The first time she’d left, it had come very close to destroying her. Thirteen years later, sure, she was older and wiser, but neither of those things meant that walking away from Jake would be any easier. As far as she knew, nothing had changed the fact that she had to leave. She had to leave for him.
Jake placed his arm around Tessa and ran his thumbs in circles on her shoulder. Instantly her body relaxed. He leaned over and whispered softly, “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she lied.
His eyes narrowed and she knew that he saw right through her. Luckily, his mom asked him about his house and told him she’d made curtains. Tessa tried to pull herself out of the drama that was going on in her own head while his family discussed all of the decorating options he had for the amazing space. She didn’t know how many more of these Sunday dinners she would be attending so she wanted to enjoy every second she could with these incredible people who she did consider her family. She needed to be present.
“…would make a great nursery. And I picked neutral colors, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or a girl,” Jake’s mom announced proudly.
Tension radiated from Jake as he spoke. “Shouldn’t you be busy planning Amy’s nursery or even Lily’s or Nikki’s?”
“Hey!” Nikki threw a crumpled up napkin hitting Jake in the temple. “Bite your tongue.”
Jake held up his hands in surrender. “I’m just saying, why not focus on babies for your children who are in serious relationships?”
Rosalie looked confused. Her eyes darted back and forth between Jake and Tessa. She threw her hands up in exaggerated display. “What are you talking about? You are.”
Nikki once again flew to the rescue—Tessa was seriously considering ordering her a cape that read: Super Subject Changer—and moved the conversation to drama going on with Mike’s family. Apparently, after all of the scandal at the hands of Mike’s Mother and ex-campaign manager, Mike had distanced himself from his family. But they had been reaching out, and he and Nikki were going to be going to dinner with them this week.
Tessa listened as everyone put in their two cents about whether or not that was a good idea but refrained from giving her opinion. She wasn’t doing such a hot job at running her own life, so she really didn’t think she should be giving anyone advice on how to live theirs.
Thinking about what she and Jake were doing made her cheeks flush with both embarrassment and good old-fashioned anxiety. After hearing that there were already curtains made for Jake’s—as of yet—nonexistent nursery, Tessa knew more than ever that she had to leave when the house was sold. But she knew that Jake’s family would never understand when she did.
They would hate her. And she would hate that. But she could handle it. For Jake.
*
Lucky jumped off of the couch, startling Jake out of a sound sleep. Barking and pounding followed. Even without opening the door Jake knew exactly who was on the other side.
As he stood slowly, his body ached in protest. He’d just gotten home from being at the station for the last few days, where he’d gotten about two hours of sleep a night. There’d been a lot of calls due to the weather. They’d gotten a lot of rain over the past week. Drivers in Hope Falls were much more conditioned to deal with snow than rain. There’d been several accidents per night and they’d been the first on scene every time.
Normally, he could make up for his lack of sleep with one nap. He’d catch a few and be up and raring to go. That had not happened today, however. As Jake walked—or more like shuffled at a snail’s pace—to the front door, he thought of why he wasn’t bouncing back.
Maybe he was coming down with the flu that was going around? Nope. He never got sick. Even as a kid, he had never missed even one day of school due to illness. His immune system was Superman status.
It could be because he’s getting old. His thirty years might actually be catching up with him. Or, it could be because not only had he gotten next to no sleep for the past few days at the station, he had gone into his shift after getting even less sleep than that. Since he’d taken Tessa home from JT’s the night of the “incident,” they’d spent a lot of time in bed but none of it had been for sleeping.
Could lots of sex and no sleep cause Jake’s body to feel like it had been hit by a Mack truck? Nah. Jake dismissed the idea. But even if it was the reason, he wouldn’t have changed a thing. And if Tessa were standing in front of him right now, he’d have her naked and up against the wall before she could blink.
Jake wasn’t sure what all this crazy-hot, mind-blowing s-e-x they were having meant, but he sure as hell knew he didn’t want it to stop. Sore body or not, he wanted as much of Tessa as he could have.