Logan’s voice turned muffled as he said something to someone before coming back on the line. "Look, no worries okay? Jenkins warned me this would probably happen."
She gripped her phone so tight her fingers hurt. "What?"
"He said you have commitment issues and never follow through on things."
Her breathing was harsh in her own ears. Jenkins had said a lot of horrible things to her over the years, but he had crossed a line with this. "I have commitment issues? You're the one who was kissing someone else!"
"And you were the one spending more time with Henry than with me."
"Because of our calling!"
"No, it wasn't, and you know that." He sighed like this whole conversation made him tired. "They're calling me into surgery. I have to go." He hung up without a goodbye.
Tessa stared at her phone, and took a few deep breaths to calm down. Despite Logan's accusations about Henry and the awful things Jenkins had said, a weight had been lifted from her that she'd been carrying for too long.
She headed toward the student services building to make an appointment with her academic counselor for the next week. It was time to research a new major, just to see what it entailed. It wouldn't hurt anything to talk to someone about it.
On her way there, she received a text from Layla. The bright sun glared off her phone screen so she found a shady overhang to read it.
Layla: What did you do to tick Chelsea Norlin off?"
Tessa: Nothing I can think of.
If anything, Chelsea should be thrilled with her. Tessa had set her up with Henry. Chelsea and Henry probably hadn't had a chance to go on another date since Tessa and Henry had been spending every spare moment getting things ready for the road show in a week and a half. Still, a few days in the scheme of forever weren't a big deal.
Tessa: Why?
Layla: I was down at the church for our Relief Society meeting and Chelsea was there, talking to the Bishop. I overheard her trying to convince him to release you from your calling as road show director. Bishop shut her down, but I wanted you to know.
Tessa: Weird. Thanks for the heads up.
She slipped her phone in her pocket and tried to put the strange encounter out of her mind. Maybe Layla had misinterpreted what happened. She did have a tendency to eavesdrop and then jump to the wildest conclusion possible about what she'd heard. That's probably what happened.
Tessa walked into the cool air of the student services building and set up an appointment to meet with someone in a week. She was really going to do this.
Warmth rushed through her, spreading from the tips of her toes to the top of her head, filling her with a peace she'd been missing for months. She'd been praying to know what she should do, going on faith that at some point she'd be led, and finally some assurances had arrived. She had no idea what the future held for her, but for the first time in a long time, she was eager to find out.
Chapter 39
Tessa looked different. Henry couldn't quite pin his finger on what the change was, but she seemed more relaxed. Maybe if he could get close enough to talk to her, he could ask her what had happened, but girls pressed in on him from all sides. He'd sat down in sacrament meeting a few minutes early, had found a quiet place near the back, away from the big groups of chatting people, and pulled out his scriptures only to be descended upon by a group of girls who had taken a sudden interest in the road show. With a sigh, he closed his scriptures and answered all their questions: No, they couldn't join. Yes, he was the prince. No, he didn't need any help practicing.
Was this how Logan felt all the time? It was suffocating. Times like this, he wished he'd never cut his hair or let Ava get him new clothes.
He heard someone say, "Excuse me," and the girl beside him scooted away. Chelsea took her place then linked her arm through his. "How are you?"
He squeezed her arm in a friendly gesture before disentangling himself from her. "I'm good." Except for the fact that Chelsea was everywhere, all the time, messing with his efforts to get close to Tessa. She had been at their last road show practice before the dress rehearsal, trailing him and had dropped by his apartment several times with food.
"I made your favorite for dinner tonight. Does six work?"
Henry sighed. How many times would he have to tell Chelsea he wasn't interested in renewing their relationship? She may have regretted her decision to break up with him two years ago, but he had moved on and was ready to pursue someone else.
All of these girls liked him for his looks, or at least noticed him for the first time because he'd changed his looks, while Tessa had been his friend before any of them had even realized he was alive.
The air in the room charged with those thoughts, and he turned to find Tessa watching him. She sat three rows behind him with Layla. Her hands immediately went to the ends of her hair. He grinned at her and she gave him an answering smile in return.
And there it was. The softness in her eyes he hadn't seen before. He wanted to jump over the back of his bench and sit beside her, feel her arm pressed against his, and lean close so she could whisper to him about what had changed, but he was barricaded in on all sides.
Where was a good bug to eat when you needed one?
Chapter 40
So far, everything that could go wrong at the dress rehearsal had.
First, one of the choir members had taken the box of costumes home to have his mom iron them. Instead his mom mixed them up with a box she had set aside to take to the DI. Then half of their chorus line had come down with strep throat, probably infected by Tessa or Henry at church after the wedding, all thanks to Ava's not-so-brilliant plan to break up her father's wedding. They were currently missing a princess who no one could get a hold of for some reason.
And to make matters infinitely worse, Henry now had groupies.
Several girls from the ward gathered in the back of the cultural hall, taking selfies with their phones and continually calling out for Henry to smile for them. Instead he scowled at them, making him the angriest prince in the history of road show princes. "You are supposed to be in love," Tessa called to him from the foot of the stage, trying to figure out how to kick the girls out of practice. "Happy."
The glare dropped and he smiled at her like she was the only girl in the room. "Like this?"
Something jumped in her stomach. "Exactly. So more of that and less..." She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue.
He laughed and warmth poured over her. "So that's how I look to you. Good to know."
"It's very unattractive," she teased back.
"Then maybe it'll scare them off." He nodded toward the girls, who beamed when they got his attention. "How old are they?" He studied them the same way she’d study a bug she squashed with her shoe.
"Old enough," she muttered. She looked down at her script. They needed to focus. A bad dress rehearsal supposedly meant they'd have an awesome performance, and she hoped the superstition held true for her. "Listen, we can't keep waiting for Dawn to show. Layla is trying to track her down, but we've got to get started."
"Okay." Henry sat on the edge of the stage and rested his elbows on his knees, bringing his face close to hers. "Even if Dawn doesn't show and we have to do this road show in our pajamas, I have no doubt you’ll find a way to make it amazing, because that's the kind of thing you're good at."
"Fixing disasters?" She could step back, should step back, but she didn't. Instead she reveled in the adrenaline of having him so close.
He tipped his head back in a full body laugh that had the groupies sighing. "In a way. I mean look at me."
"You were never a disaster."
He stared at her with a lifted, "come-on" eyebrow. When she refused to budge, he pantomimed eating a bug off of her wall.
"Stop," she said, and finally capitulated. "Disaster is too strong of a word. You were...complicated."
"Complicated. No. Women are complicated. My sister is complicated."
"And crazy."
"
Little bit, yeah. But I love her." He reached over, and to Tessa's surprise, took her hand and tugged her close. "And I lo--"
The door leading into the cultural hall burst against the wall with a crash, and Chelsea walked in wearing a tight, white pencil skirt, a perfectly ironed red polka dot shirt, and four inch heels. The entire room went silent. Henry's grip on Tessa’s hand tightened before he let her go and she dropped her arm to her side.
"I just spoke with Dawn.” Chelsea tossed her bag onto the row of chairs as she got close. She spoke to Tessa, but couldn't take her eyes off Henry, who was wearing his white shirt (unbuttoned one button lower than he wanted)—an argument Tessa won—and dark slacks (instead of breeches)—an argument Henry won. "She's sick and won't be able to perform in the road show."
No. This couldn’t be happening. "What is she sick with? The road show isn't for two days."
Chelsea gave her a sympathetic frown, but it rubbed Tessa wrong. She didn’t want to think Chelsea was fake, but she couldn’t forget the conversation Layla had overheard Chelsea have with the bishop. If Chelsea had a problem with Tessa or the road show, she should have come straight to Tessa about it instead of trying to get her released.
"It's strep. Even if the antibiotic starts working, her throat hurts too much to even think about singing in a couple of days."
This time, Tessa gave into the weakness in her legs and sat down in the chair. For all of Henry's confidence in her, they couldn't do this road show without a princess. They were going to have to cancel. All this work for nothing.
And she hated to even think it, but maybe it was a sign she wasn't meant to do this. She'd walked away from her premed degree and all of her dreams because she was having fun with something that was fleeting and nonviable for a long-term career.
Panic welled inside of her and she struggled to take a deep breath. She would not lose it in front of everyone, especially not Chelsea. The road show crew had gathered at the edge of the stage, some standing, some sitting, all with disappointed looks on their faces. "I'm sorry, guys," she said. "But without a princess, I don't see how we can pull this off in two days."
"I can do it," Chelsea said.
"That's nice of you to offer, but it would be too difficult to memorize the lines."
"Already memorized," she said. "So we're ready to go."
"Why did you memorize the lines?" Irritation pricked at Tessa.
Chelsea threw Tessa a too-innocent smile. "Just had a feeling I should, I guess. One of those inspired moments." She clapped her hands like she was the one in charge. "Let's get started."
Tessa gritted her teeth to keep from saying something she'd regret. Tessa wouldn't put Chelsea above paying off Dawn so she could be the princess instead. Who memorized an entire role for a play they hadn't been cast in?
Someone who had a feeling they'd be playing the part.
* * *
The rest of rehearsal went better than Tessa expected. Chelsea had memorized the lines flawlessly, and except for a few lingering touches on Henry's arm, she played her role professionally. Every second they got closer to the kissing scene, the tenser Tessa grew. Henry kissed Dawn before, and they'd always done stage kisses so it hadn't seemed like too big a deal. But even having Chelsea touch Henry's arm was making Tessa squeeze the script so hard the pages pulled away from the staple.
Henry came up behind Chelsea and wrapped his arms around her waist. They said their lines leading up to the kissing scene.
Henry turned Chelsea so she was facing him, they stared at each other long enough for everyone in the room to feel the sizzle between them and they kissed. Not some peck or stage kiss, but a full-on, not coming up for air, heat crackling, spine-melty kiss.
Tessa cleared her throat once, then twice, before she clapped her hands. Henry took Chelsea’s arms and pulled her away from him, but Chelsea’s Cheshire cat grin spread across her satisfied face. Henry blinked at Chelsea before looking down to where Tessa stood. He studied her for a moment before one corner of his mouth tilted into a smile, and Tessa felt a nail drive straight into her heart.
There was never anything real between you, she reminded herself. She wished she'd never gone to the wedding, where their friendship seemed to turn into something more. Or even that she'd never left out her stupid anatomy book, thinking it would catch Logan's interest, when all it did was cause her apartment to be infested with baby wolf spiders, which led to the beginning of her friendship with Henry. Tessa couldn't blame him for feeling a connection with Chelsea, who was beautiful and a returned missionary and knew what she wanted to do with her life.
She managed to swallow down the emotion crawling up her throat and make it sound like she didn’t care. "Keep it clean, guys. This is a church road show.”
"People like a little heat." Chelsea wiped the smeared lipstick from under her mouth.
Tessa ignored her, which was her new plan going forward. She'd talk to Chelsea when necessary to get through the rest of this road show, and then she was never going to associate with her again. Or Henry. Because no matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise, she had feelings for him, and seeing him with Chelsea hurt too much.
Chapter 41
Henry raced after Tessa in the church hallway following road show practice. Her light hair streamed behind her while she jogged away from him. In his mind, he still saw the stricken look on her face after he kissed Chelsea. It had gutted him for hurting her, but also gave him hope.
He sped up as well. "Tessa!"
She ducked into a women’s bathroom. He watched the door, waiting. One more minute and he was going in there after her.
"That was some kiss." Chelsea walked up and leaned against the wall beside him. She tugged his arm until he turned toward her. "Just like old times, right?"
He prayed for a way to let her down gently. "Chels—"
"Stop." She pulled away from the wall, her defenses up. "I know that tone. You know you felt something when we kissed."
"I'm sorry." And he was. For letting their kiss go too far. For leading her on. He’d planned on keeping their kiss simple and brief, but when she’d deepened their kiss, a persistent thought asked him: What if? Tessa wasn’t a sure thing, while Chelsea was. Tessa might never see him as anything more than a friend, while Chelsea loved him. Or loved this version of him, anyway.
And that was his answer, clear and certain. A small chance with Tessa—the girl he wanted to end every night talking to, who listened to his boring stories like they were interesting, who sometimes looked at him like he was the only man in the room—was worth giving up the sure thing with a person who could never accept him for who he really was.
Chelsea tapped him on the arm, bringing him back to the present. "Henry. We belong together." She glanced over his shoulder and then kissed him on the cheek. "I thought our kiss was amazing too! See you tonight. Oh, hey, Tessa!"
Henry closed his eyes before he turned and saw Tessa watching them with an awkward expression.
Chelsea held onto his arm like she owned him, but continued to speak to Tessa. "There are a few lines I still think need to be changed, so I'll email them to you tonight."
"It's too late to make changes," Tessa said through her teeth.
"Oh, it's just a few cheesy or poorly written lines. It's no problem for me to improve on it. We all want this road show to succeed, right?"
Henry finally managed to disentangle himself from Chelsea, who waved and stepped away like Henry hadn't just gone through the battle of his life to get her hooks off of him.
"Tessa, we need to talk.”
"No, we don't." She brushed past him and he had to rush to keep up with her. They walked out of the building and toward the parking lot. "I've got a meeting this afternoon with my adviser and a ton of studying to do before finals."
"When Chelsea kissed me—”
"This isn’t my business."
"What if I want it to be?"
She stumbled over her feet and when he grabbed her arm, she
ripped it away from him and finally swiveled to face him. “You kissed her.”
He paused. “Yes. But it didn’t mean anything.”
“Neither did Logan and Dawn’s right?”
Henry closed his eyes and wished he hadn’t let one small moment of doubt make his kiss with Chelsea last too long. But the fact was, he and Tessa weren’t dating. They had no agreements, and for the most part, Tessa blew him off whenever he tried to get close. Kissing Chelsea had been a mistake, and he never wanted to hurt Tessa, but he was nothing like Logan. “This is different, Tessa.”
“It feels really similar to me.”
He stepped closer to her. “Why?”
She folded her arms and let out a defeated sigh. “You know what? Never mind. Go. Be together. You guys are perfect for each other.”
He had to hold his hands at his sides to keep from shaking her. He knew what he saw right after he kissed Chelsea, the look on Tessa’s face. Pure jealousy. She cared all right. She didn’t want to admit it. She wasn’t willing to fight for what they might have together. He just didn’t know why.
“Tessa, I know I’m not the kind of guy you imagined being with. I talk too much about weird things, like insects, wear mismatched clothes, lose everything, forget even more… You can stop me any time here.”
She put her hand over her mouth and shook her head, which wasn’t super encouraging, but he continued.
“I’m not the guy you imagined, but I’m the guy who loves you in a million new ways every single day.” He took her cold hand in his, his fingers trembling against hers while he waited for her response. No matter what, he had no regrets.
“I don’t know what to say,” she finally whispered, staring at their entwined fingers.
“What do you want?”
“I’m still figuring that out.” She extracted her fingers from his and rushed into her car. He stood in the parking lot for several minutes after she pulled away. Everything could change in such a short amount of time, with only a few small decisions. He couldn’t force Chelsea to move on, and he couldn’t force Tessa to realize they were perfect for each other in all the ways that mattered.
One Little Kiss (Christian Romance) Page 21