by C. J. Thomas
She picked up the clothes from the floor. “You could say that.”
“Then tell me what he told you.”
“Not going to happen.” Sadie sighed and turned to me. With such a serious look, I stopped myself from throwing my other pillow just in time. “Like I said, hear him out. Decide for yourself. I don’t want to sway your decision on this.”
I fell sideways on the quilted bedspread, letting the foam mattress cushion my shoulder. “All I’ve had for the last few weeks are decisions.”
“I know it’s been hard.”
“Hard? Hard is the understatement of the year. In the last couple of weeks, I lost my parents, lost my job and a position in a company I’ve been prepping for since I can remember. I started modeling, and maybe I could keep doing it, but every time I do, I’ll think of Liam.” I flung the pillow around with every statement. “I can’t keep doing things and being places that remind me of what I’ve lost. Not exactly what I’d planned for, you know?” It wasn’t really a question and Sadie knew that. Though I knew she had things to say, she let me go on with my rant without butting in. “Then there’s Liam, with a pretending-to-be-pregnant ex, assuming she’s an ex, and he wants to marry me to stay in the country. Now, if that doesn’t say happily ever after, I don’t know what does.” Sadie opened her mouth and I held out my hand. “I know, just see what he has to say.”
Dani stepped into the room. “Hey Sadie.”
I held out my hand. “And then there’s Dani to take care of as well. Don’t take that in a bad way, I’m happy to, but—”
“Don’t worry about me. Grams and Pops are picking me up.” She turned on her heel and walked right back out my door.
“Whoa there.” I slid off the bed and followed her out. “You can’t just tell me something like that and expect zero conversation.” Sadie followed us from the room, the cream suit draped over her arm. I was glad to have her in that moment and I borrowed some of her strength. “Our grandparents are dead. Please don’t tell me you did some weird summoning voodoo.”
Dani swiped at the plastic covering draped over the hallway reading chair.
“Not those grandparents.” She said it like I’d lost my mind. “From Mom’s side.”
Her words clicked into my head and I was pretty sure she was the one who’d lost her mind. “Here? They’re coming here?”
Dani spun back to me, jabbing her finger in my direction. “You’re the one who said we couldn’t stay in this house any longer. That we had to sell it.” She yanked off one of the plastic coverings protecting a mirror and shook it at me. “Talk about voodoo. Thanks to you, this place looks more like a haunted mansion than our home.”
“Will you just stop for a minute?” She kept walking as though Sadie and I didn’t exist. “Dani, wait.”
She finally stopped at her room where I could see she’d packed most everything into overnight bags and suitcases. Half of which were mine. I wanted to tell her that I had to leave, too, that I had to pack my own stuff up and now I didn’t even have anything to put it in. But I let it go.
Sadie stepped up before I could stop her. “I know you’re hurting, but don’t take it out on Tessa. Do you think she wanted to make these decisions?”
“I—”
“No, listen to me.” Sadie shook my pantsuit at Dani in about the same way that Dani had waved the plastic at me. “Tessa lost just as much as you, if not more. You left all this on her shoulders and she made the best decisions she could. And if you ask me—”
“I didn’t,” Dani snipped.
Sadie pressed her lips together. “She made the right decisions, always with you in mind.”
“I—” Tears began to run down her face.
“Well, damn. Now I went and did it.”
I looked from Sadie to Dani and sighed. “We’ve been through more than we ever thought possible in such a short amount of time. Taking it out on each other might not be the best form of release.” We waited for Dani to catch her breath.
“You know you’re like my little sister, too, right?” Sadie said as she gave Dani a hug. “I’m supposed to be hard on you.”
“I’ve already got one bossy, big sister. I don’t need two.”
Sadie elbowed her. “Oh, stop grouching.”
“Stop bossing,” Dani laughed back just as the doorbell rang.
I could feel all the blood rushing from my face. “Don’t tell me that’s him.”
Sadie shrugged. “Maybe if he took a jet. I only talked to him twenty minutes ago.”
We all walked to the front door. “I wouldn’t put it past him.” I slowed when I saw our grandparents standing on the other side of the front door’s stained glass. A new kind of shock took over and I lowered my voice. “You didn’t say they were coming now.”
“I just told you they were picking me up.”
“Again, you didn’t—”
Sadie stepped to the side and gave me a small smile. “This seems to be more of a family thing. I think I’ll just head out. Thanks again for the suit, Tessa.”
“I owed you.”
“You owe me at least ten.”
I nodded, unable to give her any more of my energy at the moment. “Call you later.” I opened the front door and Sadie nodded to the older couple waiting on the other side of the door.
I wished I could slip out just as easily.
CHAPTER 54
Tessa
“Hello, Dears.”
“Hi Jean,” I said as she kissed both my cheeks—a ritual that Mom’s side of the family did without fail every time they saw someone they knew. Sometimes I wondered how the postman handled them every day, or maybe he just hoarded their letters until they weren’t home.
“Call me Grams.” Her eyes didn’t crinkle like they should. Her eyebrows didn’t bob as she spoke. She had two expressions: semi-smiling and sleeping. The only thing about her face that moved were the drops hanging from her ears, emerald to match her dress.
“Of course, Grams.” Dani stuck out one side of her face, then the other. Two plum smears stained my sister’s cheeks, and probably mine as well.
“Tessa, Dani.” Pops repeated the gesture in his stiff manner. He always walked around as if his neck was secured in some sort of brace, even though I’d never heard of him injuring it.
“Thank you so much for coming.” Dani wrapped her arm underneath their elbows and led them through the entryway.
Pops bent over at the waist and kissed her hand. “I’ll have the driver load your things.” He waved a hand at the main door and, as if waiting for the cue, a man in his early thirties stepped inside. “Show him the way.” Dani smiled and disappeared up the stairs with the driver.
“Well,” Grams began pulling plastic off everything in sight, “I suppose this is one way to keep the dust off the furniture, but really, dear, you need to let these pieces breathe.”
“Grams, please.” I placed my hand over hers before the tornado that was Grams went through the house and undid my morning’s work. “We’re selling the items that are covered.”
“But that appears to be everything. I suppose it must be done.” She pressed her lips together. “I say, it’s really too bad this house has to leave the family. This is the best neighborhood in Greenwich.”
“Not like you ever visited,” I said under my breath as I draped the plastic sheet back over the reading chair. Taking a deep breath, I turned to them. “We missed you at the funeral.”
“Yes, well, a yacht won’t turn around on sheer will alone.” She sighed, watching me readjust what she messed up like it wore her out. “We visited the plots today,” she said, then turned to Pops as if they were continuing some conversation they had started sometime before. “The plot placement could have been better. I mean, there was room to squeeze them in beside the pond.”
Pops chimed in. “Your mother would have loved that. She always liked the water.”
I smiled, but it probably looked more like I’d bared my teeth at them given that they bo
th took a step back. “We did our best with what we had. It would have been nice to have help with the planning and decision-making. I mean, I’ve only had to reorganize our whole lives in the last couple of weeks.”
Grams brushed out her dress. “Dear, we had booked those tickets nearly a year ago and we had already set sail.”
I tried to work my mouth into something more pleasant than a snarl. “Glad to have you here now.”
“We were glad to hear from Dani.” Pops directed the driver back through the entryway as though he didn’t know where the front door was. The man carried an impressive stack of luggage across the tiles.
We went outside and made unpleasant small talk for another ten minutes or so while the driver did all the lifting. I hoped they paid him extra for the trouble, though I’d be surprised if they would. I pulled Dani to the side while the driver worked to Tetris all the bags into the trunk.
“You’ll probably have to come back for some things,” I said to her.
“I think Pops is going to make sure it all gets in there, even if half ends up on my lap.”
“You’ll manage. It’s only a couple hour drive to their place upstate.” I elbowed her. “A heads up of more than ten minutes that you’re moving might have been nice.”
Dani grimaced and scuffed her shoe against the driveway. “Sorry about that. I didn’t reach them until this morning. You were busy with the furniture and all.” She shrugged. “I needed to pack and didn’t want to take up the time in some pointless argument when we had things to do.”
“Are you—”
“Careful with that,” Dani called out to the driver. “It’s my favorite lamp.”
She stepped up to the car, and just before the driver pushed it into the trunk, she took it from him. “I’ll hold it on my lap.”
I walked over and chuckled.
“What? This way I won’t have a bunch of luggage weighing me down.”
I draped an arm around her shoulders and gave a squeeze. “Be good to yourself, okay?”
“They have a fully stocked kitchen, so yeah, I’ll be good.”
“Fully stocked between now and until you get there.”
She hip-checked me. “So, what about you?
“I’ll reach out to firms early next week.” With Dani staying at our grandparents’, I’d have enough liquid assets to hold me over until they were ready to hire me on payroll. I breathed out a breath that felt like I’d been holding for weeks.
Things were shaping up.
“And Mr. Photographer?”
“Liam.” I sucked that breath right back in. “I really don’t know what’s going on there.”
Dani gave me a hug goodbye. “I’ll call you when I’m settled. As for your man, that’s his Rover, isn’t it?”
I scanned the main road and recognized the large SUV about a mile away.
Sure enough, Liam was here. I hoped I was as ready as I thought I was.
CHAPTER 55
Liam
Up ahead, a town car pulled out of Tessa’s circle driveway and onto the main road. A twinge of unease twisted through me and I wondered just who could be visiting her. As our paths were about to cross, I slowed down to see who it might be, but given it was a standard chauffeured vehicle, all the windows were tinted.
Any other time it wouldn’t bother me, but with so much going on in her life, I hated to see anything new sprung on Tessa.
Probably an old boyfriend or the officer she’d talked with at the station. Sure he was some desk jockey, but that didn’t mean his family wouldn’t have money.
I hovered over the gas pedal and considered continuing down the road without letting her know I’d been there. It was the easiest way for her—to just leave. To take her silence as the loud message she intended.
But she needed to know the truth.
As I was about to drive past the car, the rear passenger window rolled down. I slowed as I saw Dani waving to me.
“Hi Liam.” She seemed happier than I’d ever seen her.
“Heading somewhere?”
“Upstate.” A pointed throat clearing came from somewhere in the car and Dani giggled. “Gotta run. Go get her.” The window rolled up, and just like that I had one sister on my side.
Too bad it wasn’t the one I wanted to be with.
My knuckles turned white as I drove up the circle driveway and saw Tessa sitting on the front steps. She looked the most natural and least made up since I’d met her and I wondered if she’d been working on the house. Part of me wished she’d called so I could have helped, not that I’d have been able to since I’d been finding out the truth.
I’d wanted to talk with her for days. Now I had my shot and I couldn’t seem to pry my ass out of the car.
I took a deep breath, then met her eyes. In an instant, I could see her going through the same war of whether or not to come up to me.
I blew out a breath and reminded myself that all this had been my fault. She didn’t give me a chance to explain because I hadn’t come to her with the truth when I should have.
I’d change all that right now.
I stepped out and shut the door behind me. It felt hot under my fingers and I jammed my hand into my back pocket.
“Liam, I—”
I held up my other hand. “Please. Me first.”
She leaned back and rested an elbow on the step behind her. The cotton of her tank stretched across her breasts and had me heating up.
I forced myself to concentrate. “Paisley lied.”
A smile quirked at the edge of her mouth.
“There is no baby and those photos were taken by her. She tried to use them against me when she lied that she was pregnant.”
Tessa shifted her weight and added her other elbow to the step behind her. Her nipples beaded at the pressure and shone through the thin material.
I prayed that she couldn’t see me getting hard right now. “The ICE paperwork is real. I’m getting deported on Saturday.”
She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, which pushed her chest out even further. I stuck my other hand into my back pocket to keep from reaching out, pulling the neckline down under her breasts, and suckling one, then the other, right here on the front step.
But that wasn’t what was important just now.
I reached out and took her hand. “Things haven’t been easy for you and I’d give anything to be here for you every day—”
“Wait—” She shook her head and tried to pull away.
“I’m not proposing.” When the tension left her face, I continued. “I’m not with you just to marry you so I can stay in the US. I’m here because I care about you with ever fiber of my being and want to figure out some way to make this work. Even if it means flying you halfway around the world.”
She shook her head again. “But it had to be in the back of your mind. Even if you weren’t consciously thinking about it the whole time, it probably pushed you to ask me out.”
“I found out about getting deported after I met you. There is absolutely no question that I’d be attracted to you and want to be with you. Regardless of the circumstances.”
“There’s something I have to ask.”
“Please, yes.”
“What’s going on with your pants?”
I shifted my feet and rubbed the back of my head. “I can’t help it. You get me so turned on. The way you’re sitting, I—”
Tessa started to chuckle that quickly turned into a full-on belly laugh. “Not that. You’ve got blue all over your pants.”
I looked down and could nearly make out two blue butt cheeks from Paisley wiggling her goods on me. It seemed that her ability to mess with my relationship with Tessa was unending.
We were stronger than Paisley.
I could take this conversation in different directions that would keep Tessa from knowing anything, but it seemed that the truth came out regardless. May as well keep things less complicated.
“I confronted Paisley about everything toda
y and she was wearing paint.”
Tessa frowned and studied my crotch. Of all the ways I pictured this conversation going, this hadn’t been one of them. Finally she said, “Face or body paint?”
“Body.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Well, at least it’s on the outside of your pants. If your dick was blue, this would be a whole different kind of conversation.”
“Definitely no worries there.” I shifted myself. “Although, with you wearing that shirt and no bra, my balls might be soon.”
CHAPTER 56
Tessa
I sat forward on the front step and pulled my knees against me. I could see Liam’s disappointment, but he didn’t need to be distracted by my chest.
He still made me smile, but I didn’t know what to think about all this. I hadn’t answered his calls because I wasn’t ready to talk all this through yet.
Sadie had.
Hearing that Paisley had rubbed herself against Liam’s crotch gave me chills. That she was even that close to him after everything made my stomach knot. By his grimace when he saw his pants, it was clear he wasn’t happy with her doing that, either.
It could have been because I’d noticed or that he’d probably have to toss the pants, but the fact that he told me the hard truth right away said a lot. I’d begun to worry that I couldn’t trust him.
Ironic that an ex rubbing herself against him would help me trust him more.
“Tessa?” Liam sat beside me. “Sorry, bad timing with the blue joke.”
I chuckled. “You make me smile. That’s a good thing.”
“But . . .”
I sighed. “That’s a lot to take in. We just started dating and—”
“We’re crazy about each other.”
“Well, yes, but also crazy to think that you leaving doesn’t change everything. I need time to process things.”
“I leave in three days.”
“I know. Unless we get married, we’re going to be apart.” I held my hand up when his eyes widened. “Or we agree that I come and visit you when I can. Whatever we end up doing, it’s a much bigger commitment than us being here in the same city for a time, getting to know each other, taking things at our own speed.”