“Piece of advice, honey. Save yourself some time. People around here don't lock their doors.”
And once I take a step inside, I have more to say about that. “Trust me. No one wants to steal anything here. Come on, let's make this a little easier,” I say, turning her around and standing in front of her. “Hop on,” I say.
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“Hop on. I want a tour, but I don't want you on that ankle any more than you need to be.”
“You're gonna”—before she finishes the sentence, I heave her onto my back—“give me a piggyback ride? You're either a gentleman or a total goofball. I can't decide which.”
“I’ll let you decide.” I smirk, calling back her words to me earlier.
As I carry her down the hall, her arms encircle my neck, as though there's any chance I'd drop her.
“Okay, bedrooms to the left and right.” She points them out, arms waving. Each one looks as dusty as the living room, but the beds are made. And some of the floors were vacuumed a bit.
I think back on the night we met and imagine Tessa and her sisters seeing this place for the first time. “I'm starting to understand why you all drank so much on your birthday.”
“Yeah, the house was a shock. And my sisters can be a lot.”
I grunt, thinking that her sisters couldn’t possibly be a lot compared to my brother, but I’m not about to open that up for discussion.
“You’re not intimidated by the scope of the work here?”
“No, but maybe that’s because I don’t know what I don’t know. The place is growing on me. It has so much character and really good bones.”
“True. I have some familiarity with construction,” I tell her. “Maybe I can help when you get to that stage.”
“If you’re offering, I’ll take all the help I can get.”
As we pause in each doorway, she points out various details. “Each of my sisters had a room here. Hannah insisted on the one with the bay window. Dylan asked for a bunkbed and filled the bottom bunk with stuffed animals.” She sighs, as though visiting a happy time. “But it’s been years since anyone has used the place.”
That explains why I didn’t know her family owned it. Ever since I bought the property next door, there's never been a soul around here, and the only public information shows the property as owned by a trust. I vaguely remember kids playing here once, but in recent years, everyone assumed the owners were absentee investors.
She flings a hand to the side. “And that was my room.”
I’m not about to breeze by that one. I walk over to the bed, which is neatly made and looks like all the linens on it have been washed. I want to know her better, and somehow standing in the room that was hers as a kid makes me feel something. It’s probably the wrong thing, given our agreement to act like responsible adults, so I try to rein it in.
I try not to feel attracted to her because we’re wrong for each other. Right?
Okay, fine. I’ll work harder on convincing myself later.
CHAPTER 16
Tessa
I should feelembarrassed about letting Fitz see the ranch house in its current state, but I have bigger issues on my mind right now than the cloud of dust that slowly settles in the room. Fitz takes a look around and lets out a slow whistle.
“Wow, Duchess, like what you've done with the place.”
“Very funny,” I say. “I hired someone to give the place an initial cleaning, not that you can tell.” There must be an open window somewhere, and this area gets a little windy.
“You plan on renovating this place all by yourself,” he asks. “Gonna take some heavy lifting.”
Under different circumstances, the rumble of his voice might heat me from the inside out. But his skepticism hits me and ignites a different kind of fire. I hate when people underestimate me.
“You think I can't do it?” I ask.
“I just asked if you plan to do it by yourself.”
