Hope that she might keep her return a secret dimmed as Liam lowered himself to peer in through the window. Time had only done favors to the man. More than stubble dusted his tanned chin, but the beard only made him more attractive than she remembered. “You’re still just as stubborn as I remember.”
Tessa let out a sigh. “What are you doing out here anyway?” Last she knew, this was a private road. Trespassers weren’t exactly welcomed. She forced herself to look away from those mesmerizing green eyes. They’d been her greatest weakness that summer. Her gaze fell to his thick forearms resting on the car door.Big mistake.
“Nice seeing you, too.” His eyes traveled up and down her body, quickly the first time. Leisurely the second. “Not hurt, are you?”
“No.”Just my stupid pride.
“You sure?”
“I was outside the car—standing—before that creature tried to charge me.” Tessa unbuckled the other ankle boot. She’d be better off barefoot even if Liam wasn’t holding the opposite one hostage.
“Ed.”
“Excuse me?”
“That was Ed.”
“Am I supposed to think it’s cute that you named a moose?” Annoyed that Liam still hung in the open window dangling her shoe, Tessa attempted to exit the passenger door. But it only opened a couple of inches before it caught the embankment.
“I didn’t name him. Ed’s our moose.”
“This feels like I’m in the Twilight Zone,” she mumbled.
Liam opened the driver’s side door and stepped back. “Need a ride into town?”
If there had been any other exit option—even climbing through a sunroof the convertible didn’t offer—Tessa would’ve leapt at it. Instead, she was forced to shimmy on her rear toward Liam. “What about the car?” She cringed, hating to think how much this would cost. She’d been the brilliant one to waive the special coverage when she rented the car. And because she’d lived in New York City for the past five years and didn’t own a vehicle, she didn’t have insurance of her own.
“I can come back. Tow it to my shop.”
“Your shop.” He used to talk about someday taking over his grandpa’s auto body shop. Maybe he’d done it. Tessa had no idea how long he’d been out of the military, or what he had managed to accomplish in the years that passed.
“Yeah, I can get the truck out here later.”
She almost asked himwhyhe would, but she knew. Liam would never turn away someone in need. It was one of the things she had loved the most about him. “I can have someone else do it. I don’t want to be a bother.”
“It’s no problem.” He held out her shoe. “As it turns out, I have extra time on my hands today.”
She started to tell him no again, but a dog barked from his truck. A mostly black husky with flares of white and gray poked its head out the window, the tallest ears she’d ever seen pointed toward the sky.
“Why don’t you go wait in the truck? Raven won’t bite. She’s harmless.”
“I need to get my stuff.” She’d only been allowed to bring two suitcases to the reality show—two that had been thoroughly checked upon arrival. The memory of the staff riffling through all of their luggage flashed through her mind. For the hundredth time, Tessa wondered how her ex had managed to sneak that recipe in; the same one that got her booted for cheating. The suitcases sat in the trunk now; one of them held her knives. No way she was leaving those behind.
“I’ll grab them,” Liam said after Tessa’s attempts to pop the trunk with the door lever failed.
“I didn’t hit the trunk.” She pulled on the lever some more, as if repeated attempts might change the result. “It should open.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t deploy the airbag. Tessa, let me.”
Tessa wanted to argue, out ofprinciple, and almost launched into a small tirade. But she was exhausted. The sooner her suitcases were loaded, the sooner she could find refuge at the lodge.
Raven let out another bark, her long furry tail in full motion. She looked like the perfect snuggle-monster—much more appealing than an argument right now. Tessa wondered whether Liam would notice if she borrowed his dog for a few days. “Thanks.”
Refusing to look over her shoulder at the man with too many sculpted muscles, Tessa focused on the happy dog hanging halfway out of the massive truck’s window. If Tessa lived to be a hundred, she would never understand why some men had to have trucks taller than skyscrapers. The floor of the cab went clear up to her hips.
As Liam worked at the trunk of her car, she catapulted herself inside the cab.
“Hi, Raven.” The cheerful dog stood on the center console in greeting, licking Tessa on the cheek once she was settled in her seat. She took a cautious step onto Tessa’s thigh. “C’mon, girl. Lap dogs are my favorite.”
