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Luke shook his head. “People say that, but it’s not true. Being a cop in L.A…. Jesus, it was a nightmare, dealing with kids. Like seeing ruined lives playing out in front of you every day. Babies addicted to drugs. Kids left alone because their moms had to work. Kids into trouble just because they had no guidance. Girls out on the street because their dads treated them like shit. They don’t bounce back, Tessa. We just tell ourselves that. One wrong step and sometimes that’s it.”
“But that’s not going to happen to Simone.”
“Hopefully not, but it can’t hurt if I’m around to help, can it?”
Tessa took his hand. “No,” she whispered. “That wouldn’t hurt at all.”
“The world is a cruel place.”
“I know,” she murmured, and he knew she was thinking of her parents.
“I’m sorry, Tessa.”
“Okay,” she whispered. “But that’s enough talking.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s watch a movie. Enough saving the world for one day. Let’s just relax. And maybe…fall. Very carefully.”
Luke smiled and picked up his beer with a hand that would’ve shaken if he hadn’t moved so carefully. “You got it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TESSA FELT LIKE she’d slept half the week away. Granted, not everything she’d done in bed had been sleeping. But she’d obviously been more stressed than she’d thought. She’d spent the night at Luke’s a couple of times, but the nights at her own place she’d slept like the dead for nine hours at a time. Now she was wide-awake, clear-eyed and realizing that she hadn’t solved her problem at all.
How the hell was she going to get this contract past Eric? She’d put off talking to the lawyer as long as she could. But tomorrow was Monday and she’d have no choice.
She sipped her coffee and stared out the window to her tidy backyard beyond. The trees cast dancing shadows on the brick patio. It was cold today; she could see the hard frost on the grass that hadn’t felt sunlight yet. But the bright morning still tempted her. Maybe a walk would help.
Tessa bundled up and hit the sidewalk, trying to force her mind to think. But despite all her sleep, her mind still felt fuzzy, blurred at the edges with her impatience to set this aside and get back to thinking about Luke.
She was in full-on crush mode, a state she hadn’t suffered since she’d fallen for Bryce Stevenson in high school. But Bryce had never so much as kissed her. Luke, on the other hand… Oh, Luke offered so many more delicious ways to fall head over heels. She didn’t know who she thought she was fooling; there was no careful way to do it. And she wanted to enjoy every reckless moment. That couldn’t happen until she solved the problems with this deal.
Tessa walked past the bike shop on the corner of the block, then past the brewery. She kept going, hoping an idea would come to her. Five minutes later, she passed Eric’s apartment, ducking her head to hide her face as she walked.
Luke was wrong about keeping this from Eric. Jamie was wrong, too. Eric didn’t need to know. One, because he’d be pissed at Jamie for years. And two, because he’d never let Tessa sacrifice her own financial health for the sake of the brewery. Neither would Jamie, but she didn’t know who else to turn to.
Though he lived farther from the brewery than anyone else, Tessa found herself heading toward Jamie’s place. She didn’t go there much. More often than not, when she saw Jamie outside work, he was at her place for dinner or at one of their kickball games.
For a few years after college, he’d shared a place with friends, but last year he’d found an old house being converted into a split duplex, and he’d bought the first-floor unit. She stepped onto the covered front porch and knocked on Jamie’s door.
It was ten o’clock and he could still be asleep. Even if he wasn’t asleep, he might not be alone, but Tessa was willing to brave the embarrassment. A full minute later, he hadn’t answered, so she knocked again, hoping he’d suddenly appear.
She felt…lonely. She missed just having brothers, the simplicity of those relationships. Jamie couldn’t help her figure out what to do about the contract, but maybe they could just sit and catch up on each other’s lives.
But he wasn’t home.
She didn’t know why she felt lonely. She’d certainly gotten lots of attention from Luke this week. Then again, Luke was the source of her uncertainty. What she felt for him was scary. Even assuming he’d been completely honest with her, it was scary. She’d never felt more than friendly affection for any of her other lovers
. It had been easy to like them and easy to walk away. But with Luke… God, with Luke she felt like she was standing on a cliff looking out over the ocean. It was beautiful and thrilling and she never wanted to leave, but one more step and she’d have nothing to hold on to. If she let her guard down, she’d plummet.
Tessa stuck her hands in her pockets and started for home at a much slower pace than she’d left it, but she stopped when she got past the corner of Jamie’s house. Cocking her head, she frowned at the sidewalk. A rhythmic thunking sound floated from the back of the house.
“What in the world?” she muttered.
Hoping she wasn’t sneaking up on the other owner’s side of the yard, she tiptoed down the stone walkway and put her eye to the space between the privacy fence and the gate. It took her a moment to locate the source of the sound, but she finally spotted Jamie at the back of the property, wielding some sort of tool.
Tessa eased open the gate, then stood straight and frowned. “What are you doing?”
