Deep breaths.

In and out.

Don’t freak out, Corin.

Not now.

Go to your happy place.

Find your sanctuary.

My sanctuary was no longer beaches with scantily clad man candy.

I looked up into Beckett’s worried eyes and I knew that I was already in my happy place.

I tamped down the panic attack that threatened to explode, the first I had experienced in weeks, and gave him a shaky smile.

“It’s not nothing. Otherwise you wouldn’t look like you were about to pass out,” Beck argued.

“I haven’t been back to that house in years. Not since I moved out after Dad died.”

Beckett took me by the shoulders, holding me firm. “I’ll be there with you. It’ll be okay.”

I nodded. Because I believed him.

I trusted him.

“I love you,” he said softly, and I kissed him.

It was the only way I could say it back.

—

We pulled up in front of the house where I had spent my childhood. I had driven by the house many times over the years but never dared to go inside.

Until now.

I could see Tamsin and Jared talking to a woman in an ugly plaid pantsuit. They were walking around the perimeter of the property while pantsuit lady made notes on a clipboard.

“I can’t believe she’s doing all this without consulting me first,” I hissed.

Beckett rubbed the back of my neck, trying to calm me down. “She can’t do anything without you agreeing to it. It looks like a standard appraisal, which is a good thing to have anyway. Don’t go over there fists swinging, I have a feeling your sister will be expecting that. Remember people respond a lot more to calm rationale than defensive anger.”

I leaned over the seat and kissed his cheek. “I’m so lucky to have my very own Master Po.”

“You will learn the ways of kung fu, grasshopper,” Beckett intoned, and we both snickered at our dorky love of random seventies TV shows.

I unclipped my seat belt. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”

We got out of the car and walked toward my sister, Jared, and the badly dressed real estate agent. They looked up as we approached and I noted the look of shock on Tamsin’s face at the sight of Beckett.

I realized I had never told her about him.

And she was definitely not used to my being with a man. They never stuck around long enough for a second date, let alone meeting my witchy sister.

“Hi, Corin. Nice to see you,” Tamsin said, stepping forward to give me a stiff hug.

“You too,” I lied. Jared came over to give me a hug as well, but I might as well be embracing cardboard.

I backed away from both of them and inclined my head in Beck’s direction. “This is my boyfriend, Beckett Kingsley. Beckett, this is my sister Tamsin and her husband Jared,” I introduced.

Tamsin’s eyebrows shot up into her hairline. “Boyfriend? Since when?”

Beckett held out his hand, which my sister shook. Followed by Jared.

“For a while now,” I answered vaguely.

“And you never told me?” Tamsin asked, and if I didn’t know her better, I would have thought that she looked almost hurt.

“Why would I have told you?” I asked pointedly.

Someone cleared their throat and we all turned to the woman in the poo-colored plaid.

“Corin, this is Ellis Montgomery. She’s a broker with Blue Mountain Realty. We were just looking around the property so she could start her appraisal. The renters are gone this weekend but I let them know we’d be coming by.”

“Hello,” Ellis the agent said, holding out her hand for both Beckett and me to shake.

She looked down at her clipboard. “So, the house was built in 1975. It sits on a half an acre in a desirable part of town. It’s within close proximity to shops and schools. I see there are two outbuildings for storage.”

Ellis droned on, talking about all the particulars of the property. I barely listened. It didn’t matter. I wouldn’t sell.

I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at my sister, who was listening to Ellis. Jared wasn’t paying attention, too busy reading his email on his phone.

“Chill out, Cor,” Beckett whispered in my ear.

“I am chill,” I whispered back.

“Then why can I hear you grinding your teeth from here?” he asked, giving me a look.

I relaxed my jaw and dropped my arms to my side. Being combative would only piss Tamsin off and then I’d get nowhere.

“Are you ready to go inside?” Ellis asked, and Tamsin pulled out a key, leading her up the small front porch to the door.

Jared and Beckett followed her but I hung back.

I hadn’t been inside in years.

I wasn’t sure I could go in now.

Beckett looked back to see that I was still on the lawn.

“Corin—” he began, but my sister cut him off.

“Would you mind going in with Jared and Ellis? We’ll be inside in a minute,” she said, handing him the house key.

Beckett looked conflicted. I knew he didn’t want to leave me alone to deal with Tamsin. But I also knew my sister’s statement brooked no argument.

“Okay, as long as Corin’s all right.” Beckett frowned, looking to me for confirmation.

I nodded and Tamsin patted him on the arm. “She’s a big girl, Beckett.”

After Beckett, Jared, and Ellis went into the house, Tamsin came to join me in the yard.

“This is your first time back here, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Yep.”

“Mine too. It’s strange, isn’t it?” Tamsin stared up at the house, her hands tucked into the pockets of her pale gray trousers. Was she trying to make conversation?

What was her angle?

“You don’t want to go inside?”

“I don’t know,” I told her, not giving her much.

Tamsin scratched the side of her neck, an anxious gesture I recognized from when we were younger.

I hadn’t seen my sister in a while. Over a year at least. She had lost some weight since then. She had a few extra wrinkles and her eyes looked tired. But she was still pretty. She and I looked a lot alike. We had the same brown hair and dark brown eyes. We both sported the same dimple in our chins. But for all our physical similarities, we couldn’t be more different.

“I never wanted to come here again,” Tamsin said after a beat.

“Yeah, I got that impression when you would never come home to visit,” I snapped. I hadn’t meant to be so short with her but she brought out the bitch in me. It must be catching.

“Mom and Dad were great parents. They really were. I loved them so much. But I couldn’t watch them die. So I stayed away. I’m not saying it was the right thing to do. But I was still a kid too, Cor.”

I shook my head. Her excuses were just that—excuses.

We had never really talked about when Mom and Dad were sick. Tamsin seemed to relocate that to the back of her head where you put your most embarrassing memories and random football stats.

It felt strange to be discussing this now.

But it was a long time coming.

Too long.

“I was a kid too,” I spat out.

Tamsin sighed and turned to look at me. “Yeah, I know. And I was a selfish jerk. I left you to deal with all that on your own. And I wasn’t exactly understanding after Dad died. We cope in different ways. You think you’re dying all the time, and I become super bitch and throw myself into school or my job, avoiding the hard stuff. Neither is healthy.”

“Yeah, so we’re both fucked up. I still don’t see what that has to do with selling the house. Why are you so hell-bent on getting rid of it? Don’t you want to hang onto that last connection to Mom and Dad?” I asked her, my anger still simmering away.

“No, I don’t,” she answered shortly, striking me speechless.

“You don’t?” I asked, aghast.

“I don’t need a pile of bricks to hang onto Mom and Dad. And neither do you. If anything, I think this place holds us back. It ties us to a time we shouldn’t want to go back to.”