Page 10 of Tempting Tessa

“Thank you for letting him help you,” Tessa says as she smiles down at me.

“No problem at all.”

“I’ll be right back, I need to go get out of these scrubs.”

Tessa

My cheeks flush as I turn and walk away, seeing the heat in Jake’s eyes as he not so subtly looked me over has my body tingling everywhere and feeling like a love-struck teenager. I hurry upstairs to my room to change. After I’ve freshened up, and yes, that included fixing my mascara and reapplying a swipe of lip gloss, I head back down to find Ty and Jake working along each other just perfectly. They don’t hear me approach so I just watch and listen to them. Jake is amazing with Ty. He tells him what he’s doing with each step and lets Ty get him each piece as he needs it. My heart fills as I see them interact.

I’m caught off guard when Ty blurts out, “My daddy lives in Heaven. We can’t see him except for the pictures momma has around the house of him. Did you know my daddy?”

I can tell Jake didn’t realize what happened to Ty’s dad. I’m a little surprised that Luke never told him that my husband died. Maybe they figured it was my news to share.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Ty. I don’t think I ever met your daddy. I grew up here, but I have been gone for a while and just moved back.”

Jake notices me at this point and gives me a look that sayssorry about the topic, but I just mouth to him that it’s ok. I’ll let him know later that I heard Ty bring it up and it isn’t a secret. I guess he hasn’t been into the family room, as we have the flag from Matt’s funeral, as well as his pictures up in memorial, along with his urn.

Jake finishes the floor with Ty’s help and they get everything picked up. I am seriously in love with my new kitchen floor! It’s just about bedtime for Ty, so perfect timing.

“Ty, 5-minute warning until it’s PJ time. You can skip a bath tonight and take one at Gram and Gramp’s tomorrow morning.”

“Ok, Momma,” he says to me as he looks up at me with his daddy’s hazel eyes. He is such a spitting image of Matt that it takes my breath away sometimes. His smile is contagious and I smile back at him. Seeing how easily he interacts, how easygoing Ty is. It sure has made single parenting a lot easier over the last five years.

“I’ll get the last of my tools loaded up and get out of your way,” Jake says as he starts to gather his tools up and finishes cleaning up from installing the flooring.

“No problem, it will only take me a few minutes to go get Ty ready for bed. Would you like to stay for a beer?”

“I would love that, thanks for the offer,” he says as he smiles up at me. The sparkle in his blue eyes has my body tingling again and has me smiling back at him.

“I’ll meet you back down here in the kitchen in just a few minutes. Beer is in the fridge, help yourself.”

“Good night, Ty, thanks for the help tonight,” Jake says, reaching his hand out in a fist, looking for Ty to give him a fist bump.

Ty fist bumps back. “Thanks for letting me help! It was the best night ever!”

Jake and I both laugh at Ty’s silly antics as I usher him upstairs for PJs and bedtime. It takes me about 15 minutes to get Ty changed, his teeth brushed and his nighttime story read. He was still so excited from getting to help Jake that he was having a little bit of a hard time calming down. After rubbing his back for a few minutes, he calmed down and passed out. I headed back downstairs to find Jake seated at the kitchen island with a beer in his hand.

“Sorry it took me so long. He was still so excited about getting to help you tonight.”

“Tessa, please don’t ever apologize for taking the time you need with your son. I can tell you are a great mom, and it sounds like you’ve had it all on your shoulders for a long time now.”

Where did this man come from? Could he be any more perfect?

I’m so shocked by his reply that it takes me a little bit to respond. I know I have to keep my emotions in check.

“Thank you, you were great with him tonight,” I say to him as I grab a drink for myself.

Jake

We move to the living room so we can sit on the couch and talk while being more comfortable. We sit next to each other and Tessa turns to face me.

“It really wasn’t a problem. Hey, did you and Caroline pick what day works best for the baseball game?” I ask as I rest my arm along the back of the couch. I’m not touching Tessa, but it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to do so.

“We looked at the dates, but never picked one. She was going to have Luke text you the ones we had narrowed it down to so that you could check your schedule before we bought the tickets.”

“Bastard never texted me.” I laugh. “I looked myself and I didn’t see any conflicts with my schedule for any of the Saturday or Sunday daytime games. So I’m open to whatever day works best with everyone else.”

“Sounds great, I’ll get with Caroline and we’ll finalize a date. I’ll text you with the info since it appears we can’t depend on Luke to keep you in the loop,” she says teasingly. “I wanted to let you know that I heard Ty bring up Matt to you. I’m sorry that you were in the dark about that. I just figured that Luke or Caroline had filled you in on the fact that my husband died a few years ago.”

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