“That’s not what I meant. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a blizzard outside,” Micah informed her sarcastically, only realizing after he made the statement that she wouldn’t hear the censure in his voice.
She shrugged. “I’ve lived here all my life, and I have an apartment near the Peninsula. I knew the roads would be okay here since the Sinclairs have their own plow service.”
“And you call me the daredevil,” he grumbled, not quite understanding how she could see to drive on the roads right now. She was right. The road was constantly being cleared, but the visibility was almost zero.
“I know the roads here like the back of my hand. I could probably drive them blind.”
She was already driving them deaf, and he shuddered at the prospect of her being on the roads at all right now.
“It’s not safe to be outside right now,” he told her irritably.
“I’m not outside right now,” she returned reasonably.
“I’ll go get dressed, and then I’ll drive you home. The house is fine. You don’t have to clean right now.” Having her around would distract the hell out of him.
“It’s fine. I’ll go.” Tessa hurriedly gathered her cleaning products and shot out the door.
Micah sprinted to his bedroom and pulled on a clean pair of jeans and an old sweatshirt. He was taming his hair with his fingers as he walked back out to the living room.
Everything was quiet; the only sound he heard was the whistling of the wind.
“Tessa,” he bellowed angrily before realizing that she wouldn’t hear him. “Fuck!”
Micah tugged on his boots and raced outside via the front door. There were no unidentified vehicles in Jared’s driveway.
Tessa was gone.
CHAPTER 10
I have to tell her. I will tell her—very soon.
Evan sat in his downstairs office with Randi’s champion farter dog, wondering when in the hell he was going to tell her that he was her mystery emailer. He wanted to, he needed to, but what if they couldn’t communicate as well face-to-face as they did via email?
What if she panicked? What if she thought he was a jerk for not telling her that he, S., was actually Evan Sinclair long ago? Maybe she’d feel betrayed that he hadn’t corrected her assumption that S. was just some person who worked for the Sinclair Fund. Okay . . . maybe he’d even lied to let her keep thinking he was a normal guy. He’d lose both of them, his best friend and the woman he wanted more than he’d ever wanted another female in his life. Okay, yes, they were the same person, but that made it all the more difficult for Evan to tell the truth. There was twice as much at stake.
Evan had already blended the two women together, seeing so much of the Randi he was getting to know in person in her mysterious emails.
Heaving a frustrated sigh, he leaned back in his comfortable office chair and put his hand on Lily’s head, stroking her silky fur without even thinking about it. Randi had fallen asleep on the couch after working on some things for her teaching job, and Lily had followed him down to his office. He was beginning to become accustomed to having a dog in the house, and, to his surprise, he was starting to like Lily’s company. It was funny how the animal seemed ecstatically happy just because she got affection and food. Really, dogs were fairly easy to please.
Evan didn’t want to admit he’d spent far too long just watching Randi sleep, fighting the temptation to touch her, move to the couch and strip off her clothing so that he could slake the frustrated, animalistic urges he kept experiencing to claim her—hard and completely.
“I’ll tell her pretty soon,” he whispered huskily to Lily. The dog looked up at him, her eyes dark and serious as she cocked her head sideways as though she understood. “Is she going to be pissed?” he questioned the canine as Lily looked at him with an empathic gaze.
Fuck! I can’t believe I’m talking to a dog.
Evan knew he had it pretty bad if he was using a golden retriever as his advice counselor. But he was way out of his comfort zone right now, and he was uncertain as to what the hell to do.
He could talk to his brothers, but they’d probably give him hell, and rightfully so. When they were wooing their women, he hadn’t exactly been there for them and sympathetic. He’d been the one to try to discourage both Dante and Grady from marrying so quickly, and he’d been a real bastard to Jared when Evan had actually wanted him to get together with Mara.
Hope had told him to fess up to Randi immediately and see where things went from there. She said if they already had good communication, things would evolve.
He hadn’t taken his sister’s advice, holding off on telling Randi the truth. The longer he procrastinated, the harder it was going to be to blurt out the secret. He knew it, but his concern about her reaction held him back.