“I’m so sorry,” Juliet said, taking in the set table and the romantic setting. “I’m interrupting. I—”
“We were just having dinner.” Tessa glanced at Leo, who nodded. She ran a hand along her lips, which were still tingling from his kisses. Yikes. What just happened?
As soon as she reached Tessa, Juliet’s face screwed up in pain. “Jax broke up with me,” she blurted. “For good.” She burst into tears again.
Thank goodness was Tessa’s first thought as she took her sobbing sister in her arms. “I’m so sorry, honey,” she said. Jax was a jerk, but she was still heartbroken for her. Tessa comforted her sister, but she couldn’t seem to stop the breathless, disoriented feeling that made her feel like she’d just stepped off a spinning amusement park ride.
Which was unlike anything she’d ever felt before with Sam.
Juliet dabbed at her eyes. “I’m ruining your evening. I tried your phone, but you didn’t answer, so I thought it would be okay—”
“It’s always okay,” Leo interrupted. He sent Tessa a look that said You take it from here. “There’s plenty of pasta left if you’re, um, hungry, and I… I’ll just clean up.” He gave Tessa a little nod. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”
She mouthed thank you as she ushered her sister onto the glider. “Are you hungry?” She got a head shake and a sob. At the back door, Leo handed over a box of Kleenex that Tessa offered to her sister. “What happened?”
Juliet sobbed and plucked out three tissues. “I should have known when he cancelled the hike he said we’d take. Instead we went to dinner at that new winery in River Bend, but I just sensed something was…off. He seemed distracted the whole time, constantly glancing at his phone, jumping when it went off. When he left for the restroom, his phone was still on the table, and I picked it up. He’d been looking at a photo of a brand-new tattoo of his name on a body part that doesn’t ordinarily see the light of day. Oh Tessa, I can’t believe I took him back this last time. And I can’t believe this happened again.”
Again? Tessa bit back saying something that would upset Juliet further. Like the fact that she was going to string Jax up by his balls.
“I’m so stupid,” Juliet said tearfully. “I thought he was going to propose, but he’d planned to break up all along. Over a nice dinner. Who does that?”
Tessa rubbed Juliet’s back, something she’d done often in the past for both her sisters. And she wondered, were there any good men left in the world?
Leo is a good man, a voice inside of her whispered. A really good man. Who cooks. And brings Kleenex at exactly the right time.
She shook that voice out of her head. “Juliet, you always think the best of everyone.” That seemed a lot better than why would you ever take this awful man back in the first place?
“I knew in my heart it was wrong, Tessa, but I did it anyway. I was…hopeful. I needed this to work.”
She could relate. Hadn’t she’d stayed with Sam because he was better than nothing? Because she feared no one would ever come around again?
“You’re worth more than Jax,” Tessa said. “Don’t settle.”
Leo came out of the house with a bowl of steaming pasta and a big glass of ice water. Which gave Tessa a heart pang. Because he hadn’t run for the hills at the sight of a crying woman as Sam had, who made himself scarce nearly every time one of her sisters was in crisis. Leo set the food down on the table. “My mom used to say a good meal cures all heartache.”
Aw geez. The guy not only wasn’t afraid of crying women—he fed them, too.
And he didn’t even evict seniors.
And he’d spent an hour lending his muscle to help his mom clean out that storage room today.
And, and, and.
“Thank you, Leo,” Juliet said, blowing her nose. “Maybe I will. It smells terrific.”
“I’ll be upstairs,” he said, hitching a thumb toward the house. “Call me if you need anything.”
Tessa gave a little wave of thanks while Juliet gulped down the water. She tried to calm the fluttery feeling in her stomach. And not be like Juliet, who always got swept away.
It was easy to tell yourself stories to believe what you wanted.
Leo might be a fantastic chef whose adorable dinner left stars in her eyes. And he might have a kind side she’d never seen before. And he certainly possessed that magic combination of qualities that fired up her hormones, but she had to be honest with herself.
He didn’t do relationships—he’d said so himself—and that was something she could pretend might change, but did people ever really change? Was he so wounded from his mom’s death that he’d never thought about having kids? He was another heartache waiting to happen, and she’d barely survived her last one in this town.
Also, she didn’t want to get stuck here, as she had with Sam. A man had made her stay in this town a lot longer than she’d ever wanted. She couldn’t let another one keep her from her dreams.
She and Leo were both hardworking and ambitious people. Together, they could combine their talents and succeed. She hoped she could trust him enough to achieve their goals.
Save the business, then save yourself.
She couldn’t let a few kisses stand in the way of her dreams.
That was the goal—to get the bakery back on its feet so she could leave. And she couldn’t ever forget that.
Chapter Thirteen
A knock on Leo’s bedroom door sometime later made him look up from the book he was reading in bed. But he didn’t even get a chance to say come in before the door opened and Tessa walked in, tossing a pillow with a bright floral case onto his slate gray bedding and shutting the door behind her.
He’d been trying to read his book, a bestselling thriller, the best he could. But she kept popping up in his thoughts, sweet-smelling and soft. And those kisses kept replaying in his mind, over and over—the taste of her lips, the little murmuring sounds of pleasure she made in her throat, the feel of her melting against him in the tiny fragrant garden. So seeing her in a robe and little PJ shorts with cupcakes on them and carrying a pillow into his bedroom…well, it was like his fantasies had just come true. He had to blink twice to make sure it was really her.
He lifted a brow. “Things aren’t going well, I take it?”
“Juliet ate your delicious pasta, and I made her some tea. And then I put her to bed in my room. She’s going to have to get her things out of Jax’s apartment tomorrow.”
“I get it.” He set his book on the nightstand. “But why are you here?”