Page 5 of Wait For You

For good measure, I opened the door. My son’s worried face was right there, his brown hair sticking straight up. He wore pajamas with bears all over them and had the cutest little toes. These were the silly details mothers noticed all the time.

I hated the look of worry on his face, and I hated even more that I understood where it came from. He had heard many arguments through closed doors and walls when we still lived with his father. As a result, he was hypervigilant. According to his therapist and my therapist and the women I’d met in a support group I went to after I somehow escaped the hellhole of my marriage, this was an expected response. He was constantly attuned to every little reaction from the adults in his world.

Eric blinked, and I watched as the tension softened in his face. “Okay.”

“Why are you still awake?” I asked as I leaned my shoulder inside the doorframe.

“I was reading my comics.” He held up his comic book.

“Okay, lights out in…” I glanced at my watch. “A half an hour ago.” I gave him a pointed look, and he grinned.

“Okay, I’ll go to sleep now.”

I watched as he trotted across the hallway to his bedroom at an angle across from mine. I waited until he closed the door and the light disappeared from under the doorway a moment later.

I took a deep breath. Just recently, Eric told me he didn’t want me to tuck him in every night. Every time I thought about that, I experienced a pang in my heart. He was growing up so fast. In some ways, he was so old for his years.

I padded into the kitchen and got a glass of ice water. After a few sips, I returned to my bedroom and looked down at the phone. All of my recklessness had dissipated. I just felt like a frumpy, un-sexy mom.

I debated not even replying to Adam. I could try to play it off and tell him I had texted the wrong number. But when I reached for my phone, another text from him awaited me.

Adam: I’m guessing you’re freaking out. No need. I’d still like to kiss you, but please don’t stress over it. Good night, Tessa.

I swallowed as my heart began racing again. I was hot all over. It’s not that I’d never noticed Adam Cannon before. He was handsome, like all of his brothers. But I had trained myself to never pay attention to any other man during my marriage. Never. It wasn’t safe.

Just remembering that brought a surge of courage and adrenaline flooding through me. Lifting my phone, I replied.

Me: I’d like that kiss. Promise?

Chapter Four

Adam

Tessa’s last text played on a loop. I’d like that kiss. Promise?

It was a little echo in my thoughts. I imagined hearing it in her low, raspy voice.

I didn’t know what happened the other night when I encountered her in the hallway at my sister’s dinner party, but it felt like a door had been kicked open inside me. Awareness and need rushed through, the force of it intense enough that I couldn’t ignore it.

Tessa was beyond cute and sexy as hell. I was still marveling that I hadn’t noticed her like that before. I knew what McKenna would say if she knew my thoughts. For starters, my only sister had pointed out many times that I was closed off ever since Julie died.

As if I didn’t have enough baggage in my life growing up. Our family had plenty of messy dynamics, with our father dying and our abusive grandfather running through our family like a wrecking ball. I craved stability in my life when I was in high school. Julie had given me that. She’d been pretty and nice, and we fell in love.

She died during our freshman year in college in a cycling accident. Even worse, I found out after she died that she’d been planning to break up with me. College had been a new social world for us. While I’d craved stability and familiarity, she’d wanted something else. I would never know all the details, but she’d started chatting with some guy. I wasn’t mad at her, not even then, but it hurt. I knew what I felt for her had been young and childish and that nobody could’ve ever lived up to my expectations, but I still carried a touch of bitterness.

I didn’t know what the hell happened the other night, but that moment with Tessa had been like dry grass catching fire inside.

I’d answered Tessa’s text with, Promise.

The question remained as to when I would keep my promise to her.

I was impatient to see her, champing at the bit. For the first time, I found myself looking around town, constantly wondering when I might see her in passing. Fireweed Harbor was a small town. For years, I’d been glad to be away from my hometown. Seattle had suited me when we had our corporation’s headquarters there. I could be invisible. I didn’t have to worry about my family’s history hanging over me like a dark cloud.

I was irritated when Rhys insisted on moving the headquarters back to Fireweed Harbor. Surprisingly, it had created a sense of freedom for me. Old wounds healed and all that. As a family, we were doing much better. Yet while my siblings fell like dominoes into love, I hadn’t even felt the slightest inclination.

Tessa had never come to mind in this way for me. Yet I couldn’t stop thinking about her now. The subtle flush on her skin. Her big brown eyes. The way I could hear the shallow pants of her breath. The way it had taken almost every ounce of my discipline not to kiss her the other night. Just one brief encounter had lit a flame.

I forced myself to focus on my work. I could lose myself in numbers. I enjoyed numbers because understanding them came to me easily. They were orderly and predictable.