My cheeks heated. That traitor. What else had she told the man sitting next to me? “I only eat them on Sundays.”

“Why in God’s name would you have that rule?”

“I try to eat healthy the rest of the week. Sunday is my cheat day.”

“Your cheat day…”

I straightened my spine, willing away the heat still coursing in my face. “Yes. It’s all about balance.”

“Only letting yourself indulge one day a week isn’t balance, Doll Face.”

“I don’t remember asking your opinion on the matter. And don’t use your patronizing pet names on me.”

Crosby held up his hands. “All right, all right. I’ll stick to Brown Eyes and only bring you donuts on Sundays from now on.”

I bit back the names I wanted to hurl at Crosby. They’d only give him some perverse sense of satisfaction. I forced myself to take a slow, steadying breath. “What do I need to do next?”

Crosby flipped the folder on his lap closed. “I’ll get the deed transferred to you. You’ll have to sign some paperwork, and that’s it.”

A few scrawled lines and the place that had been my sanctuary for most of my life would be my safe space forever. But what Harriet had asked of me, what she wanted me to build in The Gables, that was going to be far more challenging. I glanced down at the letter in my hand, the looping script staring back at me. The vision she had for The Gables, for me, it was far riskier than I’d ever considered. The life of my dreams had always been comprised of one word: steady. People and things that I could count on. Suddenly, that dream felt just a little bit empty.

8

Crosby

I stared at the door for far too long after it’d closed in Kenna’s wake. The emotions that had cascaded over her face as she read Harriet’s letter played on an endless loop in my mind. I’d never seen Kenna so unguarded. It was as if Harriet were the one person who had the keys to unlock all the things she hid beneath her fiercely protected surface.

“So, how’d she take it?”

I jolted at Penny’s voice, straightening from my perch where I leaned against my office doorjamb. “Better than I thought, honestly.” But I hadn’t liked the blank mask that had slipped over Kenna’s face when she finished the letter. It was a façade that seemed to suck every last ounce of life out of her, and I had no idea how to get it back other than to piss her off. Maybe I’d start by having donuts delivered to her every day but Sunday.

“How do you think the Abbots will take this?”