Tessa Ever After (22 page)

“I think I’m falling for him.”

“With three times in one night, I don’t blame you.”

“Paige, I’m being serious.”

“I know you are, honey, but I don’t see the problem.”

“This is
Jason.
Jason of the frequent one-night stands. Jason, the aficionado of threesomes.”

She shakes her head at me, like I’m an idiot. “Yeah, but this is
you.
”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means it’s different. I think that boy has been falling for
you for a long time, if the secret looks he’s been giving you are any indication.”

I let her reassurances sink in, hoping she knows what she’s talking about, because I absolutely do not want to be the only one falling.

The waitress drops off our food, and before I pierce a bite with my fork, I say, “You know, for someone who’s allergic to commitment, you sure are eager to see me fall into the trap.”

“I’m not allergic to commitment for
everyone
, just for me.”

“Speaking of, when are you gonna move on? It’s been almost four years, Paige . . .”

She narrows her eyes at me and swallows the rest of the wine in her glass. “Tell you what, when you
do
draw me that diagram of Jason’s cock, we can go there. Until then, let’s talk about something more interesting. Like the guy I met on Saturday . . .”

I don’t push, letting her change the subject and go right into telling me about Jared and the things he did with his tongue, because if nothing else, it stops me from thinking about the stupid flip my belly did when she said she thinks Jason’s falling right along with me.

jason

My last class of the week ends, and I bolt out of there like my ass is on fire. Kristi calls my name, desperate to talk to me about the project she keeps holding over my head, but I offer only a wave over my shoulder before I’m out the door, down the steps, and out into the fucking freezing late-November air. I haven’t been able to see Tessa since I left her place on Sunday . . . after I asked
her to come to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving. And though I want her there—both her and Haley—I sort of want to punch myself in the junk for suggesting it.

My parents have always tried to rule everything in my life, and being able to get my undergrad in a degree I actually wanted, something I
liked
, and then taking my sweet time to graduate were the only ways I could push back, avoid the inevitable for as long as possible. After their ultimatum, I don’t even have that. And now they’re going to see a part of my life I don’t want them to be anywhere near. I don’t want them to get their hands on this, too, on the one part of my life I’m not hating at the moment.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I open my car door and slide inside before I pull it out. Adam’s ugly mug brightens the screen, and I answer. “Yeah.”

“Honey, I’m home.”

I laugh, despite the mood I’m in. “What the fuck does that even mean?”

“It means I’m inside your apartment. Goddamn, when was the last time you washed a load of laundry?”

“Fuck off,” I say through chuckles. “I didn’t know you were coming back. When’d that happen?”

“Decided a few days ago. I could use a drink or three. You wanna grab some food or are you busy with your new girlfriend?”

The smile falls off my face, his casual use of the word sending a wave of panic through me. I’ve never—not once—had a girlfriend. I’ve had girls, of course, but never anything one could consider serious by any stretch of the imagination. Never more than casual flings or ongoing booty calls.

And now there’s Tessa, who totally threw me for a loop,
knocked every idea of relationships I ever had scattering to the ground. And if I’m being honest with myself, the thought of her as just a casual fling or an ongoing booty call sends a wave of a whole different kind of panic through me. Since some point all those months ago when she first caught my eye, it’s been building. Slowly, but surely, and now I’m in it. Despite everything I’ve ever known, despite everything that used to work for me.

“Ah, yeah, I can tonight.” I glance at the time on the dashboard, seeing it’s just after four. “You wanna meet at Shooters and get in a couple games of pool before?”

“Yep, see you there.”

•   •   •

I WALK INTO
the bar and order a couple beers from the bartender before claiming one of the free pool tables in the back. I’ve only just racked the balls when Adam’s voice reaches me. “Don’t expect me to put out just because you bought me a drink.”

“Damn, I was really hoping that’d work.”

With a grin, he grasps my hand and pulls me in for a one-armed hug with a slap on the back.

“You ready to get your ass handed to you?” he asks.

I snort and turn back to the table, grabbing my pool stick. “You’ve been gone too long. Your memory is all foggy and shit.”

“Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is? Loser buys drinks all night
and
dinner. I’ll even let you go first.”

“Hope you brought enough cash with you,” I say as I break, calling out stripes after three have found their way into different pockets.

“Well, fuck.”

I smile at the table and take my next shot. “So what’s with the sudden trip here? Thought you weren’t coming home till Christmas?”

“Yeah, well. Some shit’s going down at my parents’ shop.”

After missing my last shot, I step back and let him move in. “What kind of shit?”

He doesn’t answer until he’s made two shots, missing the third, and turned the table over to me. “Business has been slow, I guess. I just don’t know how long it’s been that way for. And they’re not telling me jack, but it’s got my mom all freaked out.”

“So what’s your plan? Busting in during the middle of the night and going through their books to find the dirty secret?”

He shrugs. “I wasn’t planning a five a.m. break-in or anything, but yeah. Something like that.” He takes his next turn, and effectively takes the spotlight off himself and puts it right back on me. “You talk to Cade yet?”

Sunday night, after I left Tessa’s, I called Adam. Filled him in on how shitty a job I’d done at the whole staying-away-from-her thing. And, just like I knew he would be, he was all laughs and virtual pats on the back. And then he told me to get my head out of my ass and tell Cade. Problem is, I like my balls a little too much to deal with that right this second.

Leaning against the wall, I grab my beer off the high table and take a healthy swig. “Nope.”

“You’re only delaying the inevitable and making it that much harder on yourself.”

“I just . . . I’m already going to be dealing with my parents around her and Haley this week. I don’t want to deal with her overbearing, overprotective brother on top of it all.”

When I glance over at him, his eyebrows are nearly up to his
hairline. “Since when do you bring a girl—or anyone, for that matter—home to meet Mommy and Daddy Dearest?”

“Since I’m a goddamn idiot, that’s when.” I take another swallow of my beer, then set it back down before heading over to take my shot. “I asked her to come for Thanksgiving. Because I’ve clearly lost my fucking mind.”

“Well, holy shit.”

“What?”

“I mean . . . I honestly thought this day would never come. My baby’s all grown up,” he says in a falsetto.

Laughing, I say, “Shut the fuck up. I don’t even know what that means.”

He levels me with a stare. “Really.”

“Yeah, really, so stop with your Dr. Phil bullshit and just say what you want to say.”

He waits until I pull the cue back to take my shot before he says, “You’re in love with her.”

I scratch and spin around to face him as he laughs. “What the fuck.”

“You gonna deny it?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.

I open my mouth to do just that, then snap it closed because the words won’t come. Jesus Christ,
am
I in love with her? Is that why the thought of spending all this time with her doesn’t send me into a blind panic, why words like
spend Thanksgiving at my parents’
didn’t break me out into a cold sweat?

When I don’t say anything, he continues, “Come on, man. You’ve always had this weird protective streak when it came to her. You were nearly as bad as Cade was. You just needed to fuck your way through anything that had two legs and the right parts
in between before you actually acknowledged it. It’s not really that much of a shock, is it?”

But it is a shock, because I never saw this coming. Not in a million years.

I think back to all the times Cade and I had roughed up some asshole who tried to talk shit about Tessa in the locker room in high school, about the rage that coursed through my body when I found out Nick bailed on her after knocking her up . . . how I wanted to find him and beat the living hell out of him. How it felt to know she was searching for some guy on a goddamn website and the answering pang every time she went out with one of them. How it felt when she went out with that boring-ass orthodontist right under my nose.

Blowing out a breath, I grab my beer and swallow the rest. I set it down with a heavy clank. “I’m fucked.”

“That you are, my friend. You also owe me drinks and dinner. Pay up.”

TWENTY

tessa

“Baby, you need to hurry up. Cade’s gonna be calling any minute,” I yell down the hall to Haley.

“Coming, coming!” She runs into the living room and dives on the couch just as the call comes in. Having done this a hundred times, she already knows how to accept it. Her smiling face is close to the camera on my laptop, and when Cade’s face pops up, he smiles, too.

“Hey, short stuff. Has your head gotten bigger?”

Haley falls into a fit of giggles, and with a smile, I leave them to their talk while I go change into some yoga pants and a loose long-sleeved shirt, thankful for a few minutes of solitude. This week has been nerve-racking, my thoughts constantly swirling around the conversation Paige and I had over dinner and the barrage of feelings toward Jason I’m suddenly all too aware of.

I never thought it would happen like this. I always figured
that when I fell in love with someone, it would be a slow, gradual process, like scattered snowflakes accumulating on the already-warm ground. It would take a while for anything to stick, for anything to grow, and when it did, it would be steady and consistent.

I didn’t think it’d hit me like a frickin’ avalanche, burying me under all these conflicting feelings I have. Worry and anticipation and intrigue and excitement and, yeah, love.

Maybe it’s because I’ve known Jason for so long . . . I know exactly what kind of person he is, his good points and bad points, and really the only thing missing between us was the physical intimacy, and that’s obviously not an issue any longer. Our chemistry is off the charts.

Really, I should’ve seen this coming from a mile away, yet I was still knocked on my ass.

I’ve never been more thankful that we’ve had a legitimate reason not to see each other for a few days, because I’ve needed the space to sort through everything in my head. We’ve talked on the phone every night and texted throughout the days, but both of our schedules are hectic because of the upcoming holiday, so that makes any visits nearly impossible. I had clients trying to squeeze in, wanting to get their hair touched up for whatever family gatherings they were traveling to, so I’ve worked late every day this week. Thankfully, Becky was able to pick up Haley from Melinda’s and stay with her until I could get home. I hate twelve-hour days, not just because they’re exhausting, but because I feel like I see my daughter only long enough to get her ready for school in the morning and then to put her to bed at night. I miss her.

I walk out into the living room and see Haley holding up a drawing she made of everyone sitting at a table for Thanksgiving, a giant, deformed turkey placed right in the middle. “There’s me and Mama, and that’s Jay,” she says, pointing out each of us. “The empty chairs are ’cause I dunno what his mommy and daddy look like, so I didn’t draw them, but I’ll finish it after we see ’em.”