Page 15 of Wait For You
The stop sign ahead was convenient. Once I came to a full stop, I turned to look at her. “You can say whatever you want. If you want to talk about it, you can. If you don’t want to talk about it, you can also do that. I was just asking how you were.”
She held my gaze and took a quick breath. “My life is kind of a hot mess. I’m not so sure you want to deal with it.”
“It’s no messier than anyone else’s, Tessa. I don’t say that to belittle how you’re doing. It’s just everybody’s life is a little bit messy. I want to deal with you and whatever comes with you,” I said, my tone clear and definitive.
“Okay.” Her voice was just above a whisper. Yet again, the urge to kiss her was almost overwhelming.
A horn honked behind us, and I yanked my eyes away from hers and began driving again. A few minutes later, I turned into my driveway.
“This is so pretty!” Tessa exclaimed.
“I can’t take credit for the landscape since that’s nature’s doing, but I designed and built the house myself with help from my brothers, of course.”
“Must be nice,” she said as I tapped the remote to open my garage.
“What’s nice?”
“Having that many siblings. You always have someone to turn to.”
Until these recent events, I’d never wondered if Tessa had siblings. I knew she’d grown up in Fireweed Harbor, but that was it.
Before pondering that further, I answered, “Sometimes I wish it was just me in the world, speaking of messy. Then there are other times I can’t imagine life without my siblings. They tend to be…” I contemplated my choice of words. “Over-involved.”
Tessa snorted as I put my SUV in park and tapped to close the garage door behind us.
“There’s a lot of love there,” she offered.
I glanced over at her as I reached between the seats for the bag of takeout in the back seat. Her scent drifted to me. She smelled fresh, almost like a spring breeze.
Once again, I resisted the urge to kiss her. It was an almost constant need, an insistent knock on the door of my body.
As we climbed out together, I finally assuaged my curiosity. “You know, I don’t even know if you have siblings.”
“What do you know about me?” She stopped beside me as I tapped in the code on my door before walking into my kitchen.
“I know you’re my sister’s friend, and you were just young enough when we were growing up that I didn’t pay a lot of attention to you. And, of course, you probably know this from McKenna, but things are a little messy in our family.”
My measured statement belied the roiling anxiety and dread that had colored most of my childhood after our father passed away unexpectedly.
“I do know that from McKenna. It’s just me and my parents. I love my parents, and they’re still together. I’m close to my uncle David.”
“Ah, yes. I knew David was your uncle.” David had been the chef for our restaurant for many years until recently shifting to admin duties only.
We were in my kitchen now, and I set the takeout on the counter. Tessa had stopped beside me and was looking around. “It’s beautiful inside too.” Her gaze completed its arc about the space before reaching mine again.
“Thank you.” I paused as a sense of uncertainty started to unspool inside. I wasn’t used to feeling this way. I kept things so, well, so impersonal.
She idly rubbed her fingers along the hem of her shirt. The urge to tug her into my arms and hold her close was almost overpowering.
I usually thought everything through—numbers, details, and so on. I wasn’t thinking when I stepped closer and reached for her hand. I was gratified when she instantly curled her fingers into mine.
“Are you nervous?” I asked.
She started to say something and paused before shaking her head, as if to herself. “Yes.” She took a quick breath. “It’s not you. It’s the situation.”
“What would help you feel better?”
She stared up at me, pink staining her cheeks.