Let It Snow(20)

“Young lady, I may not have seen you in a month of Sundays but I do know that something is heavy on your heart. Is it Adeline’s passing or your run-in with Jake?”

Tessa looked up at her in shock. “How did you—”

Mary interrupted, explaining, “Oh, well Stella over at the Pack ‘N’ Pay overheard Henry on the phone with Lauren talking about your grandma’s place. Then she told Nadine, who gets her hair done by Rosemarie over at Curl Up and Dye, who came in to pick up an eight-by-ten of her granddaughter’s christening and filled me in.”

“Wow.” The gossip train seemed to be moving full steam ahead in Hope Falls.

“And Marty over at Carson’s Garage was at JT’s last night. He went home and told Velma, who he’s been shacking up with since his Margaret passed, God rest her soul, that watching the two of you reminded him of the people on her shows. You know how that woman loves her soaps. Anyhoo, he told Velma that he couldn’t hear what ya’ll were sayin’ but that it was mighty entertaining. I ran into Velma, who went to go pick up Marty’s blood pressure medication down at the pharmacy this morning. I was there getting my insulin.”

“How are you feeling?” Tessa asked. Mary had been a Type 1 diabetic since Tessa had known her.

“Good days and bad days.” She shrugged it off. “But I don’t want to talk about my blood sugar. I want to hear about you. Tell me everything.”

Tessa leaned back into the couch, curling her feet beneath her, and took a deep breath. If Mary wanted to know everything, they were going to be here for a while.

*

Jake was just shutting down his computer when there was yet another knock on the door. Seriously, this place was like Grand Central Station today. At least he’d already decided that there was no way he was going to get any work done. Not after Tessa had been there.

He still had several hours before basketball tonight so he thought he’d go home, grab Lucky, and go on another run. In high school, when he’d been on the football team, Jake had always been exhausted when they’d had two-a-days—practice before and after school. He was hoping that a double-up on his running would have the same effect on him now.

But first he had to deal with whoever was at the door. “Come in.”

His brother walked in and shut the door behind him. He casually took a seat and leaned back in the chair, making himself comfortable.

“Can I help you with something?” Jake asked. He was really not in the mood to shoot the shit with anyone. Luckily his brother really wasn’t a ‘talker,’ so he wasn’t too worried.

“I just wanted to come by and make sure you were okay,” Eric said.

“I’m fine.”

“Really? Because I gotta tell you, I have never seen you look like you did last night when you saw Tessa.” Eric’s brow lifted.

Jake knew that his brother had developed a reputation for being a master interrogator on the force, but this was Jake’s office, not an interrogation room, and whatever was or wasn’t going on with Tessa was none of Eric’s business.

“I was just surprised to see her,” Jake answered honestly. He had been shocked as hell to see her in JT’s last night.

Eric continued his line of questioning. “What happened between you guys?”

“You were there. Nothing.”

“Not last night, smartass. In high school.”

“Why do you care?” Jake wasn’t sure what the sudden interest was. It’s not like Eric could be interested in Tessa. He was engaged to Lily and happier than Jake had ever seen him in his life.

Eric leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Look, the few times I came home from school that year, you guys seemed inseparable, and honestly, the two of you kind of reminded me of Mom and Dad.”

“What are you talking about?” Jake knew his brother had a point. He just wished he’d hurry and get to it.

“I’m talking about how you two were together. Anyone who was around you guys for five minutes could see it. You guys had this…connection. The only other time I’d ever seen it was between Mom and Dad. Then you call me and tell me you’re engaged and the next thing I know she’s gone and you turn into a man-whore asshole.”

“Hey, I’m not an asshole.” Jake wasn’t even going to try and defend the ‘man-whore’ title.

“No, not anymore. But you were. For years,” Eric stated flatly.

“So, what, do you want an apology? Did my brief stint as an asshole hurt your feelings?” Jake asked sarcastically.

“No, I want to know what happened.”

“You know what happened. You just summed it up perfectly. We were together. We were happy. We were going to get married. She left.” That was the story that everyone knew. The only people who knew the whole story were himself, Tessa and Adeline. And Adeline was gone now. So just he and Tessa knew. It was no one else’s business.