Let It Snow (The Hope Falls Series)

by Melanie Shawn

  Could it be true that he hadn’t got over her?

  Last night, she really thought that something was going to happen between them. But he’d left. If he still had feelings for her, wouldn’t he have stayed?

  “Sorry about that.” Nikki was glowing as she came around the corner. “Mike is on his way. He just got into Oakland.”

  “Nice song,” Tessa teased her, motioning to her phone.

  “I know, right?” Nikki laughed. “He’s so funny. He keeps changing my ringtone.”

  “What if your parents heard it?” Tessa asked, feeling like she was back in high school again, worrying about Rosalie’s and Sean’s reactions to something.

  Nikki’s hands flew up in the air. “My mom is the one who changed the ringtone for him when I was at her house this morning. You don’t understand, my parents drank the Mike Gowan Kool-Aid. They adore him. They are proud card-carrying Team Mike members.” Nikki laughed as her eyes danced with happiness. “He really is pretty amazing. I can’t wait for you to meet him at the work party tomorrow.”

  “Isn’t he only in town for the weekend?” Tessa asked.

  “Yep. He has to fly out again on Monday morning.”

  “I don’t want you two wasting your Saturday helping me fix up the house. You should be spending quality time together.” Tessa truly appreciated her friend’s willingness to help her, but she didn’t want her sacrificing precious time with her fiancé for it.

  “Are you kidding me? Mike’s a politician. Well, for another six months anyway. He lives for this kind of stuff.”

  Tessa knew that Nikki was joking about Mike ‘living’ to fix up houses, but she did ask, “What do you mean, only six more months? He is not running for re-election?”

  Nikki shook her head. “Nope. I don’t think that politics was ever what he dreamed about going into. It was almost more of a family obligation. And things with his family have been a little tense since the ‘campaign manager scandal.’ So when his term is up, he’s going to move up here to Hope Falls and start his own practice, put his law degree to good use.”

  “Wow. So you guys are going to live here then? In Hope Falls?” Tessa asked. As a kid, all Nikki had talked about was getting out of the small town. She would dramatically say that she’d rather die than end up living here the rest of her life.

  “Yep,” Nikki replied happily as she began helping Tessa unpack the bags. “I know I used to think that staying here would be like a constant Groundhog Day, that I would be bored to death. But now, as an adult, I honestly couldn’t imagine living somewhere else. I mean, of course, if Mike had wanted to remain in politics, then I absolutely would have adjusted. But since he fell in love with Hope Falls too, then I guess I’m just a lucky girl. I get to be with the love of my life, live in the only place I’ve ever called home, and be surrounded by family.”

  “You deserve it, sweetie.” Tessa was happy for Nikki. She deserved every happiness this world had to offer.

  Nikki chuckled. “I think you are the only person on this earth that calls me ‘sweetie.’”

  Tessa laughed and shrugged. “You are a sweetie—to me. I think I might always see you as that thirteen-year-old girl who was my shadow.”

  “I can deal with that,” Nikki smiled.

  When they’d laid out all of the supplies, Tessa pulled up the list that Lauren had emailed to her this morning. “Okay, well I think that everything is here. We should be all set for tomorrow.”

  “All right. Mike and I will be here bright and early.” Nikki hugged her before she turned to leave.

  “Thanks. See you tomorrow.” Tessa looked at everything she’d purchased and started collecting the receipts to put in an envelope.

  She couldn’t believe how quickly everything had added up. Between the cleaning supplies, paint, and flooring, her bank account was running on fumes. Luckily, her roommate Molly’s boyfriend had just moved in the week before Tessa had left. When Tessa had called Molly to let her know that she’d be longer than expected, Molly had told her that Rick would just pay her portion of the rent and utilities for as long as she was gone.

  But even with those bills not hanging over her head, Tessa needed to bring in some extra income. Maybe she would call Mary and see if she had any work she could throw Tessa’s way. And she’d also ask Sue Ann if she needed any help at the café.

  Between her finances, the house, and Jake, Tessa’s stress level was running into the red. But she would try and pick up some part-time work, and hopefully after tomorrow the house would be in much better shape. So with plans in place to work on two of the three blood-pressure-increasing situations in her life, she decided that instead of dwelling on the third, she would go to her new favorite place in the whole world. The master bathroom.

  It was her tiny piece of heaven on earth. For now.

  Chapter Sixteen

  ‡

  Jake pulled into the driveway and his chest tightened in pain when he saw that Tessa’s PT Cruiser was not parked in it. It was only six a.m.

  Where could she be? Had she decided to stay at Sue Ann’s? Had she not come home last night? Or worst of all, had she left town?

  Jake was trying to calm his racing pulse as he looked up and saw Tessa’s car pulling in beside him. Relief washed over him at the sight as he let out a breath he hadn’t even known he had been holding. Maybe Eric had been right. Maybe he and Tessa did need to talk.

  He stepped out into the crisp morning air.

  “Hey.” Tessa stood beside the driver’s side of her car and waved, her big blue eyes peeking out from beneath her worn blue LA Dodger’s baseball cap. Jake grinned. That had been their only source of contention. He was a San Francisco Giants fan and she was a Dodgers fan.

  “I see your taste in baseball hasn’t improved.” Jake walked around the car.

  “No, it hasn’t. Because you can’t improve on perfection. And my boys are perfection,” Tessa smiled cockily.

  “Really? How many World Series championships have your boys won in the last five years? Oh, that’s right—zero. And the Giants have won…oh, that’s right—three. That does not sound perfect to me.”

  He moved in front of her and rested one arm on her open door and the other beside her on the roof of her car. She stood between his arms and crossed her arms over her light grey hoodie sweatshirt.

  “Perfection is not always measured in wins.”

  “That sounds like something a loser would say,” Jake teased.

  Tessa gasped. “I am not a loser.”

  “No”—Jake tilted his head and tugged the bill of her baseball cap down—“but your team is.”

  “Psshh.” Tessa adjusted her hat then reached up pushed his chest hard with both hands. “Whatever.”

  Instead of backing up from the force of her shove, instinctively Jake moved forward, wrapped his arms around her small frame, and pulled her towards him, closing the small space between them. It wasn’t until she sucked in a startled breath and looked up at him, her body pressed tightly against his, that he realized what he’d done.

  Her slender fingers fanned out across his chest, and even through the several layers of clothes he wore, he could feel the touch. The connection. His body was filled with a deep ache as his heart beat erratically.

  Her eyes widened as his hands flattened against her lower back and his thumbs traced the line along the hem of her jeans. It felt like every ounce of blood in his body rushed below his belt. He could almost hear it like a raging river in his ears. The only other sound he heard were the pants of his labored breathing.

  Her sky blue eyes looked up at him the same way they had when she was seventeen. Filled with passion, lust, and—unless Jake was reading it wrong—love.

  At that thought, his fingers gripped over her rounded backside and his thumbs slipped beneath the hem of her sweatshirt, grazing along the soft skin of her lower back. The moment they touched skin to skin, Tessa’s eyes closed and her full red lips parted as a whimper of need escaped her mouth. His grip
tightened and he pulled her harder against him, his rock-hard erection pressing against her pelvis through the layers of their denim jeans.

  Jake almost felt lightheaded with his fevered, hot desire. All he’d ever wanted, all he’d ever needed, was here in his arms.

  His love. His passion. His heart. His soul. His Tessa.

  “Tessa,” Jake rasped.

  Her eyes opened and locked with his. He felt a tremor run through her body and it caused his rock-hard shaft to twitch in his pants. He wanted to feel her trembling body, naked, beneath him, while he was buried inside of her.

  In the back of his mind, Jake knew that he might regret this. A small voice—that sounded a lot like his brother’s—was in his head saying that he needed to talk to her before anything happened. His protective instinct was kicking up in full force with warning signals, cautioning Jake this wasn’t a good idea.

  But Jake didn’t give a shit about any of that. Looking into Tessa’s baby blue eyes, caressing the smooth skin on her lower back, his hands filled with the rounded globes of her perfect ass, Jake could only think about kissing her, making love to her.

  His head lowered slowly and he felt her rising up on her tiptoes. Just as their lips brushed, a loud honk sounded in the air, startling Tessa and causing her to jump back from his arms.

  Turning, they saw not one, not two, not three, but about a dozen cars pulling onto the street. It was led by Eric’s truck, which held not only Lily, but also Shadow, their golden retriever, between them. They were followed by what looked like the entire town of Hope Falls.

  As the cars all found parking spots on the small street and people began getting out, Tessa looked up at him with a questioning look. He could see that she was worried about what he might be thinking. In that moment, Jake knew his brother was right. They needed to talk.

  But this wasn’t the day. Not wanting her to think that he was upset about what had just happened—or almost happened—between them, Jake said dryly, “Thanks.”

  Tessa’s eyes widened at his insincere tone.

  “This bad boy is gonna be real fun to walk around with all day.” He motioned down to the large bulge his straining erection was causing in his jeans.

  Tessa’s hand flew over her mouth as she giggled, “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” Jake shrugged. “It’s a permanent condition when you’re around.”

  She stilled and searched his eyes. Even though he hadn’t meant it to be a serious statement, he could see that his words affected her and she was trying to see if he was serious.

  Did she really not know how he felt about her? How could she not know?

  “Hey, kiddos.” Sue Ann bustled around the car and just like that Jake’s boner deflated.

  Well, at least that problem’s solved.

  “I brought sandwiches for lunch. Where do you want me to have Ryan put them?”

  “Oh, thank you so much!” Tessa exclaimed. Then she looked up at Jake, her hand gesturing inside the car. “I got donuts for everyone. Do you mind if we put the food in your kitchen and let people eat there? It’s a lot cleaner than Gran’s.”

  Jake wanted to say, “It’s your kitchen too. Do whatever you want.” But it wasn’t. He needed to remember that. So instead he nodded as he reached past her and pulled out several pink boxes of donuts. “Sure. I even have some fold-up tables and chairs in the garage we can put out.”

  “Perfect,” Sue Ann said cheerily before she yelled over her shoulder, “Ryan, go ahead and bring the food into Jake’s.”

  As Jake was turning to bring the donuts inside, he felt Tessa’s slim fingers wrap around his bicep. He turned and she said, “Thank you. You didn’t have to do any of this.”

  “Yes I did,” Jake answered honestly. Turning and walking up to the house, Jake realized that she really didn’t get it.

  Time. Heartache. Distance. None of that had changed the fact that he would do anything for that girl. His girl.

  *

  “Thanks again.” Tessa lifted her arms to hug Lauren, who, at five foot six inches, stood a good four inches taller than her. “I don’t know how you do what you do. I am in serious awe of your organizational skills. Because of you, we got more accomplished today than I would have in six months.”

  “Well, we had a lot of people helping.” Lauren waved her hand dismissively.

  There was no way Tessa was going to let her downplay her role in today’s massive makeover-slash-renovation success. “Even if I had this many people helping me every weekend, it still would have taken me at least a month.”

  This morning, Lauren had not only separated everyone into work groups according to their skills and abilities, but she’d also designated a leader of each group. Tessa watched in amazement as every hour she would check in with each of the group leaders and get status updates. Then she would prioritize the next hour accordingly.

  She had designated ‘runners’ who would go out to get supplies when needed. Also, she’d assigned four-person lunch and breakfast cleanup-slash-serving crews that had made the mealtime transitions seamless. Lauren Harrison was a force to be reckoned with.

  Lauren was scrolling through her iPad when she announced, “I think that we accomplished all of the heavy-lifting jobs that don’t have to be done by professionals. I will get estimates on the roofing and plumbing to you by Monday.”

  Tessa wanted to cry. It felt so good to have someone other than herself taking care of details for once. “Lauren, I seriously don’t know whether to kiss your feet or elect you for sainthood.”

  A small smile pulled at Lauren’s still perfectly applied lipsticked lips. “Well, I haven’t had a pedicure in a month, and believe me, I am no saint,” she said with a wicked gleam in her eye as Ben and Jake made their way up the driveway.

  The guys were coming back from taking a load of flooring they had pulled up from the bathrooms to the dump.

  Ben stepped up and pulled Lauren into his arms, planting a kiss on her that would make a porn star blush. Lauren looked a little dazed when he pulled away. Ben leaned close to her, resting his forehead against hers, and said in a low voice, “I’ve been waiting to do that all day.”

  “Damn, Ben.” Jake smiled at their friends as he stepped beside Tessa, his hand resting on her lower back, sending all kinds of mixed messages to her brain and lady parts. “You couldn’t have waited ’til you guys got home?”

  “No.” Ben shook his head, looking not at all embarrassed about his PDA.

  A small blush rose on Lauren’s cheeks. “He likes it when I get organizational.”

  “Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before,” Jake laughed. “But you definitely found the right girl if that’s what gets your engine running.”

  “Hell yeah I did,” Ben said, and with that, he lifted Lauren over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and slapped her rear end.

  Lauren shrieked but she wore a huge smile on her face as her fiancé carried her down the driveway. Lauren lifted her head and waved. “Bye! Call if you need anything!”

  “Thanks again,” Tessa called out, “for everything!”

  As Jake and Tessa stood at the top of her grandma’s driveway and watched as their friends drove down the street, the energy between them shifted. Like it did every time they were alone.

  She was scared to look up at Jake and she was equally as scared not to. Everything between them was so…unsettled. And she had no idea what to do to settle it.

  “Have you done a grand inspection?” Jake’s deep voice rumbled beside her as his thumb rubbed in circles around her tailbone.

  She shook her head as she braved a look up into the milky chocolate pools of his eyes. “No. I was knee-deep in kitchen cabinets all day. I just came up for air. Lauren was giving me progress updates.”

  He tilted his head towards the front door. “Let’s check it out.”

  Tessa wasn’t sure why he was being so nice to her. He had to be angry with her. Sure, she got the physical stuff. When things got heated between them, it d
idn’t confuse her at all. But the rest of it? She just had no idea what was going on in his mind.

  Which was odd, considering that historically he’d been the open book out of the two of them. Sure, Jake had always been able to read Tessa like a book. But part of what made that special was that other people couldn’t. They would take her at face value or, like her parents, not really consider her at all. Growing up, she’d been expected to do what she was told and not only not have an opinion about it, but also be happy about it. So, she’d learned to smile through anything and hide what she was truly feeling. Sometimes she did such a good job even she didn’t know what she really felt.

  Until Jake. She could say or not say whatever she wanted, but somehow he always just knew what was really going on inside of her. He’d seen her like no one else, not even Grandma Adie, had.

  She’d only ever been able to hide what she was really feeling from him once. Thirteen years ago. When she’d lain in the hospital room and told him that she didn’t love him any longer and to get out.

  As Jake opened the door to her grandma’s house, Tessa was once again struck by just how much had gotten accomplished that day and how different everything looked. The old green carpeting had been pulled up and the hardwood flooring, that had been original to the house, had been polished. All of the walls were empty, cleared of pictures and paintings. There were white spots throughout from where the holes had been patched.

  As they walked up the stairs, she saw that the loose boards on the third and fourth steps had been fixed. Both upstairs bathrooms had new flooring, and to Tessa’s surprise, the master even had new fixtures.

  “Wow. I still can’t believe all of this got done in just one day.” Tessa looked around in disbelief.

  Jake nodded. “It’s amazing what Lauren can do with a few spreadsheets and an iPad.”

  “Right?!” Tessa agreed with a little laugh.

  “How does it feel?” Jake asked. “Being back here. In this house.”

  Tessa paused, wanting to figure out how to explain her feelings in exactly the right words. But she could only come up with two. So she looked at him and shrugged. “Surreal and different. It’s just not the same place without Gran.”