Page 37 of Tempting Tessa

Before we know it, the first day of school is upon us. I took the day off so that I could take Ty and pick him up. I want to get his picture with his teacher and see his classroom. My boy is growing up. Jake offered to come with us this morning, but this was just something I needed to do by myself. I know he was a little hurt, but hopefully he’s all right.

Ty’s first week of school goes great. He’s exhausted in the evenings so I’m glad I took off the week so that I could be the one to pick him up. We didn’t have much planned for the weekend as I wanted him to have the time to get rested up if needed. I had heard from multiple people that the transition to full-day school can really be a lot on little kids. So this weekend we are just hanging out. He has his first soccer practice but besides that we will be low key.

As I predicted, Ty was so overtired by Saturday evening that we just had an early supper, cuddled on the couch to watch a movie and he passed out within 15 minutes into it. Come Sunday morning, he was still passed out cold until almost 10am. I guess kindergarten is kicking his butt. I just hope he hasn’t already caught a bug and is getting sick.

The next few weeks fly by and Ty’s transition starts to mellow out. He’s getting the hang of his new schedule. My work was not able to accommodate my schedule request, so I dropped down to just two days a week. I now work Tuesday and Wednesday day shift. Jake’s large job is almost done, they are just finishing up the last minute things and should have all crews out by the middle of next week. Since things have slowed down, he’s able to help out more around here and with Ty. Last week and this week he dropped off and picked Ty up, brought him home, played with him and had dinner waiting for me when I got home. I am so thankful for this man. He has stepped up and is going beyond what I could have ever asked him to do. He keeps reassuring me that it doesn’t bother him to help me with Ty and that he loves him just as much as he would a biological child of his own.

Jake’s birthday is next week, so we are going out with Luke and Caroline for dinner to celebrate this weekend. I had wanted to get away to the cabin again but it just didn’t work out. He keeps telling me that he doesn’t want or need anything for his birthday and that I am his present. I think we are going to drag the guys downtown after dinner to hit up one of the country bars like we did for my birthday. We all had such a great time, and we all need an adult evening out.

Jake

The past two months have flown by. We had our amazing weekend at my parents’ cabin and then came back and right into Ty starting school. He had a tough transition to kindergarten, and that stressed Tessa out. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but I knew it bothered her how hard it was on him. Thankfully, now that he has been in school for a couple of months, we all have a good schedule. Next week is already Thanksgiving. We are having our family all over here at the house and I’m looking forward to that. Our parents have met before, but this will be the first holiday that we will all spend together and I’m confident that it will go great.

With owning a very successful construction company, I can cut my hours back quite a bit in the slower months and make up for it during our busy summer season. We are down to just our full-time crews during the winter months when we have mostly inside jobs. With my relaxed schedule, I’ve been helping out with getting Ty off to school and from school the two days a week that Tessa works. I know it bothers her that she wasn’t able to change her work hours to coincide with his school hours but her mom and I have continued to tell her that we are here to help and she doesn’t have to do everything on her own.

Jake: Hey babe, hope you’re having a good day at work. Just wanted to tell you I love you.

Tess: Thanks babe. It’s been an easy day today. I only have one patient assigned to me and she is still early in her labor, not sure if I will be holding a new baby before my shift ends or not.

Tessa: And you know I love you too.

Tessa: How’s your day?

Jake: Well, I hope you get to hold a new baby before you are off. I know how much you love it. My day has been good. Took care of some paperwork at the office and will be headed to pick up Ty soon.

Jake: Any dinner requests for tonight?

Tessa: Anything you cook is perfect to me. ;)

Jake: Ok beautiful, I’ll figure something out. Enjoy the rest of your shift. Love you.

Tessa: Thanks, love you too.

I wrap up my work and head out to get Ty and figure out what we will have ready for his momma when she gets home to us tonight. We still haven’t officially moved in together, but we also haven’t slept apart in months. I need to bring up the topic again soon, as it doesn’t make much sense for us to have both houses when we only need one. Since she owns hers and it’s Ty friendly, I will probably sell mine or turn it into a rental property.

The next few days go by in a whirl as we get ready for Thanksgiving. Tessa took off her two shifts this week since Ty is out of school for the week. I also took off the week and closed my offices for a few days so my staff could have the time with their families.

“Hey, babe. What’s on the agenda for today and what can I do to help you get ready for tomorrow?” I ask Tessa as she finishes getting dressed.

“I wanted to get the pies made today, we need to get the turkey in the brine and go over the other menu items to make sure we have everything we need before the stores close and we realize we are missing something.”

“Ok, how about I start on the brine? You double-check the ingredient list and make a list of anything we need. If we missed anything, I can then run to the store this afternoon,” I tell her as we walk downstairs and into the kitchen.

“Sounds like a great plan. I’m going to call our moms and just verify what they are bringing first,” she says as she pulls out her cell.

“Ok, babe, just point me in the right direction for the brine.”

“I have the recipe pulled up on one of the tabs on my iPad,” she says and points to where she has it charging on the counter.

I grab her iPad and find the recipe. Once I get it all made and the turkey in it, I head to see what Ty is doing while I wait for her to figure out what we still need at the store.

“Hey, Jake?”

“Yes, beautiful?”

“Can you come help me for a minute?”

“Sure can, just let me finish helping Ty with something first,” I call back to her.

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