Let It Snow (The Hope Falls Series)

by Melanie Shawn

  “Hi, Mary,” Tessa beamed as she threw her arms around her mentor and hugged her tightly.

  Pulling away from her, Mary shook her head, making a tsk-tsk-tsking sound. “Have you been eating? You’re thin as a rail.”

  “Yes, I have. I promise,” Tessa assured her. Mary was always trying to “fatten her up” and “put some meat on her bones.”

  Reaching up, Mary cupped her hands, cradling Tessa’s cheeks. She smiled up at Tessa like the sun was shining down on her. “Well, I didn’t think it was possible but somehow you managed to get even prettier.”

  Tessa leaned into Mary’s soft palm. She didn’t want to start crying again, but she’d missed feeling nurtured and…special. Her Gran had passed nine months ago, but it had been well over five years since she’d had her faculties about her. Tessa had never imagined how painful it was to watch a person you love slip away slowly until they don’t even know who they are, who you are, where they are. It was heartbreaking.

  Mary’s eyes grew worried when Tessa began tearing up, “You okay, pumpkin?”

  “I will be,” Tessa spoke in faith, because honestly she had no idea if she would be.

  “Come on.” Mary ushered Tessa to the couch. As soon as they were seated, she handed her a tissue. “So why do you look like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders?”

  “Oh, I’m fine. Just a lot of emotions are coming up being back here.” Tessa tried to gloss over how she was feeling.

  “Young lady, I may not have seen you in a month of Sundays but I do know that something is heavy on your heart. Is it Adeline’s passing or your run-in with Jake?”

  Tessa looked up at her in shock. “How did you—”

  Mary interrupted, explaining, “Oh, well Stella over at the Pack ‘N’ Pay overheard Henry on the phone with Lauren talking about your grandma’s place. Then she told Nadine, who gets her hair done by Rosemarie over at Curl Up and Dye, who came in to pick up an eight-by-ten of her granddaughter’s christening and filled me in.”

  “Wow.” The gossip train seemed to be moving full steam ahead in Hope Falls.

  “And Marty over at Carson’s Garage was at JT’s last night. He went home and told Velma, who he’s been shacking up with since his Margaret passed, God rest her soul, that watching the two of you reminded him of the people on her shows. You know how that woman loves her soaps. Anyhoo, he told Velma that he couldn’t hear what ya’ll were sayin’ but that it was mighty entertaining. I ran into Velma, who went to go pick up Marty’s blood pressure medication down at the pharmacy this morning. I was there getting my insulin.”

  “How are you feeling?” Tessa asked. Mary had been a Type 1 diabetic since Tessa had known her.

  “Good days and bad days.” She shrugged it off. “But I don’t want to talk about my blood sugar. I want to hear about you. Tell me everything.”

  Tessa leaned back into the couch, curling her feet beneath her, and took a deep breath. If Mary wanted to know everything, they were going to be here for a while.

  *

  Jake was just shutting down his computer when there was yet another knock on the door. Seriously, this place was like Grand Central Station today. At least he’d already decided that there was no way he was going to get any work done. Not after Tessa had been there.

  He still had several hours before basketball tonight so he thought he’d go home, grab Lucky, and go on another run. In high school, when he’d been on the football team, Jake had always been exhausted when they’d had two-a-days—practice before and after school. He was hoping that a double-up on his running would have the same effect on him now.

  But first he had to deal with whoever was at the door. “Come in.”

  His brother walked in and shut the door behind him. He casually took a seat and leaned back in the chair, making himself comfortable.

  “Can I help you with something?” Jake asked. He was really not in the mood to shoot the shit with anyone. Luckily his brother really wasn’t a ‘talker,’ so he wasn’t too worried.

  “I just wanted to come by and make sure you were okay,” Eric said.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Really? Because I gotta tell you, I have never seen you look like you did last night when you saw Tessa.” Eric’s brow lifted.

  Jake knew that his brother had developed a reputation for being a master interrogator on the force, but this was Jake’s office, not an interrogation room, and whatever was or wasn’t going on with Tessa was none of Eric’s business.

  “I was just surprised to see her,” Jake answered honestly. He had been shocked as hell to see her in JT’s last night.

  Eric continued his line of questioning. “What happened between you guys?”

  “You were there. Nothing.”

  “Not last night, smartass. In high school.”

  “Why do you care?” Jake wasn’t sure what the sudden interest was. It’s not like Eric could be interested in Tessa. He was engaged to Lily and happier than Jake had ever seen him in his life.

  Eric leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Look, the few times I came home from school that year, you guys seemed inseparable, and honestly, the two of you kind of reminded me of Mom and Dad.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jake knew his brother had a point. He just wished he’d hurry and get to it.

  “I’m talking about how you two were together. Anyone who was around you guys for five minutes could see it. You guys had this…connection. The only other time I’d ever seen it was between Mom and Dad. Then you call me and tell me you’re engaged and the next thing I know she’s gone and you turn into a man-whore asshole.”

  “Hey, I’m not an asshole.” Jake wasn’t even going to try and defend the ‘man-whore’ title.

  “No, not anymore. But you were. For years,” Eric stated flatly.

  “So, what, do you want an apology? Did my brief stint as an asshole hurt your feelings?” Jake asked sarcastically.

  “No, I want to know what happened.”

  “You know what happened. You just summed it up perfectly. We were together. We were happy. We were going to get married. She left.” That was the story that everyone knew. The only people who knew the whole story were himself, Tessa and Adeline. And Adeline was gone now. So just he and Tessa knew. It was no one else’s business.

  “She just left? For no reason at all.”

  No good reason.

  Jake knew his detective brother was not going to drop this so he figured he might as well tell him a version of the truth. “She realized that she didn’t want to get stuck living in a small town. She knew that after school I planned on coming back here to live. She didn’t want that. She wanted to see the world. So instead of going to school in Southern California, like we’d planned, she went to New York.”

  Eric sat there silently, his expression was unreadable. Jake couldn’t tell if he was buying it or not. Jake was actually getting uncomfortable under his brother’s stare and he hadn’t even lied. He just hadn’t told the entire truth. Jake actually felt a little sorry for the criminals his brother interrogated.

  “Well, she’s back now,” his brother finally said.

  “Not for long. After she gets Adeline’s affairs in order, she’s going home.” Jake closed the files on his desk and unlocked the desk drawer he kept them in.

  “Where’s home?”

  “San Diego.”

  “She’s here now. Are you going to do anything about it?”

  “Nope.” Jake’s patience was quickly running out. First his sister, now his brother. He was sure as soon as his parents found out she was in town that they would be up his ass too. Because they didn’t know the whole story. How he’d gotten on his knees in the hospital room when she’d told him she was leaving and begged her to stay. He’d told her he would go with her. That he would do anything to be with her. That they could work it out.

  She’d looked him right in the eye and told him to leave, to get out of her room. Screamed it, actually.r />
  They didn’t know how he’d gone back the next day but she had already been discharged. Or how he’d driven like a maniac to her grandma’s house and then yelled at Adeline when she wouldn’t tell him where Tessa had gone.

  No one knew how he’d punched holes in his walls that night out of helpless frustration. Or how he’d gotten black-out drunk almost every night the first year of college just trying to forget her.

  No, all his family knew was that they had been together. They had been engaged. Then she’d left. And that’s all they ever needed to know.

  Chapter Eight

  ‡

  Tessa pulled into her grandma’s driveway next to a very nice Mercedes SUV she assumed belonged to Lauren. The expensive silver vehicle looked out of place parked in front of the rundown two-story house. Tessa’s heart sank as she took in the peeling paint and the overall dilapidated appearance of the home.

  It particularly stuck out like a sore thumb because the rest of the street had been well-maintained. A few of the houses looked as though they had even been renovated. As she stepped out of her car, she put her hand up, shading her eyes from the sun to try and get a better look at the house that sat next door to her grandma’s. The blue house with white trim that Jake had wanted to buy since he was a kid. The house they had spent endless hours talking about raising a family in.

  Jake’s house.

  Their house.

  Tessa wondered who lived there. From what she could see through the large picture window that overlooked the mountainside it faced, there didn’t appear to be any furniture in it. Hmm, maybe it was vacant?

  A sound caught her attention then. She looked back just as the front door to her grandma’s house opened and Lauren stepped outside. “They won’t take less than one point five.” She wore a suit that looked more like she should be on Wall Street as opposed to Shady Creek Lane. It was black and tailored perfectly to fit her willowy frame. Her hair was swept up without a strand out of place. Her appearance might have seemed severe and even out of place on someone else, but on Lauren it just worked. When their eyes met, Lauren waved warmly, then held up one finger indicating that she would only be a minute.

  Tessa smiled and nodded, making her way up the wooden steps. As she reached the porch, she saw that her grandma’s beloved swing was broken and one half was resting on the wooden planks below it. There were spider webs covering it. Only one of the cushions that Tessa had helped her grandma sew for the seat remained and it was tattered and sun damaged.

  “Well, you can go ahead and write it up but I’m telling you it’s a waste of time. They won’t take it.” Lauren moved onto the far side of the lawn to finish her call, and Tessa took a fortifying breath before stepping over the threshold and into the house.

  Tessa stared, in shock, at the only place that had ever been a home to her. Lauren had opened up some of the curtains, letting in the midday sun, but it still felt dark and gloomy. Dust covered every inch the eye could see. The few pieces of furniture that still stood looked to be in serious disrepair.

  When Grandma Adie had first moved to San Diego, before the dementia had set in, she’d told Tessa that she had a property manager that would be looking after the house. Tessa had always meant to come up and check on everything or at least call and speak to someone at the real estate office that was handling the property, but her grandma’s health had begun declining so rapidly that Tessa had been maxed out just trying to take care of her. Then, once she’d had to move Gran to a home, Tessa had spent all of her time between making sure that Grandma Adie had been taken care of and picking up as many photography jobs as she could to continue to pay for her care.

  “All right, sorry about that.” Lauren walked back up on the porch, carefully stepping across the missing plank of wood in her six-inch heels, then entered the house with a friendly smile on her face. “Hi! It’s been a long time, stranger. How does it feel to be back?”

  “Hi.” Tessa had no idea how to explain how it felt. “Yeah it’s been a while. It feels…strange.”

  “I bet.” Lauren nodded her head as her eyes widened. Her expression turned somber as she said, “Well I wish we were meeting under better circumstances. I’m so sorry for your loss. Adeline was an incredible woman.”

  “Thanks. Yes, she was,” Tessa agreed. Since she’d cried enough for two lifetimes in the last day she decided to direct the conversation to a less emotional topic. “Congratulations on your show. I haven’t had a chance to watch it but I’ve seen the promos.”

  “Oh, thanks. It’s fun. Not anything I would have ever expected to do, but like they say, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. And what about you? Oh my gosh, that piece you did on Darfur. The image of the girl sitting beside her dying mother still haunts me today.”

  “Yeah, that was a tough shoot.” It was also the last assignment that she’d been on as a photojournalist. The day she’d gotten home from that job had also been the first time the police called saying that they’d found her grandma wandering the streets, unresponsive.

  “So,” Lauren said, adopting a very professional tone, “I’ve looked over everything and it looks like, between the second mortgage and the back taxes, you owe one hundred and ten thousand.”

  The room started spinning at the sound of that number.

  “Tessa.” Lauren’s voice sounded far away. “Are you okay?”

  Tessa lips were tingling and she felt like she was floating. An arm wrapped around her and she was vaguely aware of her feet moving. Warmth from the sun hit her face and she squinted her eyes. She was outside.

  “Tessa, are you with me?” Lauren asked from beside her.

  Tessa’s head felt heavy as she turned to look at her friend. She managed a weak, “Yeah.” Slowly, her awareness returned. Lauren must have ushered her outside because she was seated on the grass in the front yard. She took in a few deep breaths. “I’m okay. Sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

  “I’m the one who should be apologizing. I shouldn’t have just blurted out that number. I am so sorry, Tessa.”

  “No, it’s fine. You were just doing your job. And I think that my lightheadedness had more to do with living on only energy drinks and coffee the last few days, driving for twelve hours straight, and getting no sleep last night,” Tessa explained. She didn’t want her friend feeling at all responsible for her passing-out close call.

  Lauren did not look completely convinced but she dropped it. “Well, the good news is that there’s not any structural damage to the house. I went ahead and had it inspected this morning after Henry called. A lot of the repairs are cosmetic. There is some plumbing and roof work that will need to be done. But mostly it just needs a deep cleaning and a few coats of paint to get it ready for sale.

  “And the comps in this neighborhood are right at two hundred so you would not only be able to pay off the second mortgage and the taxes, you could have a little left over as well.”

  Tessa nodded, taking in the information Lauren was giving her.

  “If you planned on selling,” Lauren quickly added. “I just assumed that you wouldn’t be holding on to it.”

  “Henry mentioned something about the bank taking it over. How long do I have before that happens?”

  “You have forty-five days until they will be foreclosing on the property. But that is plenty of time. And I know that everyone will pitch in.” Lauren pulled out her phone. “I’ll get a hold of Amanda to put the word out. We can do a work day this Saturday.”

  There might be drawbacks like gossip and everyone knowing everything about everyone’s business, but being a part of a small tight-knit community definitely had its advantages as well. Not that Tessa was really a part of this community. But her grandma had been, so she kind of was by default.

  After Lauren finished typing on her phone, she looked up and announced with a small satisfied smile, “Done.”

  “Thank you, Lauren. I really appreciate it.” Tessa had been handling things on her own fo
r so long that having people rally around and support her was a nice change. But one she knew she absolutely could not get used to.

  “Not a problem. I have to run to a production meeting, but we are having a book club meeting tonight at Amanda’s at seven. You should come. Do you remember where Mountain Ridge is at?” Lauren asked as she pulled out a set of keys.

  “Yeah. I learned to ride a horse at Mountain Ridge. Is Amanda running it now?” Tessa asked. As a teen, she’d loved going to the outdoor adventure park. There was horseback riding, kayaking, and nature walks. The summer she’d moved to Hope Falls, she’d been up there almost every day to take pictures, working on her craft.

  “Yes, she is. Well, she and Justin Barnes.”

  “That cute guy that worked there?” Tessa remembered that she’d always seen him around fixing things.

  “Yeah. After her dad passed, he left the resort to Amanda and Justin, and they reunited because of it. It’s a very romantic story, but I’ll let her fill you in. Can you make it tonight?” Lauren asked.

  “I’ll definitely try to.” Tessa didn’t want to commit to anything because she wasn’t sure how she would be feeling this evening since the day was only half over and she had already had a mini breakdown and almost passed out. “Nikki mentioned it when I saw her at Sue Ann’s this morning. It would be fun to catch up with everyone,” Tessa said sincerely.

  “Well, I hope you can make it. If I don’t see you then, I will definitely be getting in touch with you tomorrow with plans for the work day Saturday.”

  “Okay, sounds good.”

  “Are you sure you are feeling okay? I can call and let them know that I’ll be late.” Concern laced Lauren’s voice.

  “No, I’m fine. Really. I have a protein bar and water in the car. I just need to eat,” Tessa assured her.

  Lauren’s eyes narrowed for a moment before she said, “Okay. You have my cell, right?”

  “Yep. I got it from Henry.”