These small victories don’t erase the past, but they’re proof that I’m no longer trapped in it.
But today…something is just…off.
For one thing, Valen disappeared three hours ago with a flimsy excuse about checking on Agnes, who is sitting right in front of me, yet he still hasn’t returned. For another, every single person I’ve talked to has given me the same strange smile—the one that saysI have a secret and you’re not in on it.
“You’re being paranoid,” Savvy says as Braxton joins us.
I don’t think I am.
“Grant’s finally ready to transfer your inheritance into a trust and other accounts for Clover Danforth. That’s what you want, right?” Braxton asks.
“Oh, I guess,” I say absently.
After weighing the pros and cons of outing myself as the O’Connell heir and the media circus that would stir up, not to mention the questions it would unearth that would likely lead back to Terra, remaining Clover Danforth was the best-case scenario for us all.
“Okay, then. I’ll let him know to finish this with the attorneys. You’ll have access to your portfolio by Monday.”
“My…portfolio.”
“Don’t worry, Grant will help you figure out what to do with it all. He’s good at that.”
I frown because I’m still not convinced that Grant isjusta banker.
“I’ll see you at dinner,” he says before heading in the opposite direction.
I watch him walk away, and almost immediately that strange sensation washes over me again. This time, I find Sage staring at me from the football team’s booth while speaking into a walkie-talkie.
Savvy links her arm through mine and guides us around the ring toss. “As for Valen? He probably just got roped into helping set something up. You know how this town is.”
“Madi won’t make eye contact with me,” I say as she drags me farther into the fair.
“Madi’s got baby brain again, we all know this.”
“Elle keeps giggling and touching up my makeup every time I cross paths with her.”
“Elle giggles at everything. She’s a giggler.”
“Agnes hugged me for forty-five seconds this morning and whispered, ‘today is the first day of the rest of your life.’”
It’s almost imperceptible, but Savvy’s step falters. “That’s…Agnes being Agnes. She’s…dramatic.”
I stop walking and turn to face her. “Savannah Monroe Reyes.”
She winces at her full name. “Okay, look. I’m under strict instructions not to say anything. But…” She bites her lip, clearly wrestling with herself. “Just…go with it. Whatever happens today. Trust him.”
“Trust him to do what?”
“Go. With. It.” She physically turns me toward the center of the fair and gives me a gentle push. “Start at the welcome sign. You’ll understand.”
“The welcome sign? Why would I?—”
But she’s already gone, melting into the crowd with suspicious speed for someone who claims her leg still bothers her.
I stand there for a moment, heart hammering against my ribs while everyone I love openly stares at me with so much hope and love in their eyes that my pits start to sweat.
The welcome sign.
Where you bee-long.After living here for six months, the town adopted Valen’s hand-drawn honeybee as its official mascot. A month after that, Agnes’s slogan was voted in unanimously, much to Valen’s chagrin.
