Let it Snow(The Hope Falls Series)

Chapter Eighteen


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“Jake, are you sure about this?” Tessa fidgeted in the seat beside him.

“For the twentieth time, yes,” Jake assured her. He hated seeing her stressed again. Today had been perfect. After she’d woken up on his couch that morning, he’d made her breakfast and then taken her back to the Shady Lane house so she could shower. They’d spent the day taping off rooms at her grandma’s house to get it ready to paint.

Lucky had come with them and had not left Tessa’s side. They’d played music and Tessa had even danced with Lucky, who had barked happily while standing on his back legs, his paws resting on Tessa’s shoulders.

Days like today were how Jake had pictured his life. He’d never cared about being rich or famous. All he’d wanted were days exactly like today.

“I can stop by and see your parents another time. It doesn’t have to be for Sunday dinner.”

“Listen, my mom has laid down the law. She’s pissed that no one told her about the work day yesterday and wants to see you,” Jake had mixed feelings about Tessa being at Sunday dinner. As happy as he was that Tessa was here now, sitting beside him, he knew that, once she sat down at their family table, Sunday dinners would never be the same again.

“Nikki said that your dad’s health has been poor off and on, and he would have overdone it if he’d come yesterday.”

“Right, but try and explain that to my mom.” Jake pulled up in front of his childhood home and saw that his siblings’ cars were all there. He looked over and saw Tessa’s expression at all of the cars parked in front of the house. “Plus, you don’t want me to be the odd man out, do you?”

“It’s your family. You’re not the odd man out.” Tessa was wringing her hands in her lap.

“Are you kidding me? Eric has Lily, Amy has Matt, now Nikki has Mike, my parents have each other and even Laverne has Shirley.” Jake opened the door and got out. He knew that prolonging their entrance would only give Tessa more time to let her nerves go crazy.

“Laverne has Shirley?” she asked as he opened the door and she stepped onto the running bar.

“My parents’ corgis, Laverne and Shirley,” Jake explained as he placed his hand on her lower back and guided her towards the house.

Tessa’s face lit up as Jake shut the car door. “Oh, I love it. That’s too cute.”

Before they’d even made it onto the brick path that led to his parents’ colonial-style home, the front door flew open.

“Tesero!” his mother Rosalie cried out as she ran down the steps and threw her arms around Tessa. In Italian, tesero meant darling or treasure, and after about a month of Jake and Tessa being together, his mom had started calling her that.

Seeing his mom’s face as she practically smothered Tessa in her embrace caused a knot to form in Jake’s throat. As a teen, he’d liked the fact that his parents had loved Tessa as much as they had. But as an adult, he appreciated how rare it was to find someone who so seamlessly fit into the dynamics of his family.

His siblings had been able to pull it off. But Jake hadn’t had one relationship that had even made it to Sunday-dinner status. Of course, in all fairness, he hadn’t actually had a real relationship. Unless you counted hooking up with the same girl multiple times a relationship, which he didn’t.

Jake watched as his mom linked arms with Tessa, talking nonstop as she practically dragged her up the steps to the house. Sean, his father, was waiting in the doorway.

“Oh, me darlin’. Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes. It’s been donkey’s years since I seen ya last.” His father’s Irish brogue was sounding even heavier than it normally did, which tended to happen when he got emotional. His father hugged Tessa tightly. When he released her, he pointed to Jake, “Boyo here has been banjaxed since ya left.”

Tessa looked at Jake with a questioning glimmer in her eye, probably having no idea what his dad had just said. Jake stepped beside her and wrapped his hand around her waist. Leaning down, he whispered in Tessa’s ear, “He said he hasn’t seen you in a long time and that I was wrecked when you left.”

He was concentrating on keeping his voice low because lately, whenever the kids translated their father’s Irish-isms in front of their dad, he got a little offended. He was getting sensitive in his old age.

When Jake straightened, he saw the look of surprise in Tessa’s eyes. It took him a moment to realize what had put it there. Did she really not know what her leaving had done to him?

“Now that everyone’s here, let’s eat!” his mom yelled out happily.


As Jake and Tessa took their seats at the table, Jake was struck by how, with her beside him, it felt like the final piece in his family’s puzzle was in place. He knew it wasn’t a thought he should dwell on, so instead he focused on saying hello to his brother, sisters, and their significant others. Tessa was doing the same.

“Before we eat, I have an announcement,” Amy spoke loudly, which was very out of character for his quiet bookworm sister. She cast a nervous glance towards Matt, and Jake noticed he winked at her supportively. As Amy stood and took a deep breath, she glanced down at the table while her hands covered her stomach.

“Mama mia, you’re pregnant!” his mother screeched.

“What?!” Nikki cried out. “Is that true?”

Amy looked down at Matt, who promptly stood up and placed his arm protectively around her. “Yes, and we’re getting married.”

There were screams of joy, mostly from his mother, and Jake sat speechless looking at his little sister. She was going to be a mom. The first one of his siblings to have kids. He was going to be an uncle. Uncle Jake.

Everyone was up and out of their seats, congratulating and hugging Amy and Matt. Nikki and his mom were crying. Jake stood, hugged his little sister, and shook Matt’s hand.

It was a relief that both his sisters had found good guys. Jake knew that Matt would take care of both Amy and the baby. And when the time came, he knew Mike would do the same for Nikki. He didn’t see himself having to kick either of their asses in the future.

“And we are getting married in two weeks.” Amy dropped yet another bombshell. “The day after the Policeman/Fireman Ball.”

“Two weeks, Amaila? How is that possible?” Jake’s mom shrieked in horror.

“We just want a small wedding, but we want to do it as soon as possible”—Matt reached down and rubbed Amy’s belly lovingly—“for obvious reasons. And that will give my family enough time to drive up from Arizona.”

As everyone started settling down, once again taking their seats around the table, the food began to get passed around.

Nikki asked, “How long have you known?”

Amy smiled up at her soon-to-be husband. “Just a week.”

“A week?!” both his mom and Nikki repeated. Loudly.

Amy nodded happily, not affected at all by their reactions. “Matt wanted to tell everyone the second we found out, but I needed time to process the news before I told anyone.”

Jake’s dad sniffed, and everyone’s faces turned towards the head of the table, where tears were pooling in his old man’s eyes. “Well, this is just something fierce. I’m going to be a daideo.”

“And I’m going to be a nona.” His parents looked lovingly across the large table at each other.

“Okay, not to make this about me, but…” Nikki began, and everyone laughed because Nikki did have a tendency to make things about herself, “by a show of hands, who thought that it would me who would ended up knocked up out of wedlock?”

The chuckles continued as most of the hands at the table rose, including his parents’. His mom patted Nikki’s arm as she lovingly added, “I have to be honest. I am just so relieved you didn’t end up on that show Teen Mom.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Nikki’s voice was laced with sarcasm.

Out of the corner of Jake’s eye he saw, Tessa dip her head down.

Shit.

Jake squeezed Tessa’s knee beneath the table and she looked up at him with a small, sad smile on her face. They stared at each other for a moment before Tessa got pulled into the “is it a boy or girl” debate that his sisters, Lily, and his mom were having.

Jake reached out to grab the bread basket his brother was handing him and the knowing look in Eric’s eye told him that he hadn’t missed the moment that Jake and Tessa had just shared. His brother’s words once again played on repeat in his head. “…she was a kid too when she lost a baby she didn’t even know she was carrying.”

In his heart, Jake knew they needed to talk about what had happened. He’d almost brought it up while they had been working on the house earlier today but he’d just enjoyed spending time with her so much that he hadn’t wanted to ruin it by bringing up such a sensitive topic.

He had to be at the station at nine tonight and he would be there for the next few days. So if this was going to happen, they’d have to talk about it as soon as they left here. Jake couldn’t avoid it any longer. It was time they both faced what they’d lost.

*

“Okay, Mom. She already promised. We have to go.” Jake pulled on Tessa’s arm, rushing them out the door.

Tessa looked up at him, her brow furrowed in question before hugging Rosalie once more and assuring her, “I will come to Sunday dinner for as long as I’m in town, Mrs. Maguire. Cross my heart.”

Jake’s mom squeezed her arms around Tessa, hugging her so tightly it almost cut off her air supply. Then she pulled back and pinched Tessa’s cheeks affectionately as she said, “Oh, my Tesero, it’s so good to have you home.”

Tessa tried to hold back the tears as she smiled down at Rosalie’s large brown eyes—that reminded her so much of Jake’s!—her rounded cheeks, and full pink lips. This woman was everything Tessa had always imagined a “mom” should be. She’d accepted Tessa as one of her own from practically the first time Jake had brought her home.

“Okay, bye, Mom. Love you,” Jake said, practically dragging Tessa out of the house. He seemed to be on a mission to get them out the door.

His mom and dad stood on the porch and waved goodbye. After spending the entire afternoon-slash-evening with Jake’s family, Tessa’s heart was full. She’d forgotten just how “at home” she’d always felt at his house. And even all these years later, she still felt the same.

As Jake opened the door to his Yukon and she stepped up into the SUV, she tried to push down all of those pesky, wistful thoughts that were trying to pop up like a jack-in-the-box in her mind. Most of them were centering around the theme that days like this could have been a normal Sunday. That this could have been her life. Her family.

Shaking off those thoughts, Tessa waved at Mr. and Mrs. Maguire as they pulled away from the curb.

“I have to be at the station in an hour,” Jake said, his tone sounding so serious that it sent off a warning alarm in her head.

“Oh.” Tessa turned towards him to see if she could get a clue as to what he was feeling. He stared straight ahead at the darkened road illuminated by his high beams, his jaw held tight and his expression unreadable. She softly said, “I can get a ride from your condo if you don’t want to take me back to the house.”

He turned to her, his face scrunched in confusion. “No, I can take you. It’s fine.”

Her left shoulder shrugged as she brushed her hair back behind her ear. “Okay. You just seemed stressed, so I was trying to help.”

Jake shook his head slightly back and forth, exhaling loudly out of his nose like she’d missed the point. She was sure that she had, and she still had no clue what he was upset about.

“We need to talk.” Jake’s tone sent a chill down her spine. Her stomach felt like it was on the spin cycle and her palms dampened.

He looked upset. And he’d just said the four dreaded words that anyone in a relationship of any kind hated to hear. We. Need. To. Talk.

Those two things coupled together did not bode well for this being a happy convo. Her mind started racing as she tried to figure out what he could possibly be mad about. Was it the fact that they’d stayed at his parents’ house for so long? Jake had tried to make an escape each time one of his siblings and their significant others had left. But his mom kept holding them up until it was just the four of them and Laverne and Shirley.

Rosalie had had so many stories, photos, and even a video of her and Sean’s fortieth wedding anniversary party that she’d wanted to show Tessa. Tessa had happily listened, looked, and watched. Even when the camera had turned on Jake, who had a brunette up against the wall at the rec center after Nikki had given a very heartfelt toast to their parents. Sure, it had made her sick to her stomach to see Jake’s tongue shoved down some hoochie’s throat, but she’d smiled and laughed as if it hadn’t affected her in the slightest.

Or maybe it wasn’t that at all. Maybe Jake was upset that she’d agreed to go to Sunday dinners for as long as she was in Hope Falls. If that were the case, then she would just make up an excuse to tell Jake’s mom. Tessa totally understood if Jake didn’t want her there. It was his family. Not hers. And as much as she wished things were different, she was not a part of it.

Or maybe it was…

“Tessa.” Jake’s voice sliced through the white noise of worry and questions that were throwing a loud party in her head.

Turning to look at Jake, she realized that they were seated in the driveway at his house on Shady Creek Lane. Wow. That was fast.

He hadn’t killed the engine, but she reached out to grab the door handle anyways.

“Do you mind if we talk here?” he asked.

Oh boy.

Taking a deep breath, she settled back against the leather seat. She watched as Jake’s long fingers adjusted the heat that was blowing into the truck.


“Is that good? Are you comfortable?”

She nodded, unable to speak. Not only had a large knot formed in her throat, but she was scared that if she opened her mouth at all, her stomach would interpret the move as a “fire away” order and she’d throw up all over the console.

Yep. Mouth shut was definitely the safest route.

“We haven’t ever talked about what happened,” Jake stated. His voice sounded strong, but as he looked at her, she could see the look of uncertainty in the chocolate pools of his gorgeous eyes.

Jake didn’t specify what he was referring to. He didn’t have to. Tessa knew. Shaking her head, she agreed, “No, we haven’t.”

“How far along were you?”

Jake’s question caught in her chest, causing it to ache with pain. Forcing herself to speak, she quietly said, “Eight weeks.”

“You were two months along?” Jake breathed.

Tessa nodded.

He cleared his throat. “And you didn’t know?”

“No. Not until I woke up and they told me what had happened.” Tessa remembered how terrified she’d been when they rolled her away. When she closed her eyes, she could still see Jake standing in the hall of the hospital, arguing with the nurses that he needed to be with her.

Then everything had happened so fast. Several different nurses and doctors had asked her questions. She had tried to answer them all, but she’d been in so much pain. The last thing she remembered was them calling her name before everything had gone black.

“Did they say why it happened?” he asked.

Tessa had known that this question might possibly come up and had already decided just how much to share with him. It had been his baby too, so she felt it was only right to tell him about that portion of her diagnosis.

Okay, okay, okay. It was just information. She just needed to open her mouth and give him the information. “It was an ectopic pregnancy.”

“A what?” Jake asked, his brow furrowed above his nose.

“It means that the embryo attached to my fallopian tubes. It never made it to my uterus,” Tessa tried to explain without letting herself get emotional.

“Why did that happen?”

Damn. This was the part that was going to get tricky. The doctors had told her that she’d been born with a congenital abnormality in her fallopian tubes. Which would have been bad enough to hear, but then they also said that the she’d had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Her fallopian tube had burst. They’d rushed her to surgery then to stop the bleeding. The surgery had been successful as far as they had stopped the hemorrhage, but the outcome had ultimately sealed both Jake’s and Tessa’s fates. She would never be able to have children.

When she didn’t answer, Jake asked, “Was it something I did?”

Tessa stared at him, not having any idea what he could possibly mean. “What?”

His eyes searched hers as if looking for the truth. Then as if a verbal dam broke, words started spilling out of him. “I’ve played it back over and over again. I took you horseback riding after graduation and then we went white water rafting the weekend before. Plus, we were having a lot of sex. You should have been resting—”

“Jake, no.” Tessa reached out and placed her hand over his. “It wasn’t any of that. Nothing we did or didn’t do caused it. There was nothing we could have done. It was just one of those things.”

She would never forgive herself if Jake felt any guilt over what had happened. It wasn’t his fault. None of it was his fault. Thinking about him carrying that around for all these years broke her already broken heart.

Jake sat in front of her, silent except for his audible breathing. She would do absolutely anything to take away that tortured look in his eye.

“Do you ever think about what things would have been like? If you hadn’t…” Jake’s voice trailed off.

“Lost the baby,” Tessa finished.

Jake looked at her, nodding once.

As she let out a forced laugh, the tears that had been threatening to rise up and fall began spilling down her cheeks. She sucked in a choppy breath as she said, “Yeah. I think about it. Every. Day.”

Jake’s jaw tensed. He stared at her and it felt like he saw down to her soul. His nostrils flared as he breathed heavily in and out of his nose. Before she knew what was happening, he wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her against him.

Tessa melted into his solid form. Her head rested on his shoulder as tears poured from her eyes. Her fingers dug into the safety and solidness of the arms that were embracing her.

“It’s okay. I’m here,” Jake soothed her as she sobbed against him. He ran his fingers through her hair, and with his other hand, he rubbed up and down her back. She let go of everything she’d been holding on to for thirteen years.

Pain. Sadness. Fear. Loss. Heartbreak.

She’d pushed it down. Buried it deep inside of her. Now that it had made its way to the surface, she was scared she wouldn’t be able to find her way out of it. That it would take her under like quicksand.

Tessa clung to Jake like he was her lifeline. Because he was. He always had been.

Even in the years they’d spent apart, when life got hard, which sadly was more often than not, Tessa would close her eyes and imagine Jake holding her. Just like this. Whispering that he would always be there for her. That everything would be okay.

After what seemed like forever, just as her sobs were beginning to subside, Jake’s phone went off.

“Shit,” he said under his breath.

Tessa opened her eyes and the digital clock told her that they had been parked there for over an hour. Pushing away from him, she wiped her eyes as she apologized. “I’m sorry. You’re going to be late. I don’t know where that came from.”

“Don’t be sorry. That was thirteen years overdue,” Jake said. Reaching up, he cupped her face and brushed his thumb across her still damp cheek.

She leaned into his hand, loving the feel of his skin against hers.

“I really wish I didn’t have to leave,” his strained voice rasped.

“Me too,” Tessa breathed.

Cursing under his breath, he pulled away from her and came around to open her door. Tessa shivered from the cold as they walked up the short path to the front door. She wished more than anything that Jake didn’t have to leave, but the heated floors and spa-quality shower were not bad consolation prizes. She could almost feel the water pouring down on her as if she were already standing under the pulsing stream of the showerhead.

“Are you going to be okay?” Jake asked as he opened the front door to let her in.

The last thing she wanted was Jake to be distracted at his job from worrying about her. Fighting fires was a dangerous occupation. He needed to have his head in the game. So attempting to put his mind at ease, she curled her lips up into her brightest smile as she said, “Oh yeah. That showerhead is calling my name.”

Need and hunger filled his eyes as his lips turned up into the exact same smile she’d seen spread slowly across his face the first time he’d seen her in her cheerleading uniform senior year. Now it held the added bonus of being surrounded by the panty-melting stubble sprinkled across Jake’s handsome face.

“Showerhead, huh?” His husky tone held just a dab of playfulness.

Tessa felt her eyes widen like saucers and her cheeks heat as she realized what she had said sounded like. “No, not like that! I just meant that I was going to take a shower.”

He winked at her as he shut the door. “Sure ya did.”

“Jake,” she laughed as she planted her hands on her hips and stood in her most indignant stance, but the door clicked shut as his name left her mouth.

She walked up the stairs as she heard him pulling out of the driveway. Her phone beeped in her pocket and she pulled it out. It was a text alert, and it was from Jake. It read: Have a nice shower…I never thought I would be so jealous of a showerhead.

Tessa laughed. She was tempted to put something flirty back but instead just went with a smiley face emoticon and the same sign off she used to use when she wrote Jake notes in high school: XOXO.