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July 24 - July 27, 2025
“Remind me again,” Nash told me, bending to capture my gaze with his. “What’s our rule about fightin’ dirty?” He wasn’t nearly as subtle as he thought he was when it came to Alisa Ortega, but I still answered the question. “There’s no such thing as fighting dirty,” I told Nash, “if you win.”
“I definitely, one hundred percent, entirely… would have told Rebecca,” Xander admitted. “In retrospect, good on you for not telling me. Excellent call, shows solid judgment.”
“It also wouldn’t be the worst time to tell me that you aren’t jealous of Eve standing that close to Grayson.”
“If you had a baby…,” I said. “When I have a baby,” came the deep, heart-shattering reply, “she’ll be my whole world.” “She?” I repeated. Nash settled back into his seat. “I can picture Lib with a little girl.”
“I don’t do vulnerable,” Thea retorted. “It clashes with my bitch aesthetic.”
“What’s Xander Tag?” Max asked. “What isn’t Xander Tag?” Xander replied philosophically. “Is this all a joke to you?” Eve asked sharply. “No,” Xander said, his voice suddenly serious.
“Because I’m terrible at hurting, Heiress. And if what we have now—if everything we have now—starts to feel like another competition between Grayson and me, like a game? I don’t trust myself not to play.”
“You’re Hawthornes. Who knows how to crack a combination lock?” The answer was all of them.
“Praying?” Nan grumbled. “More like giving our Maker a piece of my mind.” “My grandfather built this chapel so Nan would have someplace to yell at God,” Jameson informed me.
The moment Jameson had finished his stack, he’d disappeared into the walls. The only reason I knew he hadn’t taken off for parts unknown halfway around the world was that the bed was warm beside me when I woke in the morning. Grayson took to the pool, pushing himself past the point of human endurance again and again, and after Nash had finished, he’d dodged the press at the gates, snuck out to a bar, and came back at two in the morning with a split lip and a trembling puppy tucked into his shirt. Xander was barely eating. Eve seemed to think that she didn’t need sleep and that if she could
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As far as Hawthorne-brother coping mechanisms went, it was probably the healthiest one in the House.
“But mostly, I can’t hate him, Avery Kylie Grambs, because he brought me you.”
“The only person I trust with all that I am and all that could be, Heiress, is you.”
love you. I would die to protect you. I would make you hate me to keep you safe because damn it, Avery—some things are too precious to gamble.”
“It was always going to be you,” I told Jameson. He needed to hear it. I needed to say it, even though always painted over so much. In response, Jameson gave me another crooked smile. “It’s times like this, Heiress, that I wish I’d fallen in love with a girl who wasn’t quite so good at bluffing.”
“Those,” I told him, “are the keys to my sister’s new cupcake truck.” Libby stared at me, her eyes round, her lips making an O. “I can’t accept this, Ave.” “I know.” I smirked. “That’s why I gave the keys to Nash.”
And the only reason Jameson had been arrested—or almost arrested—so many times was that he couldn’t turn down dares. Specifically, mine. The only reason I hadn’t made similar headlines was that I was better at not getting caught.
