CHAPTER 5: GRAYSON

After Nash's impromptu celebration ends at three in the morning, Jameson proudly lists the night's exploits: ice-climbing, a skywalk, a speedboat, mopeds, clubbing, and a medieval crypt. Xander joins in the joking, while Grayson notes that Nash probably could have done without being duct-taped. Nash quietly repeats the tree house rule that what happens there stays there, mindful that Avery and Libby are asleep upstairs.

Grayson congratulates Nash on the engagement and means it, though the moment underscores Grayson's sense that others are moving forward while he remains stuck. After Jameson and Xander go to bed, Nash keeps Grayson behind and hands him the box containing their grandmother's black opal ring. Grayson asks why Nash is entrusting it to him rather than Jameson, and Nash answers by challenging Grayson to imagine that someday, with someone, there could be a future for him too.

Hours later, Grayson wakes with Nash's question still in his mind. Grayson hides the ring box in a secret compartment in his luggage, framing the act as protection rather than sentiment. The gesture reveals Grayson's instinct to guard what matters while keeping emotional distance from it.

On the terrace, Grayson finds Avery awake at breakfast. Avery gives Grayson coffee, and the two discuss the previous night's legends, Jameson's secrecy, and whether Jameson is spiraling. Avery says Jameson is not spiraling but is searching for something, avoiding something, or both; when Avery turns the question on Grayson, Grayson gives his habitual answer that he is fine.

Xander bursts onto the terrace after Grayson warns Avery to destroy Xander's supposed book if she sees it, and Jameson follows, teasing Grayson and mentioning Avery's new meeting schedule in London. Grayson immediately asks for details, but before Avery can answer, Grayson receives a call from someone important enough to make him leave the terrace. Alone inside, Grayson answers by assuming there is a situation.