But what if she did date Richard because he was safe and convenient? A future with him was so concrete. Afraid of her feelings for Jonas and cowed by the challenges his family presented, she didn’t dare imagine a world in which they could be together. Because if that world turned out to be a fantasy, her heart might shatter beyond repair. Just like it was shattered now.

She collapsed onto the bench he built, under shelter of a roof he shingled by hand, and surrendered. Her heart had no room for denial, and she was too exhausted to fight.

She loved Jonas. She loved him completely. And she lost him.

The sky flashed nuclear white, and a splintering crack fractured the air. This wave of the never-ending storm was dangerously close.

Sinuses filled with the odor of burning electrical wires, she stumbled back to the kitchen and picked up her phone. Instinctively, she keyed in her mother’s cell number. She hung up before the first ring. If she called Tucson in the middle of the night, her voice ragged from sobbing, her mother would book the first flight to Harrisburg.

Jenn? Jenn had seen this train wreck coming a mile away. She couldn’t bear to admit how miserably she’d failed both relationships. She broke Richard’s heart, and she destroyed Jonas’s trust. At two for two, she was batting a thousand. She scrolled her contacts for Claire’s number and dialed.

“Hello?” a male voice answered.

Tyler. He sounded sleepy. What was the time anyway? She cleared her throat. “It’s Tessa. Is Claire there?”

“Oh, hey. One second.” Tyler covered the phone.

She could just make out muffled voices in the background.

“Tessa?” Tyler went on. “Sorry, Claire can’t come to the phone right now. She…uh, she’ll call you back.”

Her head was a bowling ball perched atop a bendy straw. The straw accordioned, and her chin nested into her chest. Claire was first and foremost Richard’s friend. No way would she call back. “I’m sorry for calling so late.” Her voice broke. Was she supposed to hang up? Would Tyler end the call? She sniffled through awkward silence.

“Tessa, are you all right?”

Tyler’s voice was kind—more kind than her arguably lousy treatment of his friend and colleague merited. That drop of humanity soothed her parched throat. “I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” She ended the call and slid her phone across the naked kitchen table. No longer buried beneath Midsummer Ball files, it held only her backpack and its contents, strewn in her rush to collect everything for Richard.

She ran her thumb over the edge of her checkbook, fanning the pages in a smooth swish. Even after everyone switched to online banking, she still managed her accounts the old-fashioned way, relishing the sense of accomplishment when the numbers all worked out. If only her life could be reckoned so easily.