Page 9 of Holiday Home 3

Tess shook her head at him, though her smile remained. “Need I remind you, I was married when you were selecting your college of choice. Unhappily or not.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, sighing loudly.

“Nor would I have wanted to impact your future in such a way,” she said, prodding him on the side. “It was your choice to make, even if I am distraught that I’ll never have you in myclassroom. But anyhow, no more redirecting the conversation. I want a straight answer out of you.”

Continuing their serpentine path through the aisles, they arrived at one with a few shoppers perusing a personal care aisle. They didn’t need anything here, but they walked through it anyway. Liam made sure to lower his voice before finally giving Tess the answer she was after.

“I guess… it was more shocking than anything—and it was over really quickly. It was more like getting electrocuted than anything.”

“I imagine that was something of the goal.”

“Can’t argue there. Shock and awe seem to be one of Avril’s favorite tactics.”

“She certainly supplied us all with plenty of those two things today,” Tess said, meandering their cart toward a section consisting of hygiene products and then stopping there. Liam figured it was just because everyone else was further ahead. Because once she stopped, she glanced to make sure they were far enough away from any eavesdroppers before looking him in the eye.

“I wasn’t aware that Anna had come to the… conclusion she has about my feelings for you.”

“Yeah.”

He didn’t dare risk saying anything more than that. Because hehadknown that Anna had picked up on Tess’s interest in him, and he’d gotten it straight from the source, not via one of Avril’s bombshells. Instead, she’d revealed her theory in Tess’s home on the day they’d all built the igloo. After her father had brought her to tears through a phone call shortly after its completion.

“I would have preferred it if she hadn’t… noticed how I feel about you.”

“I don’t think we were too obvious or anything, or I think Avril would have said something different than she did.” Hechose his following words carefully. “At the very least, Anna probably hasn’t guessed that we’re… you know.”

“Having vigorous bouts of sex two or three times a day?” Tess wryly offered.

His face burned anew, but he nodded. “Yeah, that.”

“I would like to keep it that way. I’m not sure what Anna would think if she knew what we’d been doing while you two were, well,notdating. So, I think I can feel a little less guilty about our misconduct.”

“Just conduct now,” Liam noted, which earned him another slender smile. “Always has been, really.”

“Yes, and now I know that.” Suddenly, Tess pulled her mouth to one side, growing solemn. “But I do want to address one other aspect of what Avril said.”

He instinctively tensed. “Yeah?”

Tess inhaled deeply, holding it in her lungs for several seconds. She checked over her shoulder once more, where she saw a pair of shoppers walk by the aisle but not turn into it. After that, her attention returned to him.

“I amnotashamed of you, Liam. I want to make that very, very clear. And I’m not ashamed ofus,and I hope it doesn’t seem that way.”

The sincerity in her eyes benefitted from the enormous overhead lights above them, which banished all shadows. Liam took a moment to absorb it from her eyes and words before nodding. He’d never thought that, to begin with.

If anything, the fact that she was using the word ‘us’ when referring to what they were swelled his heart with unrivaled exhilaration. He’d dreamed for so long that they’d look at each other like they had in the igloo the other night. For as long as Tess Williams saw them as an ‘us,’ no amount of gloom could stick to him for very long.

“It doesn’t,” he assured her. “At all. I’ve never been happier in all my life than I am right now.”

“Right now?” his angelic next-door neighbor said, lips swerving back into a slender smile. “I didn’t know bulk orders of root beer and Tide Pods was your way to joy.”

“Well,” he said, heart running amok in his chest as his lust burbled up to the surface, “I do need to stay hydrated, and we have run quite a few loads of laundry the past couple of days.”

His efforts received their crimson reward. Tess ducked her head long enough to reorganize the color blatantly showing on her face.

“Well played,” she mumbled, doing the battle with a slightly embarrassed smile.

“Speaking of,” he began, which caused the enthralling woman near him to roll her eyes as he intentionally failed to complete his sentence.

“Yes, yes. There will be plenty of that once we get back.”

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