The warmth of her breath fanned across his face, smelling sweet like peppermint. Her silken hair brushed against the back of his hand as his thumb, of its own accord, rubbed in slow circles around the soft skin at the base of her neck, where he’d reached out to support her. Her delicate shoulder was nestled perfectly in the bend of his arm.
It felt so right to hold her like this. Too right. If anything happened between them, it wasn’t regret that he was scared of. His fear was that it would destroy him. He had to do something before he did something.
Opening his eyes, he avoided eye contact as he placed his arm beneath her knees and stood, picking her up off the ground.
“Jake!” she cried as her arms flew around his. “I can walk.”
“Good,” Jake responded but did not put her down.
Lucky barked happily while trucking along beside them as Jake stalked towards his house.
“Oh, you have a dog?” Tessa asked excitedly. “Hi, handsome boy!”
“Hi,” Jake answered.
“Shut up.” Tessa playfully but weakly swatted Jake’s shoulder. “What’s his name?”
“Lucky.”
“Hi, Lucky. You’re such a handsome boy.”
Lucky barked and jumped up to try and get closer to Tessa.
“Down,” Jake said firmly, shifting his weight so he could grab his keys.
Tessa looked around, and when she saw where they were standing, her eyes flew to his. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you home.” Jake hadn’t meant to phrase it like that, and he wanted to kick his own ass for letting those words escape from his lips. Apparently, he was not immune to Freudian slips.
Tessa didn’t seem to notice his verbiage. She was focused on something else entirely. “You live here?” Her eyes grew wide with shock.
“Kind of,” Jake answered honestly.
“What?” Tessa asked as they stepped inside his unlived-in house.
Jake carried her through the front room that was completely bare of furniture to the back of the house, where a lone couch sat. As gently as possible, he set her down in it and moved across the hardwood floors, his sneakers squeaking loudly on them, to the kitchen.
“Wow.” She looked around the large space. “So you really bought this place, huh?”
“Yep,” he said as he opened the cabinets to take inventory of what little food he kept there. Looks like peanut butter and jelly was on the menu this afternoon.
“Did you just move in?” Tessa asked.
“I haven’t moved in yet.” Jake spread the peanut butter on the slice of wheat bread and tried to disconnect himself from all of the uncontrollable feelings that he was having from Tessa being here, in his house. The one they’d talked about raising a family and growing old together in.
“Oh. When are you moving in?” Tessa asked.
“I don’t know.” He brought her the sandwich and a water and sat beside her.
“I have a protein bar in my car,” she said as she took the paper plate and water bottle.
“Eat,” he responded.
She looked at him for a beat, and he thought for a moment that she was going to refuse to eat it, but then she took a bite.
They sat silently while she ate. Well semi-silently. She was ooing and awwing over Lucky, who was sitting beside her in seventh heaven as she fed him bites of her crust.
“Thank you. For everything,” she said sincerely after she chewed the last bite and took a long drink of water. “Well, I should let you get back to”—her eyes scanned him—“your running.”
“Tessa, wait.”
She froze for a moment, half off the couch. Then slowly she sat back down.
“What?” she asked uncertainly.
Good question. Jake realized he didn’t know why he’d stopped her. He just wasn’t ready for her to go. But since he had, he might as well get some information.
“Why were you at Adeline’s?” Yes, it might be a stupid question. Obviously if Tessa was in Hope Falls, she would want to come by and see her grandma’s house.
Tessa sighed. “She left the house to me in her will.”
“And that’s bad?” Jake would have assumed that Tessa would have expected the house to be left to her. Or maybe any reminder of Hope Falls was just bad to Tessa.
She looked at him and he could tell that she was battling with whether or not to talk to him about what was going on with her. He waited. He wasn’t going to beg. He’d done that before and he wasn’t about to do it again.
“Do you really want to hear about this?” she asked.
“Yes.” Of course he did.
Seemed like they were both full of stupid questions today.
*
Tessa ran her fingers through Lucky’s soft fur as he snuggled his large head against her thigh. She was torn about opening up to Jake. None of this was his problem, but she was scared that he would take it on as his—and she was equally scared that he wouldn’t.