She was still trying to convince herself that wetting herself wouldn’t be the worst thing to ever happen to her when a large sign appeared through the rain like a giant neon savior. It read: JT’s Roadhouse.
Yes! There would be no peeing of the pants today.
Loosening her death grip on the steering wheel, she turned into the gravel parking lot, which looked to be filled to the brim. She drove up and down the back two rows. No luck.
Come on. Where was the justice in the world?
She was about to resort to pulling into the handicap spot when she spied a space three cars down. Maneuvering into the blessed spot was sketchy at best. She was bouncing up and down, doing her seated version of the pee-pee dance, clenching her thighs together, and biting her lip as she tried to pull her PT Cruiser in straight. Straight didn’t happen, but she was in between two cars and she hadn’t hit them so she was counting it as a win.
Quickly pulling her keys out of the ignition, she opened the door as far as she could without hitting the truck in the space beside her. Then, making herself as flat as possible, she slithered out of the car head-first like a snake. As soon as she cleared it, she slammed the door and shivered from the cold. For a split second, she contemplated grabbing her jacket from the back seat but just as quickly dismissed the idea. Bathroom. She was laser-focused on the pressing need to find a bathroom.
Stepping out, heavy raindrops fell over her as Tessa moved her feet as fast as she could across the tiny, wet rocks. This task was made significantly more difficult considering how badly she had to pee and the fact that she was wearing flip-flops, not the best shoes to navigate slippery gravel in the pouring rain while your bladder was about to explode.
When she’d left sunny, eighty-two-degree San Diego this morning, she hadn’t thought about how bad the weather would be up in the Sierras. Her mind had been totally consumed with other aspects of her return to Hope Falls. A big brown-eyed, brown-haired, charming, sexy, painful aspect to be exact.
Just as she reached the entrance, the front door swung open as a young blond-haired, blue-eyed guy walked out with a tipsy brunette on his arm. Tessa quickly moved past them, almost bumping into the guy who didn’t move to let her by.
“Hi,” the guy said as Tessa scooted inside, his eyes giving her a thorough once-over.
Seriously?
Tessa’s skin crawled at the unwanted attention. Not only did she not like being the object of perusal, but this guy had the nerve to check her out while another woman hung on his arm. What a pig. Oh well. She quickly shook off the uncomfortable feeling. No time to worry about that. Right now, all that mattered was finding the bathroom.
As she stepped inside, Tessa realized that, although she’d passed by JT’s more times than she could count the year that she’d lived in Hope Falls, she’d only been a seventeen-year-old senior in high school at the time and had never actually entered the twenty-one-and-over establishment, which meant that she had absolutely no idea where the bathrooms were.
A woman happened to be passing by and Tessa reached out and grabbed her arm. “Where are the bathrooms?”
Immediately picking up on the desperation in both Tessa’s eyes and voice, the pretty redhead quickly directed, “Down the hall to the left.”
“Thank you!” Tessa moved through the tables, navigating as best she could on the wooden floors in wet rubber flip-flops.
Although she was aware that the bar was packed with people, she had tunnel vision. The patrons and sounds around her were completely muted. The only sound she heard was her brain screaming that she needed relief!
Tessa frantically pushed open the door marked ‘Ladies’ and saw that there was no line. “Thank God,” she said aloud to herself.
She began unbuttoning her pants before she’d even closed the stall door. She sat down and all of the muscles in her body relaxed. Sweet relief.
Now that the emergency situation had been resolved, the reality that she was actually back in Hope Falls sank into her like the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. Dread filled her being and her palms moistened. Pushing her anxiety-ridden feelings down, Tessa decided this was not the time or place for a nervous breakdown.
Stepping out of the stall, she moved to the sink and washed her hands. Glancing up at the mirror, she almost screamed bloody murder at the image staring back at her. She looked like a drowned rat.
Raking her fingers through her shoulder-length hair, she tried to brush it out as best she could with her hand. It didn’t really help. Luckily, she was rocking the no-makeup look. Otherwise it would be melting down her face right now and she would look like a scary-clown-drowned-rat.
Okay, nothing she could do about her drowned-rat appearance now. She just needed to keep her head down, make it back to her car, and get to the safe haven that was Sue Ann’s Café. That shouldn’t be too hard. The bar was packed. No one would pay any attention to her.