Tess in Boots

by Courtney Rice Gager

  He shook his head as I climbed onto his back. “Not a chance.”

  I let out a scream when he took off sprinting as fast as he could out to the grapevines. We zipped up and down the narrow rows in the darkness, and I closed my eyes tightly, listening to the sound of the branches whizzing by me. We made it down about six rows before he ran out of steam. He made a grand show of falling to the ground in slow motion, rolling to his side and causing me to tumble over in the grass.

  “Ow!”

  “Don’t be such a baby.” He gasped for air.

  “I’m not.” I pulled myself up on my knees and rubbed the dirt off my left elbow. “And you were right. That was fun.”

  Jake hoisted himself up to a sitting position, and we rested there for a couple minutes so he could catch his breath.

  “You may be old, but you’re still my best friend, Tessy. You know that, don’t you?”

  “I know. You’re all right, yourself.”

  “Thanks.”

  I reached out and patted him on the back. It felt good hanging out with my brother. Despite all our differences and the precious little time we got to spend together these days, he was right: we were still best friends. He was my best friend, and I was ready to talk to him. I didn’t want to pretend everything was okay anymore. I was tired of pretending.

  I opened my mouth to speak before I could convince myself otherwise. “Hey, Jake?”

  “Yeah?” He was still panting.

  “You were right.” I shifted to a sitting position and extended my legs in the grass.

  He turned his head to look at me. “About what?”

  “About Thatcher. There was something going on between us.”

  He stared at me with wide eyes, gawking in silence for what seemed like several minutes. The longer we sat in silence, the faster my heart pounded. Something was wrong. Why was he so stunned? Why wasn’t he speaking?

  “Say something!” I hugged my legs and rested my forehead on my knees so I didn’t have to look at him.

  “Uh…” He cleared his throat. “What was going on, exactly?”

  “I don’t know.” I kept my head down.

  “Tessy…”

  “I really liked him, you know? We talked quite a bit, and I… I felt like we clicked or something. We got together a couple times. We went out, and we kissed, and—”

  “You what?” Jake jumped as if he found a large spider crawling on his arm.

  “Not a lot!” I looked up. “Just a couple times.”

  “A couple times? As in, more than once?”

  I cringed. “Yeah.”

  “Tessy this is bad.” He tugged at his hair. “This is really, really bad. What were you thinking?”

  I leaned away from him. “Why are you freaking out?”

  “This explains a lot.” He started to say something else, but then shook his head.

  “Jake?”

  He closed his eyes and tilted his head back. “Do you trust me?”

  “Of course I trust you.”

  He opened his eyes. “Then you have to stay away from Thatcher James. Do you understand?”

  “What? No, I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”

  He sighed. “I know something you don’t, okay? And if you knew it, too, I’m sure you’d stay away from him.”

  I perked up. So Thatcher was telling the truth; there was more to the story. “Tell me, then. What is it?”

  He shook his head.

  I threw my hands in the air. “Just tell me!”

  “No.” He looked at me for a long time. “I can’t.”

  I could feel my cheeks getting hot. “Why not?”

  “Please.” He reached out and took my hand. “I need you to trust me.”

  I let out a huff. Why was everyone being so secretive? And what was so wrong with Thatcher? He seemed like such a decent person. Or at least, he used to. Now I wasn’t sure what to think. I stared at the ground for a long time, remembering the odd way he left.

  “Are you okay, Tessy?” Jake gave my hand a squeeze.

  “I thought he was a nice guy,” I whispered.

  “He is. It’s not that.”

  “Then what is it? Why is it so important for me to stay away from him?”

  He shook his head. “I can’t say. I’m sorry.”

  I sighed, defeated. “It’s not like it even matters. He’s gone anyway.”

  “Yeah.” He nodded.

  I frowned at him and pulled my hand away. “I bet you’re glad, huh?”

  He didn’t answer. “Does anyone else know about this?” he asked after a few seconds.

  “No.” I furrowed my brow, remembering my conversation with DJ. “Well… except for maybe a couple locals.”

  He groaned.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Just don’t tell anyone else, okay?”

  I reached down and yanked a handful of grass out of the earth. Jake was supposed to be on my side. We weren’t supposed to keep secrets from each other. Why was he acting like this? I turned and stared into his eyes, trying to invoke some sort of supernatural twin intuition that would tell me what he was thinking. I came up with nothing.

  “It’s for your own good,” he said. “Don’t tell anyone else. And promise me you’ll stay away from him?”

  “Fine.” I threw the grass and watched as the blades scattered to the ground. It wasn’t fine, but there was no use talking about it anymore. Not with him, anyway. The reason I told Jake in the first place was because I thought it’d help me feel better. Now I felt worse than ever.

  “Are you mad?” he asked.

  I pursed my lips in response.

  “Don’t be mad, Tessy.” He put an arm around me.

  I looked away from him and blinked back tears. “Will I ever find a guy who sticks around for a change?”

  “You already did,” he said. “Me.”

  “I’m serious.”

  He put a hand under my chin and turned my face toward his. “Chin up, buttercup. You’ll get your happy ending.”

  I gave him a glum smile. “I hope so.”

  “I know so.”

  “That’s impossible,” I said.

  “What’s impossible?”

  “You don’t just know things are going to work out.”

  “Sure I do. You used to know, too.”

  I turned away. “Yeah, well, things are different now.”

  “How’s your faith, Tessy?”

  “What?” I whipped my head back around to look at him.

  “You heard me. How’s your faith?”

  His question was so blunt I didn’t know how to answer.

  He leaned in and nudged me on the shoulder. “You used to have this unshakeable sense of peace. I always admired that about you. When did it change?”

  I pursed my lips and brushed a stray piece of hair out of my face.

  “You praying much these days?” he asked. “Going to church at all?”

  “Are you seriously preaching to me about this?” My voice was louder than I meant for it to be.

  “I’m not preaching to you.”

  “Good. Because if Jake Dougherty is preaching to me about church attendance, then—”

  “That was fifteen years ago! Give me some credit.”

  During our sophomore year of high school, our mother would drop us off at youth group on Friday nights, but Jake never went inside. He would sneak off with his friends and slip back into the crowd once it was time to be picked up. When our mother eventually found out, he wasn’t allowed to go anymore. Not that he cared much. But he was right, it was forever ago, and he’d changed so much since then. He grew up. I, on the other hand, managed to regress somehow.

  I groaned and placed a hand over my eyes.

  “You all right?” he asked.

  “I just realized something.”

  “What?”

  “Jake… I think you’ve become the responsible one.”

  He bent over at the waist and let out an abrupt laug
h.

  “No, really! You’re married. You have all this.” I gestured out to the vineyard. “I have… I have absolutely no direction whatsoever. Congratulations. You win.”

  “It’s not about winning. And you do too have direction. You’re just going through a little rough patch. It’ll all work out fine.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  He pointed a stern finger at me. “Find your faith, Tessy. I mean it.”

  I sighed.

  “Race you to the car?” he asked.

  “I don’t feel like it.”

  “Well that’s too bad, because loser walks home.”

  “Jake…”

  “Stay here and mope if you want, but the bears are probably out, you know.” He looked at me with wide solemn eyes. “Just waiting for someone to walk by all alone… and defenseless…”

  I rolled my eyes and pushed him so hard he toppled over. Then I leapt to my feet and took off toward the car.

  “Go easy on me, Tessy!” Jake scrambled behind me to catch up, but I didn’t slow down.

  I sprinted faster than ever, as if I could outrun Thatcher’s memory; as if I could leave my broken life in the dust.

  CHAPTER 25

  “DJ?”

  The voice that answered the phone sounded so muffled, I wasn’t sure it was her.

  “Yeah?”

  I leaned against the kitchen sink in the cottage. “Oh, hey. It’s Tess.”

  She let out a long groan, followed by a throaty yawn.

  “Did I wake you up?” I asked. I checked the time. It was after ten.

  “Yeah.” I could hear her rustling around in her bed. “But it’s fine. I needed to be up. I overslept.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I said it’s fine. What’s up?”

  “I was calling about the rehearsal dinner food.”

  “Oh, sure. Did you figure out what you want?”

  “Yes. Everything.”

  “Everything?”

  “Yep.”

  “You want everything on the menu?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And you need it when?”

  “Thursday evening.”

  “For how many people again?”

  “Twenty,” I said.

  She sighed.

  “This isn’t an ordinary wedding.” I paced back and forth between the kitchen and the bed. “This couple… they have high expectations.”

  “All right. My folks are gonna flip, but I think I can swing it for you.”

  “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.”

  “Hey, it’s the least I can do. I feel like I owe you one after last night.”

  “Huh?” I stopped pacing.

  There was silence on her end of the line.

  “DJ? Are you there?”

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “What did you say?” My pulse sped up.

  “I said no problem. I’ll get the order in.”

  “No, after that.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” she said.

  “You said you owe me one?” I sat on the bed.

  “Oh yeah. Forget about it. It’s nothing.”

  “No. What did you mean?”

  “Hey, Tess? I overslept. I gotta get to work.”

  “Wait—”

  “Everything’s under control. Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll see you soon.”

  “DJ, I—”

  There was a click, and the phone went silent.

  A sinking feeling settled into my stomach. There was something strange about that girl. As if there were two separate sides to her. And even though she was kind to me when we met back up at the restaurant, I wasn’t quite ready to trust her. Not yet, at least.

  What was she talking about? I had half a mind to call her back and demand answers, but with a few days left before the wedding, it was crunch time. I needed to brush it off and keep going. She was not going to get to me.

  I rolled my shoulders back and picked up the phone to make another call.

  “Hello?” A sweet voice answered on the second ring.

  “Hi, Ms. Betty?”

  “Yes?”

  “This is Tess. Tess Dougherty.”

  “Oh, Tess.” There was a strange tone of apprehension in her voice. “Yes. Hello, dear.”

  “Hi. I’m sorry to bother you at home, Ms. Betty, but I called the music school and no one has gotten back to me yet.”

  “Well that’s because it’s summer, dear. They’re not in over the summer.”

  I clenched my teeth. Then why did your husband tell me to call them? I wanted to say it, but instead I forced myself to take a breath.

  “Let me get Harold, dear. He can point you in the right direction.” I heard a whooshing sound as she put her hand over the receiver and called for him, drawing out his name. “Harold?”

  “What?”

  “You have a phone call, dear.”

  “What?”

  “Phone! You have a phone call!”

  “Well why didn’t you say so?”

  Their voices were so loud I could make out their every word, even with Ms. Betty’s hand over the receiver. As she handed him the phone, I could hear her giving him instructions.

  “It’s Tess,” she said. “Thatcher’s Tess.”

  “Who?”

  “Tess, dear. And don’t say anything about the…”

  “The what?” he asked.

  “You know.”

  “Betty, I don’t know.”

  “Harold, just don’t say anything at all then.”

  “Fine.”

  He must have taken her literally, because he hung up on me.

  I stared at the receiver in my hand, puzzled. Don’t say anything about the what? I was still trying to make sense of it when the phone rang a minute or two later. I recognized the number as Ms. Betty’s, calling me back. “Hello?”

  “I’m sorry, dear. We’re having phone troubles. Harold is… ill. But I have a name and number for you. Do you have a pen?”

  I jotted down the musician’s contact information as Ms. Betty dictated it to me.

  “Thank you very much,” I said.

  “My pleasure. Good luck, dear. With the wedding.”

  I considered asking her about what I’d heard her tell Harold, about not mentioning something to me, but she was already ending the conversation.

  “I’m afraid I have to run. Bye-bye now.”

  She hung up before I could say goodbye. I missed my chance. But it was just as well, because I had a feeling she wouldn’t have told me anything anyway.

  What was with the people in this town? It was as if everyone were in on some big secret.

  Everyone, of course, except for me.

  CHAPTER 26

  I wasn’t ready to give up on Carl’s Creek. Maybe Jake was. Maybe Sara was. Maybe Thatcher was. But I wasn’t. I was in love with this place: with its beauty, with its history. No, I wasn’t ready to let it go at all.

  And I was willing to do something drastic to save it.

  I stood in the main field, shading my eyes from the sun and watching a team of workers scramble to set up the big white tent we ordered from the rental company.

  This was no ordinary tent. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Several large chandeliers hung from the ceiling, surrounded by billowing gauzy fabric draped over white twinkling lights that would cast a soft glow as evening fell. It looked ethereal, magical, like something out of a dream.

  And that was only the beginning. All around me workers bustled with their preparations. They unloaded items off a nearby truck: gold Chiavari chairs, big round tables, and boxes of ivory linens. Tall, intricate candelabras filled the barn where the ceremony would be held. There were small catering tents set up behind the barn, where they would be hidden from the guests’ sight.

  All the pieces were starting to come together. It was a good thing because I spent the past few days concocting and perfecting a plan to save Carl’s Creek, and it was all r
iding on this wedding going off without a hitch. Well, that and a certain aspiring news reporter.

  Natalie.

  When we spoke last week, I invited her to come take a look at the vineyard today so she could get a visual of the wedding setup. But since then, another reason for her visit came up, one she wasn’t even aware of yet. One that could change things in a big way, for her, for me, for everyone.

  I watched her get out of the car and approach the tent in awe. She spotted me, and I waved her over.

  “Oh… my… lands.” She put her hands up to her cheeks. “This is gorgeous. It’s stunning. I want it. All of it. Where do I sign?”

  I laughed. “You like it?”

  “It’s incredible. I can’t get over it. I’m… I’m speechless.” She turned to face the tent again, her mouth gaping open.

  “Come, let me show you the ceremony area,” I said. “It’s a work in progress, but you can still get the picture.”

  We entered the barn, where, true to his word, Jake installed a swinging wooden door to replace the plastic sheet. Chairs were set up in rows on either side of a makeshift aisle, with candelabras placed up front to stage an altar area.

  “Look at the way the light peeks through the beams!” Natalie let out a squeal.

  “I know. It’s one of my favorite parts, too.”

  She turned to me, hands clasped together, eyes wide with excitement. “So? Can you book me? Please, please, please?”

  I smiled. “It just so happens we’re wide open. Well, after Friday, that is.”

  She lunged for me and wrapped her arms around my neck, nearly knocking the wind out of me. “Oof.”

  “Sorry.” She stepped back and smoothed her skirt. “But thank you. So much. This is perfect.” She took another look around and turned to me with a distressed expression on her face. “How much is this going to set me back?”

  “Well, I wanted to talk to you about that.” I stepped toward the bar and gestured for her to follow me through the door to the back room. I pushed the door open, and she stepped inside before me. As I followed her, I peeked over my shoulder to make sure no one was around.

  I placed my clipboard down and leaned with my back against the countertop. “You can see for yourself how perfect Carl’s Creek is for a wedding.”

  She nodded.

  “This place could be huge, if we could get the word out. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to kick our advertising up a notch. The ad in the paper’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I’m thinking bigger. Beyond local. I’m thinking I want to put this place on the map as the place for a destination wedding in the South. And I’m thinking maybe you can help me.”