Stepping into his office without even greeting him, Nikki moved the pile of papers off of the green leather chair that was located in front of his desk and sat carefully at the edge of it. Her eyes lifted to meet his.
“I don’t know how to say this,” she began before taking in a deep breath and placing her hands flat on her thighs.
Here we go.
“Guess who I ran into at Sue Ann’s this morning,” she said slowly.
Sooo,—not pregnant.
How had Jake forgotten, even for the thirty seconds that it had taken Nikki to walk in and sit down, that Tessa was back?
“Tessa,” Jake said flatly before turning his attention back to his screen. He hadn’t wanted to talk to Eric about it last night and he sure as hell didn’t want to talk to his sister, who had practically idolized his ex-girlfriend, about it now.
“You knew?!” Nikki exclaimed.
Jake nodded. He hoped that she would take the hint that this was not a subject he felt like exploring and leave.
“Who told you she was here?” His sister almost sounded mad that someone had beaten her to the punch. And that’s exactly what Tessa’s return felt like. A hard punch to his solar plexus, gut, and balls.
“I saw her last night.” Jake knew that Nikki would find out anyway. Half the town was probably talking about it.
“You did?!”
Jake nodded.
“Where? When? What happened?” Nikki shot the questions at him in rapid-fire succession.
Jake had always known when to pick his battles. And fighting Nikki on this by saying that he “didn’t want to talk about it” or giving her half-assed answers was not going to fly. When his sister wanted information, she got it. She was relentless. Plain and simple.
The fastest way to get this conversation over and done with was to give her what she wanted.
“JT’s Roadhouse. Last night. Nothing happened,” Jake stated quickly.
“Nothing happened?” Nikki narrowed her eyes at him and tilted her head.
Jake shook his head no.
“Did you talk to her?”
“Briefly.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Adeline. Tessa’s small bladder. Her need to wear a jacket.” Jake knew Nikki might think that he was just giving her the highlights but that actually was the sum of their entire conversation.
Nikki crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Are you trying to piss me off?”
“No, I’m trying to work.”
“Jake, Tessa’s here. In Hope Falls. What are you doing just sitting here like it’s any other day?”
“Because it is.”
“You don’t want to go talk to her?”
“And say what, Nikki?” Jake looked at his sister. It might have sounded like a rhetorical question but it hadn’t been. He had no idea what to say to her.
“I don’t know!” Nikki’s hands flew up in the air. “Find out how she’s been. Ask her how long she’s planning on staying. Tell her you never stopped loving her.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jake never talked about Tessa. No one knew how he did or didn’t feel about her.
“I know you still love her,” Nikki said with a cocky expression on her face. It was the same expression she’d had when she was a kid and tried to blackmail him to keep her quiet when she figured out that he’d been sneaking out.
How ironic that, at the time, he’d been sneaking out to meet Tessa.
“You don’t know shit,” Jake snapped as his jaw tightened. He wasn’t trying to be a dick to his little sister but he was not going to discuss this.
A wide smile slowly spread across her face. “Yes, I do. I wasn’t sure until right now. I had a suspicion since that night at JT’s when I was upset about Mike and you told me that if I walked away from him, I didn’t deserve him. I thought it sounded a tad personal and the only girl I knew you ever really cared about was Tessa. And she left. I don’t know what happened between you guys, but I do know that you would not be this upset if you didn’t still love her.”
“Why don’t you go practice your psychology on someone else? I’m not upset. I’m just trying to work.” Jake tried to keep his tone as even as possible. Frustration and anger were pulsing through him and he didn’t want to take it out on Nikki. He knew she wasn’t trying to be a pain in the ass. She just couldn’t help herself.
“So if you’re not upset, then you won’t mind if I invite her to Sunday dinner?” Nikki said with a challenging twinkle in her eye. “I’m sure Mom would love to catch up with her. You know how much she adored Tessa.”
Okay, maybe she was trying to be a pain in the ass.