“I didn’t,” Babs said. “He called while I was working. Told me to tell Izzy he’d check in with her later.” Babs smiled, glanced around at the foyer and the living room, then patted Tessa’s arm warmly. “Your home is lovely, just lovely.”
“Thank you,” Tessa said. “And thanks for taking the shift with Max. How was it?”
Babs giggled. “It was wonderful! Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve actually worked for a wage? I’d forgotten how much fun it could be. And tips! I have never been on the receiving end of tips before, and I have to say, I quite like it.”
Tessa laughed. “Yeah, it’s not bad.” Tessa glanced up the steps. Although Izzy had claimed exhaustion and gone to bed an hour ago, Tessa knew it was better to assume eavesdropping. “So, did Finn tell you everything that’s going on here?”
Babs nodded. “Yes. And don’t you worry about a thing. We’ll keep your girl safe and out of trouble. I may not look like it, but I’m quite used to dangerous situations. Remind me to tell you about the time I got kidnapped at gunpoint.” Babs sighed and glanced up the stairs. “But not right now. It’s been a very long day, and if I don’t lie down soon I’m pretty sure I’ll fall over. Where will I be sleeping?”
Tessa took Babs’s suitcase and led her up the stairs to her mother’s room. It had been empty for years. Neither Tessa nor Izzy ever wanted to move into the big room, but when Tessa had made up the bed earlier, it was comforting to think of Babs sleeping there, although she wasn’t sure exactly why.
“The bathroom is right through that door,” Tessa said as she set Babs’s suitcase on the bed, “but be sure to lock the hall door when you’re in there. Izzy tends to just bust in in the mornings.”
Babs nodded, sat on the bed, and patted the spot next to her.
“Come sit, dear,” she said. “I’d like to talk to you for a moment.”
Tessa moved over and sat next to Babs, who took Tessa’s hand in both of hers.
“I know that I seem a little silly,” Babs said. “I don’t tend to take things too seriously because there are plenty of people out there taking things far too seriously, and someone needs to balance that scale.”
Tessa gave a small laugh. Babs smiled warmly at her. “But if you ever need to talk, about anything at all, and you choose to talk to me, I would honor that. I would take that very seriously.”
Tessa swallowed against the lump forming in her throat. It was the same thing that happened to her whenever Max expressed pseudo-parental concern for her, and it always shook her confidence in the fact that she was just fine despite having been orphaned at the age of eighteen. “Thank you, but I’m fine. Really.”
Babs gave Tessa’s hand a pat and released her. “Of course you are, dear. Me, on the other hand, if I don’t visit the little girls’ room immediately, your carpet might never forgive me.”
Tessa stood up. “I’ll let you get some rest. See you in the morning.”
“Yes, you will,” Babs said. She grabbed a travel toiletry bag and headed to the bathroom, turning back to face Tessa when she reached the door. “Just out of curiosity, dear, what’s the name of this horrible social worker Finn was telling me about?”
Tessa blinked. “Mary Ellen Neeley. Why?”
Babs smiled. “I have a psychic friend in New York who does numerology readings. I just thought it would be interesting to see if we can’t get some guidance on that situation. That’s Neeley with an ‘E’?”
Tessa laughed, feeling affection for this woman bloom in her chest. “Yep.”
Babs nodded. “Very well, then. Good night.”
Tessa gently let herself out of her mother’s room, pulling the door behind her until it shut with a gentle click. From the bathroom, she heard Babs turn on the water, then start singing the theme to Laverne and Shirley. Tessa chuckled to herself and headed down the stairs to wait for Finn in the living room.
***
Finn pulled the rental to a stop in front of Tessa’s and sat back in the driver’s seat, staring up at the house. It was exactly the same as it had always been. Colonial style, blue paint, white trim. He’d been five when he’d first seen it, on a walk through the neighborhood with Uncle Max, not long after his mother had gotten sick and his parents had moved the family up from Boston. He remembered thinking how nice it looked compared to the apartment above Max’s Diner where they were staying. It looked like a real home for a real family.
That was when Tessa had come running out of the house, buck-ass naked and wet, dark hair flailing wildly about her face as she evaded her mother. Foamy chunks of bubble bath fell from her body as she ran. Max helped Karen race after Tessa, but being a gentleman, he wouldn’t actually touch her. Finally, Finn yelled, “I gots Tootsie Rolls!” from the sidewalk where he stood watching. Tessa froze in her spot, staring at him, transfixed. Finn remembered that moment so clearly, their eyes meeting and locking like that, as though they both knew it was an important moment.
Then Karen swooped Tessa up into a big, fluffy towel, yelled her thanks, and carried her daughter inside, breaking the moment. Max walked Finn back to the diner and gave him ice cream.
The next day, Finn stole a bag of Tootsie Rolls from the corner market and went to Tessa’s house, where he found out she was four years old and that her favorite color was yellow. They’d been friends ever since.
And look how well that turned out.
He checked the rental’s dashboard clock: 12:14, He’d been driving around Lucy’s Lake for five hours. No wonder the tank was nearly empty. Of course, at least one of those hours had been spent parked at the lake, staring at the glossy surface of the ice, thinking about Izzy and Tessa. Joe and Max. The fire that led to Karen Scuderi’s death and the possibly related fire at Vickie’s that had sucked him back into everything he’d been avoiding for so long. All of it made him want to take that rental and run, just take off and never look back. He’d gotten as far as I-91 before turning around.
You’re just like your father.
Max’s voice echoed back to him from that night ten years ago, after Finn had gotten caught once again sneaking out after curfew.
You have the smarts, and you don’t use them. That makes you stupider than anyone. You could be somebody, but all you do is screw around and make trouble. That makes you trouble. You think you ’re ever going to be good enough for her? You won’t. You will drag her down with you until it kills her, or at least kills her spirit.
That makes you nothing.
Finn sighed and shook his head. He had two good reasons why he didn’t like to sit and ruminate about the past: there was no point, and it made his ass twitch. He looked down at the bag of dog food on the passenger seat and debated for a moment, but in the end, he knew the dog was going to need to eat, and the last thing he wanted to do was lay one more responsibility on Tessa. He grabbed the bag from the passenger seat and got out of the car, feeling every heavy footstep as he made his way to the front door. He tried it gently.
It was locked. Which was good. There was very possibly someone in town with an itchy lighter finger and if the door had been unlocked, Finn would have been furious.
Now, locked out of Tessa’s house and her life, all he felt was disappointment.
Get used to it, he thought. He laid the food next to the front door and took a step back. He was just about to leave when the foyer light flicked on and the front door unlatched and opened.
And there was Tessa. One eye was half-closed, and the left side of her hair had this strange gravity-defying thing going on.
“Hey,” she said, rubbing one side of her face with the flat of her hand.
“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I fell asleep on the sofa,” she said, vaguely gesturing toward the living room.
“I see,” he said, smiling. “I was just dropping off some food for Wallace.”
“Okay.” She squinted up at him. “Come on in.”
“No,” he said. “It’s late. You go to sleep.
Tell Izzy I’ll be by in the morning.”
“You don’t have to go,” she said. “Sofa’s lumpy, but it beats the shack.”
Finn watched her for a moment, and decided they were both too worn-out to argue.
“Okay,” he said. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
He picked up the dog food and headed in. Wallace raised his head from where he was lying by the door. “He’s a great watchdog,” Finn said.
Wallace gave a little huff and rested his snout back on his forepaws.
“Hmmm. Very vicious.” She glanced down at the bag. “Hey. Dog food.”
Finn smiled. “Yeah.”
“Good.” She stretched out one arm, scratched her head with the other. “We’re gonna need a collar and a leash and...” She blinked and looked at the bag of dog food. “Why is the bag covered in soot?”
Finn shrugged. “Afterthought.”
“Oh.” Tessa crossed her arms and stared at it for a minute. Finn watched her. Her shirt was crinkled and she had a little mascara burn under one eye, but damned if she wasn’t more beautiful than she’d ever been.
You got it bad, man, the dog said.
“Shut up,” Finn said.
“Huh?” Tessa snapped to attention from her trance.
“You should get to bed.” Finn smiled down at her. “You’re gonna need your rest.”
“Yeah.” She started toward the stairs, then turned, came back, and passed by him. He caught her by the arm. “If memory serves, your room is upstairs.”
“Yeah, but you need sheets and a pillow and a blanket. They’re in the—”
“Linen closet by the laundry room,” he said softly, taking her shoulders and turning her toward the stairs. “I can find it. Go to bed.”
She twirled in his arms to face him.
“It’ll just take me a minute,” she said, then stopped and looked up at him. His hands rested on her shoulders, and he was too beat to fight the instinct to slide them down her arms, finally settling them on her hips. She moved closer, resting her cheek against his chest as his arms circled her waist.
“I don’t want to fight with you,” she said softly.
“Are we fighting?” He let his fingers brush against the small of her back. “Because if we are, we should do it more.”
She smiled and closed her eyes. “I’m still mostly asleep. I’m just saying what’s in my head. It doesn’t necessarily make sense.”
“Oh. Well. In that case, keep going.”
She raised her head a bit and blinked sleepily at him.
“I missed you,” she said.
He reached up and moved a lock of hair away from her forehead. A strange pressure clamped down on his chest, and all he could say was, “Yeah.”
Slowly, she rested her head back on his chest. He felt her body relax, melting into his. He raised one hand and put it on the back of her head, gently trailing his fingers through her hair. It was impossibly soft. She inhaled deeply, and her arms slid down again, snaked around his waist, and she sighed. Finn rested his cheek on top of her head and was amazed at how something so simple could feel so good.
A moment later Tessa released him, stepping back with a lazy smile on her face.
“See?” she said. “I’m fun.”
How was it legal for one person to be that beautiful? “There’s no one funner.” He felt like he could stand there and look into her eyes for the rest of his life.
“Damn straight.”
One side of her mouth twitched up in a semismile, and it literally took his breath away. He didn’t realize time was passing until she cocked her head to the side.
“You okay?”
No. “Yeah.” He smiled and touched her face, then leaned down and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Time for bed, sweetheart.”
She took a step back, then turned and headed up the stairs. He stood at the bottom of the steps and watched her go, wondering if she’d get the reference if he brought her a package of Tootsie Rolls in the morning. He immediately scrapped the idea on account of extreme sentimentality and overall lameness.
This isn’t what you came here for, he told himself. You’re not doing her any favors with all this.
Wallace raised his head and looked up at Finn. You really are an idiot, you know that?
Finn glanced down at the dog. “You got something to say?”
The dog quirked one eyebrow at Finn. Seems to me I said it.
Finn squatted and looked Wallace in the eye. Wallace stared back, licked his chops quickly, thumped his tail twice against the floor in anticipation of nothing in particular. Just like a normal dog.
“So, you think you’re the big dog, with all the talking?” Finn said.
I’m about average size, Wallace said. But you know what they say—it’s not the size of the ship, it’s the motion in the—
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Finn interrupted. The dog said nothing. Finn stared at it for a while. It was a regular-looking dog, nothing special. All of this was probably just Finn’s subconscious trying to get his attention.
Or, he’d picked up a talking dog. Which, given the grand range of weird shit that happened to people on a daily basis, wasn’t something Finn was going to get too worked up about. He narrowed his eyes at it and leaned down lower, his eyes level with the dog’s.
“You were there yesterday morning,” he said. “Who started that fire?”
It was a chick.
Finn considered this for a second. “What did she look like?”
I don’t know. Wallace yawned. You all look alike to me.
Finn stood up, ran his thumb and forefinger over his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m talking to a fucking dog.”
Whatever, man, the dog said. He looked at the package of dog food, then back up at Finn. You planning on using that as a doorstop, or were you gonna feed me eventually?
Finn grabbed the food and stood up. Wallace hopped up and followed him, tail wagging, panting happily, just like a normal dog. Finn got a bowl from the cupboard and filled it with food. Wallace dug into it happily. Just like a normal dog. Which meant that if anything here was abnormal, it was probably him.
Which came as no surprise.
Chapter Fourteen
Tessa rolled over in her bed, her arm flopping over the other side, which was empty. Confused, she opened one eye.
Nope. Definitely empty.
She rolled over onto her back, closed her eyes again, and in a moment, he was there again, next to her in the bed. He kissed her gently, his hand running through her hair and sending shivers through her.
“You know I love you, don’t you?” he said.
She pulled back and looked at him.
“You stole my car,” she said.
“I brought it back.”
“After ten years.”
He nodded. “Yeah. What does that tell you?”
He moved his hand down her shoulder, over her breast, down to her stomach. She sighed.
“That you’re the world’s worst procrastinator?” she said.
He laughed, picked up her hand, kissed the palm. She felt waves of heat break over her down to her toes.
“I need you to know,” he said, staring into her eyes. “That I love you.”
“Why?” she asked, her voice quivering, but she knew the answer before he said it.
“Because I can’t stay with you,” he said. “We both know that.”
“Why not?” she asked.
He pulled his hand away from her. She reached for him, but the bed seemed to grow bigger, the space between them too wide.
“Five tomatoes for a dollar,” he said.
“What?” she said. She pushed herself up, tried to crawl across the bed, but it was too big. He laid on his back, his hands behind his head, and stared blankly at the ceiling.
“Finn,” she said. “Don’t go away again.”
He turned to look at her. “I’m already gone, babe.”
And then the fire alarm went of
f and she shot up in bed to find it was its normal size, and empty. She blinked a few times, the shock of the sound and the smell of something burning wrenching her from her dream into the real world. It took another moment before her brain processed all the signals.
Fire.
She jolted out of bed and ran across the hall to Izzy’s room. Empty. She ran into her mother’s room, where Babs was staying.
Empty. But the bed was made. Points for Babs.
She ran down the stairs, the air getting smokier as she went. Her heart calmed when she heard voices in the kitchen and recognized the smell: burned bacon.
Izzy must have tried to cook again.
She threw the front door open and pulled open the window in the living room before going into the kitchen. There, she found Babs standing on a stool, trying to turn off the smoke detector.
“You have to hit it with something,” Izzy yelled over the screaming alarm.
Babs nodded and looked around. Tessa grabbed an old can of SpaghettiOs out of the cabinet and tossed it to Babs. Babs caught it in one hand, and smashed it against the smoke detector, which screeched out one final wheezing complaint before the face popped off and swung lazily from exposed wires. Izzy hooted and clapped as Babs gracefully stepped down from the stool and tossed the dusty and dented can into the garbage.
“Well, it seems my family curse is still in full effect,” Babs said, glancing behind her at the hissing pan in the sink. Tessa leaned over and saw a few blackened pieces of bacon floating in oil-slicked water. Babs clapped her hands together and grinned. “No matter. I’ll beat it eventually. What do you girls say I take you to Max’s for breakfast?”
Tessa looked at the clock on the wall; it was 7:18 in the morning. “You know, if you could take Izzy, that would be great.” She tugged at the hem of her oversized Spin Doctors concert T-shirt. “I really need to take a shower, and then I’ve got to get in for the lunch and dinner shifts—”
“No, you don’t, actually,” Babs said, putting one arm around Tessa’s shoulders. “Max and I decided that I could take your shifts for a few days. Well, I decided more than he did, but I think he’ll take the news just fine.” She shared a conspiratorial look with Izzy. “And I believe you have some shopping to do.”
The Comeback Kiss Page 14
