“You’d do that?”
“Of course.”
Something in her cracked, just a little, and she smiled a smile that brought tears to my eyes for a second.
“You remind me of someone,” she said softly. “Someone good… one of the kindest women I’ve ever known, actually. Mrs. Stonewood… Ben’s mother.”
A warmth spread through my ribs that had nothing to do with the oven preheating behind us.
Then Lucia’s smile dimmed. “You should know… the staff likes you. And the groundskeeper especially.”
My heartbeat stumbled.
Jacob.
“He’s a good man,” she said. “Lonely and far too good for most of the women here.”
I swallowed hard.
“I… I know. I think he’s probably too good for me, too, if we’re being honest.”
Her smile turned sly.
“He watches you the way my husband used to look at me when we first met.”
My face heated instantly.
“Lucia…”
“I’m old, not blind,” she teased. “And I know chemistry when I see it.”
I didn’t know how to respond because she wasn’t wrong, and the heat rushing through my stomach only confirmed what I wasn’t ready to say out loud.
But before I could come up with an answer that wouldn’t get me eliminated for falling in love with the wrong person, the doors slammed open.
Four contestants stumbled in, frantic and angry.
“We’re not doing this,” Thirteen snapped. “Where’s the food delivery?”
“There is no delivery,” Lucia said patiently.
“Well call one!” Thirteen crossed her arms and glared at Lucia.
“It’s unsafe for anyone to be on the road in these conditions,” Lucia said.
“So?”
Ten snorted and rolled her eyes.
“So? So someone could skid off the road and wreck if they tried to deliver during this ice storm, that’s what.”
Ten threw her hands up.
“I don’t care if someone skids off the road. I’m not eating peasant food.”
Lucia stiffened, sucking in a sharp breath.
Something cold unfurled inside me.
