While she would never admit to it, the wolf naps only happened when she was completely absorbed in a project and couldn’t bear to lose time to sleep. Or when she was stressed.
The woman could sleep anywhere. Floor, car, outside. Hell, she’d probably wolf napped on the roof while installing her panels.
Sam was too edgy for sleep yet, but he’d needed a few minutes away from Tansy to regroup and text Joe.
Something was definitely wrong, even if Tansy was pretending there wasn’t. She’d always liked alone time, but this complete isolation from people was new.
Her brain was constantly moving, and she needed alone time to process her thoughts and work on her ideas. But she’d always enjoyed family time with the Riveras. Like trouncing them at any and all strategy games.
Even though he, Nico, and Joe had been a couple of years older. Even though they’d all turned out to be fairly intelligent men with degrees and who worked for the FBI.
Maybe he could lull her into confiding her secrets by playing a game.
When he exited his bedroom, he saw that Tansy’s bedroom door was open, and the room was empty. He went on a search, taking a better look at the lodge on his way down.
Sturdy building. Furnished. With stuff from the sixties or earlier, but furnished.
Hardwood floors throughout.
Lots of bathrooms.
Could be a great B&B if that was something either of the Cheveyos were into. Which they weren’t.
Tansy wouldn’t have wasted the time, energy, or money on installing solar panels if she didn’t have a plan simmering for the place. She was the least wasteful person he knew.
As he walked through the spaces and studied the layouts, he could see all kinds of potential.
But no evidence of Tansy’s experiments. No projects half-finished or otherwise.
Maybe she was using the sawmill for those.
Even as he thought it, he discarded the idea. The mill was closer to civilization and potential interruptions. Tansy worked best in her forts.
Blanket forts and pillow forts in her old room had always separated her projects. She’d commandeered the area beneath the dining room table more than once.
Curiosity had him poking his nose into every room and discarding them as her personal labs.
A quick tour of the main level living spaces showed nothing either.
The basement stairs were off the kitchen, so he headed that way, not surprised to find lights on.
Not wanting to scare Tansy, he thumped down the stairs, giving her lots of notice of his arrival.
“There’s no lake to fall in down here. You don’t have to do a hippo walk.”
“Hippo walk? That’s insulting.”
Her laugh reached him from the bottom, and he continued down normally.
“Just something I was thinking about earlier. Can’t sleep?”
“It’s only ten o’clock. Where are you?”
The basement was packed with the detritus of the past hundred years.
From what he could see, the space was divided by tall shelves, all packed with crates and boxes and piles of stuff.
No way could this be her fort, either. Way too much stuff to get in the way.