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“True. But I could be sitting in a lodge with blankets and fuzzy hats and spiked hot chocolate.”
“Adorable fuzzy hats,” Tessie adds wistfully. Then she shoots a narrowed gaze at Ash. “Think of it as payback for ditching me on my babymoon.”
Ash rolls her eyes. “I will never hear the end of it, will I? Even if you are carrying the second of Solomon’s brawny heathen spawn.”
A low rumble of a growl. “I heard that.”
Solomon comes into view, leaning in from one side, his burly flannel-clad shoulder blocking Tessie’s face.
The way Solomon sets a plate of food in front of his wife, then sweeps a kiss over her lips, makes Ash’s cheeks warm. Her cousin looks for all the world like a lovesick teenager. It’s impressive. Clearly, Solomon Wilder has mellowed Tessie out with that extra-large dick of his.
“God, I’m such a whore for your love story,” Ash muses.
Tessie laughs. Ash smiles.
Love.
It’s all she ever wanted for her cousin.
Herself? She’ll steer clear, thank you very much.
Solomon sweeps a lock of hair behind Tessie’s ear, and that’s when she catches a glimpse of the dark circles under her cousin’s eyes.
Ash frowns, and a niggle of worry worms its way through her. “Are you sure you’re sleeping enough?” she asks, suddenly hating the distance between them. “What’s wrong?”
Scowling, Tessie presses palms to her stomach. “You’re as bad as Solomon.”
“She’s fine,” Solomon says, giving Ash a look of mutually assured overprotection.
Memories of that time, Tessie near death, always leave her feeling panicky and breathless and anxious. The closest to a breakdown she’s ever come. Her own death doesn’t scare her. But her cousin? The one person she needs in this life, the only person who’s ever understood her, who never questions her weird, who loves her fiercely even when she doesn’t love herself? Her close call almost ended Ash.
Nothing will ever happen to Tessie again. Not on her or Solomon’s watch.
Tessie smiles after her mountain man, then turns her attentionback to Ash. “Are you okay?” Her voice gets hushed. Her brown eyes burn with worry. “Going to Hawaii?”
Ash’s stomach plummets, then snaps back into place. Hawaii is one of many bad callbacks to her relationship with Jakob. Do not pass go. Do not flash back. Do not let your reptilian brain run down that track.
She swallows hard.
“I’ll be fine,” she says. “Of course, I hate that we’re over the ocean. Have you seen my algorithm?”
“You almost went to Mexico,” Tessie points out.
“Mexico was different. And that was for you.”
“You’re there for your client, butyoutry to have fun too. Don’t reserve your amazing good moods exclusively for me. Don’t forget sugar. Find a graveyard. Oh! Better, a haunted lighthouse. And call me every day so I know you haven’t fallen into a volcano.”
Ash smiles at Tessie’s frazzled mom energy.
“Go on a date while you’re there. Have fun with a hot surf instructor.”
“I don’t have time for dates.”
Tessie wiggles her brows. “Just the dead?”
Ash looks down at the grave beneath her boots. “Something like that.”
Suitcase wheels screech across tile floor. Overhead, fluorescent terminal lights hum. The heavy carry-on and roller bag weigh Ash down like anchors.
