Tess in Boots (23 page)

“
You’re the marketing director.”

I laughed.
“Okay. Pinot. Red. Red, red, red. Hmm.” I thought about it for a few moments, staring at Jake in comfortable familiarity. “How about Restoration Red? You know, because we’re restoring the vineyard.”

“
Restoration Red,” he echoed. “It fits.”

“
Good.”

“
Speaking of restoration, I need to go restore my marriage.” He gestured toward the car with his thumb. “Want to ride up together?”

“
Yeah. I’d like to.”

He cleaned up the bar area
, and we shut the light off in the barn before leaving.

“
Jake?” I asked as we walked out into the field.

“
Yeah, Tessy?”

“
I don’t want to leave. I’m really going to miss this place.”

“
Yeah. Me too, Tessy.” He glanced back at the barn, and then put an arm around me. “Me too.”

I leaned in to rest my head on his shoulder.

“Your head feels heavy,” he said. It was his way of asking what was on my mind.

“
Yeah. It is.”

“
You want to talk about it?”

I lifted my head off his shoulder. “
Nope.”

“
Come on, Tessy.”

“
I don’t feel like it. Not tonight.”

He stopped walking
. “Fine. I won’t make you talk. On one condition, though.”

“
What?”

“
Kamikaze race.”

I stepped aside, putting some distance between us.
“Jake, don’t be ridiculous.”

Kamikaze race was a game Jake invented when we were kids. It was a simple game which consisted of him carrying me piggy-back style, running as fast as he could until he fell over. We hadn’t played it since sixth grade when Jake tripped over a tree root and we both ended up nursing broken bones for the better part of our summer vacation.

“Oh come on, Tessy. For old times’ sake. It’ll cheer you up.”

I shook my head.
“It’s dark. And we’re old.”

“
Speak for yourself,” he said.

“
Excuse me? Are you calling me old?”

He gave me a gentle shove.
“Yeah. I guess I am. You’re a chicken, too.”

“
I am not old. And I am
not
a chicken.”

“
Prove it.” He crouched down and waited for me to jump on his back. “You know you want to.”

I rolled my eyes. I knew Jake well enough to know he wasn’t going to let this go.
“Fine. Just be careful, okay?”

He shook his head as I climbed onto his back.
“Not a chance.”

I let out a scream when he took off sprinting as fast as he could out to the grapevines. We zipped up and down the narrow rows in the darkness, and I closed my eyes tightly, listening to the sound of the branches whizzing by me. We made it down about six rows before he ran out of steam. He made a grand show of falling to the ground in slow motion, rolling to his side and causing me to tumble over in the grass.

“Ow!”

“
Don’t be such a baby.” He gasped for air.

“
I’m not.” I pulled myself up on my knees and rubbed the dirt off my left elbow. “And you were right. That
was
fun.”

Jake hoisted himself up to a sitting position, and we rested there for a couple minutes so he could catch his breath.

“You may be old, but you’re still my best friend, Tessy. You know that, don’t you?”

“
I know. You’re all right, yourself.”

“
Thanks.”

I reached out and patted him on the back. It felt good hanging out with my brother. Despite all our differences and the precious little time we got to spend together these days, he was right: we were still best friends. He was my best friend, and I was ready to talk to him.
I didn’t want to pretend everything was okay anymore. I was tired of pretending.

I opened my mouth to speak before I could convince myself otherwise. “Hey, Jake?”

“Yeah?” He was still panting.

“You were right.” I shifted to a sitting position and extended my legs in the grass.

He turned his head to look at me. “About what?”

“About Thatcher. There
was
something going on between us.”

He stared at me with wide eyes, gawking in silence for what seemed like several minutes. The longer we sat in silence, the faster my heart pounded. Something was wrong. Why was he so stunned? Why wasn’t he speaking?

“Say something!” I hugged my legs and rested my forehead on my knees so I didn’t have to look at him.

“Uh…” He cleared his throat. “
What
was going on, exactly?”

“I don’t know.” I kept my head down.

“Tessy…”

“I really liked him, you know? We talked quite a bit, and I… I felt like we clicked or something. We got together a couple times. We went out, and we kissed, and—”

“You
what
?” Jake jumped as if he found a large spider crawling on his arm.

“Not a lot!” I looked up. “Just a couple times.”

“A couple times? As in, more than once?”

I cringed. “Yeah.”

“Tessy this is bad.” He tugged at his hair. “This is really, really bad. What were you
thinking
?”

I leaned away from him. “Why are you freaking out?”

“This explains a lot.” He started to say something else, but then shook his head.

“
Jake?”

He closed his eyes and tilted his head back. “Do you trust me?”

“Of course I trust you.”

He opened his eyes. “Then you have to stay away from Thatcher James. Do you understand?”

“What? No, I
don’t
understand. What are you talking about?”

He sighed. “I know something you don’t, okay? And if you knew it, too, I’m sure you’d stay away from him.”

I perked up. So Thatcher was telling the truth; there
was
more to the story. “Tell me, then. What is it?”

He shook his head.

I threw my hands in the air. “Just
tell
me!”

“No.” He looked at me for a long time. “I can’t.”

I could feel my cheeks getting hot. “Why not?”

“Please.” He reached out and took my hand. “I need you to trust me.”

I let out a huff. Why was everyone being so secretive? And what was so wrong with Thatcher? He seemed like such a decent person. Or at least, he used to. Now I wasn’t sure what to think. I stared at the ground for a long time, remembering the odd way he left.

“Are you okay, Tessy?” Jake gave my hand a squeeze.

“I thought he was a nice guy,” I whispered.

“He is. It’s not that.”

“Then what is it? Why is it so important for me to stay away from him?”

He shook his head. “I can’t say. I’m sorry.”

I sighed, defeated. “It’s not like it even matters. He’s gone anyway.”

“Yeah.” He nodded.

I frowned at him and pulled my hand away. “I bet you’re glad, huh?”

He didn’t answer. “Does anyone else know about this?” he asked after a few seconds.

“No.” I furrowed my brow, remembering my conversation with DJ. “Well… except for maybe a couple locals.”

He groaned.

“What?” I asked.

“Just don’t tell anyone else, okay?”

I reached down and yanked a handful of grass out of the earth. Jake was supposed to be on my side. We weren’t supposed to keep secrets from each other. Why was he acting like this? I turned and stared into his eyes, trying to invoke some sort of supernatural twin intuition that would tell me what he was thinking. I came up with nothing.

“It’s for your own good,” he said. “Don’t tell anyone else. And promise me you’ll stay away from him?”

“Fine.” I threw the grass and watched as the blades scattered to the ground. It wasn’t fine, but there was no use talking about it anymore. Not with him, anyway. The reason I told Jake in the first place was because I thought it’d help me feel better. Now I felt worse than ever.

“Are you mad?” he asked.

I pursed my lips in response.

“Don’t be mad, Tessy.” He put an arm around me.

I looked away from him and blinked back tears. “Will I ever find a guy who sticks around for a change?”

“You already did,” he said. “Me.”

“I’m serious.”

He put a hand under my chin and turned my face toward his. “Chin up, buttercup. You’ll get your happy ending.”

I gave him a glum smile. “I hope so.”

“I
know
so.”

“That’s impossible,” I said.

“What’s impossible?”

“You don’t just
know
things are going to work out.”

“Sure I do. You used to know, too.”

I turned away. “Yeah, well, things are different now.”

“How’s your faith, Tessy?”

“
What?
” I whipped my head back around to look at him.

“You heard me. How’s your faith?”

His question was so blunt I didn’t know how to answer.

He leaned in and nudged me on the shoulder. “You used to have this unshakeable sense of peace. I always admired that about you. When did it change?”

I pursed my lips and brushed a stray piece of hair out of my face.

“You praying much these days?” he asked. “Going to church at all?”

“Are you
seriously
preaching to me about this?” My voice was louder than I meant for it to be.

“I’m not preaching to you.”

“Good. Because if Jake Dougherty is preaching to
me
about church attendance, then—”

“That was fifteen years ago! Give me some credit.”

During our sophomore year of high school, our mother would drop us off at youth group on Friday nights, but Jake never went inside. He would sneak off with his friends and slip back into the crowd once it was time to be picked up. When our mother eventually found out, he wasn’t allowed to go anymore. Not that he cared much. But he was right, it was forever ago, and he’d changed so much since then. He grew up. I, on the other hand, managed to regress somehow.

I groaned and placed a hand over my eyes.

“You all right?” he asked.

“I just realized something.” 

“What?”

“Jake… I think you’ve become the responsible one.”

He bent over at the waist and let out an abrupt laugh.

“No, really! You’re married. You have all this.” I gestured out to the vineyard. “I have… I have absolutely no direction whatsoever. Congratulations. You win.”

“It’s not about winning. And you do too have direction. You’re just going through a little rough patch. It’ll all work out fine.”

“You don’t know that.”

He pointed a stern finger at me. “Find your faith, Tessy. I mean it.”

I sighed.

“Race you to the car?” he asked.

“I don’t feel like it.”

“Well that’s too bad, because loser walks home.”

“Jake…”

“Stay here and mope if you want, but the bears are probably out, you know.” He looked at me with wide solemn eyes. “Just waiting for someone to walk by all alone… and defenseless…”

I
rolled my eyes and pushed him so hard he toppled over. Then I leapt to my feet and took off toward the car.

“Go easy on me, Tessy!” Jake scrambled behind me to catch up, but I didn’t slow down.

I sprinted faster than ever, as if I could outrun Thatcher’s memory; as if I could leave my broken life in the dust.

CHAPTER 25

“DJ?”

The voice that answered the phone sounded so muffled, I wasn’t sure it was her.

“
Yeah?”

I leaned against the kitchen sink in the cottage. “
Oh, hey. It’s Tess.”

She let out a long groan, followed by a throaty yawn.

“Did I wake you up?” I asked. I checked the time. It was after ten.

“
Yeah.” I could hear her rustling around in her bed. “But it’s fine. I needed to be up. I overslept.”

“
I’m sorry.”

“
I said it’s fine. What’s up?”

“
I was calling about the rehearsal dinner food.”

“
Oh, sure. Did you figure out what you want?”

“
Yes. Everything.”

“
Everything?”

“
Yep.”

“
You want everything on the menu?”

“
Uh-huh.”

“
And you need it when?”

“
Thursday evening.”

“
For how many people again?”

“
Twenty,” I said.

She sighed.

“This isn’t an ordinary wedding.” I paced back and forth between the kitchen and the bed. “This couple… they have high expectations.”

“
All right. My folks are gonna flip, but I think I can swing it for you.”

“
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.”

“
Hey, it’s the least I can do. I feel like I owe you one after last night.”

“
Huh?” I stopped pacing.

There was silence on her end of the line.

“DJ? Are you there?”

“
Yeah, I’m here.”

“
What did you say?” My pulse sped up.

“
I said no problem. I’ll get the order in.”

“
No, after that.”

“
I don’t know what you mean,” she said.

“
You said you owe me one?” I sat on the bed.

“
Oh yeah. Forget about it. It’s nothing.”

“
No. What did you mean?”

“
Hey, Tess? I overslept. I gotta get to work.”

“
Wait—”

“
Everything’s under control. Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll see you soon.”

“
DJ, I—”

There was a click
, and the phone went silent.

A sinking feeling settled into my stomach. There was something strange about that girl. As if there were two separate sides to her. And even though she
was kind to me when we met back up at the restaurant, I wasn’t quite ready to trust her. Not yet, at least.

What was she talking about? I had half a mind to call her back and demand answers, but with a few days left before the wedding, it was crunch time. I needed to brush it off and keep going. She was
not
going to get to me.

I rolled my shoulders back and picked up the phone to make another call.

“Hello?” A sweet voice answered on the second ring.

“
Hi, Ms. Betty?”

“
Yes?”

“
This is Tess. Tess Dougherty.”

“
Oh, Tess.” There was a strange tone of apprehension in her voice. “Yes. Hello, dear.”

“
Hi. I’m sorry to bother you at home, Ms. Betty, but I called the music school and no one has gotten back to me yet.”

“
Well that’s because it’s summer, dear. They’re not in over the summer.”

I
clenched my teeth.
Then why did your husband tell me to call them?
I wanted to say it, but instead I forced myself to take a breath.

“
Let me get Harold, dear. He can point you in the right direction.” I heard a whooshing sound as she put her hand over the receiver and called for him, drawing out his name. “Harold?”

“
What?”

“
You have a phone call, dear.”

“What?”

“Phone! You have a phone call!”

“
Well why didn’t you say so?”

Their voices were so loud I could make out their every word, even with Ms. Betty’s hand over the receiver. As she handed him the phone, I could hear her giving him instructions.

“It’s Tess,” she said. “Thatcher’s Tess.”

“Who?”

“Tess, dear. And don’t say anything about the…”

“
The
what
?” he asked.

“
You
know.”

“
Betty, I
don’t
know.”

“
Harold, just don’t say anything at all then.”

“
Fine.”

He must have taken her literally, because he hung up on me.

I stared at the receiver in my hand, puzzled. Don’t say anything about the what? I was still trying to make sense of it when the phone rang a minute or two later. I recognized the number as Ms. Betty’s, calling me back. “Hello?”

“
I’m sorry, dear. We’re having phone troubles. Harold is… ill. But I have a name and number for you. Do you have a pen?”

I jotted down the musician’s contact information as Ms. Betty dictated it to me.

“Thank you very much,” I said.

“
My pleasure. Good luck, dear. With the wedding.”

I considered asking her about what I’d heard her tell Harold, about not mentioning something to me, but she was already ending the conversation.

“I’m afraid I have to run. Bye-bye now.”

She hung up before I could say goodbye. I missed my chance. But it was just as well, because I had a feeling she wouldn’t have told me anything anyway.

What was with the people in this town? It was as if everyone were in on some big secret.

Everyone, of course, except for me.