard a voice yelling for her and turned, only to be hit by a freight train disguised as a person. Dean threw his arms around Jess and lifted her off her feet. Over his shoulder, she could see Jamie jogging up behind them, out of breath. He waved at Jess and bent at the waist, panting. Jonquil approached him with Sis, helping him to a nearby Adirondack chair.

“Goddamn smoking,” Jamie grumbled, holding up one finger in a “just a minute” gesture.

Dean set her on her feet, cupping her face in his hands. “You OK?”

She nodded. She was still upset, still unsure, but she was so glad to have his arms around her. “I swear, I wasn’t looking for another body.”

“You’re coming back to my cabin with me,” Dean told her.

“I can’t,” Jess insisted. “I need my clothes. I need my toothbrush. I need my great-grandmother’s pearls before Diana finds them and claims they’re a Helston family heirloom.”

“Look, Dean, I need to get Jess back to her cabin, get her stuff, and talk to her group about what’s happened,” Poppy said. “You can go with us, but you’re gonna have to actually be civil to people. I love you, but I don’t have the time or the patience to deal with you setting people off with your special brand of surly.”

Poppy and Dean loaded Jess into a nearby golf cart, leaving Sis to deal with the chaos of the treatment suite. Jamie assured Dean he could handle dinner service, but Dean barely nodded. His arm was warm and heavy around her shoulders, in a way that kept Jess from floating away inside her own head.

When they arrived at Tranquility Villa, everybody in their group was lounging on the front porch, chatting and drinking their spring water, looking relaxed. It looked like an ad for what the Golden Ash was supposed to be—an escape from the stresses of the outside world. Not a “finding a douche-bro’s dead body in a sauna that stank of cheese-booze sweat and ass” place.

Jess’s Big Book of Life Plans: Be less mean about the dead man.

“Jess?” Diana frowned, taking in Jess’s disheveled appearance from head to toe.

If Diana said one thing about preserving her brand, Jess was going to end up in jail.

Sev got a wary look on his face when he saw the state of Jess, like his lawyer’s spidey-senses were going off. And Jess didn’t know how to feel about it. She knew Sev and Chad weren’t exactly close, but that didn’t mean it was going to be any easier on Sev to call Chad’s father and tell him that Chad was dead.

“Jess?” Trenton rose to his feet. “Everything OK? Have you seen Chad around?

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but there’s been an incident,” Poppy said as Dean took Jess’s elbow.

Every nerve in Jess’s body told her to just walk past them, to let Poppy be the one to deliver the bad news. But she’d spent too much time around people who dropped the emotional payload on others while they swanned off to something more convenient, less arduous. And she wasn’t about to do that to Poppy.

“Another one?” Kiki asked.

Aubrey shook her head. “Oh, Jessie, what did you do?”

“Not the time.” Jess shook her head at Aubrey.

“Jess, I’ve got this,” Poppy assured her. “I have a feeling you’re gonna need to conserve your energy for the next few days.”

“What are you talking about?” Diana demanded. “Jess? What happened?”

Dean gently pulled Jess into the house and closed the door behind her, leaving the rest of the party outside.

“Jess, honey, you need a break from these people, because I’m starting to worry about you,” Dean said, sliding his arms around her. “Well, that’s not true, I worried about you from the minute I saw the Hardcastles…and now I feel bad that I’m shit-talking a guy who died today. Wait, no, he was an asshole. I’m OK with my choices.”

She leaned close and groaned into his collarbone and was grateful for the spicy smell of him chasing the smell of death from her lungs. “And I really hate that you just called me a sweet name for the first time and it’s connected to Chad.”

Dean snorted and kissed her forehead. “Go shower.”

By the time she emerged from the shower, her hair damp and dressed in her comfiest jogger pants and a soft purple sweatshirt that hung off her shoulder, the group had moved off the porch into the living area, where Trenton sat on the couch, looking like a lost puppy. Poppy and Sev appeared to be out on the porch, where Sev was doing a lot of nodding. Dean was standing by the door, watching all of them with his arms crossed and his mouth thinned into an unimpressed line.

Through the windows, Jess could see red and blue lights flashing at the top of the hill. Apparently, Blister and his police force had arrived. And this time, Poppy couldn’t hide the squad car from the guests.

Diana was sitting on Trenton’s right, her arms around him. Her face was paper-pale and her eyes oddly hollow. She was making soft shushing noises as his eyes filmed over with tears. He covered his face with his hands. “How could something like this happen? People don’t die at places like this.”

Jess frowned. Had Trenton already forgotten about Jeremy Treadaway, or had he never paid attention to other people talking about it in the first place?

Aubrey was standing by the kitchen counter, like Diana’s cornerman, poised to support Diana’s next move. And Diana…those were real tears coursing down her cheeks. Her eyes were red-rimmed, surrounded by smears of sooty gray. Was she crying heartfelt tears for Chad?

Maybe it was for Trenton’s benefit?

“I’m so sorry, Trenton,” Jess began, and she found herself crushed to his chest.

Unlike Dean’s sudden embrace, this was unwelcome and…damp, like hugging a moist teddy bear. “He used to scuba dive in caves. He went bungee jumping off a bridge in Peru. He was supposed to drive ATVs through the Sahara next year.”

Jess patted his back awkwardly. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m glad it was you that found him,” Trenton was saying into her hair. “I’m glad the last thing he saw was a friendly face.”

“I didn’t—” Jess took a step back from him. Trenton tried to hold her arms, but she managed to slip out of it. “I wasn’t with him when he died, Trenton.”

“Oh, well, that’s too bad,” he said. “It would have been better if you’d been with him.”

Jess blinked at him. Trenton was grieving his friend, and it was too much to ask him to recognize the shittiness of trying to lay the emotional labor of being Chad’s death witness at her feet. “Sure.”

Dean’s cousins entered with Sev on their heels. Sev looked…conflicted, like he couldn’t decide what expression to wear. Sadness. Weariness. Anger. Relief.

“You OK?” Sev asked.

“Nope,” Jess answered honestly.

“She’s fine,” Diana huffed, looking more than a little annoyed.

“Blister said he’d rather take your statement at the lodge, away from your friends, so your memory of finding Chad doesn’t get…influenced,” Poppy said.

“Blister?” Trenton asked. “Who’s Blister?”

“What do you mean, ‘influenced’?” Diana demanded. She kept glancing back and forth between Jess and Poppy, as if she couldn’t decide who she wanted to glare at.

“He’ll come by to take your statements later,” Poppy told Trenton.

“Why don’t you come stay at my place, Jess?” Sis suggested. “You’ve been through a lot, and I don’t like the idea of leaving you with those people.”

“What do you mean, ‘those people’?” Aubrey demanded.

“I would feel better if you stayed with Sis,” Dean told her.

“Wait, so you want to escort Jess to talk to the police as the only witness to a damaging, potentially criminal liability that occurred on your property? And then isolate her in one of your homes?” Sev asked, frowning at her.

So Sev’s lawyer brain was engaged.

“I don’t know how I feel about Jess staying with you,” Diana protested. “Jess has things to do! She works for me.”

Jess’s jaw dropped. Did Diana still think her proposal was happening the next day? Trenton was a wreck. And Chad was fucking dead.

Slowly, it felt like Jess’s brain was starting to fire again, like it was a rebooting computer catching up with the new dead-body-based programming.

“I need to make some calls,” Sev told Poppy. “I assume I can use your office?”

Poppy nodded. “I’ll meet you there shortly.”

“I hate to be insensitive here, but this is probably going to end up on the news,” Jess said, rubbing her arms to try to generate some warmth. “Particularly so soon after Jeremy Treadaway’s accident. Networks love stories like this, death in the places that rich people hide away. It’s like a postmillennial Agatha Christie story.”

“What? No! This can’t get out,” Trenton cried. He rubbed his hand over his hair, leaving the thick gold strands sticking up at all angles. For once, Jess’s hand didn’t itch to reach out and smooth it for him. Her smoothing-out resources were exhausted. “My family’s gonna shit. They warned me about spending time with Chad, that he could get me into trouble. Aw, man, my dad’s gonna kill me.”

Jess didn’t know whether she felt bad for him or felt like smacking him. Chad was dead. He was dead and all Trenton could think about was how bad it was for him. And it wasn’t like Jess was in deep mourning for the guy, but geez .

Poppy’s expression was grim. “I don’t see how we can prevent news coverage, Mr. Tillard. We can only issue a press release sincerely expressing our sympathy for the Hardcastle family and hope the court of public opinion isn’t too harsh.”

“Well, I think we know how that’s going to go,” Sis muttered.

“Sweetie, this is why we have PR people,” Jonquil reminded her. “Call Chandra. Tell her we need a whole containment strategy, OK?”

Clearly, Jonquil was one of those people who became extremely rational in a pinch.

“I think I need to be included in that conversation,” Diana insisted, suddenly tearless. “I have an online presence to protect. My brand is focused on luxe positivity, not sauna death!”

Jonquil’s eyes nearly rolled, but she managed to stop herself mid-iris-rise. Jess jumped in to remind Diana, “No one even knows you’re here right now. Remember? You haven’t been able to post anything.”

“And rest assured, we won’t tell anyone,” Poppy told her. “The good news is that we only have a handful of guests right now. There’s generally a lag between weekends.”

“I can promise that I will not talk about this to the press,” Jess told Trenton. “I barely want to relive it while talking to a cop. Named Blister. Which I have to go do now.”

“Jess, you can’t be serious!” Diana cried. “You can’t just go! I need you! ”

“Did you miss the part about the police?” Jess demanded. “They tend not to accept, ‘Diana needs me to reschedule’ as an excuse.”

Trenton patted Diana’s shoulder as she buried her face in his shirt. “Um, Jess, DeeDee could really use a friend right now.”

“Jess found the body,” Kiki reminded her. “She probably needs a minute to herself.”

Diana barely lifted her face from Trenton’s shirt monogram, where she was leaving a distinct mascara streak, to yell, “Well, it’s my pre-engagement week that’s ruined, not hers!”

Wow.

Even Aubrey’s expression faltered at that.

Sensing that she was losing the crowd, Diana blinked rapidly. A strange current of emotion seemed to ripple over her face, like she was trying to remember how to cry. “It’s all ruined! The wedding is ruined before it’s even started!”

“No, honey, of course the wedding isn’t ruined,” Aubrey told her. She knelt in front of Diana and Trenton, patting their joined hands. “I’m sure one of Trenton’s cousins or friends can step in as best man!”

“But it won’t be the same!” Diana wailed.

“Um, I couldn’t replace Chad,” Trenton told her, pulling his hand away from Aubrey. “I just couldn’t.”

“Jess, I need you and Aubrey to put your heads together and find a way to fix this!” Diana shrieked. When Trenton recoiled slightly, she glanced at him and changed her pitch from strident to pitiful. “Please!”

“Yeah, I’m just gonna…go. Yeah, I’m gonna go,” Jess said as Dean hoisted Jess’s yoga tote bag onto his shoulder.

“I’ll walk you out,” Trenton told her. He basically handed Diana over to Aubrey, who seemed to be at a loss as to what was expected of her, like an alligator given care of a toddler.

Dean put a protective arm around Jess, even as Trenton tried to stand to be the one to “escort” her out of the villa. Jess waved him away, so he sank back onto the couch. She appreciated Trenton’s attempt to reassure her, but she couldn’t help but feel that eventually that support would somehow turn into Jess comforting Trenton.

The walk up the hill seemed to draw oxygen into her blood, helping her to focus—something that was probably important when one was talking to the police. As they passed the gate entrance, Jess noted several guests standing with their luggage.

“People are checking out?” Jess asked. Dean nodded grimly.

By the time they reached the main lodge, Jess felt connected to her body again, less like she was caught up in an awful dream. Jamie was waiting in Poppy’s office with a carafe of strong coffee and a crème br?lée with a particularly thick sugar crust. He had even taken time to put little edible flowers in a decorative crescent on top.

“You’re gonna need the sugar once the adrenaline wears off, hon, trust me,” Jamie said, giving her a fatherly kiss on the forehead.

Jess felt weird, indulging in a sugary treat while Dean just sat there, watching her. He, however, looked pointedly at her spoon every time she stopped eating. Poppy joined them shortly, guzzling the coffee Jamie handed her. The smell of the decorative flowers hit Jess’s nostrils and she was reminded of the steaming Persephone’s Garden Shower, heavy with the smell of jasmine. Suddenly, she remembered the disinterested spa employee at the thermal suite.

“Wait, wasn’t there a clerk at the front desk?” Jess asked. “Why didn’t she find Chad?”

“Hannah,” Poppy sighed, rubbing at her temples. “Chad slipped Hannah cash to pretend he wasn’t there so he could sit in the sauna as long as he wanted. No recording his time of arrival, no keeping his Bliss Key at the front desk. He also made some pretty disgusting offers of a personal nature, so Hannah wasn’t real inclined to follow our safety procedures and check on him regularly. Don’t worry about it. We have insurance agents and lawyers to deal with that. I mean, Jonquil may seem like she’s away with the fairies, but she got a risk assessment expert to review our policies before we even opened.”

A loud knock startled Jess, prompting Dean to take her hand. Dean yelled for the person to enter.

“I need to talk to her,” Sheriff Blister said, taking off his round campaign-style hat at the door. Beth came in at Blister’s heels, giving Jess a nod and a smile. Dean seemed immediately tense at the sight of the man. Given how little help Dean seemed to receive after Emma Lee’s disappearance, that wasn’t particularly surprising.

“Jess, give me a dollar,” Beth told her.

Jess just stared at her.

Beth said, “Give me a dollar, so you’re officially my client and Blister doesn’t question you without an attorney present.”

“Do I need an attorney present?” Jess asked, as Poppy handed her a bill from her own pocket.

“Well, it feels like it’s not in my best interest to say so, but this is the second dead body you’ve ‘stumbled upon’ in a week,” Blister told her. “Couldn’t hurt.”

The shock of finding Chad made way to fear. Did the sheriff think she killed Chad? How? It wasn’t like she could overpower the guy. He was huge. But she’d been in the treatment suite building for who knows how long, unsupervised, alone…Oh, shit. Given the Jeremy of it all, this did look pretty bad.

“How did Chad die?” Jess asked.

“We don’t know yet,” Blister replied, watching her carefully. “The case is headed straight to the state medical examiner’s office. This time.”

Dean glared and stood, making room for Blister to sit near Jess. Beth stood behind Jess, a hand on her shoulder. Jess’s stomach rolled as the image of Chad, dead and still on the floor, popped into her mind. And that bled into an image of Jeremy floating face down in the hollow. Who was next? Should she just leave the Golden Ash before anyone else got hurt? Poppy slid a bottle of spring water across the desk to her. Jess sipped it until her bile was no longer crawling up her throat.

With a gentler tone, Blister asked, “Can you tell me what happened?”

Jess recounted the unpleasant cheese aroma, the puddle of vomit, Chad’s cold skin, finishing with, “I don’t remember much after slapping the panic button. Oh, no, I need to cancel the arrangements for Trenton’s proposal. I can call the vendors.”

She stood on wobbly legs, but Poppy pushed her gently back into her seat.

“It’s done. I had your list. I had Sis make the calls, telling them not to come. It came in handy, being so involved in the planning process.” Poppy gave her a glum smile.

Blister tapped a hand lightly on Poppy’s desk, trying to bring Jess’s attention back to him. Dean glared, but Jess appreciated the gentle attempt to keep her jumbled brain from spinning out of orbit.

“Did you see anyone else in the building?” Blister asked.

Jess shook her head. “Just the front desk attendant.”

“What about the swipe security thing?” Blister asked Poppy. “Whose keys were swiped in at the thermal place at the time of Mr. Hardcastle’s death?”

“Hannah, the front desk clerk,” Poppy told him, sliding him a piece of paper labeled BLISS KEY ACCESS LOG—THERMAL SUITE , which appeared to list all the key swipes for the day. She shot a guilty look at Jess. “And Jess. They were the only ones in the building with him. Jess arrived four hours after Chad checked in.”

“That’s helpful, thanks. Miss Jess, did the deceased seem agitated or stressed when you last saw him alive?”

Jess wanted to laugh, but that seemed so inappropriate. “Chad didn’t get stressed. He had no reason to. Everything was taken care of for him by his family. But from what I know of him? If he was told he could only sit in the sauna for fifteen minutes, he’d sit in there for three hours. Just out of spite.”

“Are you sure you’re not just saying that because you’re trying to protect the Osbournes?” Blister asked. “You seem awfully chummy for someone who just got here a few days ago.”

“Some people have a little more personal appeal than you do, Blister,” Dean retorted.

Blister frowned at Dean. “How would you classify your relationship with the deceased?”

Jess glanced at Beth, who nodded. “I didn’t have one?”

“I was given to understand that you were classmates at college,” Blister replied.

“Barely.”

Blister shrugged. “Well, sometimes that’s worse, being ignored. Hurt feelings can fester. You see someone years later, when you least expect it—”

“Wait, are you accusing Jess of trying to protect our family from claims of negligence or accusing her of having intentions of harming Chad Hardcastle?” Beth asked. “Pick a lane.”

Blister raised his hands. “I’m just trying to clarify the situation, explore every possibility.”

“Well, explore the ones that don’t lead you to stupid conclusions,” Dean shot back.

Blister stood, and he seemed to realize how much shorter he was when standing next to Dean. He moved away, which honestly helped Jess breathe a little better. “Well, we’re gonna have to wait for the medical examiner to make an official report in terms of cause of death. It’s not professional for me to speculate now.”

“Yeah, I would hate for you to be unprofessional,” Dean muttered.

Blister stood there, fidgeting with his hat. He ignored Dean pointedly as he backed toward the door.

“Is this one of those ‘don’t leave town because we’re suspects’ scenarios?” Jess asked.

“Why do you think you would be suspects?” Blister asked as Dean pinched his nose.

“Because I found a young, otherwise healthy guy dead in a sauna?” Jess suggested.

“Stop trying to get your ‘aha’ moment, Blister,” Beth told him.

“Miss Poppy says you’re paid up for the week,” Blister said. “And most of the other guests seem to be leaving anyway, so you might as well stay until we get confirmation that this was just an accident.”

Poppy shrugged. “We told the guests there was a problem with the gas heating that renders the thermal spa and treatment suites unusable.”

Dean asked, “So they think the emergency vehicles are here because of a gas leak?”

“Pretty much,” Poppy said, pursing her lips. “And they were more than willing to leave now in exchange for deep discounts on future stays.”

“You are fiendishly brilliant,” Jess told her.

“Most of them were scheduled to leave in the next day or two anyway. It’s not a huge loss,” Poppy said. Her gaze shot to Blister. “Except for the loss of Chad, of course—I just meant financially. Oh, don’t get all wound up, Blister.”

“I’ll follow up with any questions,” Blister said, patting her hand. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

Dean was right. Blister’s name made sense now. He was rubbing her nerves raw.

“I think we should let Ms. Bricker get some rest,” Beth said, escorting Blister out the door. “You’re welcome to come back or call with any follow-ups at any time. We will all cooperate fully.”

Poppy closed the door behind them and flopped into her desk chair, her head tipping back. “Fuck.”

“I’m so sorry,” Jess said.

Poppy’s head snapped up again. “Why are you sorry?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Jess replied.

“It’s going to be OK,” Dean assured Poppy. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know. And I know I need to call Chandra and do all the logistical things,” she sighed. “One accident, we could explain away and people would forget. But twice in a week? This is a disaster. It’s just…it fucking sucks.”

“It really does,” Jess agreed. Just then, Owen burst into the room and pulled Poppy into his arms. Jess smiled as Poppy just melted against him. For the first time, Poppy’s facade cracked and Jess heard her sniffle.

“We should go,” Dean said as Jess stood.

They quietly exited as Owen let Poppy cry out the loss in their little sanctuary.

***

The grounds were eerily silent save for the wind whipping through the trees, rattling the yellow crime-scene tape around the thermal suite building. The emergency vehicles had pulled away. The guests had been whisked off into the dusk by the shuttles.

Jess didn’t feel entirely safe walking across the grounds. Even with Dean holding her hand, there was a sense of menace, like some monster could come running out of the trees with a chainsaw at any second.

“Are you going to be able to sleep tonight, do you think?” Dean asked her, giving her hand a squeeze.

“I have no idea,” she said. “And it’s probably better that I’m staying at Sis’s because I don’t want to keep you from being able to get up for breakfast tomorrow morning.” She blinked. “That sounded way dirtier than I intended it to be. It’s just that the potential for me having nightmares is pretty high here, and you have to get up early.”

“The disrupted sleep will come,” he promised as they approached the family houses. “Which also sounds dirtier than I intended…But I will be happy to have my sleep disrupted on another night. Right now, I think we’re both a little too traumatized to make responsible choices.”

“I wish you weren’t so smart.” She nodded as he wrapped her tight against his chest. Sis opened her door.

“Clear out, bud, we’re gonna have the world’s weirdest slumber party,” Sis told him, making Jess laugh.

“I’m going to bed,” Dean called. “I’m a loud yell away if you need anything.”

Jess waved as Sis put her arm around her.

“We’re getting drunk,” Sis informed her, pulling an icy bottle of vodka from behind her back, its frost creeping all the way up the neck.

Jess’s head dropped forward as the full weight of the day seemed to drag her entire body down. “Yay for us.”

Inside, Sis’s place was just as orderly and neat as the outside. Jess’s shoes almost echoed on the hardwood floors because there was very little hanging on the sky-blue walls besides little framed photos of what Jess assumed were Sis’s goats. Jess half expected to see the couch made up for her, but Sis carried her bag into a tidy little guest room. The sight of the neatly made bed with its white-and-purple wedding ring quilt—complete with a little stack of towels at the foot—shouldn’t have warmed Jess’s heart, but it did.

“I like goats. I like time to myself. I don’t like knickknacks,” Sis told her. “Plus, when I’m stumbling around at four in the morning to get out to the farm patch, I don’t need extra things to trip on or knock over.”

“That’s very sensible. I appreciate you letting me stay here. You don’t even know me.”

Sis shrugged, sliding a molded-ice shot glass full of vodka across the counter to her. “Eh, Poppy ran a background check on you before you got here.”

“What?” Jess exclaimed as Sis sliced a block of white cheese mixed with herbs and arranged it on a plate with some crackers dusted with red flakes.

“I’m kidding. But I have a good feeling about you. My cousins like you. Dean more than likes you. Jamie let you into the kitchen, which is always a good sign,” Sis told her. “I think you’re having a hard time, and I want to help you out. But if you murder me in my sleep, my cousins will make sure the true-crime documentary makes you look like a total asshole.”

Jess raised her shot glass in a mockery of a toast. “Understood. My nana and her friends will do the same to you.”

“Mutually assured destruction, then,” Sis said, clinking her glass against Jess’s.

Jess tossed the vodka back and winced at the cold burn in her throat. “Yep. Still better than moonshine.”

Grabbing their provisions, Sis nodded toward a comfy-looking couch covered in white canvas material. Jess collapsed onto the seat and sighed, pulling one of the sea blue cushions to her chest. She was starting to see what Jamie meant about the adrenaline crash.

“Probably need to wait a bit on my next shot,” she said. She and Sis put their ice shot glasses on little blue-and-white tile coasters featuring leaping goats. “Drinking makes my nightmares worse. Also, I have nightmares. And sometimes I shout absolute nonsense in my sleep, so…that’s what you’ve welcomed into your home. Good luck.”

“It’s going to be fine. I was raised with a big family. Sleeping alone in a silent house freaks me out sometimes,” Sis assured her.

“How are you doing?” Jess asked. “This place is your home. You’re stuck taking care of me when you’re probably, I don’t know, at least a little discombobulated. And you knew Chad since you were a kid. Are you OK?”

Sis blew out a long breath, taking another shot. “I mean, it sucks, and it’s going to leave an unpleasant mark on the end of this season. But as far as this place goes? We’ve had some form of hotel on this mountain for the last hundred years, so yeah, guests have died here. We’re probably haunted as hell.”

“Wish I didn’t have to think about it in terms of guests dying being ‘not that big of a deal,’?” Jess muttered.

“But over the years, I’ve come to understand rich people. They will forget about this by the spring and come back clamoring for body wraps and yoga. After all, nothing like that could ever happen to them ,” Sis said. “And the fact that I knew Chad? Eh.”

Sis took a long drink from a glass bottle of spring water. “When we were teenagers, Sev and Chad would drift around to some of the townie bonfire parties. We knew them, but we didn’t know them, you know? We didn’t spend enough time around them to really learn anything deep about them. Sev was mostly OK, but Chad…”

“I’m sure teenage Chad was a delight,” Jess commented dryly.

Sis chewed on a cracker, considering. “You know what I kept thinking about, like, since you got here? The fact that Chad got really creepy with Emma Lee when we were kids. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, not even when Dean kicked his ass.”

“I know it’s wrong, but I sort of wish I could have seen that,” Jess said, cringing.

“Emma Lee was my friend before she was my brother’s soul mate. She was tough as hell but never cruel—even though she had every right to be. Her dad thought nothing of stealing every dollar in the house to take on one of his ‘casino trips,’ like calling it something that sounded fancy would make it something other than dragging his family into hell. And we told ourselves it was going to be OK, because we knew that one day, Emma Lee was going to go on to invent something that saved the world. Or blew it up.”

Again, Jess thought of Kiki, of the similarities of greatness growing in such unlikely soil. She poured herself another shot and said a silent apology to her former roommate for leaving her alone with Diana.

Sis plucked a slice of garlic cheddar from the tray. “When the time came for us to go to college, I thought schools would fall all over themselves to hand her scholarship money. And they gave her some scholarships, but not nearly enough to pay for everything. She should have qualified for more financial aid, but her parents never filed taxes. Didn’t see the point. I thought maybe once she was there, she would earn more, like ‘The National Fund to Support Brilliant Brunettes from Terrible Families’ or something. But there were some questions…about her academic performance.”

“They thought she was cheating?” Jess asked, downing her shot. “But you said she was scary smart.”

“She was , that’s how she managed to get away with cheating for other students without getting caught all through high school,” Sis said. “I’m pretty sure she took the SAT for a girl over in Draffenville. Her own college suspected her multiple times, over the years, of ‘helping’ other kids, but the administration could never prove anything. So, they couldn’t kick her out, but they weren’t about to make it easier for her to stick around.

“Anyway, because of the lack of scholarship money, Emma Lee had to work even harder to scrape together what she could to get her through the school year,” Sis said. “That last summer, I hardly saw her because she was spending all her time waiting tables at two restaurants in town. I mean, I saw more of Chad and Sev than I did her, which I still find depressing. But she came to that last party and it was great, because she was in such a good mood. She’d been so stressed out that week, and she wouldn’t tell me what was going on, but suddenly, she was almost giddy. Everything was going to be OK. And then, she was gone.”

“She couldn’t have been pregnant, could she?” Jess asked. “I mean, if I was a college kid with big plans, trying to pull myself out of the poverty cycle, an unexpected pregnancy would stress me out.”

“Not with Dean’s baby,” Sis said, scoffing. “Unless you can get pregnant by text message. They never saw each other. They were always working.”

Jess’s mouth dropped open. “You don’t think Chad got her pregnant, do you?”

“Ew, no,” Sis said, blanching as if she’d been slapped.

“Well, you said he wouldn’t take no for an answer, and Chad was a fucking creep. God…rest…his soul. Oh, Jesus, I’m a terrible person.” Jess sighed, pouring herself another shot. “Is it possible her dad hurt her? You said she had that special secret path through the woods. What if her dad caught up to her on the secret path and tried to shake her down for money?”

“And killed her when she said no?” Sis guessed. “It’s something I thought about. Anything’s possible. And after Emma Lee disappeared, it came out that someone wrote a check for cash, clearing her entire savings account.”

“When?”

Sis shook her head. “A week or so before she disappeared? It could have been Emma Lee, getting ready to run. It could have been her parents, forging her signature on the check. Rumor was, their house was about to be foreclosed on—and it was, almost a year later.”

“What happened to her parents?”

Sis frowned. “Her dad ran off a few months after Emma Lee disappeared. Never saw him again. Her mom moved away to Kentucky to be with family, and then she passed away of cancer a few years later. We were the only ones who really looked for her. We were the family that wanted her.”

Sis poured a final shot for both of them. “Why are you asking all these questions about Emma Lee?”

“Well, for one thing, it’s keeping me from seeing Chad’s face, over and over again, every time I close my eyes. And, I don’t know, I just heard about the Emma Lee thing last night and Chad happened today. In my brain, I guess, the two things are linked. It’s probably nothing.” Jess scrubbed her hand across her face. “Augh. I’m exhausted.”

“Right.” Sis stood and pulled Jess to her feet. “Bedtime for both of us. I’ll clean this up in the morning. I put out the fancy guest towels and soaps. Help yourself to anything in the fridge. There won’t be any more deaths between now and sunrise. I’m almost eighty percent sure.”

“Too soon,” Jess told her, slumping toward the guest room.

“Eh, inappropriate humor. It’s my chief defense mechanism.”

In the tidy little guest room, Jess climbed into the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. She could hear Sis settling into her bedroom on the other side of the wall. For an hour, she tried to focus on her breathing, on intentionally relaxing her body into sleep. She was warm. And she was safe under Sis’s roof.

But it wasn’t enough.

She considered the vodka bottle in the kitchen, but that seemed like an unhealthy sleep aid. She crept out of bed, listening for the sound of Sis breathing. Jess didn’t want to wake her host, but she also didn’t want to worry her. She slipped on her shoes and padded into the kitchen, grateful for the lack of clutter for her to trip over in the dark. She grabbed a spare key from the hook near the door and scribbled an explanation on a Post-It, leaving it where Sis was sure to see it. She was careful to lock the door behind her, and walked over to the smallest of the Osbourne cottages.

Dean was waiting up, like he knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep, and answered the door within seconds of her knock. Without words, he took her hand and led her through the tiny living room to the bedroom. It certainly wasn’t as organized and Zen as Sis’s place, but for a man living alone—it wasn’t terrible.

They crawled into the bed, and Dean pulled the covers over them both. She burrowed into his arms, her nose buried into the warm, spice-scented crook of his neck. Her breathing evened out as he stroked her back. Her mind drifted, and for the first time in a long time, she didn’t worry.

Jess’s Big Book of Life Plans: There is no plan for this. Jessamine Bricker has no plan.