An Unexpected Partnership (HQR Special Edition)

by Teresa Southwick

  Tess watched the scene unfold, her eyes wide again. “They’re like locusts, devouring every plant and blade of grass in their path. Leaving scorched earth behind.”

  “I think you’re mixing your metaphors, but yeah. I can’t argue with locusts.” He took her by the shoulders and moved her several steps away. “Probably best to stand back, out of the way.”

  The kids thanked her politely, but as soon as they’d filed past, the roughhousing started up again. Good-natured arm punching, wrestling, grabbing someone around the neck. Guy fun. Male bonding.

  Tess caught the corner of her bottom lip between her teeth. “Maybe I shouldn’t have given them energy drinks. It looks like they have more than enough energy. Even after knocking each other down and chasing after that puck thing for an hour.”

  “Imagine if they hadn’t released all that—let’s call it youthful enthusiasm.”

  “Oh, dear God.” She shuddered. “What you’re telling me is that playing hockey is channeling their—let’s call it vitality.”

  “Right. It has to go somewhere. This way they get exercise and learn how to get along with others, work together and handle disappointment when things don’t go their way.” God knew he’d needed that training when he had lost his family.

  She was thoughtful for a moment, then said, “My grandfather took me to ballet classes.”

  “Last time I checked, that’s not a team sport.”

  She laughed. “It checked all the same boxes as playing hockey.”

  “Still not a team endeavor.”

  “I beg to differ. There are other dancers in a production. Hello, Swan Lake. There’s more than one swan.” Her mouth curved up at the corners. “In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t Pat’s idea. I begged him to let me do it and he finally gave in.”

  “Smart man.”

  “Yes, he was wise. But still weird like the rest of you,” she said wryly.

  “Are you ever going to let that go?”

  “Maybe if this baby is a boy.”

  The baby. Even though her jeans were getting snug and she wore loose shirts, there were times he forgot she was pregnant. Like moments ago, when she teased and made him laugh. A few days before, she’d told him he would be a good father, and the words had made him feel good, before the pain of loss hit. He’d done his best with Chad because he loved that boy more than anything in the world. It wasn’t enough and he was afraid to care that much again. To risk being shut out in the cold if it was taken away.

  Tess shivered and she folded her arms over her chest. “I wish it was warmer in here.”

  “Hard to keep ice frozen that way.” He grabbed his windbreaker off the bench and dragged it around her shoulders. “I should have warned you to wear a warmer jacket. Let’s go get a hot chocolate at the snack bar.”

  “Twist my arm.”

  He called out to the boys hanging out on the bleachers nearby. “Good game, guys. See you at practice. Everyone clear on when it is?”

  There was a chorus of “Yes, coach” and he nodded, then waved. Tess took the bag she’d brought the snacks in and used it to collect empty bottles and wrappers. Leo took the ice chest, and side by side they walked around the oval and over to the snack bar, where Denise was now working. He’d seen her just behind them in the bleachers, watching the game before she started her shift. He set the cooler by a table and then they walked up to the counter.

  “Nice game, boss.”

  “The guys played well,” he said, refusing to take any credit.

  “Congrats on the first win of the season. This was the fifth game.” She smiled. “So I think coaching might have made a difference.”

  He shrugged. “I just made a few adjustments in the lines. Spread around the stronger players. It was all them.”

  “If you say so. What can I get you?”

  “A couple of hot chocolates.”

  “Make mine extra hot,” Tess said.

  “You got it.” Denise walked away and came back with two coffee cups and protective sleeves. There was a generous amount of whipped cream on top of each. “Here you go.”

  Leo pulled out a bill to pay for them and she backed away.

  “Seriously?” the teen said. “You’re the boss. That should count for something.”

  “Let’s just say I’m setting an example,” he told her.

  “I get it.” She smiled as if suddenly understanding what the secret was. “You’re trying to impress your girlfriend.”

  “What, I... No—”

  “We’re not a thing. Just friends.” Tess jumped in to bail him out, but her smile was forced.

  Leo knew that because she smiled a lot and he could tell real from fake. This was fake. And awkward.

  “Oh. Sorry.” Denise looked sheepish. “I thought I heard you say... Never mind. My mistake.”

  “That’s okay.” Tess took her cup, walked over to the table and sat down.

  He waited for the sale to be rung up and get his change. He supposed anyone looking at them could come to the same erroneous conclusion that Denise had. After the game they’d been laughing and talking. He gave her his jacket, which was way too big for her. It reminded him how petite she was and how protective that made him feel.

  The fact was, he was only her baby daddy. Maybe. That was yet to be determined. But was that all he was to her? Sometimes—a lot of times—it felt like more, and he was fighting the feeling with everything he had. But too often he got caught up in her and forgot to do that.

  He sat down across from her. “Are you warmer now?”

  “Yes. Thanks.” She took a sip of her drink and there was a trace of whipped cream on her top lip.

  This was one of those times when he did his level best to fight the urge to kiss that cream off her mouth. He blew out a long breath. “So, your first gig as team mom was a rousing success.”

  “Thanks.” She smiled at the praise. “I brought drinks and snacks this week because soon I’ll be back to work and won’t be able to come to the games. Don’t worry, though. I’ll still make the phone calls, but I’ve assigned other moms and dads to snack duty, so it should be taken care of for you.”

  He nodded. “That means you’ll be back in your place pretty soon.”

  Her bright look slipped for a second, then she regrouped and it was back with barely a flicker. “Yeah. I talked to Nate. One more day on the paint and two days to dry. He said one would be enough, but give it an extra day to be on the safe side.”

  Leo was all in favor of the safe side and getting back to it was what he wanted. He’d been thinking just a little while ago about trying to fill up the void inside him with women and sex. He’d had Tess only the one time, and then they had become business partners. Until today he hadn’t given that void a single thought, and he had a bad feeling that was because of her.

  “I bet you’re anxious to have your own space back. Because, as you know, men are weird,” he teased.

  “I hope having me stay at your house wasn’t an inconvenience for you.”

  It was, but not the way she meant. And soon there wouldn’t be a problem. The sometime-feeling that they were more than friends would go away when she was no longer under his roof. But when he brought up the subject of her leaving, her smile disappeared. Real or fake, it was just gone.

  And he didn’t like that very much at all.

  Chapter Eleven

  Tess was at the bar, waiting for Carla. The workmen were gone for the day, which would disappoint her friend. She would miss seeing the brawny, tool-belt-wearing construction guys, but life was full of disappointments. Besides, her friend’s job at Make Me a Match relied on algorithms and profiles filled out by clients, not face-to-face, man-on-the-street sightings.

  The purpose of meeting here was to determine whether or not the paint smell was gone so Tess could come home. She’d asked Carla
to come over and give her a second opinion. Nate thought it was fine but since he worked with it all the time, he had suggested she didn’t take the chance that his sniff was sensitive enough for Tess’s delicate condition.

  There was a knock on the door before it opened and Carla poked her head in. “Hello.”

  “Hi.” Tess walked over to give her a hug. “Thanks for coming by.”

  “No problem. There’s no rush to get home. Mom is out with her friends from the Red Hat Society so she’s not expecting me. I have a free evening.”

  “Translation—nothing better to do,” Tess teased.

  “Pretty much.” She glanced around the now very open room. “Love what you’ve done with the place.”

  The cerulean walls looked pretty darn good if she did say so herself. “Really?”

  “Yes.” Carla studied her. “Don’t you love it?”

  “I think so. Hard to tell. I’m so emotionally connected that any change is like cutting my heart out. Leo assures me the modifications will make us competitive with the current trendy local hot spots.”

  “I can picture it.” Carla looked around and nodded. “I like it for a meet for clients.”

  “Seriously? And we weren’t on your list before?” Tess stared at her friend.

  “Since I recently started working there after returning home in humiliation, it wasn’t my decision.” Carla looked sheepish. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but before the renovation, this was a place the Red Hats would go, and those ladies are over fifty.”

  “And you don’t have clients in that demographic?”

  “Some,” Carla admitted, “but our target clients are not retired or even close to it. They’re high-powered professionals who want to find someone but are so wrapped up in their jobs, they’re too busy to go through the time-consuming trial-and-error dating process to find that one special person.”

  “And you think now my business will measure up to your exacting standards?”

  “Come on, Tess. Don’t be that way. Change can be good. Shake things up.”

  “You sound like Leo,” she grumbled. In her world things were shaken up quite enough, thank you very much.

  “If everyone liked the same thing, all businesses would be just alike. Variety is key to finding your niche clientele. Different strokes for different folks. And all that.”

  “I thought you loved my grandfather’s place.”

  “I do. And some of that is preserved.” She looked at the bar that hadn’t been touched in the renovation. “That doesn’t mean it can’t be made better. Keep what’s working from the old and change what isn’t to make it new.”

  “It’s like you’re channeling Leo right now,” Tess said drily.

  “Is that bad?”

  “It’s not good,” Tess said.

  Carla’s eyes narrowed on her. “What’s going on? Don’t tell me nothing. Besides the fact that I know you practically as well as I know myself, you didn’t ask me to meet you only to get my opinion on lingering paint fumes. Which, by the way, there aren’t any. At least down here.”

  “Let’s go up and check the apartment.”

  “You’re stalling me, but okay.”

  Tess led the way upstairs, noting that there was no trace of a paint smell. She unlocked the door and stepped into her home. It felt as if she’d been gone years instead of weeks. And the space she’d always thought of as a warm and cozy haven smelled of loneliness. All she could think was that Leo’s wide shoulders would barely fit in here.

  “Can I get you anything?” she offered.

  Carla shook her head. “It’s sweet of you to offer, but you’ve been displaced and probably don’t actually have anything.”

  “There is that...”

  “So...” Carla settled herself on the floral-patterned love seat that separated the living area from her tiny kitchen.

  It looked like Barbie’s dream kitchen compared to Leo’s ginormous one.

  She sat in a club chair at a right angle to her friend. “Yeah, so...”

  “What’s got your pregnant panties in a twist?”

  Leave it to her newly minted matchmaking friend to zero in on the heart of the problem. “Leo is coaching a teenage boys’ hockey team. He stepped in when the existing coach had a job transfer. And I offered to help him because he also lost the team mom. She’s married to the coach. Are you following?”

  “Yeah. So far no problem. I guess there must be more.” Carla had a knack for stating the obvious.

  “I’m getting to it.” She took a long breath. “After the game, Leo and I got hot chocolate at the rink’s snack bar. The teenage girl behind the counter asked him if I was his girlfriend.”

  “And?”

  “I told her I’m not.”

  Carla shrugged. “Still not seeing the problem.”

  “I’m still getting to it. So, here’s the thing, I’m four months pregnant and still able to hide it with loose shirts. But I won’t be able to do that much longer.”

  “Those of us who know and love you think you already aren’t hiding it very well,” her friend pointed out.

  “Great. You get it, then,” Tess said.

  “No, not really.”

  “Okay. Let me spell it out for you. Very soon, when I’m out to here—” she held out her hand about a foot from her belly “—everyone will assume the baby is his.”

  “At the risk of stating the obvious,” Carla said, her voice leaning toward sarcasm, “it is his.”

  “But we’re not together,” Tess cried. “What does that say about me?”

  “You’re human?” Carla gently suggested.

  “Or I’m a slut.”

  “Stop it. Anyone who really knows you wouldn’t believe that. And anyone else doesn’t matter. They can go jump in the lake.”

  “I love you for that.”

  “I know.” Her friend smiled. “Problem solved.”

  “No. It will soon be obvious that I’m going to have a baby. People will start asking questions. Like who’s the lucky father? How do I answer that without lying? How do I say it was a big mistake and we’re not together?”

  “Do you want to be together?”

  “What? Why would you ask that?” Tess said.

  “Hmm. When someone answers a question with a question, something is definitely up.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Questionnaires are a big part of my job. Individual answers to pair up people who we believe will make a personal connection. Sometimes the questions not answered reveal the most.” There was a confident expression on her face. “I’m getting a vibe that you wouldn’t mind being together. With him.”

  “As much as I hate to be the one to tell you this, your vibe can be wrong. You’re not infallible.”

  “Agreed.” Carla wasn’t offended in the least. “But I’m right about this.”

  “No, you’re not.” Tess folded her arms over her chest.

  “Hmm.”

  “Oh, brother. You’re reading my body language, aren’t you? You’re going to say this is a classic protective pose and I’m closing myself off. Go ahead. Say it.”

  “I don’t have to now.” Her friend’s grin was all-knowing. “Instead of putting you on the defensive, why don’t you tell me about him. They say you never know someone until you live with them, so what’s he like?”

  “Different from what I first thought,” Tess admitted. “He’s not selfish, smug and arrogant.”

  She told her friend about him growing up in a home filled with conflict and unhappy parents. How his time on the ice was pretty much the only positive in his life. The way he’d taken Josh under his wing and prevented losing the hockey that he loved from becoming his punishment for a poor English grade. Tess felt the part about his wife cheating and taking away the child he loved like his own son wa
s too personal to share. But what she told her friend was a pretty good sampling of reasons why she no longer believed he was a cocky, sweet-talking heartbreaker.

  Carla nodded. “I wish you could have seen yourself just now when you were talking about him.”

  “If there’s anything on my face, it’s from lunch.” Tess hoped saying so would make it true, because she didn’t like where this conversation was going.

  “Sorry, sweetie. You were trying to convince me of all his good qualities, wanting to persuade me he’s a really good guy. There’s absolutely no reason to do that unless you have feelings for him. Unless you like him.”

  “I do. But just as a friend.” Tess tried to keep her voice neutral and not let on how desperately she hoped that statement was the truth.

  “Okay.”

  “You don’t believe me.”

  Carla’s look was sympathetic. “I believe that you believe it’s true.”

  “How can you know? The people you work with have filled out profiles because they’re looking for love, not trying to avoid it.”

  “You would be surprised. Despite our best efforts, some matches don’t work out. I keep a very large supply of tissues on hand for those occasions. There are times I feel like a counselor, helping someone get to the bottom of their relationship hang-ups.”

  “That’s not what’s going on with me.”

  That was exactly what was going on with her. She didn’t believe Leo was like the boyfriend who cheated on her over and over. But Carla was confirming there were a lot of ways to be hurt.

  Leo had said that she must be anxious to return to her own space. What she heard was that he was in a hurry to have his space all to himself again. It was time for her to move back and it was probably happening just in the nick of time. There was still a chance she could keep her heart in one piece.

  * * *

  Ever since Tess had moved into his house, Leo drove home with a sense of heightened anticipation. It was official. He couldn’t avoid the fact that he looked forward to seeing her at the end of the day. It wasn’t just about having someone there and not being alone. It was specifically her.