How she wished his words were as true as they promised. She could walk away from all her hard work—all the hours she’d worked herself to the point of exhaustion—but to what? Open a small restaurant inside the lodge? Offer room service? She’d be the laughingstock of the viewers. They’d think she admitted defeat, curled up into a ball and threw in the towel when things got tough.
“Liam—”
Distance didn’t exist between them anymore. He set the sack of parts down. His chest brushed against her, and his arms cradled her in his embrace. Tessa didn’t know when it happened, but she could no more tear herself away than she could stop the rain from coming.
A drizzle tickled her cheek, warning them that the forecasted precipitation had finally reached Sunset Ridge. But neither made a move toward his truck for shelter.
“Stay, Tess.”
Any sensibility she had left vanished when Liam leaned down. Her gaze locked on his lips, and the only thing she could think about was whether his beard would tickle when she kissed him. Because she was most definitely going to kiss him.
The drizzle turned to raindrops, and still they didn’t move from the dock. Shelter was a faraway concern.
Unable to handle the suspense, Tessa reached both her hands to his cheeks and pulled him the rest of the way to her lips.
Every cell in her body tingled to life. Memories of kissing Liam had nothing on reality. Their lips fused as if nothing else was promised but this very moment. The world spun around them, rain fell in droves, and still they kissed.
Chapter Thirteen
Tessa
Tessa’s lips still buzzed long after Liam dropped her off at the lodge. They’d both been drenched by the rain, but he didn’t come in to change. “I have a dry set of clothes at the shop. I better get your car fixed.”
She almost told him to forget it. Wait until Monday. Any excuse to kiss him again before her senses kicked in and warned her to keep her distance. But the small chance she might need the car sooner—and the fear of what that first kiss, let alone any others, might mean—made Tessa choose silence. “I’ll see you tonight?”
“We’ll see how late it gets.”
It was better this way, she decided as she slipped inside and watched his taillights disappear into the foggy rain. Had they waited even another thirty minutes to leave Anchorage, they might’ve been stranded. She didn’t need a pilot’s license to know flying in low visibility was a terrible idea.
The click-clack of claws sounded. Raven greeted her with a happy tail, leaning against Tessa’s damp pant leg until she got her neck rub. “You’re going to get all wet.”
Though the main room was lit by the glow of the antler chandelier, it was empty. Tessa had hardly caught more than a glimpse of any of their guests, which was not the way she remembered it when Aunt Patty ran things. On rainy days, guests usually congregated in the main room. Of course, if she’d been around more maybe that would have made a difference in her perception.
But no guests loitering meant no guests to feed. She frowned.
“Guess it is early afternoon, isn’t it, girl?” Tessa gave Raven a second good rub on the back of her neck after she removed her wet shoes and left them in the coat nook off the front entry.
She couldn’t do much about her wet clothes without changing, but at least she wasn’t dripping water. If she did that to Aunt Patty’s wood floors, the woman might make a trip back from the dead to haunt her. Tessa had enough on her plate to worry about without a ghost too.
“Hope you’ve been a good girl today.” Tessa knelt down on her knees, petting the husky with both hands. Had her clothes not been sticking to her skin, she would’ve hugged the dog. She needed to hugsomeone.
She tiptoed across the empty room, maneuvering around the sofas so she could steal a chocolate on the way. The bowl sat next to the now-empty scone pan. Only crumbs remained.At least I got something right.
Intending to sneak straight off to her room and change into dry clothes before she had to face either of her sisters, voices in the kitchen caused her to pause just out of sight. Raven stopped right at her heel and sat.What a great dog.
“You didn’t have to do this, Tillie!” Sophie’s gracious voice echoed. “You spoil us so much already.”
“You know me, I can’t help but bake, bake, bake!” The woman’s laugh reverberated from the kitchen. “Plus, how else was I going to introduce my son, Denver? Too bad Cadence and Tessa are out, but you’re who I wanted him to meet anyway. She used to live in Hawaii, Denver. Isn’t that something?”
Curiosity at its height, Tessa poked her head in the far doorway.
She hadn’t seen Tillie Grant in years. Outside of the graying hair and new shade of rimmed glasses, the woman looked the same. The nights Tessa had been caught sneaking out—or sneaking back in—Tillie had been sitting on the deck, sharing a glass of wine with Patty.
Tessa shook her head now, wondering what lack of sense she had at that age. The sun never set in the summer here; how she thought she could sneak around in the cover of darkness that didn’t exist amused her. Add to her misguided teenaged logic that Tillie had better hearing than most dogs, and it was a wonder Tessa didn’t spend her entire summer grounded.
“He just got out of the Army last month,” Tillie continued to brag.
A further stretch of her neck revealed that aside from Tillie and her son, the only other person in the kitchen was Sophie, who was sporting quite the blushing cheeks. Tessa’s gaze bounced between her sister and Denver. Was there . . .aspark?
