Page 40 of Stripping Bare
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The motorized whirringsound of the window shades rising woke Tessa as sunlight angled across the bed. The mattress in Jonah’s guest room must’ve been made of stardust and gold. She would’ve sworn she wouldn’t get a minute of sleep last night, but she’d dropped off almostimmediately.
Surprisingly, Badger was still snoozing in his kennel this morning, so Tessa slid out of bed. She stretched, working out some of the leftover tension from last night. A few knee kicks and elbow strikes warmed her muscles and encouraged the blood to flow throughout her body. She had a feeling she would need all her strengthtoday.
The view from outside called to her, and she wandered to one of the windows. The sun was just peeking over the ridge, sending its warming rays through the bare branches of the maples and oaks that covered Jonah’s mountain. She’d grown up in Carolina, so seeing the sun and the mountains shouldn’t take her breath away, but it did. Even in the heart of winter when everything was brittle and brown anddying.
But life was still out there, some of it dormant until the right amount of sunshine and warmth camealong.
People were much the same. When life became too harsh, they protected themselves. But the strong ones, the hardiest ones—like Doris and her children—would bloomagain.
Sometimes the flowers would return a little more ragged than before. But they came back, year afteryear.
Blossoming again was so much easier with the right soil and sunlight andcare.
What would it feel like to be the sunlight for those tender and broken buds? If yesterday was any indication, it would beexhausting.
But for the first time she considered that it might also beexhilarating.
Something to think about later, after she dealt with the immediate problems in her ownlife.
A high-pitched doggie yawn came from Badger’s direction, and Tessa crouched down to open his kennel. He went through his hilarious yoga stretches—a true downward dog and some kind of back foot dragging cobrapose.
She shrugged into a short robe, grabbed her laptop, then clipped on Badger’s leash. His toenails made a pleasant tip-tapping as they headed downstairs. On the first floor, the sun had found its way over the ridge and was splashing its golden aura over the wooden floors. But otherwise, the large open-concept living-dining-kitchen area wasempty.
The security system was off so after taking Badger outside for a quick pit stop, Tessa went to the kitchen and fixed his food bowl. Remembering where Jonah stored the tea, she slid open the drawer. Inside she found not only Pu-erh cacao citrus, but also another half dozen of her favoriteblends.
What reason would he have had to stock her favorite teas? The man wasmaddening.
And apparently she was fascinated by hismadness.
Once she had a cup of tea, she sat at the kitchen island to take care of some business. This week, she was supposed to present consulting proposals to three companies—two in Asheville and one in Charlotte. And even though her mind was still ticking over how she felt after helping at the shelter yesterday, she had to protect her professionalreputation.
Thankfully, her contacts in the companies’ HR departments were understanding that she’d run into some moving snags and were willing to reschedule her meetings until next week. The weight that took off her shoulders was immense. But it meant she had only a few days to get control of the e-mail blackmailsituation.
Maybe Lauren had calmed down enough to talk with her. She dialed and the call connected. But it disconnected immediately, as if Lauren had screened an unwanted solicitationcall.
Okay, she’d head in a different direction, then. Next up, she logged into her banking app to check her accounts. Still no unusual deposits, which might’ve been a good way to track the hacker. Surely if money was deposited, he would want to take it out. Or maybe he’d set up another account altogether. And she had no way to trace that, not unless they figured out who the hackerwas.
Last night, Jonah had promised to help her hunt down the person. “So let’s go find him somewhere in this huge house, KingB.”
As if he owned the place, Badger trotted toward a hallway leading to the one-story portion of the house. The hallway itself was lined with windows on the east side, making it a virtual sunroom. He gave her a doggie smile and stretched out in a sunbeam. Give him three minutes and he’d be snoringblissfully.
Tessa let him sun himself and moved on in her search for Jonah. The first door she came to opened into a mudroom the size of Rhode Island. It connected to a four-car garage, and a flip of the light switch revealed that Jonah hadn’t denied himself a few nice toys—his Tesla, several other vehicles, half a dozen mountain bikes, and twoATVs.
Back inside, she found a game room guys of any age would kill for. A pool table, air hockey, foosball, and more classic video games than she could count. Pacman, Galaga, DonkeyKong.
Was Jonah Steele a man or a perpetual fourteen-year-old boy? Based on the things he made her feel, she’d have to come down on the side of full-grownman.
She eased open the second door off the hallway to find another large space, but this one looked like NASA Mission Control. Massive curved screens on the walls, long tables with blinking equipment, and racks filled with other bits of metal and wire. The low-level humming from the electronics was strangelycalming.
But the man sitting in the middle of it all, surrounded by a wraparound workstation and cradled in some kind of high-tech recliner, did not make Tessa feel the least bitcalm.
In fact, he made her restless andneedy.
Jonah wore headphones that had to be noise-canceling, because he never glanced her way. His face was a study of concentration as his fingers flew around the keyboard suspended in front of him with theclick, click, clickof a tap dancer on fastforward.
His facial scruff was a little scruffier than normal and his brown hair stood out in little tufts here and there. The only strands under control were those mashed down by the headphones. His mouth was a solid line, and shadows lingered under his eyes. The fact that he still wore yesterday’s clothes was the final bit of evidence she needed to conclude that he hadn’tslept.
