“Figure out Warren’s secret sauce yet?”
She used her pinky to scoop up a dab of sauce seeping out of her partially eaten taco, tasting it delicately. “There’s salt, cilantro, and lime. But there’s something else . . .”
“All that special chef training and youstillcan’t crack the secret?”
“Don’t you worry. I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
She always had been cute when she was determined. He almost said so aloud, but caught himself before it slipped. “You could just ask Warren.”
Tessa laughed then, the creases between her eyebrows loosening, the tension between them lifting a notch. “Yeah, right. Warren’ll take that secret to the grave and you know it.”
Raven let out a small grumble and stretched in the middle of lounging at their feet, apparently annoyed by the chatter she wasn’t accustomed to during lunch breaks. But also completely indifferent to the feast on the table. She’d never been given table scraps, and Liam didn’t want to start a bad habit. But it made him a little sad, as if the dog had somehow missed out on her childhood.
Tessa must’ve caught him staring. “When did you adopt her?”
“A few months ago.” They’d always talked about getting a dog—an older one who needed a good home for its last few years. He’d been gone too much while in the Army to get one, and when he moved back home, there was always a reason the time wasn’t right. But he found Raven by accident while scrolling for plane parts on Craigslist, and that was it. “Would you believe she has more than eight thousand miles on those paws?”
“No wonder she’s so happy to nap.” A dab of the special halibut taco sauce dribbled onto the corner of her lips. Tessa let out the faintest blush before patting it away with a napkin. The Tessa he knew would’ve swiped at it with a finger and licked it right off. This made Liam frown.
“What happened to the Army?” she asked as she lowered her napkin to her lap.
Liam readjusted himself on the bench, his appetite fading after the first couple of tacos were down. But it wasn’t that his hunger was satisfied. It was the tiniest fear growing that Tessa might not be the same person he remembered. Seventeen wasn’t thirty. Maybe there was less left of the old Tessa Whitmore than he imagined. “Did my time. Got out.”
“Came back here, obviously.”
“Yep.” The dozens of questions he wanted to ask her lingered on the tip of his tongue. But Liam feared the longer they stayed out here, away from distractions, the more she’d pry about a time he wasn’t eager to talk about. His curiosity would have to wait. “Probably better get you to the lodge. Your sisters’ll be surprised to see you.”
Chapter Three
Tessa
When Tessa boarded the plane in Vegas, Liam was the last person she expected to run into in this tiny Alaskan town.He wasn’t supposed to be here. Part of her longed to run as far as she could from Sunset Ridge—fromhim. Too many memories lingered, like a thick, stubborn fog. She tried not thinking of the man sitting in the driver’s seat.
She fought back the reminiscent emotions, but now, the longer she stayed in town, the weaker those barriers would become. Liam had always had that effect on her.
“You miss this place?” Liam shifted the truck into park, finally waking the slumbering dog in her lap. Raven hopped to her feet and perched herself on the center console to scout out their location.
“I’ll let you know.” A mixture of emotions fizzled in her chest at the thought of seeing her sisters. The last time the three of them had been together was for their father’s funeral, and none of the trio had been in overly social moods. She wasn’t naïve; she knew Cadence and Sophie both thought of her as the most coldhearted of the Whitmore sisters. She could be direct, blunt, and sometimes unsympathetic. As a sous chef in New York City, she had to be.
“The door’s unlocked you know,” Liam said, hand on his door.
“Right.”
Palms sweaty and heart rate escalated, Tessa forced herself out of the truck. Her sisters might not be so happy to see her. She was the first one to insist they sell the lodge, as though there was no other option. What if they thought that was all about the money?It wasn’t.
For longer than Tessa cared to admit, she’d yearned for an evening with only the three of them, sipping wine, playing some silly board game, and catching up on life. It was what normal sisters did. Now, with the lodge, maybe they could, too.
A bubble of dread bounced in her stomach, knowing they would eventually ask about the show. She badly wantedsomeoneto confide in. But as the oldest, Tessa felt the bar was set higher for her. Confiding in one or both of her sisters what happened would only put a burden on them they didn’t deserve.
“I’ll get your bags,” Liam said. “Why don’t you head inside?”
It was better, she supposed, to walk through that door alone. Sooner or later, Cadence and Sophie would piece together that she bummed a ride with Liam, and why. But for a few minutes, she wanted to pretend her entire life wasn’t hanging in shreds. In limbo.
Tessa hooked her purse strap over her shoulder and braved the distance to the front door. It wasn’t until she reached the first step that she really stopped to look at the place. Bright flowers lined the deck. The massive structure reached for the sky with its full-length front windows, the golden hue of its logs glistening in the sunlight. How many times had Great-Aunt Patty sat outside with the midnight sun, waiting for Tessa to come back past curfew?
The flicker of Raven trotting a lap around the truck reminded her that she didn’t have long until Liam joined her reunion. She hurried across the deck and went inside before she could chicken out.
Because Tessa spent most of her summers here as a teenager sneaking in back doors and second-story windows, it felt odd to use the front door. The magic of the lodge swept over her as if she were a visitor, not an owner. The vaulted ceilings and wall of glass invited in the sunlight, casting a warm glow on the open room. How long had it been since she booked herself a weekend away in a place like this?Have I ever?
