Let It Snow(13)

Jake shrugged nonchalantly. “Whatever floats your boat.”

“Good,” Nikki said with a smirk.

Jake could practically hear the gears turning in her head as she formulated some sort of plan. Well, she could plot and scheme until the cows came home. Nothing was going to change how he felt.

Nikki stood to leave, but just as she reached the door, she turned around and asked, “So what happened with Adie?”

Jake knew how much Nikki had loved Tessa’s grandma. She used to spend hours upon hours at her house. They would knit, color, and bake. Everything a grandma does. He hated being the one to break the news to her. “She passed away.”

“I know. Tessa told me. She said it was about nine months ago,” Nikki spoke quietly, and Jake could tell she was getting choked up. “But do you know what happened?”

“No, I didn’t ask.” Jake knew he should have and guilt pressed on his chest.

“I didn’t either.” Nikki shook her head and wiped her eyes. “I was just so surprised to see her and then finding that out was just a lot to process.”

Tell me about it, Jake thought. His sister was preaching to the choir. Jake didn’t respond. He knew anything he said could send his sister off on a tangent, and he just wanted to be alone. Because, like she’d so accurately pointed out, Tessa’s return was a lot to process.

He looked back at his computer and began to type. Instead of taking the hint and leaving, his sister walked around the desk and threw her arms around his neck.

“I love you, Bubbas,” she said, using the name she had called him when she was little because she couldn’t pronounce Jake.

He could feel the emotion radiating off of her. Nikki didn’t really show her emotional side that often. In fact, this behavior was very un-Nikki-like. But he knew that she’d always had a hard time with death. They’d been lucky enough not to lose too many people who were close to them, but when they were young and would lose a pet, Nikki took it harder than the rest of the family.

He wrapped one arm tightly around her. “I love you too, Nik.”

As she straightened, she looked right in his eyes with steely determination. “I know. And I also know you still love Tessa. So man up, grow a pair, and go talk to her.”

And there she was. Nikki was back.

*

“Thirty thousand dollars,” Tessa repeated slowly, trying to slow her heart that was about to beat out of her chest.

Henry moved his large cowboy hat and flipped through a few more papers. “That’s what it looks like. The property tax has not been paid for quite a while. The interest and penalties accrued. Then there is also the mortgage that is past due. Since you were given the home in the will, unfortunately you are now responsible for all of it.”

Tessa felt like the walls of the quaint café were closing in on her. She couldn’t believe what Henry was telling her. After applying for a loan to open her studio and finding out that her credit score was so low, she’d gone to see a lawyer to get to the bottom of it and found out about the house. He hadn’t given her the details, just that Henry Walker was overseeing her Gran’s estate. That was two days ago, and now here she sat.

“I’m so sorry about all this, darlin’. I had no idea Adeline had even passed until I got a call from that city slicker lawyer of yours. When the taxes started coming back unpaid, I tried to find your grandma, but I kept hittin’ a brick wall. The last known address I had was the retirement home in Mission Beach. The letters were returned, and when I contacted them, they said they had no forwarding address for her.”

Tessa heard the words that were coming out of Henry’s mouth. But the only thing she could focus on was that number. She had built a pretty significant nest egg when she’d been on staff as a photojournalist for Time magazine. But it was gone now.

Over the six years that she had to stop traveling to take care of Grandma Adie full time, it had dwindled. Weddings, bar mitzvahs, and quinceañeras didn’t pay quite as much as being a Time magazine photographer on assignment in war-torn countries. But she had still been doing okay until she had been forced to put her grandma in a nursing home the last four years of her life. That large monthly expense had steadily eaten up the rest of her savings.

“So what are my options as far as selling the house?”

“Well, it is your property. So you can do with it what you wish. I can call Lauren and have her meet you there this afternoon so you can take a look at the place. I’m sure she can give you the low-down as far as its value and such.”

“Lauren Harrison?” For some reason, Tessa had thought that she was a TV host now. She was sure that she remembered seeing the pretty blond on a commercial or a billboard or something. Or maybe she’d just imagined it. It was quite possible that, over the past few years, she’d begun having stress hallucinations.