Let It Snow(28)

“Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll stay here.”

A look of equal parts relief and sadness crossed his face before he nodded, pushed off the counter, and walked past her, casually saying, “All right good. Let me show you where everything is.”

Right. Because a grand tour of her ex-boyfriend-slash-love-of-her-freaking-life’s house—the one they had planned on living in and raising a family in but was now vacant (even though he owned it)—that he was insisting she stayed in while she fixed her grandma’s house next door after he’d just found her passed out on the lawn and made her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was perfectly normal.

She was sure this was how lots of people were spending their Thursday afternoons.





Chapter Ten




‡


“Wait a minute.” Eric’s breathing was labored as he passed the ball to Jake. “She’s staying in your house?”

Jake easily grabbed the basketball, juking around Justin before lifting his arms over his head, aiming, and shooting. He watched as the ball flew in the air, making a perfect arch before swooshing into the net. No rim, all net. It seemed that his double run and zero sleep were not affecting his basketball game in the least. He’d just managed to put in the winning shot, making that three W’s in a row.

“Yes, she is,” Jake answered his brother, trying to hide the smile that kept wanting to spread across his face every time he thought about her there.

“Why?” Eric sneered, not even trying to disguise the disapproval in his tone as the guys all walked off the court.

They played every week now. Sometimes it was two-on-two or, like tonight, it was three-on-three. Tonight Jake’s team consisted of himself, Eric, their sister Amy’s boyfriend Matt. They were playing against Ryan and Luke, who were newbies, having only lived in Hope Falls a couple of years, and Justin, who’d they’d known since they were kids. All six guys walked off the court to where their gym bags were lined up against the wall.

“She needs to fix up Adeline’s place so she can sell it,” Jake explained.

“I thought she was staying at Sue Ann’s,” Eric stated with an accusatory tone.

“She was.” Jake sliced his eyes to his brother, clearly communicating this was not a subject that was up for debate.

“And?” Eric asked, not letting it drop.

“And now she’s not.” Jake pulled out his white towel and wiped his face.

Jake didn’t expect Eric to understand why he’d asked Tessa to stay at the house. Hell, he didn’t even understand. Why would he think anyone else would? It had just felt like the right thing at the time.

All these years, he’d had no idea where she had been. Sure, he’d see her pictures in the magazines from all over the world, so he’d had a vague knowledge of where she’d been. He’d gotten a few postcards from her too. But for the last thirteen years, he had no idea if she had been okay. If she had been happy. If she had been sad. If she had been stressed. If she had been eating enough.

That entire time, it had felt like a part of him, a physical part of his body as vital as his arm or leg, had been missing and there hadn’t been anything he could do about it. Out of sheer self-preservation, he’d had to shove those feelings down into the dark recesses of his soul and lock them up there. He’d had to try and trick himself into feeling like a whole person.

Then today, when he’d run up and seen her lifeless form lying on the ground, it had hit him. What if he hadn’t been there? What if she’d still been in San Diego or New York or some third-world country? What would have happened to her? It made him crazy thinking about it.

And then when he’d touched her, the fear that had been coursing through him changed to something else completely. His entire body had come alive again. It was like he’d been sleepwalking through life and the moment his thumb had brushed across the soft skin at the base of her neck, he’d woken up. Lifting her into his arms and carrying her to his house had been a combination of surreal and heartbreakingly sad.

As he’d carried Tessa over the threshold into his home, it struck him that carrying her over the threshold, as husband and wife, was a scene he had imagined countless times. And here he had actually done it. Only Tessa wasn’t his wife. He wasn’t her husband and they weren’t starting a life together. She’d been half conscious and more interested in Lucky than she had been in the fact that he had been carrying her at all, much less carrying her over “the threshold.”

Taking care of her, getting her water, fixing her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich had felt right. Like for the first time in his adult life, he was exactly where he was supposed to be, doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing.