Page 67 of Hot Blooded

Tessa swallowed back all the helpless rage. She nodded erratically. “Okay. Fine. Figure it out with Rob. I’m going to sleep.”

“Teresa, don’t take that tone with me!” Ma called sharply.

“I wasn’t taking a tone. I’m just going to sleep,” she called back. “Have a good day at work.”

Up in her room, the blue dress from the Council presentation was still hung over her closet door, adding a fresh layer of pain to the situation. She turned away from it and got into bed. Adrenaline raced through her body, keeping her from falling asleep. She lay with her eyes closed, willing unconsciousness to give her brief reprieve from all the anger and hurt and frustration that wanted to boil out of her.

Eventually, she managed to drift off.

When she woke that evening, Ma was back from work. Tessa got dressed and warily made her way downstairs. She was tired of fighting, but she was also tired of making nice. Ma clicked the coffeemaker on as Tessa stepped into the kitchen.

“How was work?” Tessa asked, a safely neutral topic.

“Work was work,” Ma answered with a shrug. A stilted silence lapsed. The coffeemaker beeped as coffee began to drip into the carafe. Ma finally spoke again. “I talked to Uncle Martin about the car, and he didn’t think it was a good idea, so I’ll probably hold off on that for a while.”

Oh, well, if Uncle Martin says so, Tessa thought bitterly. She managed to keep the thought to herself. “Uncle Martin knows about that kind of stuff,” she said instead, the most oblique way of saying I told you so that she could come up with. Uncle Martin was a retired appliance salesman who had more than a passing familiarity with how people got suckered in with too-good-to-be-true lending offers.

Ma nodded, turning her attention to the coffeemaker, busying herself with pulling out creamer and sugar. “Aren’t you heading out soon?” Ma asked. “You usually leave around this time.”

To see Amos. But she’d told him she wouldn’t see him until Wednesday. She regretted it, but she wouldn’t take it back. She already missed him, but this morning’s argument with Ma had only cemented how much she could never accept love given out of obligation. She refused to be a burden he had no choice but to care for.

Her eyes burned suddenly. She blinked hard before tears could well, swallowing past the tightness in her throat. “Uh, no, not tonight.”

“No plans with any friends?”

“No.”

“Hmm.”

Before Tessa could interpret that, the doorbell rang. Ma glanced down the hallway, squinting at the side window.

“You expecting someone?” she asked Tessa.

“No. Nobody.”

Ma moved down the hall to the door. Tessa opened the cupboard, started to reach for a mug when she suddenly remembered—the thrall! Amos had warned her that he would be angling to get inside the house.

“Shit, Ma! Stop!”

But it was too late. Tessa heard the chuff of the security door swinging open as she sprinted into the hall. She nearly slipped on the rug as she suddenly drew up short. That wasn’t a ragged, crazed stranger standing at the door.

It was Amos.

“Hello, Tessa,” he said softly. He stood framed in the doorway, looking like her sweet, undead farm boy with his wheat-blond hair and his broad shoulders and his square jaw clenched with tension. Her throat tightened and she swallowed hard. Even though seeing him refreshed the hurt of their last conversation, the urge to throw herself at him and just give in was overwhelming.

She managed to restrain herself. “Hi, Amos.”

Ma had stepped aside for him but he hesitated at the threshold, unable to cross it.

“Well, come in,” Ma said, gesturing impatiently. “The heat’s getting out.”

Giving her an apologetic smile, he stepped inside. “I’m sorry to come by with no warning. I hope I didn’t interrupt your dinner.”

“Not yet,” Ma said, giving Amos a frosty once-over.

“I’ll be quick then.” He turned his attention to Tessa. “Could we talk?”

Tessa doubted she wanted her mother to overhear any part of this conversation. “Sure. Let’s go for a walk.” She grabbed her coat off the hook and stepped into the crushed sneakers she wore for taking the trash out or checking the mail.

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