Page 27 of Love Is…?

Jayde chuckled. “At least let me choose the restaurant. I’m going for an A, you know.” Jayde knew Tessa was smiling into the phone. She felt it. Suddenly, she was loathe to end the call. It was comfortable talking with Tessa. Intimate, as if they were actually in the room together, drinking hot chocolate, hanging out, shooting the breeze, casting surreptitious glances at each other, feeling the electric stretch of space and time that happens when two people crackle with attraction.

“Speaking of Grace. Anything interesting happen in the last twenty-four hours?” Anything to prolong the phone call but that attempt was pretty transparent. Jayde glared at herself.

Tessa, who was clearly not stupid, and had worked with teenagers who were prone to changing topics via billboard announcements, must have seen through that desperate bid to keep the conversation going.

“Nice segue.” Popcorn was being tipped into a bowl. “I had to chaperone a group hang-out at the house last night.”

Jayde picked up the phone, wandered into the lounge—all of five steps—and settled into the couch.

“I bet that was fun.”

“I never, ever want to travel back to high school,” Tessa stated emphatically, and Jayde laughed.

“Me neither. High school was the worst. So no English tutoring, then?”

“Ha ha. No, it was more about keeping an eye on things, really. I’m not one to crash a girl’s night chat fest, which is just as well because between the five people in attendance, I scored one look of condescension, one raised eyebrow—not the sexy kind from the Jayde Ferguson curriculum—one scowl, one faintly surprised but fairly friendly smile, and one beam of joy. Guess which one was Grace?”

Jayde laughed, falling into the back of the couch. “Oh, that’s brutal. Don’t those kids have chaperones or nannies as well?” She assumed that Grace’s friends would be from wealthy or famous families.

“No. Their parents are in different professions, and are generally home in the evenings, and the afternoon activities seem to be structured around car-pooling. Oh! Correction. The one bearing the surprised yet friendly smile has a nanny but that nanny is casual for when the parents can’t attend something. Grace is the only one in the group with a full-time chaperone, even though I do go home most nights and every Sunday, so full-time is a flexible definition.”

There was a moment of silence.

“You’re easy to talk to, Jayde.”

“You, too.”

The phone, sitting on the cushion next to Jayde’s thigh, swallowed the silence.

“I need to go. Get back to the game,” Tessa said, her voice quietly intimate.

“Okay.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

Jayde smiled, and nodded, even though nobody was around to see.

“You will. I’m looking forward to it.”

Tessa laughed. “Of course you are. Goodnight, Jayde.”

“Night, Tessa.”

Chapter

Eight

Tessa pokedat the dirt in her pot, and grumbled. “I don’t know if?—”

“Shut up.” Angel tossed her tiny spade onto the table and glared. “You’re doing this even if I have to drag you there myself and tie you to a chair. And sing ‘Hallelujah’.” The glare slid into a grin.

“Fine. You win.” Tessa looked across Angel’s nursery as the pop-up sprinklers activated, sending a soft mist across the tops of the plants.

“No, I don’t. I’m not the one doing this challenge.”

“Be nice. I’m helping you on my day off,” Tessa said, scuffing her shoe into the concrete.

“You’re procrastinating and hiding amongst piles of mulch so you don’t have to think about tonight.” Angel gathered her tools, and tilted her chin at a nearby table. “Herbs are next.”

---