Loving Tessa (January Cove)

by Hanna, Rachel

  Within a few minutes, Aaron was pulling into the parking lot of the urgent care center. Before he had a chance, she swooped the boy out of the car and inside like she had the strength of ten men. There was just something about the protection of a mother. It left him in awe for a moment as he watched her push the double doors open before he had a chance to open them for her like the Southern gentleman he’d been brought up to be.

  “Can I help you?” the woman behind the counter asked.

  “Can’t you see? He has a cut on his head and this bump is forming…” she stammered.

  “And your name?” the woman asked, trying to fill out the basic paperwork.

  “What does that matter?” she asked in a frustrated, yet almost terrified, tone.

  “Ma’m…” the woman started.

  “Hey, Kelly,” Aaron said coming up behind her.

  “Oh, hey, Aaron!” the woman behind the counter said with a smile. The perky blond was thrilled to see Aaron Parker, especially since he’d been her high school crush for four years. Aaron knew that little tidbit, and he needed to use it right now for some leverage.

  “Listen, can you do me a favor and get little Tyler here back to see the doc pretty quickly? We’ve got one shaken up momma here,” he said with sexy smile.

  Kelly stared at him with a smile for a moment and then nodded as she buzzed them back into the triage area. After doing some minor clean up, the nurse put Tyler in a room as Aaron waited outside for him and his mom to finish up.

  When she walked out of the room without him, Aaron looked concerned.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Yes. The doctor is just finishing up a couple of stitches. Poor baby just tuckered out, so he’s asleep,” she said with a tired smile. “Thanks for helping me back there…”

  Aaron waved his hand. “It was nothing. I heard him scream…”

  “No, I mean at the front desk.” She had a look of knowing on her face. She obviously knew that he knew something was amiss and she wasn’t who she said she was.

  “It’s not my place to judge, Dawn. I mean, Dana? What do I call you anyway?” he asked with a laugh.

  “Either one is fine,” she said looking down. The doctor reappeared in the doorway.

  “All finished up, ma’m. He's got a few dissolving stitches that will take care of themselves ina few days. Now, he’s mighty tired, so I would check in on him several times during the night. I don’t think he’s got a head injury, but when they bang their noggin, it’s always a good thing to check every hour or two. ‘Course, if he starts throwing up or running a fever, you get him to the ER, okay?”

  “Thank you, doctor,” she said with a grateful smile as she reached her hand out to shake his. He held it for a moment longer and looked into her eyes.

  “You’re gonna be okay, ma’m,” he said and walked off. She stood there stunned for a moment, shook her head and walked into the room to get Tyler. Aaron wasn’t sure what the Doc meant, but it was like he knew that she needed to hear that she was going to be okay.

  As they drove back to the campground, there were no words spoken between them. She was quiet, looking out the window as if she was looking into some other realm far away. They pulled into the driveway in front of his cabin and Aaron carefully unbuckled Tyler, carrying him toward the cabin instead of the camper.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “Into my cabin,” he said as he unlocked the door and pushed it open with his foot.

  “Um, excuse me, but I want to take my child home. He needs to rest,” she said with her hands on her hips in the doorway.

  Aaron placed him on the sofa and covered him with a nearby blanket as she stared at him dumbfounded. He motioned for her to come back outside so as not to wake Tyler.

  “Listen, I don’t know you very well. Actually, I don’t know you at all. But that’s not the point. The point is that Doc Clayton told you he has to be checked on every hour or two. You look completely exhausted already. There’s no way you’re going to be able to get up over and over for eight or more hours and check on him. What if you oversleep?”

  “He’s my child, Mr. Parker.”

  “Aaron.”

  “Fine. Aaron, he’s my little boy. I can take care of him.”

  “I have no doubt about that. You’re a terrific mother.” Her eyes got wide and her mouth started to curve into the sexiest little smile he’d ever seen.

  “How do you know?” she asked trying to keep the smile from spreading across her face. It made him ache a little to think that she would question herself as a mother, of all things.

  “Anyone can tell how much you love that boy. And how far you would go to protect him,” Aaron said, realizing that he might be getting a little too personal.

  “Yes, I would. Whatever it takes, I will protect him.”

  “Are you in danger?” he asked without thinking.

  She turned toward the ocean and leaned her elbows against the railing of the porch as the ocean breeze blew her hair back against her shoulders. He heard a barely audible sigh and knew it wasn’t the time to question her. Still wearing her swimsuit, Aaron realized she might be cold and uncomfortable.

  “Listen, why don’t you go grab some more comfortable clothing, and I’ll put on a pot of nice, strong coffee?” he asked with a smile. She looked concerned for a moment, probably about leaving Tyler with a man she barely knew. “It’s okay. I’ll stand right here the whole time. You can watch me. I won’t go inside with Tyler by myself.”

  She looked at him for a moment and then nodded her head. As she walked across the area between the cabin and her camper, she never looked back. Did that mean she trusted him already?

  Chapter 3

  Tessa closed the door to her camper behind her as she peered out the window to make sure Aaron was still standing on his porch. And he was. He was leaning against the railing looking out into the darkened ocean.

  Man, he was sexy. She’d never met a man like him before. He just went into action as soon as he’d heard Tyler scream. It made her a little uneasy to think he might have been watching them on the beach. In fact, it made her a lot uneasy. It was exactly what she’d been afraid of. People were always watching, and that was what she’d been trying to avoid.

  She gathered up some clothing and opted to take it back to the cabin so that she didn’t have to leave Tyler alone for too long. It wasn’t really that she was overly worried about Aaron hurting him. She just didn’t want him out of her sight for any length of time. Aaron was right about one thing - she would protect her son with her own life.

  She also packed some of Tyler’s clothes since he was still in his damp swimsuit and headed back across the yard.

  “Got everything you need?” Aaron asked with a crooked smile.

  “I think so,” she said.

  “Well, if you forgot anything, it isn’t like you’re too far from home,” he said laughing.

  “Home,” she said in a small voice. Was that what the camper was now? Home?

  “You okay?” he asked in a way she wasn’t accustomed to from a man. He sounded as if he really wanted to know if she was okay. Her heart felt warm for a moment at the thought of a man actually caring about her feelings. Realizing she looked like a deer caught in the headlights, she finally nodded quickly and then walked back into the cabin.

  As they walked back inside, Tessa got a chance to look around. She wanted to know more about this Aaron person. He seemed nice and caring and strong, but then again so did her ex. Every guy puts on a show at the beginning, she thought.

  The cabin was modest and rugged, but warm and inviting. There was a rock fireplace, hardwood floors and a deep, rich brown leather sofa. The handmade rocking chair in the corner seemed out of place at a beach. She felt almost as if she was in the mountains.

  “This is a nice place,” she said softly as she put her things on the chair.

  “Thanks. It’s not much, but I like to stay on site and make sure things are okay around here.
Care for a cup of coffee?”

  “Sure.”

  “Cream and sugar?” he asked as he walked into the small kitchen and poured two cups.

  “Both please. Who’s this?” she asked pointing at a picture on the coffee table.

  “That’s my mom, Adele. She owns our real estate company, and this is one of her properties I took over a few years ago.”

  “I think I saw one of her signs on the way into town,” Tessa said as she put the picture back on the table. “Are you an only child?”

  “Oh, no. I’m from a big family,” he said as he handed her the cup of coffee and sat down on the other end of the sofa. “I’m the youngest of five. Three brothers, one sister.”

  “Wow. That’s amazing. It must be awesome to have so many people you can count on,” she said without thinking. Trying to divert attention from her last statement, she took a sip of the coffee and put it on the table before standing up to check on Tyler. He was on the smaller sofa across the room, covered with a blanket and snoozing away.

  “Are you an only child?” he asked. Now she wished she hadn’t asked him a personal question first. This could only get more and more personal, and she needed to stay away from those kinds of questions at all costs.

  “Yes. That’s why I wish Tyler wasn’t an only child. It can be a lonely existence,” she said, again without the ability to stop her lips from moving. Why was she telling this virtual stranger so much about herself?

  “I imagine so. In my house, it was never quiet. My Dad died when I was only two, so my Mom was constantly running around after all of us.”

  “I’m sorry about your Dad. I guess you don’t remember him then, huh?”

  “No, not really. I’ve seen pictures, obviously, but I don’t have any of those cool father/son memories like throwing a baseball in the front yard.”

  For a moment, Tessa was immobilized. She could almost hear Tyler saying the same thing in twenty years. He would have no memories of his father if she had anything to do with it, but she’d be a terrible mother if she didn’t at least realize that he would always feel a hole in his heart where his father should have been.

  “You okay?” Aaron asked waving his hand in front of her face.

  “What? Oh, yeah… I’m fine. Just tired I guess.”

  “Listen, why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll set my watch to check on him every hour…” Aaron offered.

  “That’s okay. I’m sure the coffee will kick in soon,” she said with a forced smile.

  “Boy, you really don’t trust me, do you?”

  “Don’t take it personally.”

  “How could I?” he asked sarcastically.

  Tessa felt terrible. Here was this sexy, nice man who had saved her son on the beach, yet she couldn’t trust him. What had her ex done to her? He was still pulling the strings even when he wasn’t around.

  “Look, Aaron, this isn’t anything against you. You have to trust me on that.”

  “I have to trust you?” he asked with a sly smile. “You could be some kind of sex starved ax murderer, and I’ve allowed you into my home.”

  “Are ax murderers typically starved for sex?” Tessa asked with a chuckle.

  “Probably. I mean, why would they go around trying to kill people if they were having enough sex? I think they’d be more relaxed…” he said with a wink. Tessa suddenly found herself laughing. Actually laughing. Her sides started to hurt from the unusual muscle contractions. She hadn’t laughed in so long, and she certainly hadn’t experienced a belly laugh like Aaron caused.

  Aaron looked at her intently as she wiped away the tears of laughter.

  “What?” she finally asked as she took the last sip of her coffee.

  “You’re much prettier when you laugh,” he said softly as he took her cup and went into the kitchen. Feeling like the air had been sucked from her lungs, Tessa said nothing.

  ***

  Aaron steeled himself against the kitchen counter and took a breath. What was this woman doing to him? He felt good about making her laugh as it seemed she hadn’t laughed in a very long time for some reason. But he hadn’t remembered feeling so comfortable around someone in a long time either, and that was a strange feeling given that she was a total mystery to him.

  He added more grounds to the coffee filter and put it back in place as he filled up the carafe with water. His plan was to stay up all night if she was staying up. He didn’t want to leave her alone, but he also didn’t want to be without her company.

  “I’ve got more coffee brewing,” he said as he poked his head through the opening between the tiny kitchen and the living room.

  “Great. I think we’ll need it.” Her smile was still a bit forced, but behind it he could see that she really was a sweet, genuine person. She reminded him of a dog that had been kicked repeatedly by an owner and cowered away when anyone tried to touch him. For a moment, Aaron froze. Could she have been abused by someone? Not possible. Who would ever want to hurt such a beautiful, smart and sweet woman?

  The coffee finished brewing, and Aaron refilled both of their cups before returning to the living room. He sat down and she looked up at him for a brief moment.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You’re very nice,” she said softly as she looked at the steam rising from her cup.

  “Nah, just a regular guy,” he said taking a sip.

  “No, I’ve known lots of regular guys. You’re…”

  “Irregular?” he asked with a laugh.

  “Well, yeah, I guess so,” she said.

  “Hey!”

  “I don’t mean that as a negative thing. You’re different. You’re like a modern day superhero.”

  “Yep. I forgot to wear my cape today,” he said putting his cup on the table.

  “I’m being serious. You really helped me tonight. You have no idea how much.” Her tone took a turn, and he could almost feel a sense of darkness hanging over her.

  “I’m glad, Dawn… Dana? Jeez, I don’t know what to call you…”

  “Aaron, I…”

  “It’s okay, mystery lady. I don’t need to know your name to know who you are.”

  “What?” she asked with a scared look on her face that made him sad and angry at the same time. Angry at whoever made her look that way.

  “I know you’re a kind and beautiful woman who loves her son more than life itself. I know you like coffee and the ocean. That’s all I really need to know.” She sighed as if she was relieved before Aaron added, “And I know someone has hurt you very badly.”

  Her face went pale, and her eyes welled with tears as she tried to turn her head away toward Tyler. He watched as her fingers grasped the coffee mug so tightly that the handle broke off and hit the hardwood floor with a thud. Tyler jumped from a dead sleep and sat up. “Mommy? Mommy?” he yelled looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings.

  “It’s okay, sweetie,” she soothed as she jumped from the sofa, wiping the tears that had escaped. As she settled him and got him back to sleep, Aaron chided himself inside for saying anything. He’d made her cry which was the last thing he’d wanted to do.

  A few minutes later, she’d gotten Tyler to sleep. Aaron was picking up shards of the coffee mug from the floor as she approached.

  “I am so sorry,” she whispered as she knelt beside him to pick up the little pieces. “I don’t know how that happened…”

  “It’s okay, D…”

  “Tessa.”

  “Tessa?” he asked with a smile as he looked over at her.

  “Yes. My name is Tessa.”

  “That is a beautiful name. It fits you much better than Dawn or Dana,” he said as he stood up and put out his hand to help her up. Much to his surprise, she took his hand and a bolt of electricity rocketed through his body. For a moment, they were close, face to face, as she looked up at him. There was almost a pleading in her eyes, as if she was asking to be saved from something that he couldn’t see. Then she backed up a step and sat down.

  �
��I’ll replace your mug.”

  “No, you won’t. It was an old mug anyway. I need some new ones, but I rarely have guests, so no one ever sees my crappy old dishes anyway,” he said laughing.

  “How did you know?”

  “Know what?”