Happily Ever His (Singletree #1)

her? Before?” Her tone showed that she wasn’t going to press, wasn’t going to ask why Mom had left. Relief wound its way through me, but so did a vague disappointment. Why did I want to tell Tess everything?
“We baked a little. Cooked, too.” We sat down, neither of us verbalizing our intention to do so. But as with all things with Tess, I was finding we seemed to agree naturally, to be in the same mental space, maybe. “She wasn’t a very happy person, I guess. So I don’t have a lot of memories of doing things together. A few.”
“And cooking is one of them? So maybe that’s why you like to do it?”
I took a deep breath, let it out. This wasn’t stuff I was used to talking about. The facts, maybe. But not my feelings about those facts. “Maybe. I never really thought about it.”
She nodded. I wondered if she was contemplating what we had in common—we’d both lost mothers. Though I thought Juliet had told me they’d lost both their parents.
“What about you?” I asked her, realizing she might stand up and walk away. I was asking a very personal question of a woman I barely knew. “Do you have happy memories? Of your parents?”
Her eyes met mine then, and I felt myself leaning toward her. I wanted something I couldn’t define, something she made me feel. A sensation ran through me I could only classify as yearning, and I wondered if I’d ever actually felt it before.
“I do,” she said, and a little smile crossed her lips, brightening the golden eyes. “A lot. Me, Juliet, my parents. We were happy,” she said. She didn’t volunteer more, and I didn’t push, and for a while we sat silently. I thought about my mom, and imagined maybe Tess was thinking of her own childhood.
“So when you’re working,” I began. “You kayak? Juliet said you were an adventure guide.”
She nodded, the eyes brightening again. “That’s right. Kayaks, canoes, stand up paddleboards. If you can do it on the water, I’m on it.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Anything? Water skiing? Snorkeling?”
“Yes and yes.” She rose to my challenge, her chest pushing forward as she crossed her arms.
“What else?”
A laugh escaped her. “Name it. We just started doing yoga on stand up paddleboards.”
“That sounds more like swimming.” I imagined myself attempting a yoga pose and toppling off the board into the water.
“That’s why we wear life jackets,” she said, smiling. “Want to try it?”
I wanted to try pretty much anything that would find me with Tess Manchester wearing a bathing suit. “Sure.”
She grinned, but then her face dropped. “We’ve got these cakes to finish,” she said. “And by the time they’re done, it’ll be getting dark.”
My heart jumped a bit at her clear disappointment. Did Tess want to spend time with me the way I found myself looking for reasons to be with her? “I’d love to try it sometime,” I said, realizing I was making plans again. My stomach saved me, offering a distraction with an audible growl.
“Maybe we should eat something.”
“I’m not super hungry,” she said, “but I can find something for you.”
“I’m always hungry.” I grinned at her. “I can hunt for a snack if that’s okay. You don’t have to go to any trouble.”
“No, you sit. I have some crab cakes in here, I think.” Tess was already pulling a plate from the refrigerator.
I sat up straighter. Yum. “Crab cakes?”
Tess brought the plate my way to show me the tasty round mounds and my mouth began watering. “Did you make these?” I asked her.
“I make them every week. Gran likes to have them pretty regularly. Do they look okay to you?”
“They look amazing.”
She heated them for a minute or two in the microwave, and I watched her move around the kitchen, trying not to be obvious. She was graceful and strong, and I wanted to know everything about her. After a moment, Tess put the plate down and then sat across from me, watching me as I began to eat.
“This is amazing,” I told Tess, pointing my fork at the crab cake on my plate.
“Well, it is what we’re known for,” she said, her voice almost a mocking song. “You come to Maryland, you get crabs.”
I raised an eyebrow, unable to keep the grin from my face. “That should be the state motto.”
She laughed, and a blush crawled up her neck, spreading over the line of her delicate jaw. When she laughed, it was a breathy sound that pulled at something inside me and made my stomach jump. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
I chuckled and kept eating, but sensed she had something else to say. I glanced at her, a silent invitation to talk.
“So this afternoon,” she began. “In the tent …”
She was going to ask me about those few heady seconds when she’d been so close I could just catch that delicate jasmine scent coming from her skin, when I’d let my eyes drop to her plump pink lips, slid my hands around her little waist, and actually thought about kissing her. I’d been a second away from letting instinct take charge—when my better judgment had kicked in. Or maybe Tess had stepped away.
Either way, I was not here to romance hot little sisters. I was here to get the boost being associated with Juliet would give my career. I was here to be her costar in the promised film being cast when we returned. Even if my heart had begun trying to elbow my mind out of the way to take charge.
“Yeah, so, glad I could help with that,” I said quickly, hoping she’d go with it.
She shook her head, her adorable brow wrinkling and a breathy laugh coming from her that made me wonder what other breathy sounds I could get her to make. “Okay.” She frowned, seemed to decide something. “Yeah. Thanks for helping.” She stared at her cup for a long minute.
Then she set her teacup on the