The Stranger and Tessa Jones

by Christine Rimmer

  And he had broken it off, hadn’t he? Yes. He was sure he had. He’d been planning to call it off for weeks. He must have told her it was over sometime during the couple of days that remained lost to him.

  Then again, he wondered, how could he be so sure he had ended it when he had no memory of telling her they were through?

  His mind rebelled at the question. He was sure. He just didn’t know how or when it had happened.

  “Ash. You still there?”

  “I’m here. What about Lianna?”

  “Are you sitting down?”

  “Damn it, Gabe. Stop…handling me. Just tell me.”

  Tessa gasped. He realized he was squeezing her fingers too hard. Loosening his grip, he brought her hand to his lips and kissed the hurt away.

  Gabe said, “There was an accident. A plane crash…”

  “I don’t…what?”

  “Lianna was on one of the BravoCorp jets. On the way to San Francisco. It was supposed to be the two of you. You remember that, right, the trip you planned to San Francisco?”

  He did remember, now Gabe said it. It was going to be a romantic getaway, just the two of them. But that hadn’t happened. Because he’d ended it. He’d broken their engagement.

  Hadn’t he? “I remember. Yes. The San Francisco trip.” It came out as a croak. His damn head was spinning. The only stable thing in the room was Tessa, sitting next to him, so still and calm, her hand in his.

  “Lianna’s alive,” said Gabe. “You should know that upfront. Lianna’s alive and the pilot and copilot, too. The plane hit bad weather, got blown off course. Went down in the Sierras. It happened Saturday morning. They were all—Lianna and the crew—airlifted to a Reno hospital. Both the pilot and copilot have given statements. They claim that you were in the cabin minutes before takeoff. That you and Lianna were arguing. But then you got off before the plane left the ground. You aren’t on the manifest.”

  “But, wait. Lianna…”

  “Yeah?”

  “She’s alive, you said. She’s okay. What has she said about it?”

  “Ash, I’m sorry. She’s not okay.”

  “Not…?”

  “She’s in a coma.”

  “A coma. My God.”

  “I’m sorry, man…”

  “I can’t believe it. Lianna. Damn it to hell.”

  Tessa made a low, sympathetic sound. He glanced at her tenderly, kissed the back of her hand a second time.

  Gabe said what Ash had already figured out. “So, then. Somehow, when you disappeared, you ended up in the same part of California that the plane went down. You had injuries, a serious head wound. It’s too much of a coincidence. You must have been on that plane.”

  Ash remembered the story on the news that first night. Of the plane that had crashed in the Sierras. One passenger, two crew members. All present and accounted for.

  Except for Ash. Somehow, even though the pilot and copilot believed he’d gotten off, he must have remained on the plane. And gone down with it.

  “Ash, did you hear me?”

  “I heard you. And yeah. You’re right. My memory’s still messed up. But how else could it have happened? I must have been on that plane.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  After the call to Gabe, Ash knew he needed to explain a few things to Tessa. But when he started trying to tell her about Lianna, she put a finger to his lips.

  “Your parents. I really think you should call them next, before anything else.”

  So he called the big house in San Antonio. After Blanca the housekeeper got over the shock of hearing his voice, she told him his mother and father had gone to stay at Bravo Ridge. “During this so difficult time,” she added softly.

  He thanked her and called the ranch. His mom answered. She had just got a call from Gabe. “Asher. At last. Hold on. I’ll let Gabe go and be right back. Do not hang up.”

  “I won’t, Mom. I’m right here.”

  She clicked off long enough to tell Gabe she’d call him later and then she was back on the line, trying valiantly not to cry, telling him how much she loved him. She demanded he come home right away, but then she changed her mind and insisted he stay where he was. She and his dad were flying to California.

  His father got on the line next to hear for himself that his oldest son was all right. Somehow, finding his father at the ranch at that hour of the day freaked Ash out more than any of it. In Texas, it was almost 11:00 a.m., on a weekday. Davis should have been at the BravoCorp building in San Antonio, kicking butt and brokering deals. Only death or disaster would have kept him away from his desk.

  “Son?”

  “Yeah, Dad. I’m here.”

  “It’s true, then. You’re safe. I hardly dare to believe it.”

  “Yeah. I’m okay, Dad. Going to be okay…”

  “We’re coming there, coming to you. We should be there by afternoon.”

  Ash told him how to get there, gave him the phone number at Tessa’s house and at her store. “I’m staying with a wonderful woman,” he said. “Her name’s Tessa. Tessa Jones.” He reached for her hand again and she shyly gave it. “She rescued me, Dad. She saved my life.”

  “Well, great,” Davis said gruffly. “I’m glad you’ve been taken care of. Thank her for me.”

  “I will.” He leaned toward her and they shared a quick kiss.

  His father said, “Now, I just want you to stay right there.”

  “Don’t worry, Dad. I’m not going anywhere.”

  When he hung up, Tessa asked, “They’re coming here?”

  He nodded. “They’ll fly into Sacramento, I think. They’ll be here late today.”

  “Good,” she said. “I’ll bet you can’t wait to see them.”

  “You’re right.” He touched her sleep-tangled hair, smoothing his hand down it. “Tessa…” He pulled her toward him and rested his forehead against hers.

  She pulled away. “Okay now.” Her voice was so gentle. “Whatever it is you need to tell me, go ahead.”

  “At this rate, we’ll be late opening the store.”

  “Worse things have happened.” She brushed his knee through the blankets with a tender hand. “Go on. Tell me.”

  Suddenly he got how Gabe must have felt trying to tell him about the plane crash and Lianna being in a coma. So much to say. How to even begin?

  Simple, he thought. Keep it simple. So he said, “I was engaged, to a woman named Lianna Mercer. It didn’t work out, so I broke it off right before I ended up here, in California.”

  She blinked. “Um. Engaged?”

  “Yeah. But it’s over now.”

  “You’re…sure?”

  “Positive. Tessa. You have to believe me. There’s only one woman I’m thinking of. And that’s you.”

  She was quiet. She tucked the blankets a little closer around her breasts and folded her hands on top of the covers. “When you were talking to your brother, didn’t you say something about her being in a coma?”

  “Yes, I did.” Quickly, he explained what he knew. About the planned trip to San Francisco, about the plane going down. About how the pilot and copilot said he’d argued with Lianna. How he wasn’t on the manifest. “But somehow I must have stayed on the plane, after all…”

  “Where is she now?”

  “A Reno hospital.”

  “You, um, probably ought to go see her, after your folks get here.”

  “What? I told you. I feel rotten for her, sorry about what’s happened to her. But it wouldn’t be right to go see her. The two of us are through.”

  “Ash. Come on. You were on the plane on Saturday. You were arguing with her. But…you had broken the engagement before that?”

  He put his hand to the healing wound on his forehead. “Look. I’m still not clear on the order of some things. But I’m positive that I broke up with her.”

  She stared at him. Her eyes were kind, but there was confusion in them. And hurt, too. “Did you…remember her before? And just not mention her to me?”


  Honesty. A real bitch sometimes. “I remembered…that there was someone. Some woman I dreaded having to deal with. I had a dream of her standing behind me, tapping me on the shoulder. I woke up before I turned to her, before I realized who she was.”

  “Oh, Ash…”

  “Damn it, Tessa. I didn’t want to worry you, that’s why I didn’t tell you about that particular dream. I didn’t know…what it meant. So I didn’t mention it.”

  She said nothing. She stared down at the blankets and then, cautiously, glanced back up at him.

  He commanded, “Don’t look at me like that.”

  She started to speak. But then Mona, who had jumped to the floor while Ash was talking to his dad, started whining from her usual spot in the open doorway to the hall.

  Tessa put on a fair approximation of a smile. “Mona needs to go out.” She threw back the covers. “I’ll take her downstairs.” The sight of her naked body broke his heart. Too swiftly, she was reaching for her robe, covering herself from his eyes.

  He had a terrible feeling of absolute certainty that he’d never see her naked again. That he had found himself—only to lose the one woman for him.

  Ridiculous. Not true. He said flatly, “I’ll go ahead and get the coffee started.”

  “Good idea.”

  And she was gone.

  When she came back upstairs, he got another forced smile. “We should get moving, huh? I’ll take a quick shower. Won’t be long.” She disappeared into the master bath.

  He cleaned up in the hall bath.

  Twenty minutes later, they were both in the kitchen, throwing breakfast together. Silently. Ash knew there was a hell of a lot more to say. If only he could figure out how to say it.

  They were just sitting down to eat when Jack Roper drove up in his sheriff’s office SUV. Tessa got up and ushered him in. “Want some coffee?”

  He took off his sheriff’s hat. “I’d like that.”

  So Tessa poured him a mug and he joined them at the table. “We’ve got big news,” she said. “Ash has remembered his name and, well, pretty much everything. He’s called his parents in Texas. They’ll be coming out today.”

  Roper sent him a cool look. “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Your last name wouldn’t be Bravo would it?”

  Tessa choked on her coffee. “Uncle Jack. How did you know?”

  “Woman in Reno just woke up from a coma. She was in a plane crash, private jet went down up near the summit last Saturday, near Gold Lake Road. The woman’s name is Lianna Mercer.” He raised his mug to Ash and drank. “While you were remembering everything, you happen to remember her?”

  Ash refused to drop his gaze. “I remember her. So, then. Lianna’s okay?”

  “She’s getting there. She claims you’re her fiancé. And that you were on the plane with her when it went down.”

  Tessa hardly knew what to think.

  Everything seemed to be happening at once. Ash knew who he was. And his parents were coming.

  And there was a woman named Lianna who’d just come out of a coma. A woman who said she was engaged to him, though Ash claimed he wasn’t, that he’d broken it off—although he wasn’t sure when the breaking-up had happened.

  Tessa knew he wanted to talk more about it. So did she. But really, what else was there to say?

  Either he and Lianna Mercer were engaged.

  Or they weren’t.

  And whether they were or not, well, it didn’t seem right. It didn’t seem…settled, between Ash and the other woman.

  The other woman. Tessa almost laughed. Because really, if there was an “other woman,” wasn’t Tessa it?

  Ash helped her out at the store in the morning and through the early afternoon. Business was slow, as usual, because it was the middle of winter. They had a number of opportunities to talk undisturbed. But they didn’t.

  Neither of them seemed to know what to say, how to begin…

  His father called at 2:00 p.m. to say they’d taken one of the family jets to Sacramento, as planned, and had arrived at Executive Airport there a few minutes before. They were renting a car and should be in North Magdalene within a couple of hours.

  Private jets. Tessa tried to take that in. His family owned jets. Plural. One of them had crashed up near the summit last Saturday, but they still had another to spare.

  She was getting the picture, painfully clear, that he was the first-born son of a rich and powerful Texas family. Yes, she’d had a feeling that when his memory came back, he’d turn out to be a guy who’d done all right for himself. But the Bravos—and Ash with them—had evidently done considerably better than all right.

  Which was great. Wonderful. And also somehow strange and disorienting.

  At a little after 3:00 p.m., Ash left the store to walk back to Tessa’s house. He would be there, waiting, when his parents arrived. They’d have a couple of hours to themselves, a private family reunion, before Tessa got home.

  Tawny Riggins came in at 3:30 p.m., glowing with love and happiness, her pale hair so pretty, soft and wavy to her shoulders. “Tessa!”

  Tessa rushed to her and they hugged. “You’re home…”

  Tawny pulled back enough that they could grin at each other. “I can’t believe it. A week and a day and I’ll be Mrs. Parker Montgomery. I swear, I never thought it would happen.”

  “Parker here, too?”

  Tawny and her fiancé lived across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, in Sausalito. Their small house wasn’t far from the mansion where Parker’s family lived—including Parker’s sister-in-law, Faith, who was a Jones by birth.

  Tawny nodded. “He’s here with me. We’re staying straight through to the wedding.”

  “A week from tomorrow. Yikes. Time does fly.”

  “And tomorrow night’s my bachelorette party. You’re still coming, right?”

  “I’m there. You know that. Wouldn’t miss it for anything.” They were taking over the back room at The Mercantile Grill—Tawny and her bridesmaids and several of her other girlfriends from town.

  “And Tessa…” Tawny was looking at her sideways, a gleam in her eyes. “I’ve been hearing things. About a guy. A total hunk who’s been staying with you. As usual, the stories are all over the place. They say he’s your boyfriend Bill, from Napa. And then they say he’s not Bill at all.”

  “Not Bill. Bill and I are so last week.”

  “Then…?”

  “Ash. Ash Bravo.” Right then the bell over the door rang and two middle-aged women entered. Tessa didn’t recognize either of them. She lowered her voice for Tawny’s ears alone. “It’s a very long story…”

  Tawny hugged her again. “I hear you. Later. But it’s something…special, right?”

  “It is. Special. Very, very special.”

  “I am so glad—tomorrow. Eight. The Grill.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  Tawny left and Tessa waited on the two out-of-town customers. They were serious shoppers and each ended up spending several hundred dollars on gold jewelry and handmade quilted jackets and wool peasant skirts. It was 4:40 p.m. when Tessa rang up their purchases. She watched them head for the door, thinking that Ash’s parents were probably at the house by now, wishing she could be there to greet them, but knowing it was probably better for them to have a little time with him alone.

  The two customers had no sooner gone out the door than the bell rang again and Oggie hobbled in, smoking a cigar.

  “Get that stinky thing out of here, Grandpa.”

  He grumbled, but he went back out and stuck it in the sand-filled ashtray not far from the door.

  When he came in again, he turned the Open sign around.

  “What are you doing?” She marched over to the door and flipped it back the way it was supposed to be. “I am open until five-thirty and you know that. I can’t just go turning the sign around any time I don’t feel like customers. If I did, I’d be out of business in no time.”
r />   Oggie grumbled some more. “Man can’t talk with his own damn granddaughter in private these days…”

  She threw up both hands. “We’re alone. Talk fast.”

  But Oggie did nothing fast. He hobbled over to a chair in the corner, shooed Gigi off it and took his time settling in, putting his cane in easy reach, huffing and puffing as if the effort it took to get comfortable exhausted him. He stretched out his bandy legs in front of him. “All right,” he said at last. “Something’s up. I been to see Jack, who’s got his sheriff’s attitude on. All he would tell me is that Ash’s last name is Bravo and his parents are comin’ to town today. I know there’s more. I’m here, so you can tell me everything.”

  So. Jack wasn’t talking. Tessa felt relief. She did not want the Jones boys going after Ash for having a fiancé he’d somehow failed to mention. She’d figured Uncle Jack would keep quiet now he knew his niece wasn’t in any physical danger from the stranger she’d rescued. It was good to know she’d figured right.

  “Start talking,” Oggie commanded.

  She gave him a fond smile. “I love you, Grandpa. Mind your own business.”

  “I think you should invite me over for dinner tonight. I want to meet Ash’s folks.”

  “Grandpa.”

  “What?”

  “No. Get it? No. You will meet them, I promise. Just…for tonight, leave it alone.”

  “Humph. Well. Guess you made that clear as a poke in the eye with a burning stick.”

  Half an hour later, after insisting she go in the back and make him some coffee and prodding her mercilessly to change her mind and tell him every last detail of what was going on with Ash, Oggie gave up and hobbled out the door.

  By then it was 5:15 p.m. She was anxious to get home and meet the Bravos. She was hoping they would like her, worried about the woman named Lianna, already missing the magical days she and Ash had shared alone together.

  Everything seemed to be happening so fast suddenly. Too fast—well, except for the last fifteen minutes until closing. Those minutes dragged on forever.

  Finally, 5:30 p.m. came. Tessa turned the sign around, put the cash in the safe and the cat and the dog in the wagon, locked up and drove home, where the lights were on and a big, silver Mercedes was parked in her driveway.