“Oh,” she said, glancing at her work attire. “Yeah, sure, I’d love that. Let me get changed.” She disappeared into the bedroom. Why was she so excited about a walk? Because the idea of spending more time with Paul thrilled her. She pulled on a T-shirt the only pair of shorts that had survived the flood. She smiled down at her gray “good luck” tennis shoes. When she entered the living room, Paul held the map of Mystic Water in his hands. “Did you want to walk through town?”
Paul turned the map around so she could see it. “Nope. I want to go here.” He poked at a large green area with his finger. “Why would we walk through town when you have a state park?” He refolded the map and dropped it on the coffee table.
Tessa bit her bottom lip. “I’m not much of an outdoorsy girl.”
Paul grinned. “Where’s your sense of adventure?”
Tessa frowned. “I just bought a run-down house. I think that qualifies as adventurous.”
He chuckled. “I guess I should have asked, ‘Where’s your sense?’” Then he nudged her lightly in the arm as though they were teammates. “Tess, I’m kidding. You look like you want to knock me out.”
She couldn’t be annoyed with him, not when he was grinning at her and calling herTess. “Okay, Borelli,” she said in mock irritation, “take me on an adventure.”
Tessa tried not to sound like Darth Vader as she hiked up another hill, but she failed. Breath wheezed in and out of her burning lungs while she retold Crazy Kate’s story about Honeysuckle Hollow, the Hamiltons, and the spear. Tessa felt sure that one more hill would have her bent double, sucking air like a bagpipe player. Thankfully, Paul stopped at the top of the next rise.
“That’s quite a story. I need to rethink my article. Kate’s story will be an excellent addition to the town’s history and the history of the house. I can revise the article to focus on preserving history, which would include maintaining Southern historic homes, especially a home that has served as a refuge for people who needed help and hope.” He looked out over the evergreens thriving in the valley at the bottom of the ridge. “That’s the greenest valley I’ve seen in a long time. Feel like hiking down to the river?”
“Feel like calling the EMTs?”
Paul laughed and pulled a bottle of water out of his backpack. “Here. Hydrate. I can’t have you passing out on me in the middle of nowhere. What would the town say?”
Tessa gulped the water and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “If I had known you wanted to hike all over this place, I would have suggested we drive to the top of the park and leave the car there instead of at the lower entrance. When you saidwalk, I thought you meant the kiddie trail.”
Paul poked out his chest. “Do I look like the kind of man who hikes the kiddie trail?”
Definitely not.
He pointed off to the west. “What’s up that way?”
Tessa opened the trail map. “Lovers Pointe.”
Paul smirked. “We definitely need to check that out.”
Tessa looked at him. “We do?”
“Again, do I look like the kind of man who would pass up an opportunity to see Lover’s Pointe?”
Tessa’s skin flushed. “It used to be called Look-Off Pointe, but so many kids kept parking up there and—well, after a while, a new name stuck.”
Paul’s grin widened. “I bet it did.” He pointed toward a hill that rose toward the east. “And over there?”
Tessa hummed in her throat as she scanned the map. “Oh,” she said and looked up. “That’s Red River Hill. No one spends much time over there.”
“Why?”
Tessa hesitated, feeling silly for what she was about to admit. “It’s haunted . . . or so they say. I mean, I can’t verify that it is, but I haven’t ever ventured over there. A Civil War battle was fought in that part of the forest, and a lot of Confederates died. So many that they say the river ran red, which is why they renamed the river that runs through town and why that place is called Red River Hill.”
Paul shielded his eyes from the sun and stared at the hill. “This town is full of mysteries, giving me even more ideas for the article on Mystic Water. Red River Hill is cursed, huh?”
“Being haunted and being cursed aren’t the same.”
“Slip of the tongue. And speaking of tongue, let’s go check out Lover’s Pointe.”
Tessa gaped at Paul, and the heat returned to her face. His laugh echoed through the valley, and the sound wrapped happiness around Tessa.
While Paul took a shower, Tessa towel-dried her hair in the kitchen. She scrolled through her email on her phone, and a new one popped up. The fully executed real estate contract from Mrs. Steele’s lawyer had arrived. Tessa was now officially the owner of Honeysuckle Hollow, and the rest of the money was due to Mrs. Steele within thirty days. She stared at her cell phone, knowing she should call Anna and Lily—and especially her mama—about Honeysuckle Hollow, but she was afraid they’d tell her it was a rotten idea.But what if they don’t? What if they’re excited for me?Still, she hesitated.I’ll call them later.
A breeze blew through the open living room window and disrupted papers on the coffee table. Shimmery pink light from the setting sun pooled on the floor. The mint rustled in the wind, and even from across the room, Tessa smelled the scent of its leaves and sighed. She looked at the wall map. The mint’s long tendrils had not stopped their pursuit of the globe. They now reached as far as Japan, curling around the silver pushpin there, and they looped around the pins in Sweden, Romania, and Egypt.
