“Hey,” said Sophie, popping out from the window nook, a phone cradled in her hand.
“You okay?”
“Lawyers,” Sophie muttered. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
Tessa wasn’t so sure about that, but right now she couldn’t process the whirling thoughts in her own head, much less add another layer. Later, she would sit Sophie down and make sure her ex wasn’t giving her any grief. She’d made a couple of powerful friends in New York, and those connections might come in handy.
“I need to make a phone call,” Tessa said, as if explaining her invasion.
“Oh, I have some unfortunate news.”
Tessa lifted the key to her lock. “What?”
“We needed your room.”
“So I need to move out?”
“You already did.”
Tessa blinked at Sophie, experiencing trouble processing her words. “Where’s my stuff?”
“You’re bunking with Cadence. Everything is upstairs. Aunt Patty’s old room. Sorry we didn’t tell you earlier. We forgot until the guest called to verify their reservation and requested an early check-in.”
Tessa swallowed, wondering if Sophie had found the spare ring of keys buried in her suitcase. Considering her sister was able to get into her room, there had to be another set, or at least a skeleton key. “It’s no problem. Really.”
“You okay?”
“Nope. Not really.” Tessa gave a shrug. “But I have something to do. Talk later?”
Sophie’s expression was riddled with concern. “Sure.” It only made Tessa more eager to flee.
Tessa flew up the stairs to the second floor. Since arriving in Sunset Ridge, she’d been so caught up in her own agenda that she hadn’t even bothered to go upstairs in the lodge she owned. Besides Aunt Patty’s master suite, there were also guest rooms and a couple of private nooks she used to frequent when guests weren’t using them. One offered a way onto the eave of the roof—an easy way to sneak out.
Her suitcases were neatly stacked in a corner, her cell phone resting on top.
It was stupid to call Janet now, especially since there’d been no activity on her phone whatsoever since she last checked it. But Tessa had to try.
“No service?” She held her phone up toward the window, as high as she could, and still nothing. “I thought Cadence said this was one of the only spots in town . . .” Tessa searched her memories of other nearby high points. “Of course.”
She could be a sensible person—an adult—and use the back door. But the risk of running into Liam on the way there felt too high. Summoning her inner teenager, Tessa tiptoed to the end of the hall and snaked a right into a nook heavily decorated in bears. “Alwaysbears.” She glanced around, ensuring the coast was clear, then undid the window latch.
Tessa lowered herself to the steepled eave until her foot caught on a small landing. From here, the ground was a short hop down. Though she wasn’t quite as agile as she’d once been, she landed without a stumble.
Raising her phone one more time, Tessa sighed. She wasn’t crazy about running off into the woods to the lookout point—not with the chance she might encounter a bear—but for some reason, her signal wasn’t returning. “I’m making that call,” she muttered, convinced that her lack of notifications might have something to do with the no service warning.
Still in Cadence’s loaned sneakers, Tessa began to jog. Then run. Her feet kept her going until she reached the lookout point. “Aha! Three bars.” Before notifications stood a chance to flood in, she dialed Janet from her call history—the only number she’d called in the last several weeks—and waited.
“Tessa, hi.”
“Hey, Janet. Just my daily check-in call.”
“Yeah.” Uneasiness dripped from Janet’s tone, warning Tessa something was wrong. More than Tessa not getting called back. She wondered if Janet would—orcould—tell her.
“What is it?”
“You’re not going to like it.”
Tessa had already envisioned all the worst-case scenarios. Outside of America thinking she really had cheated and Derek winning the whole show, she couldn’t come up with anything that might be worse. Janet had agreed with her, too. This had to be something else. “Just spit it out. If you can.”
