But telling him the truth, opening up to him, would make her vulnerable. And if she fell for him, she couldn’t withstand another heartbreak in this town with a million eyes. Where everyone followed each little misstep with a high-powered microscope.

Don’t you dare fall for him, Tessa, a voice that sounded a lot like Juliet’s chided from inside.

Yet part of her wanted him to know the secret she’d kept hidden for all these years. And maybe he deserved to know. Because she’d hurt him because of it.

She took a deep breath. “Juliet took my dad’s death very hard. I mean, we all did. But her especially. We were all mourning, and my mom was beside herself with the business, working overtime to keep it on its feet. We thought it was just the stress, you know? The grief. But it wasn’t.

“Juliet wasn’t getting out of bed. She stopped eating. Stopped seeing her friends. Her grades were falling. The doctors said her grief had turned into a major depression.”

“That’s terrible, Tessa.”

She couldn’t meet his gaze or she’d never get through this. “I would get up and work for a couple of hours and then drive her to Indianapolis for therapy or to the doctor, and my mom would sit with her in the afternoons. And during all this, Vivienne was just twelve. Her childhood got cut short by my dad’s death, and then…then she needed someone to watch over her and protect her and make sure she could still be a kid, while we were all stretched so thin.”

Tears spilled out of her eyes. The memories were still so painful.

Leo reached over and took her hand. She swallowed hard and continued. “I had to do everything in my power to help my family at a terrible time. That meant growing up fast. So—”

Unable to go on, she gave a little sob. Leo reached over and held her hand. And finished her sentence for her. “So you threw the final calc exam. You let me win.” He looked a little bit stunned, but his firm grip didn’t falter.

“I want you to know everything was my idea. If I’d gotten that scholarship, my mom would’ve driven me to NYU personally and shoved me out of the car. She never would have let me stay.”

He took her other hand, too, holding tight. “Tessa, I’m so sorry. I had no clue.”

Her pulse was thrumming, her heart pounding. “I did throw the exam.” She took a big breath. “But that’s not all. I had to make sure you wouldn’t ask any questions.”

“There’s more?”