Page 43 of Tempting Tessa

“Hey, beautiful,” I say to her as I wrap her in a hug and kiss her on the lips. “How was your day? Busy?”

“Hey, yourself! This is a nice surprise. When did you get home? And yes, we were slammed. It must have been a full moon last night or tonight. Every room was full and as soon as we could get one patient transferred to the mother baby unit, we would have another one filling the empty room. I think we had 10 babies born today alone on my shift. It hasn’t been that busy in a very long time!”

“So, what you are saying is you’re ready for a glass of wine and a foot rub later?” I ask her as I place another kiss on her lips.

“That sounds like heaven, add in a shower and I’ll be a puddle on the floor,” she tells me.

“Well, dinner is ready, let’s eat while it’s still hot.” I grab the plate with the food and place it on the table.

We sit outside since it’s still so nice out. After we all eat, Ty goes back out to play for a little bit, and Tessa and I just relax talking about our days. She tells me all about the babies she helped deliver. The excitement in her eyes as she talks about all the new babies is amazing to see. She’s such an amazing mom and it’s moments like these that I hope that one day I’ll be able to see that look come from us having a baby. I know she wants more kids and she has made that dream come back into my life.

Over the next few weeks, I continue to make an effort to take on more to help Tessa and prove to her that she can depend on me. Thankfully, it seems to be working and we are making our way back to how things were before my breakdown.

Tessa

I’m so glad things are returning to our normal. With dealing with both my issues around the anniversary of Matt’s death and Jake’s PTSD, things were very stressful. He’s been doing a lot to try and prove to me how dependable he is, and I love him so much for it. He’s an amazing man, and I thank God every day that he realized he was in need of help and he got it. If he wouldn’t have made that realization on his own, I’m not sure what would have happened between us and I don’t want to even think about that.

My birthday is coming up soon and I would love to spend the weekend before it up at the cabin. We had such a fantastic time when we went there last fall. Hopefully Jake can get away for a long weekend and we can get away. I think it will be a blast if we invite Luke and Caroline to come with us like we had wanted to do last time, but never got to. Even if we bring the kids along, it would still be an amazing weekend away.

Tessa: Hey babe, how’s your day going?

Jake: Good, been steadily busy, but I’ll be done at 5 and home shortly after. How is your day?

Tessa: It’s been good, went grocery shopping and did a few other errands. Will be leaving soon to pick up Ty from school.

Tessa: Hey, do you think you would be able to take a long weekend for my birthday? I was thinking we could head to the cabin if you can take the time away?

Jake: I like that idea, let me look at the calendar and see where we should be on the build around then. I’ll let you know when I get home tonight.

Tessa: Sounds good, babe. I was thinking of inviting Luke and Caroline.

Jake: Sounds good, beautiful. I’ll talk to you when I’m home, about to meet with my foreman for a bit. Love you.

I’m excited that he thinks it might be possible, so I call Caroline to talk about it as well.

“Hey, Tessa,” she says after answering.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“I’m trapped in my car in the Target parking lot. I was out running errands and Oliver fell asleep in his car seat. He’s needed a nap all day, so I’m not going to interrupt him sleeping. If he doesn’t wake up soon, I might just abandon my Target trip until after bedtime when I can come with no kids.”

“I think that sounds like the best option. Think about it, then you can lazily walk up and down the aisles looking at everything you don’t need,” I tell her on a laugh.

“Ya, that’s just what my wallet needs,” she replies sarcastically. “What are you up to?”

“About to head out to get Ty from school but I was calling to see if you guys have plans for the weekend before my birthday? I thought it would be fun to head to the cabin for a long weekend. Either with kids or without. Jake is going to check his schedule before coming home to see if he will be able to get away. I was thinking about leaving mid-day Friday and coming back either Sunday evening or Monday if we can swing the extra time.”

“That sounds like a great idea! I’ll check with Luke and my parents to see if they can keep the boys.”

“Sounds great. Jake said he would know tonight when he gets home if he’ll be able to get away, so I’ll text you if it is a go or not. Once I know from him, I’ll talk to my parents and see if they can keep Ty for the weekend.”

“Ok. Hey, Oliver is waking up so we are going to run into the store before Jack gets out of school. I’ll talk to you later.”

Once off the phone, I head to Ty’s school to wait for him to get out. Once he is out of school, we stop at the park for a while to kill time until we need to get home for dinner. Jake gets home just as I’m putting dinner on the table. We all discuss our days while we eat. Ty is looking forward to our planned trip to the zoo this weekend. He has been begging to go since the zoo came to his class a few weeks ago with some creepy crawlers. We finish dinner and Ty goes to play until it’s bedtime, while Jake and I clean up from dinner together.

“So, did you get a chance to check your schedule?” I ask him.

“Yes and I’m pretty sure we can pull it off. I need to see if I can move an inspection or see if my dad can be there for it if we can’t. Did you talk to Caroline about it?”

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