Let it Snow(The Hope Falls Series)

Chapter Sixteen


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Jake pulled into the driveway and his chest tightened in pain when he saw that Tessa’s PT Cruiser was not parked in it. It was only six a.m.

Where could she be? Had she decided to stay at Sue Ann’s? Had she not come home last night? Or worst of all, had she left town?

Jake was trying to calm his racing pulse as he looked up and saw Tessa’s car pulling in beside him. Relief washed over him at the sight as he let out a breath he hadn’t even known he had been holding. Maybe Eric had been right. Maybe he and Tessa did need to talk.

He stepped out into the crisp morning air.

“Hey.” Tessa stood beside the driver’s side of her car and waved, her big blue eyes peeking out from beneath her worn blue LA Dodger’s baseball cap. Jake grinned. That had been their only source of contention. He was a San Francisco Giants fan and she was a Dodgers fan.

“I see your taste in baseball hasn’t improved.” Jake walked around the car.

“No, it hasn’t. Because you can’t improve on perfection. And my boys are perfection,” Tessa smiled cockily.

“Really? How many World Series championships have your boys won in the last five years? Oh, that’s right—zero. And the Giants have won…oh, that’s right—three. That does not sound perfect to me.”

He moved in front of her and rested one arm on her open door and the other beside her on the roof of her car. She stood between his arms and crossed her arms over her light grey hoodie sweatshirt.


“Perfection is not always measured in wins.”

“That sounds like something a loser would say,” Jake teased.

Tessa gasped. “I am not a loser.”

“No”—Jake tilted his head and tugged the bill of her baseball cap down—“but your team is.”

“Psshh.” Tessa adjusted her hat then reached up pushed his chest hard with both hands. “Whatever.”

Instead of backing up from the force of her shove, instinctively Jake moved forward, wrapped his arms around her small frame, and pulled her towards him, closing the small space between them. It wasn’t until she sucked in a startled breath and looked up at him, her body pressed tightly against his, that he realized what he’d done.

Her slender fingers fanned out across his chest, and even through the several layers of clothes he wore, he could feel the touch. The connection. His body was filled with a deep ache as his heart beat erratically.

Her eyes widened as his hands flattened against her lower back and his thumbs traced the line along the hem of her jeans. It felt like every ounce of blood in his body rushed below his belt. He could almost hear it like a raging river in his ears. The only other sound he heard were the pants of his labored breathing.

Her sky blue eyes looked up at him the same way they had when she was seventeen. Filled with passion, lust, and—unless Jake was reading it wrong—love.

At that thought, his fingers gripped over her rounded backside and his thumbs slipped beneath the hem of her sweatshirt, grazing along the soft skin of her lower back. The moment they touched skin to skin, Tessa’s eyes closed and her full red lips parted as a whimper of need escaped her mouth. His grip tightened and he pulled her harder against him, his rock-hard erection pressing against her pelvis through the layers of their denim jeans.

Jake almost felt lightheaded with his fevered, hot desire. All he’d ever wanted, all he’d ever needed, was here in his arms.

His love. His passion. His heart. His soul. His Tessa.

“Tessa,” Jake rasped.

Her eyes opened and locked with his. He felt a tremor run through her body and it caused his rock-hard shaft to twitch in his pants. He wanted to feel her trembling body, naked, beneath him, while he was buried inside of her.

In the back of his mind, Jake knew that he might regret this. A small voice—that sounded a lot like his brother’s—was in his head saying that he needed to talk to her before anything happened. His protective instinct was kicking up in full force with warning signals, cautioning Jake this wasn’t a good idea.

But Jake didn’t give a shit about any of that. Looking into Tessa’s baby blue eyes, caressing the smooth skin on her lower back, his hands filled with the rounded globes of her perfect ass, Jake could only think about kissing her, making love to her.

His head lowered slowly and he felt her rising up on her tiptoes. Just as their lips brushed, a loud honk sounded in the air, startling Tessa and causing her to jump back from his arms.

Turning, they saw not one, not two, not three, but about a dozen cars pulling onto the street. It was led by Eric’s truck, which held not only Lily, but also Shadow, their golden retriever, between them. They were followed by what looked like the entire town of Hope Falls.

As the cars all found parking spots on the small street and people began getting out, Tessa looked up at him with a questioning look. He could see that she was worried about what he might be thinking. In that moment, Jake knew his brother was right. They needed to talk.

But this wasn’t the day. Not wanting her to think that he was upset about what had just happened—or almost happened—between them, Jake said dryly, “Thanks.”

Tessa’s eyes widened at his insincere tone.

“This bad boy is gonna be real fun to walk around with all day.” He motioned down to the large bulge his straining erection was causing in his jeans.

Tessa’s hand flew over her mouth as she giggled, “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Jake shrugged. “It’s a permanent condition when you’re around.”

She stilled and searched his eyes. Even though he hadn’t meant it to be a serious statement, he could see that his words affected her and she was trying to see if he was serious.

Did she really not know how he felt about her? How could she not know?

“Hey, kiddos.” Sue Ann bustled around the car and just like that Jake’s boner deflated.

Well, at least that problem’s solved.

“I brought sandwiches for lunch. Where do you want me to have Ryan put them?”

“Oh, thank you so much!” Tessa exclaimed. Then she looked up at Jake, her hand gesturing inside the car. “I got donuts for everyone. Do you mind if we put the food in your kitchen and let people eat there? It’s a lot cleaner than Gran’s.”

Jake wanted to say, “It’s your kitchen too. Do whatever you want.” But it wasn’t. He needed to remember that. So instead he nodded as he reached past her and pulled out several pink boxes of donuts. “Sure. I even have some fold-up tables and chairs in the garage we can put out.”

“Perfect,” Sue Ann said cheerily before she yelled over her shoulder, “Ryan, go ahead and bring the food into Jake’s.”

As Jake was turning to bring the donuts inside, he felt Tessa’s slim fingers wrap around his bicep. He turned and she said, “Thank you. You didn’t have to do any of this.”

“Yes I did,” Jake answered honestly. Turning and walking up to the house, Jake realized that she really didn’t get it.

Time. Heartache. Distance. None of that had changed the fact that he would do anything for that girl. His girl.

*

“Thanks again.” Tessa lifted her arms to hug Lauren, who, at five foot six inches, stood a good four inches taller than her. “I don’t know how you do what you do. I am in serious awe of your organizational skills. Because of you, we got more accomplished today than I would have in six months.”

“Well, we had a lot of people helping.” Lauren waved her hand dismissively.

There was no way Tessa was going to let her downplay her role in today’s massive makeover-slash-renovation success. “Even if I had this many people helping me every weekend, it still would have taken me at least a month.”

This morning, Lauren had not only separated everyone into work groups according to their skills and abilities, but she’d also designated a leader of each group. Tessa watched in amazement as every hour she would check in with each of the group leaders and get status updates. Then she would prioritize the next hour accordingly.

She had designated ‘runners’ who would go out to get supplies when needed. Also, she’d assigned four-person lunch and breakfast cleanup-slash-serving crews that had made the mealtime transitions seamless. Lauren Harrison was a force to be reckoned with.

Lauren was scrolling through her iPad when she announced, “I think that we accomplished all of the heavy-lifting jobs that don’t have to be done by professionals. I will get estimates on the roofing and plumbing to you by Monday.”

Tessa wanted to cry. It felt so good to have someone other than herself taking care of details for once. “Lauren, I seriously don’t know whether to kiss your feet or elect you for sainthood.”

A small smile pulled at Lauren’s still perfectly applied lipsticked lips. “Well, I haven’t had a pedicure in a month, and believe me, I am no saint,” she said with a wicked gleam in her eye as Ben and Jake made their way up the driveway.

The guys were coming back from taking a load of flooring they had pulled up from the bathrooms to the dump.

Ben stepped up and pulled Lauren into his arms, planting a kiss on her that would make a porn star blush. Lauren looked a little dazed when he pulled away. Ben leaned close to her, resting his forehead against hers, and said in a low voice, “I’ve been waiting to do that all day.”

“Damn, Ben.” Jake smiled at their friends as he stepped beside Tessa, his hand resting on her lower back, sending all kinds of mixed messages to her brain and lady parts. “You couldn’t have waited ’til you guys got home?”

“No.” Ben shook his head, looking not at all embarrassed about his PDA.

A small blush rose on Lauren’s cheeks. “He likes it when I get organizational.”

“Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before,” Jake laughed. “But you definitely found the right girl if that’s what gets your engine running.”

“Hell yeah I did,” Ben said, and with that, he lifted Lauren over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and slapped her rear end.

Lauren shrieked but she wore a huge smile on her face as her fiancé carried her down the driveway. Lauren lifted her head and waved. “Bye! Call if you need anything!”

“Thanks again,” Tessa called out, “for everything!”

As Jake and Tessa stood at the top of her grandma’s driveway and watched as their friends drove down the street, the energy between them shifted. Like it did every time they were alone.

She was scared to look up at Jake and she was equally as scared not to. Everything between them was so…unsettled. And she had no idea what to do to settle it.


“Have you done a grand inspection?” Jake’s deep voice rumbled beside her as his thumb rubbed in circles around her tailbone.

She shook her head as she braved a look up into the milky chocolate pools of his eyes. “No. I was knee-deep in kitchen cabinets all day. I just came up for air. Lauren was giving me progress updates.”

He tilted his head towards the front door. “Let’s check it out.”

Tessa wasn’t sure why he was being so nice to her. He had to be angry with her. Sure, she got the physical stuff. When things got heated between them, it didn’t confuse her at all. But the rest of it? She just had no idea what was going on in his mind.

Which was odd, considering that historically he’d been the open book out of the two of them. Sure, Jake had always been able to read Tessa like a book. But part of what made that special was that other people couldn’t. They would take her at face value or, like her parents, not really consider her at all. Growing up, she’d been expected to do what she was told and not only not have an opinion about it, but also be happy about it. So, she’d learned to smile through anything and hide what she was truly feeling. Sometimes she did such a good job even she didn’t know what she really felt.

Until Jake. She could say or not say whatever she wanted, but somehow he always just knew what was really going on inside of her. He’d seen her like no one else, not even Grandma Adie, had.

She’d only ever been able to hide what she was really feeling from him once. Thirteen years ago. When she’d lain in the hospital room and told him that she didn’t love him any longer and to get out.

As Jake opened the door to her grandma’s house, Tessa was once again struck by just how much had gotten accomplished that day and how different everything looked. The old green carpeting had been pulled up and the hardwood flooring, that had been original to the house, had been polished. All of the walls were empty, cleared of pictures and paintings. There were white spots throughout from where the holes had been patched.

As they walked up the stairs, she saw that the loose boards on the third and fourth steps had been fixed. Both upstairs bathrooms had new flooring, and to Tessa’s surprise, the master even had new fixtures.

“Wow. I still can’t believe all of this got done in just one day.” Tessa looked around in disbelief.

Jake nodded. “It’s amazing what Lauren can do with a few spreadsheets and an iPad.”

“Right?!” Tessa agreed with a little laugh.

“How does it feel?” Jake asked. “Being back here. In this house.”

Tessa paused, wanting to figure out how to explain her feelings in exactly the right words. But she could only come up with two. So she looked at him and shrugged. “Surreal and different. It’s just not the same place without Gran.”

Understanding flashed on his handsome features. His eyebrows lifted as his gaze dropped to the floor. He placed his hands in his pockets and rocked back slightly on his heels.

He looked unsure of himself, which was very un-Jake-like. It was starting to make Tessa a little nervous—well, more nervous than she already was being alone with Jake!—when he looked up and asked, “Do you want to get a pizza?”

Those were probably the last words that she’d expected to come out of Jake’s mouth. Okay, well maybe not the last words, but they did surprise her nonetheless. “Sure,” she agreed automatically.

“Do you mind if we go to my condo? I need to let Lucky out.”

“Yes, that’s great!” she said, perhaps a little too eagerly. But she couldn’t help it. She wanted to see where Jake lived. And there was the added bonus of getting to see Lucky. She’d formed an instantaneous bond with that handsome guy when he’d curled up beside her after she’d passed out.

At her lightning fast response Jake’s lips parted and his perfectly white teeth shone in a smile that she hadn’t seen on his face since she’d been back in Hope Falls. It was one of her favorite smiles. It was his you-are-the-cutest-thing-to-ever-walk-this-planet smile. Every time he’d flashed it, she’d felt like the luckiest, most special girl in the world. Right now was no exception.

After closing up both houses, Jake insisted on driving them both, which she’d thought was ridiculous because then he’d just have to drive her back home tonight.

Unless he planned on her staying with him tonight.

Oh boy. Just when she felt the butterflies in her stomach beginning to wage a full-on wing-war of flutters, he said from beside her, “So how have you been? Really?” His tone was even and serious.

In an instant, her excited nervousness turned to dread. She knew he’d added the “really” because he didn’t want her to answer with a generic “good” or “fine.” He honestly wanted to know how she’d been. Really.

Tears began filling her eyes, but she instantly tried to blink them away. There was no reason for her to get emotional. Her life hadn’t been that bad. It hadn’t been easy but it could have been a lot worse.

Instead of trying to spin it through her deeply embedded glass-half-full filter or give in to the woe-is-me emotional wave she was riding at the moment, she decided to go the “just the facts, ma’am” Joe Friday Dragnet route. “Well the last six years have been a challenge. Gran’s dementia progressed rapidly. She was initially misdiagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but within a few months, they changed her diagnosis to vascular dementia.” Tessa let out a forced laugh, “Which is basically all the fun of Alzheimer’s with the added bonus of strokes.

“I took her out of the retirement home she’d moved into after leaving Hope Falls and tried to care for her at home. I stopped traveling, gave up my position at Time, and didn’t take on any freelance work that took me out of Southern California. I hired two nurses to care for her in shifts when I was on a shoot. That lasted for a while. Up until the night I woke up to find that she’d walked right out the front door and it took us four hours to find her. I knew then I was not equipped to care for her.”

Tessa sniffed and felt Jake’s large hand cover hers where it rested on the center console. As much as she appreciated the comforting gesture, she didn’t want him to feel sorry for her. She’d managed.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, sadness filling his voice as he brushed his hand over hers.

She shook her head and pulled her lips up into a smile. “It’s fine. It took three different assisted living homes before I found one that I was happy with the care she received. So for the last few years I just worked locally. Weddings mostly. I sold my condo and moved in with a roommate, and if I wasn’t working, I spent my time at Ocean Gardens with Gran.”

“Where are your parents? Didn’t they help?” Jake asked.

Tessa looked out the window. She didn’t want him to see the tears that were forming in her eyes. “After Germany, Dad retired and they decided to move to Belgium. They call on my birthday and Christmas, but other than that, I don’t hear from them.”

“Damn, Tessa, I’m so sorry.” Jake’s voice, his touch, all should have been a comfort, but somehow were just making her feel more alone. Because she knew that she couldn’t get used to it.

This time in Hope Falls was just a small reprieve from her life. A hiatus. A vacation from reality. She needed to remember that.