“Oh, Tessa,” her mom said. “I can’t believe I didn’t see what you were doing. I’m so sorry.”
“Mom, you don’t need to apologize,” Tessa shook her head. “It was my choice.”
“To be honest, I don’t know what I would have done without you at that terrible time. And then I guess we fell into a routine, and I took it for granted that you stayed. When you were with Sam, I convinced myself that maybe you’d be okay with working in the bakery, staying in town. I guess I selfishly wanted to keep you here.”
“I think I had myself talked into that plan, too, Mom. Somewhere along the line, I stopped believing I could achieve my dream. It seemed too…uphill.” She’d settled for Sam. She’d settled for everything because she’d lost confidence in herself. Who would ever dream that his cheating would be the best thing that had ever happened to her?
Her mom shook her head sadly. “After you and Sam broke up, I saw how miserable you were. I knew then that there was nothing for you here. That you weren’t meant to work in the bakery your whole life. That’s why I told you no pastries in the shop. I wanted you to go and get more from your life than just a shelf of pastries against a boulangerie wall. I was so thrilled when you applied to pastry school. Tessa, I want to sell the bakery so you can have tuition money.”
Tessa jerked up her head. “Tuition money?”
“Yes. For your school. For your dream.”
“We know you’re going to get into pastry school sooner or later,” Gram said.
“Mom’s right, Tessa,” Vivienne said. “You’ve done everything to help us.”
“It’s your turn now,” Juliet said softly. “We want to help you.”
Tessa was bawling even worse. Actually, so was everyone else. She looked at her mom. “I would never let you sell our bakery.”
“Leo and his father would keep us on as employees for a few more years,” she said. “Until we could make another plan. I thought that plan might work. You’d go off and create something wonderful, and maybe we’d find opportunity with your success.” She shrugged. “It seemed worth the gamble.”
Tessa squeezed her mom’s hands. “Mom, I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you would sell our business for me,” Tessa said. “But it’s not necessary. My YouTube channel is making some money, and the bakery is doing better, and I can apply for loans.
“And…and we can all stop talking about my wasted life, because I have to tell you that one really great thing happened… I got into pastry school. I just found out. I was waiting to tell you until we were all together.” She thought about how encouraging and positive Leo was as she’d stared at that letter. How he’d held her hand and made her laugh and calmed her nerves.
“Oh, honey.” Her mom hugged her. “I’m so thrilled for you.” Everyone got up from their seats to join in. Except Cosette, who jumped off her lap before the sister avalanche hit and fled to the familiarity of Juliet’s bedroom for some peace and quiet.
“So Leo was just doing what Mom asked him to do,” Vivienne said after they’d all sat down again. “So go make up with him.”
“I wish it was that simple.” Tessa smiled sadly. She’d hurt him badly. Broken their trust. But he had too.
“I put Leo in the middle,” her mom said. “I thought telling you was a huge mistake, that you’d never hear of me selling off the bakery. I didn’t mean to drive a wedge between you and Leo.”
Yes, Leo had been put in the middle. But when Tessa had discovered the secret, she’d jumped to logical conclusions. “Leo should have told me,” Tessa said, crossing her arms. “Husbands don’t keep secrets.”
That had slipped out. Tessa reminded herself that Leo wasn’t her real husband. But she’d thought at the very least that he was her friend. She’d trusted him. But he’d chosen to keep things from her. Just like Sam.
Unlike Sam, Leo hadn’t done selfish things. He hadn’t used her to get the bakery for his family. Or coerced her mother. He’d shoved the proposal into a drawer and kept it there.
But then he’d said goodbye. No strings. Just for fun. Replaceable. Each phrase hit her like a blow.
They’d both said terrible things.
But the bottom line was, Leo didn’t want a relationship. He didn’t do relationships. And if she’d thought what they’d had was special, she was wrong.
“But you two are in love,” Juliet said. “Everyone could see it. I just can’t believe—”
Tessa saw everything now for what it was. “Leo made it clear from the beginning that our arrangement was business-only.”
“Lovers have differences,” Gram said. “But if it’s true love, they aren’t unsolvable.”
“He doesn’t love me, Gram. He kept something really important from me. Even if he meant to make things better, it was wrong.”
“Tessa,” Gram said, “it seems that you were very fast to accuse him of the worst, too.”
Yes, she had. She totally had. But he’d played his hand. He’d told her what they had was nothing special.
“I think we might need something stronger than tea,” Juliet said, jumping up and running to the tiny kitchenette. She returned with wineglasses and a bottle of red.
“I bought this to celebrate Jax’s and my engagement. Which was pretty naive, because I actually counted that we broke up six times. Don’t know why it took me number seven to get a clue.”
As Juliet poured, Tessa said, “I’m sorry, Juliet.”
Juliet sat there staring at her glass. “The truth is, I’m more relieved than sad. I think part of me knew all along that Jax wasn’t right for me. I just wanted him to be right.”
“I have a confession, too,” Viv said. “Mikhail and I have been broken up for a year. And I never had a job at the D’Orsay. Well, I did, but it involved taking people’s tickets at the entrance.”
Tessa couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Taking people’s tickets?
Viv continued. “For the past year, I’ve worked as a tour guide, a ticket taker, a cashier at a macaron shop, and a crepe maker. Oh, I also took photos of couples in front of the Eiffel Tower.”
“Viv…why?” Tessa asked. How many times had she wished she was Vivienne, strolling the streets of Paris? For all Tessa sacrificed, she’d at least felt that Viv was getting the opportunity of a lifetime. But to find out it wasn’t was heartbreaking.
Vivienne fidgeted her fingers in her lap. “I’m so sorry, Tessa. Turns out I’m not really very good at art. I dropped out of the art program, and I wanted to keep doing photography, so I did all these odd jobs, thinking I could get a business started. But I ran out of money. So I came home. I didn’t want you to know what a failure I was.”