He loved her enthusiasm about simple things. The way she saw beauty in everything and made him notice it, too. Maybe she’d even teach him the names of these flowers.
“That’s so sweet and considerate,” Cara said. “You must really love her, to surprise her for no reason.”
That caught him a little off guard. He was doing something a real husband would do for his real wife. A wife he loved.
He pushed all that out of his head. He could bring Tessa flowers just because, without overthinking, and just live in the moment.
…
Leo found Tessa inside the living room, sitting on the couch, the room dim as the sun began setting. Which should have been his first red flag, because any other warm summer evening would find her digging in the garden or sitting outside with Cosette, not indoors staring at a piece of paper in her lap.
“Hey.” He left the flowers and the tickets on the counter and walked into the living room. “You okay?”
As she looked up, Leo’s heart dropped into his stomach. Her eyes were red and a little puffy. “What is it, Tessa? What’s wrong?”
“Leo, we have to talk.” With trembling fingers, she held out the paper.
Puzzled, he tugged it from her hand, then let out a curse. The proposal. The stupid, horrible proposal. Why hadn’t he destroyed it? He’d buried it in his desk and forgotten all about it. Releasing it like it was on fire, he watched it sail onto the coffee table.
He was about to say I can explain when she said, “Max Hammond came into the bakery today and let it slip that my family’s bakery might be up for sale.”
My family’s bakery. The way she worded it sounded…formal. Ominous.
Leo frowned as he realized what had happened. “Wait. You went looking for this instead of coming to me?”
“I hit the drawer of your desk with my elbow, and it popped open.” He must have given her an incredulous look, because she said, “Okay, the truth is, I was upset. I did pop it open a little. And there it was.” She glanced at the paper. “A proposal for you and your dad to buy our business and retain my mother temporarily as an employee. Dated after we were married. How could you, Leo? How could you do this behind my back?”
The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. He’d made a promise to Joanna not to tell Tessa anything. That’s what had gotten him in this hot water to begin with. So what was he going to say to her now?
Before he could say anything, Tessa continued, “How could you coerce my mother into signing something like this?”
He held out a hand in defense. “Wait a minute—what? That’s not what happened. I—”
She snorted. A skeptical snort that proved she didn’t believe him at all. Or want to hear him out.
That made his anger flare. “You still don’t trust me, do you?” Leo prided himself on being a protector of those he loved. On being trustworthy. He’d never given her any reason to think otherwise.
“This is not about what I think of you,” she snapped. “It’s about a bill of sale for my mother’s business.” She picked up the paper and waved it in the air. “That she signed!”
“I thought we were way past fake marriages and over-the-top business arrangements. I thought we trusted each other, Tessa. I thought you knew me by now.” And know that I would never hurt you, he finished to himself. If he’d sounded hurt, it was because he was.
She shook her head. “I don’t know what to think.”
“Your mother came to me with this.” He tapped the paper with his finger. “I hid it, thinking you’d turn the bakery around so much that my dad wouldn’t be able to afford to buy it, even if he wanted to. Or that your mother would change her mind because business had improved. That’s it. The whole truth.” He tossed his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
He’d laid all the cards on the table.
“But why didn’t you tell me?”
“You’ll have to ask your mother about that.”
“I don’t like secrets, Leo.” She shook her head sadly. “Secrets always come out.”
Oh geez. That ass Sam. “I was protecting you.”
“I don’t want your protection.” She stabbed the air. “I want your honesty.”
She didn’t want his protection? He’d hid this from his dad. And held off her mom, too, for that matter. He’d shouldered the burden of keeping it quiet, thinking the deal would never come to fruition. “I kept this from you so you could be free to create without worrying. Without feeling so responsible that you’d stay here and sacrifice yourself for another fifteen years.” None of which, apparently, she seemed to appreciate.
She shook her head solemnly. “I can’t abide someone hiding the truth from me again. It makes me wonder if you’d planned this all along—to take over our business without my knowing.”
“Are you serious?” His usual calm was cracking.
“What am I supposed to think?”
She might as well have punched him in the gut. She’d accused him of hiding something. Of not telling her the truth. Of coercing her mother. Of using her. “You want honesty?” he said, his voice sounding an octave higher than normal. “Then fine. Good thing this has just been for fun. We’ve accomplished our goals, and now we can both leave with no attachments.”
He saw his words hit the mark. She blinked, and her face colored.
“For the record,” he continued, “I’m not the one going around snooping in people’s desks. And also for the record, I’ve always believed in you. I’m not Sam, Tessa.”
She sat rigidly straight on the couch. “I’ll work on finding someone to supply the desserts before I leave for Chicago. I—I wouldn’t leave you high and dry.”
“I’m sure I can find someone to replace you.”
She shot him a what a jerk look. Which made his heart give a lurch. Because he knew he’d just crossed an imaginary line—one that couldn’t be uncrossed. Even now, in the heat of things, he knew, deep in his soul, that she was irreplaceable.
He opened his mouth, which still had his big foolish foot in it, but it was too late. She’d turned and started down the hall to her old room, leaving him to wonder what the hell had just happened.
Chapter Twenty-One
It was 3 a.m. when Tessa, fully packed up, stood outside the top stair of her old garage apartment in the steady rain. Tessa knocked as softly as she could to avoid waking her old landlord, Mrs. O’Hannigan, but Cosette was meowing loudly in her carrier, protesting the jarring departure from her warm bed and the raindrops that were way too close. “Shhh, Cosette,” Tessa said. “I’m sorry.”