POV Cassidy
Gravel crunches behind me as I reach for my car door.
"Cassidy, wait."
Theo's voice carries embarrassment and something almost shy. He runs a hand through his hair, looking like a guilty schoolboy.
"I'm really sorry about that circus in there. Family dinner wasn't supposed to come with a free drama performance." His smile is rueful. "Not exactly the impression I was hoping to make."
I can't help but smile back. "Well, it was definitely memorable."
"That's one way to put it." He steps closer, confidence returning. "Look, Xander and I have history. He left town with my fiancée two years ago, and seeing him again just... brings up old stuff."
"Ouch. That's rough."
"Yeah, well." He shrugs, but I can see the hurt still lingering. "Ancient history now. But I promise my family's not always that entertaining."
"Just sometimes?"
"Only when my brother decides to make surprise appearances." His eyes twinkle with mischief. "But I have a much better idea for salvaging this evening."
"Oh?"
"Come on." He extends his hand with that devastating grin. "Let me show you the one part of Muray family property that's guaranteed drama-free."
"Promise?"
"Scout's honor. No family feuds, no shouting matches, just moonlight and apple trees."
I take his hand. "Lead the way, then."
He leads me behind the farmhouse into an apple orchard stretching toward moonlit hills. Silver light filters through branches, casting ethereal shadows on the grass.
"My grandfather's trees," Theo says, touching the bark gently. "He planted them believing some things should outlast the people who create them."
"That's beautiful. And sad."
"Maybe. Or maybe it's hopeful." He turns to face me. "Like believing something good can survive even when everything else falls apart."
"Is that what happened? Everything fell apart?"
"When Tessa left, yeah. I thought it was the end of the world." His voice drops. "Funny how wrong you can be about your own life."
"What changed your mind?"
"Yesterday. Pulling you out of that storm." He steps closer, and my breath catches. "I know this sounds insane, but I haven't thought about her once since I met you."
My heart does something dangerous in my chest. "Theo..."
"I'm not asking you to fix anything broken in me, Cassidy. I'm asking if you feel it too. This thing between us that doesn't make logical sense."
Don't judge me, but something about his honesty makes me want to step closer instead of running away. "It doesn't make sense. I barely know you."
"But you do feel it."
"I feel something." I admit it quietly. "Something I don't understand."
"Good. I was starting to think I was losing my mind."
"Maybe we both are."
He laughs softly, and the sound makes warmth spread through my chest. We're standing so close now I can see gold flecks in his eyes, can feel heat radiating from his skin.
It's like something I don't understand has taken over me completely. Who is this person, and what has he done to me? But when he reaches up to touch my face, I don't pull away.
"Cassidy?"
I don't know why, but in the next second, his lips are the only thing that make sense. I step closer and kiss him first.
His surprise lasts only a heartbeat before his arms come around me, gentle but sure. The kiss tastes like second chances and new beginnings, soft and sweet and full of possibility.
Then fire explodes across my collarbone.
I gasp against Theo's mouth. Over his shoulder, a figure stands motionless on the farmhouse porch.
Xander is watching with predatory stillness.
Theo follows my gaze and goes stone-rigid. Something lethal passes between the brothers before Xander disappears into the house.
What the hell am I doing?
The thought hits me like cold water. I'm making out with a guy I met yesterday while his brother watches from the shadows. This whole situation is insane—the family drama, the intensity, the way I'm acting like some lovesick teenager.
I pull back from Theo's arms, my cheeks burning.
"I should go home." I step away, suddenly desperate for space, for normal, for anything that makes sense. "I'm sorry."
* * *
The next week dissolves into a routine that feels like happiness. Teaching fills my days with purpose—my students are wonderful despite their oddities, their laser focus during certain lessons, the way some disappear for "family obligations".
I throw myself into Harvest Festival preparation, hungry for small-town traditions completely foreign to my city experience. And Theo becomes my constant companion.
Lunch dates at the diner where he spins stories of small-town chaos that leave me gasping with laughter. Evening hours at the cottage where he fixes ancient plumbing and patiently teaches me to plant a garden, laughing at my city-girl attempts to tell weeds from wildflowers. Stolen kisses on the porch swing while twilight paints the mountains purple.
That first kiss keeps replaying in my head. Did I complicate everything by kissing him first? With Theo, it felt natural, right—but there's this nagging voice wondering if I'm being reckless, using his kindness to heal wounds still too fresh.
He represents safety in Moon Hollow's strange currents. With Theo, anything feels possible. That optimism carries me through the week leading up to the town's biggest celebration.
The Harvest Festival erupts with music, food stalls, and carnival games that transform the town square into living Norman Rockwell artwork.
I signed up for the school's fundraising booth the morning after our first kiss with Teo. By the way, he is one of the organizers here.
Now I'm selling baked goods while watching Theo dominate a log-rolling competition that seems to matter far more than recreational sport should.
"Go, Theo!" I shout as he balances on a spinning log above a water tank, his opponent—a man twice his size—wobbling dangerously.
Theo grins and somehow accelerates the massive log. His opponent hits water with a tremendous splash. The crowd erupts.
"That boy's been champion since eighteen," Mrs. Henderson says, trading twenty dollars for apple pie. "Never lost once."
"Really? What's so—"
The cash box slips from my hands, quarters and bills scattering. I dive to collect them before they blow away, but strong hands catch the box—and me—before I hit the ground.
Xander steadies me against his chest.
The world detonates into pure sensation.
Fire races through my veins like molten electricity. I smell everything about him, and something wild that makes my entire body respond like it knows him, has always known him, has been waiting twenty-seven years for exactly this collision.
"Careful," he murmurs, voice like rough honey settling in my bones.
The burning in my collarbone flares visible—branches of light splitting beneath my skin like lightning seeking earth.
"What—"
"Let her go." Theo's voice carries death promises.
Xander releases me instantly, hands raised in surrender. "Just preventing her from falling."
"I'm sure."
I stand between them, shaking as the entire festival holds its breath. In a vendor's mirror reflection, I glimpse something impossible—my eyes flash the same amber-gold I've seen in both brothers' gazes.
Deep in my chest, something that's been sleeping begins to stretch and wake.
"There is something...wrong with me." I demand.
Neither brother answers. Their silence terrifies me more than any truth could.