Page 22 of Tempting Tessa

“These are beautiful, what’s the occasion?” she asks me.

“Just that my girl needed some flowers.”

“You are so sweet to me, let me go find a vase and get them into water and I will be right back.”

While she goes inside, Ty and I continue to play catch. When Tessa returns, she joins back in with us.

“Can we play something else now?” Ty asks after about 10 minutes of us playing catch.

“Anything you want,” I tell him as I gather up the ball and gloves from playing catch.

“How about…” He thinks for a minute. “Tag.”

“Ok, but do you think you can catch me?” I ask him, laughing.

“Of course, I can! I run super-fast!” he yells and then starts running toward me, so I take off running.

We run around for probably 30 minutes playing tag, and by the end I am worn out. I don’t know how Ty still has energy left after all of that, but we wrap up so we can head over to Luke and Caroline’s for dinner.

We have a great time with Luke and Caroline. The kids play like crazy and they all end up falling asleep in the living room while watching a movie. This allows all of us adults to sit outside and enjoy some relaxing adult conversation.

“So what are your plans for date night tomorrow night?” Caroline asks.

“It’s a surprise, I’m not telling her what we are doing,” I reply while winking at Tessa. She’s been trying to get me to crack the past couple of days on what I have planned. It has become somewhat of a game, her trying to trick me into telling her.

“Oh, come on, Jake, give us something!” Caroline says on Tessa’s behalf.

“There will be eating involved,” I reply.

“Brat,” Caroline replies.

Our banter and conversation continue for the next hour or so. I’ve noticed Tessa keeps yawning and looks like she needs to get home and into bed.

“Hey, babe, why don’t I get you home before you fall asleep?”

“Sounds good,” she says while yawning again.

I help Luke clean up what little we still have out, while Tessa goes to get Ty. He’s out cold, so I go and pick him up for her to carry him out to my truck. He stays asleep the entire way back to her house and through being carried up to his bed. It doesn’t surprise me for how much he ran around today. After helping Tessa get him into his pajamas and into bed, we head down to the living room. I know she’s tired, so I won’t stay too much longer.

“I’m going to go ahead and head home so you can get your beautiful self to bed,” I tell her as I lean down to kiss her good night. “I’ll see you tomorrow. How about I come over and pick you both up and take you out to breakfast?”

“Sure, Ty is usually up by 8. Is that going to be too early for you?” she asks while leaning into me and yawning again.

“Nope, how about you text me once you’re up and I’ll head right over?” I say as I lean down to kiss her on the top of the head.

“Sounds good, see you in the morning.” I kiss her goodbye one more time and head out to my truck.

“Make sure to text we when you get home,” she calls out at me.

“Ok, babe, now get to bed before you fall asleep at your front door.”

I make it home and text her, she doesn’t respond so I figured she fell asleep before I could get home. I head to bed myself since I know she’s going to be calling early tomorrow for our breakfast date.

Tessa: We’re up, come on over when you’re ready. Sorry I fell asleep last night before you got back home.

Jake: No problem, I knew you were tired. I’ll leave here in about 10 minutes. I just got out of the shower.

Tessa: See you soon ;-*)

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