Page 39 of Homebody
Or maybe he was completely off base because right after that supposed moment she’d sprinted away, fleeing, making her escape so fast he’d have thought the car was on fire.
Odd, perplexing for sure, but not enough to spoil what had otherwise been a near perfect day.
Seeing her joy over the good they’d done today had raised his spirits to a level he hadn’t felt in a long time.
Come to think of it, he’d been in a really good mood for the past couple of days and the only thing he could attribute that to was Tessa.
She wasn’t perfect, but it was her quirks and short-comings that made him like her even more.
He knew one thing for sure—the woman needed better living room furniture. Right now, that was the only complaint he could come up with about her. And that was something easily remedied.
In fact, he could take care of that minor problem.
He started the engine as he considered a possible plan. It involved borrowing a trailer and the old sofa in his parents’ basement that his mother had been complaining about needing to get rid of.
He could picture Tessa’s surprise when she saw it. Even if it wasn’t new, it wasn’t bad and it was a huge step up from the plastic chair she had now.
Dean paused with his hand on the gear shift to glance one more time at the house. His gaze settled on the covered porch that sheltered the door to her apartment.
The landlord—he doubted it was Tessa given her lack of interior furnishings—had added a small table and two chairs to that porch.
An image flashed through his mind. Seated in one chair was Tessa, her hair tousled from spending the night with him in her bed. The warmth of the morning sun bouncing off the highlights in her hair. The scent of the flowers planted nearby filling the air. Him, seated opposite her with a mug of hot aromatic coffee in one hand.
Did she drink coffee or tea? He wasn’t sure, but he knew he wanted to know.
That image, on top of how tempting the idea of waking up next to Tessa would be, hit him hard. It cut sharply through the haze of his daydream imaginings until it was clear to him.
He couldn’t have her. Couldn’t be with her. Not like that.
A one or two-night stand was one thing. Sleepovers followed by breakfast and learning each other’s likes and habits was another thing altogether. That was a relationship.
He didn’t do relationships. Not with women near base. Definitely not with a woman hundreds of miles away in another state.
His ten days on leave was coming quickly to an end. And afterward? He knew the answer to that even if he didn’t like it.
Long distance didn’t work. Just like how getting serious had never worked for him. His long line of exes was proof of that.
So this was it then. He’d see her over the remaining days of his leave, as a friend, if she had the time for him. Then it would be good-bye.
Maybe he’d come home and spend Christmas visiting his parents. He could easily run into her then. She might even still be single…
That slight flicker of a ridiculous hope crept into his brain. Uninvited. Unwelcome. Like early morning light slipping past the edge of bedroom curtains, slicing through the calm, quiet darkness of sleep.
His cell ringing startled him out of his ill-advised fantasies.
He wrestled the phone out of his pocket and glanced hopefully at the display. The outside chance that it was Tessa calling him to come back and join her inside was dashed when Liam’s name appeared on the screen.
Denying the level of disappointment he felt that it wasn’t her calling Dean hit the button for speaker phone before slipping the cell into the hands-free holder installed on the car’s console.
“Well hello there, Doctor Walsh. How may I help you today?”
“Way too formal a greeting for the friend who carried you back to your tent after a few too many beers at the Cantina in Djibouti.”
Rolling his eyes, Dean threw the car into gear as he said, “Carriedis a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?”
“Supported heavily, then. All the way to the latrines where you puked your guts up before I tucked you safely into your rack.”
“All right. Enough of this trip down memory lane. Is there another purpose for this call. Besides reminiscing about our Camp Lemonnier days gone by?”
