Page 4 of Unearthed Dreams
“Charlie?” Mom’s voice cut through the chaos. “Will you set the table?”
“I’ll help,” Tessa offered, already moving toward the cabinet.
As we arranged plates and silverware, she lowered her voice conspiratorially. “So... any cute boys from school you’ll be bringing home?”
Trevor’s face flashed through my mind—his green eyes, the way he’d smiled over his shoulder while carrying my box of books. Heat crept up my neck.
“None that would look twice,” I muttered, focusing on arranging the silverware with perhaps more precision than necessary.
The fork she held clattered against the wooden table. “What?” Her protective big-sister energy radiated off her like heat. “Charlotte Everton, you are a catch. Any man dumb enough?—”
But whatever else she said got lost in the symphony of family chaos as Dad started telling a story about the south orchard, Mom called for help with dinner, and Jasper and Natalie started doing that thing where they spoke in half-sentences only they understood.
I traced the familiar pattern on Mom’s antique silver, wondering how many family dinners these utensils had witnessed. How many times had I sat here, dreaming of writing my own epic love story while my brothers found theirs?
Dad had just passedthe bread basket for the third time when Elliot cleared his throat. My fingers itched for my notebook. The tension crackling across the dining room was exactly the kind of scene I always struggled to write.
“So... there’s something Tessa and I need to tell you all.”
The way Mom and Dad suddenly became very interested in their plates should have been my first clue. God, this was better than chapter three, where my heroine finally confronts her family. Maybe I should have given her siblings instead of making her an only child.
“We, uh...” Elliot glanced at Tessa, who gave him an encouraging nod. “Remember when we eloped?”
I shifted in my seat, my writer’s brain already cataloging details—the way Elliot’s fingers drummed against the table, how Tessa’s shoulders tensed. Small details I’d been trying to capture in my manuscript.
“You mean when you shocked us all by running off to the courthouse?” Jasper drawled, reaching for his water glass. “No, completely slipped my mind.”
“Yeah, about that...” Tessa twisted her napkin. “It wasn’t exactly... spontaneous.”
Understanding slowly dawned upon my siblings. Having devoured every enemies-to-lovers romance I could get my hands on, I’d suspected there was more to their story than they’d let on. After all, one can’t go from fighting over business proposals to being madly in love without a few plot twists along the way.
“What do you mean, ‘wasn’t spontaneous’?” Natalie’s fork clattered against her plate.
“It was...” Elliot started.
“Originally a business arrangement,” Tessa finished, her hand finding his on the table.
“I’m sorry, what?” Natalie’s eyes widened.
“My father was trying to block my investment in thecidery,” Tessa explained. “The only way around the legal restrictions was if I was...”
“Family,” Elliot supplied.
Jasper threw his head back and laughed. “You absolute idiots.” But the affection in his voice softened the words.
I pressed my lips together to hide my smile, grateful that everyone was too focused on Elliot and Tessa to notice me mentally taking notes. This was the type of scene that would get rejected by my creative writing professor for being “too contrived,” yet here it was, playing out in my parents’ dining room.
The constant bickering, the tension-filled business meetings, the way they’d practically crackled with electricity whenever they were in the same room—it was textbook rivals-to-lovers. I’d called it months ago in the margins of my journal, even if I’d kept that particular insight to myself. Just like I kept my writing hidden away, afraid of what my family would think of their baby sister’s romantic dreams while they all took far more practical, planned-out paths in life.
“Who else knows?” Chase demanded, stabbing a potato with maybe a little more force than necessary.
“Just your parents, Hank, and Elena,” Tessa said, like it was no big deal.
Chase’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth. “You told ELENA?!”
“Um, yes?” Tessa’s brow furrowed. “She’s my best friend.”
“That little...” Chase muttered, his ears turning red as he suddenly became very interested in his beef.
