Footsteps echoed on the other side of his door, causing his heart to race. He tried not to wake Raven as he patted the mattress in search of the remote to cut the volume. He muted the TV and waited for the door across the hall to close. Tessa was the only other person this far down the hallway, unless a guest wandered down here in curiosity.
A soft knock sounded at the door, and Liam muttered under his breath. Whoever it was probably had good intentions. But he didn’t have the ability to pause live TV in here, and he couldn’t exactly ask the knocker to come back during a commercial break.
“Just a second,” he called, happy he’d remembered to bolt the door. He shimmied off the bed without disturbing Raven’s slumber. She curled herself into a ball and continued sleeping as he answered the door.
“Sorry to disturb you,” said Sophie, lifting up a stack of green towels. “We got a late start on the laundry.”
“Thanks, Sophie.” Liam fought a yawn and lost. The warm towels in his hands only made his urge to sleep stronger. He hoped tonight would bring him a solid night of rest, because tomorrow he had a full day of important plans. “Hope I wasn’t too rude after dinner.”
She offered him a kind smile. Sophie was good at those. “Not at all.”
“Will you need my room this weekend?” he asked, hoping not. He had offered to stay with his parents any weekend that the lodge needed the space. But that was before everything changed.
“No, you can stay. Tessa’ll be getting the boot.”
“She can have—”
“You’re a paying guest. She’ll sleep in Cadence’s room.” She winked at him. “Don’t spoil the surprise, though.”
Liam let out a gentle laugh at that, because it was his only defense for giving in to his fears. The unspoken question lingered in the space between them.Will Tessa even stay the weekend?“Wouldn’t dream of ruining your fun.”
“Need anything?” Sophie asked.
“All set, thanks.”
Sophie pulled the door closed partway, then paused with her fingers still curled around the knob. “You’re not the only one who wants her to stay, Liam. We do, too.” With that, she left him standing on the other side of his door, holding the small stack of warm towels.
* * *
Tessa
“You really do laundryeverynight?” Tessa asked Sophie as she shoveled a second load of bath towels out of the dryer and dropped them into a laundry basket to fold.
Though they’d spent a portion of their time in Vegas cleaning and prepping kitchens—and dorm rooms—Tessa and the other contestants never had to do their own laundry. It was one perk to make up for the floor scrubbing, oven cleaning, andsomany dishes. She thought she’d hate the chore tonight, but oddly, she found it therapeutic.
“We don’t have to worry about running out that way.” Sophie rolled a basket on wheels toward the washing machine. “I don’t mind. Gives me something to keep my mind occupied.”
Tessa almost asked Sophie if she missed her comfortable life in Hawaii, but that question might be more complicated to answer than either could handle. With her sister so content to move linens around the laundry room, it was hard to imagine her married to a ridiculously rich man who hired not one but three housecleaners. At least during Tessa’s visit to Hawaii, Sophie didn’t have to lift a finger if she didn’t want to. Her ex-husband usually stopped her if she tried.
“How do we only have one washer and one dryer?” Tessa wondered aloud. “It’ll only get worse when the place is packed.”
“I know. But Aunt Patty made it work. We can, too.”
Tessa’d been avoiding most thoughts that centered around her late great-aunt. She and Patty had butted heads quite a bit that summer, and she never truly apologized for being a bratty teenager. Add to that she was the first to insist they sell the lodge instead of giving it a shot, and Tessa had a solid dose of guilt churning her stomach.
“Are you happy here?” Tessa asked, eager to rid the unwanted thoughts from her head. She asked a question she was pretty sure she knew the answer to. Gone were the worry lines Sophie had during their video conferences last month. She seemed content here, in her element.
Sophie reached for a dry towel and started folding. “I’m happier here scrubbing toilets and doing laundry than I ever was with Blake. Sometimes you just don’t realize how lonely you’ve been until you have some distance.”
Tessa’s relationship with Derek didn’t have substance or depth, something she’d been blind to in New York. The truth had seeped out over time in Vegas. But being in Sunset Ridge—around her sisters—it was crystal clear that she never loved Derek. She’d been lying to herself if she ever thought she did.
“You can see yourself creating a life here?” Tessa pressed on.
Sophie stopped in the middle of folding and looked Tessa right in the eye. “I already have.”
“Are you worried Blake might change his mind? About Caroline?”
“We’ve talked an awful lot about me tonight,” Sophie deflected. “What about you? If the show doesn’t pan out, do you think you could see yourself staying with us?”
