Page 34 of Tempting Tessa

Jake: Can you pick up beer? I forgot to add it to your list. Also, can you make sure we have the stuff to make s’mores please?

Tessa: Already have them on my list!

Jake: You’re the best, babe. I’m going to stop at my house after work to grab a few things and then I’ll be over. What’s the plan for dinner tonight?

Tessa: We can either order pizza or I can grab some extra hamburgers and hotdogs to grill when I am at the store.

Jake: Let’s order pizza, we will be grilling all weekend.

Tessa: Sounds good, I was kind of thinking the same thing. What time do you think you’ll be off work today?

Jake: I should be off no later than 5, hoping for a little earlier but don’t know yet if that will happen.

Tessa: Ok, I’ll take care of ordering the pizza that way I can feed Ty on time and we can eat when you get home.

Jake: Sounds good babe, I’ll talk to you later. I’m about to go meet with the inspector. Love you.

Tessa: Love you too. ♥

I drop Ty off with my mom so I can get all my running around done without him in tow. I hit up Costco and the grocery store to get everything and head back home to get it all packed up and finish washing clothes to get them packed. I want to be completely packed and ready when Jake gets home tomorrow, only having to pack the cooler with our refrigerated items, that way we can hit the road shortly after he gets home.

I finally have everything I can think of packed, so I head back over to my parents’ house to get Ty.

“Hey, I’m back,” I call out when I walk into my parents’ house. It smells like fresh baked cookies in here, so it wouldn’t surprise me if mom and Ty baked again today.

“We’re in the kitchen,” she calls out to me. “We made cookies for you guys to take with you.”

“I thought I smelled cookies when I walked in,” I call out as I make my way into the kitchen.

“I couldn’t say no to him when he asked to bake today.”

“I’m sure we will enjoy the fruits of your labor!” I tell my mom. She knows I would never be mad about her baking with Ty. He loves it, and they do make some pretty awesome desserts. “You also know that Jake would never turn down a Grams and Ty cookie. You guys have spoiled him with your baking.”

“Jake loves my cookies!” Ty says giggling.

“He sure does, buddy,” I tell him as I pull him into a hug.

“What time are you guys leaving tomorrow?” my mom asks me.

“Jake is leaving work at noon. I already have everything packed except the cooler items. I will have that packed when he gets home so all we have to do is load all our bags and the food into the truck and hit the road. It takes a couple hours to get there, so hopefully we’ll be there by mid to late afternoon.”

“Sounds like you have it all planned out and are ready to go!”

“I’m so looking forward to this weekend away. With Ty starting kindergarten next week, I’m looking forward to just having a low-key weekend away from the craziness of being home. I just hope we come back refreshed and ready for all the changes that are going to happen.”

“Well, I hope you guys have a great time. You deserve the weekend away, and hope it’s relaxing and refreshing for all of you,” my mom says, giving me one of her mom looks.

“Will it just be the three of you, or did you invite Luke and Caroline to come?” she asks as she cleans up some of the mess they made while baking.

“We talked about inviting them, and don’t get me wrong, we would have a blast if they did come, but we also kind of wanted the time away for just the three of us.”

“I completely understand. Maybe one weekend this fall we can keep Ty and Caroline’s parents can keep the boys and the 4 of you can take an adults trip back up.”

“That also sounds amazing, thanks for the offer. I’ll talk to Jake about it this weekend and then Caroline and see if we can come up with a weekend that will work for all of us. Maybe sometime around Jake’s birthday in October.”

“Did you ever talk to Bridget to see if they will let you change your work hours?”

“I did and she’s waiting for approval from HR. Since my department doesn’t offer anything but 12-hour shifts, she isn’t sure if they can accommodate my request. If they can’t, I think I’m going to drop down to just 2 days a week. I’ve invested all the money from Matt’s life insurance, as well as the settlement the city’s workman’s comp insurance paid out to us, so that I don’t have to stress over working as you well know. Really, the only large amounts of money I used were to pay off the house, my car and what little debt we had when he died.”

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