The Bachelor's Sweetheart (2 page)

“And now, by request,” the DJ said several songs later, “The Chicken Dance.”

“I didn't think anyone did the Chicken Dance at weddings anymore,” Lexi said.

“I haven't heard it since I was a kid,” someone else remarked.

Tessa surveyed the room, trying to figure out who might have made the request. She saw Josh making a straight line for her table. Lexi did, too. She sat up and fluffed her hair.

“Hey,” Josh greeted everyone around the table.

When he got to Lexi, she smiled and started to push her chair back, obviously assuming he'd come over to ask her to dance. She and Tessa were the only two women at the table right then.

“Tessa, it's our dance,” he said with a grin.

She shook her head with sympathy for Lexi. Josh might be able to tear out all the roots of a relationship when he called it quits, but didn't he realize most other people couldn't?

“Come on,” he urged. His dark-lashed, deep blue eyes challenged her.

He was up to something. He knew she didn't dance.

Tessa stood and offered Josh her hand. “You're on.”

Whatever Josh was up to, she was game. If making a fool of herself in front of everyone she knew in the area by dancing the silly Chicken Dance would humor Josh and make him more agreeable to what she needed to ask of him, she'd do it.
For Grandma
.

* * *

Josh eyed Tessa. This was too easy. She was giving in with no protest. What fun was that? He led her toward the center of the room. “We don't have to...” He gestured at the people flapping their elbows on the dance floor.

The corner of her mouth quirked up.

“Okay, so I asked you to dance because you laughed at me up at the altar.” He rubbed the back of his neck as the childishness of his words registered. When had he regressed to being ten years old?

“So, you don't really want to join them?” She mimicked his gesture to the people hopping around in front of them.

“You have to ask?” Josh toed for a foothold on some semblance of his dignity.

“No, not about that, but I have something else I want to ask you about. Let's take a walk outside where we don't have to talk over the music and everyone else.”

“As long as it's not about Claire's cousin.” Josh scuffed the toe of his shoe against the tile floor. His wedding-aversion mouth-to-brain disconnect had kicked in again.

“What do you mean?” She faced him, hands on hips. After a second, her eyes brightened. “Oh, Claire told you.”

His mind flipped back through his dinner conversation with Claire and came up blank.

Tessa laughed. “I told Pierre to speak French, said you were working on improving your French for a possible job transfer to Quebec.”

“Oh, that.” He waved her off.

“Yeah, what did you think?”

“I just wasn't following. All this—”

“Wedding stuff,” she finished for him as they crossed the hall to the door.

“Enough said.” Tessa so got him. He couldn't ask for a better friend. Josh gave her a side glance. Or one easier on the eyes. “What do you need to talk about?”

“I have a business proposition.”

He held the door open for Tessa, and they strolled outside to a picnic table. It had to be about the movie theater in Schroon Lake she'd inherited from her grandfather Hamilton a few years ago and reopened as the Majestic. Josh knew the business was touch and go in terms of providing a living for her and her grandmother. If he were her, he'd have sold the theater and gone back to the civil engineering career she'd had before she'd moved in with her grandmother to run the theater. But he wasn't her. Josh swung his leg over the wooden bench.

“You still with me?” Tessa asked, breaking the silence of his thoughts.

“I'm listening.”

“I've come up with financing for my plan to renovate the Majestic to do dinner theater in addition to movies during the summer tourist season.”

Josh leaned forward on his forearms. “The credit union approved a mortgage on the theater building?” He was surprised. All of the banks in the area had already turned Tessa down.

She shifted on the bench. “No, the loan officer suggested a mortgage on Grandma's house.”

That made sense to Josh since the well-kept Victorian would be much easier to sell than the old theater building.

“I couldn't ask Grandma to do that.”

“But you said you got financing.”

Tessa studied her nails, which were a soft shade of pink. With sparkles. He'd never seen her nails polished before. She'd gone all out for this wedding. Why? He took in the complete package from the soft wisps of hair framing her face to the delicate red-and-silver hearts dangling from her ears to her sparkling fingers. Whatever, she should do it more often.

“From Jared.”

Josh straightened. “You went to my brother.”
Good old Jared; always ready to step in and save the day
. Old wounds of sibling rivalry ripped open.

“No, he came to me. I thought you knew. He said you told him about my plans and the trouble I was having with the financing.”

“Yeah, I did.” But not in a good way. He'd been feeling Jared out for a way to discourage Tessa from what he saw as a potential financial disaster.

“Anyway, he called the other night, and we got together yesterday. You know how he is about supporting local businesses. I think he'd hate to see the Majestic go under almost as much as I would. He suggested a couple of things that could make the plan more successful.”

Josh ground his teeth then relaxed his jaw.
Admit it, Donnelly. You're jealous. Tessa is your friend, and you want to be the one to rescue her from her financial plight, although with a more lucrative plan than saving her struggling theater business.
Tessa had too much potential to stagnate in Schroon Lake.

“Hey,” Tessa said. “Lose the face. I would have called you last night, but you had the wedding rehearsal and all.”

“Sorry, I've had a lot on my mind.”

“Like how to talk Connor out of marrying the love of his life.”

Josh grinned. “That and other things. Tell me what Jared suggested.”

“He can't give me as much of a loan as I was asking the banks for.” Tessa gave a number that was about twenty thousand short of what Josh knew she needed.

“We went over those numbers,” he said. “I can't see how you can get the job done for any less.”

Tessa gestured palms up, fingers splayed. “That's where you come in, why I needed to talk with you.”

He read the excitement on her face, and his stomach churned. He had some money invested from the couple of lakeside cabins he bought cheap, remodeled and flipped for a profit. But not money to lend, like his brother, the ex-international motocross champion. His stash was to finance his move away from Paradox Lake when the right promotion came along. He needed to have a good long talk with his brother about putting him in this situation.

“Tessa, I don't have that kind of money.”

“I know that. I wouldn't think of asking you for money.”

But she'd ask Jared
. He placed his hands palms down on the table. Just give him another five years and he'd be as successful in his own right as his older brother was.

“What I need from you is your brawn and brains.”

He burst out laughing. “Brawn and brains.”

“That doesn't appeal to your masculinity?” She batted her eyelashes at him.

She was going to have him rolling on the ground soon.

Her expression grew serious. “Here's my proposal. First, since I'd only be doing the dinner theater a couple of nights a week, Jared suggested I have the dinners catered by that new restaurant that's opening on State Route 74, rather than add full kitchen facilities. I'd only need a refrigerator-freezer and an industrial warming oven.”

“That makes sense.” So much sense, he wished he'd thought of it, except he hadn't been encouraging Tessa in her project.

“Second, in exchange for you helping me make the other necessary alterations to the theater building, you could live rent-free in the apartment over the garage adjacent to the theater and Grandma's house. Then, once I open, I'll give you a twenty percent cut of the Majestic's profits until you've been fully paid for your time.” She tilted her head so the rays of the setting sun reflected the expectant look in her soft brown eyes. “What do you say?”

A great plan except that he didn't expect there to be any profits to pay him from.

In response to his hesitation, she prompted, “The sale closing on the cabin is still next week so you have to be out, right? And you don't have anyplace to live.”

No place but with one of his brothers or back with Gram and Harry again as he'd done when he first returned to Paradox Lake to take the job at GreenSpaces.

“Or did you find a rental?” she asked.

“The closing is next Thursday, and I haven't found anything long-term, only a couple of places that are available to rent until late June when the summer people start arriving.”

“Then you'll do it? I'll have the attorney who settled Grandpa's estate draw up a contract next week.”

Since he didn't have much confidence in the project paying out, as a friend, he should say no. But as a friend, he knew how much it meant to Tessa to stay in Schroon Lake and run the Majestic, even though he didn't fully understand why. She could do so much more with her life.

“Sure. It's a deal.”

Chapter Two

T
essa hugged herself for warmth as she walked the short distance from the Majestic to her grandmother's house. The unusually warm spring day had turned frosty with nightfall, and the light coat she'd worn to the wedding wasn't enough to ward off the chill of the air or her thoughts.

After dropping her grandmother off at the house, she'd gone over to the movie house, figuring her part-time college student employee, Myles, would be closing up about then. She should have waited until he checked in with her in the morning as she'd asked him to do. The Saturday night—generally her biggest night—receipts were dismal. And she couldn't attribute it all to the large number of people attending Connor and Natalie's wedding. As her grandmother's house came in view, the moon and streetlight spotlighted the shutter on the second-floor window the winter winds had knocked askew. The theater building wasn't alone in needing work, although all the house needed was some cosmetic touches and basic upkeep. Maybe she could extend Josh's contract to cover whatever she couldn't do on the house herself.

Tessa trudged up the steps of the house she and her grandmother shared and stepped into the living room. She locked the front door behind her. Before she'd moved in with her, her grandmother had never locked her doors when she was home. She'd finally convinced her they should at least lock up at night. “Grandma, I'm back.”

“I'm in the kitchen,” she answered.

Tessa slipped off her coat and reached in the pocket for her phone when her text alert chimed. She frowned at the name.

“Your uncle Bob?” Grandma stood in the doorway drying her hands on a dish towel.

“Yes.” Tessa read the text.

I need you to work on your grandmother. Maybe she'll listen to you. We're going to lose the introductory price on the condos if she doesn't agree soon.

“I just got off the phone with him before you came in.” Her grandmother sighed. “I guess I have to make a final decision. Maybe I should take the train down to Albany and let Bob show me around the community he and Kathy are moving to. But I can't imagine living someplace where everyone is over fifty-five. I think being around you kids helps keep me young.”

Tessa smiled at her grandmother's last comment as she hung her coat in the closet. “I thought you had decided you didn't want to leave Schroon Lake and all of your friends.”

“Come on into the kitchen.” Her grandmother avoided her question, waving the dish towel toward the doorway. “We need to talk.”

Tessa tensed.

“I put some water on for chamomile tea. I shouldn't have had that second cup of coffee at the reception. It's past my usual bedtime, and I'm not at all sleepy.”

Tessa followed her into the kitchen. She could use something calming, too. An old longing awoke. Even after five years, the craving for alcohol was there deep inside her. She breathed in.
Lord
. And out.
Help me
. “Tea would be great.”

Grandma's old metal teakettle began to whistle when they walked into the kitchen.

“Grab a couple of mugs, spoons and the tea tin.” Her grandmother bustled over to the stove, turned off the gas and lifted the kettle from the burner. “And the hot plate from the dish drainer. Since it's just the two of us, I'm not going to bother with a teapot.”

Tessa had the mugs, tea and hot plate on the table when her grandmother brought the kettle over. She put a tea bag in each mug, and her grandmother filled them with boiling water.

They sat next to each other at the small round table.

“You're the only one in the family who drinks tea plain, like me,” her grandmother said.

Tessa stirred her drink, watching the tea bag swirl around. She pressed it against the side of the mug and placed the tea bag and spoon on the table. “But we didn't come in here to talk about tea or sugar. What happened to your decision to stay in Schroon Lake?”

Her grandmother dropped her gaze to the mug of tea sitting in front of her. “I found out how little you have left of the money your grandfather gave you to make a go of the Majestic.”

Tessa started. Grandma wasn't a person to go snooping around in other people's business. “How?”

“I went paperless with my bank statements and was having trouble printing them out from the bank's website. I stopped in at the bank to see if someone could show me what I was doing wrong. Along with my other accounts, the bank officer gave me the statement from the joint checking account your grandfather set up for you when he was sick. He must have put me on the account, too.”

“I wasn't hiding it from you.” Tessa couldn't keep the defensive note out of her voice. The days when she purposely hid her actions were over. “I didn't want to worry you while I figured out what we were going to do.”

Her grandmother reached over and squeezed her hand. “Honey, you don't have to struggle for me. Your grandfather didn't leave you the theater to tie you to it or me or Schroon Lake. He left it as an option, if you wanted to come and run it while you figured out what you really wanted to do. You didn't seem happy with your engineering job with the State Department of Transportation in Albany.”

“I wasn't. But I don't want you to have to leave everything you love because I didn't come through for you.”

Grandma and Grandpa had been there for her when her parents hadn't been. They'd opened their home to her for school breaks when she'd been partying her way to disaster her first year at college because she was trying so hard to fit in. They'd given her nonjudgmental guidance to right herself with God and go back to college her second year. They'd stood by her when Blake had broken their engagement because he'd found even her “controlled” drinking a problem, and afterward when she'd fallen into a spiral of binging that had landed her in rehab.

“We loved you. You do for those you love. You don't owe me anything. And it's not like you'd leave me out on the street, or that I'd have to move away, unless I want to. Who knows, if I go see those condos Bob is hounding me about, I might like them. And Marie Delacroix has mentioned several times that she wouldn't mind having someone share her house with her. It's smaller than this monstrosity and easier to manage.”

“But you love this monstrosity, and I have a plan that will let us stay right here.” Tessa explained Jared's loan and Josh's agreement to help her with the work.

Her grandmother's eyes narrowed. “You've thought this through, prayed on it? It sounds to me like you'd be taking on a lot. A loan, all that remodeling. How much time will Josh have to help you? Edna says he practically lives in his office at GreenSpaces. Besides, didn't you tell me he wasn't so keen on the dinner theater idea?”

Tessa raised her empty mug to her lips to hide the disappointment she was afraid would show on her face. She swallowed. “That was before Jared suggested a couple of ways to reduce expenses, and I offered Josh free rent on the apartment above the garage.”

“Has he seen the apartment?” her grandmother asked, her smile and the twinkle in her eye breaking the tension.

Tessa laughed. “No, I have my work cut out for me tomorrow.”

“You are so sweet to want to do this for me.”

“It's for me, too. Grandpa had faith in me. I love the Majestic as much as he did.”

Her grandmother's smile faded. “As long as you're doing this for yourself and not for him. He wouldn't want that.”

Tessa nodded and rose to rinse her mug in the sink. Grandma was right about her having to live for herself. She'd lived most of her life trying her best to do, be, what her parents wanted. So they'd be proud of her, love her. That certainly hadn't worked out as she'd wanted.

“And to be an interfering old woman, watch that Josh Donnelly. You know his reputation. I would hate to see your heart broken again.”

She squirted dish detergent in the mug and turned on the faucet. “I know
all
about Josh Donnelly. You don't have to worry about me seeing him as anything but a buddy.”

* * *

Midday Wednesday Josh pulled his pickup into the small parking lot beside the attorney's office. When Tessa had called him about setting a time for an appointment to sign their contract, he'd asked her if she could schedule it at lunchtime today, so he wouldn't have to take extra time off work. He'd already scheduled a half day of vacation for this afternoon to talk to his little sister Hope's third grade class for career day. It wasn't that he didn't have vacation time accrued, lots of vacation time. But he was really into the project he was working on directly with the owner of GreenSpaces, Anne Hazard, and he might need some of that time later to help Tessa.

He tossed his shades onto the passenger-side seat and glanced in the rearview mirror, running his hand over his hair. He and Tessa didn't need all the formality she was insisting on. She couldn't think he'd bail on a less-formal agreement. She was his best friend, probably his only real friend, except for his brothers. There were the people he hung out with at work, the singles group at church and the vets at the American Legion in Ticonderoga, but they were more acquaintances. He hadn't connected with any of them like he had with Tessa. As for his high school friends still in the area, they were better avoided.

A motion in the mirror caught his eye. Tessa waved from the sidewalk in front of the law office. He unfolded himself from the truck and strode over, battling the uncertainty that he couldn't seem to shake about the wisdom of this deal.

“Hi,” Tessa said, “right on time.”

“Would you expect anything less?” He opened the door to the building and motioned her to go in first.

“Not with you and a business deal.”

He let the door snap shut behind him.
Ambition was a good quality
. He bristled.
It kept food on the table
.

The attorney met them in the reception area. He was probably anxious to get to his lunch. At the thought of food, Josh's stomach rumbled. He hadn't had lunch, thinking he and Tessa could grab something together quick before he had to be at the school.

“Ms. Hamilton, Mr. Donnelly, come right back to my office. I have the agreement all ready.”

Josh and Tessa took the two seats in front of the desk.

“How's that little sister of yours?” the attorney asked.

“She's doing well with Jared and Becca. Fits right in with Becca's two kids.” Tessa's attorney was the same one Jared had used to get custody of their orphaned half sister, Hope, last year. “I'm going over to the school to talk to her class about my job for career day when we finish here.”

“Let's get going then.” The attorney gave each of them a copy of the contract. “Take your time. Read it thoroughly and ask me any questions you have.”

Tessa skimmed over the two pages and placed them on the desk in front of her, while Josh read every word. He went back to the clause about paying him 20 percent of the Majestic profits until his time was paid for at the rate he and Tessa had agreed to verbally.

“What would happen if the profits aren't enough to pay me my percentage and cover Tessa and her grandmother's living expenses?”

Tessa bristled. “Don't worry, Josh. You'll get paid.”

He shook his head slowly. Maybe she didn't know him as well as he thought she did. He was ambitious, not callous. “My concern is for you being obligated to pay me money you might not have.”

She pressed a fist to her lips and dropped it to her lap. “Then why did you agree to do the work?” The hurt in her eyes spoke her unsaid words.
You don't think I'll succeed
.

Now he'd insulted her. But he did have doubts about the project's viability and didn't want to put Tessa and her grandmother in financial straits again.

“Do you two need a moment to discuss things?” the attorney asked, glancing at the clock.

From what Josh figured Tessa had told the attorney, the man had probably thought this was a ten-minute slam-dunk done deal.

“I want to do the work.” Josh looked from the attorney to Tessa. “Can we add a profit threshold where payments to me would kick in? It could be based on the average monthly cost of living for a two-person household in Essex County.”

“I could do that,” the attorney said. “Let me check that figure. Or do you need to think about it, Ms. Hamilton?” He typed into his computer while he waited for her answer.

“I can come back later, after I'm done at the school,” Josh said.

“It's fine,” Tessa said in a tone that didn't support her words.

“I've got that figure.” The attorney wrote the numbers on a pad and turned it toward them.

“The amount looks reasonable to me,” Tessa said.

Josh thought it looked low, compared to what he brought in as a senior drafter at GreenSpaces and what he knew Tessa must have earned as a civil engineer for the state. He pressed his lips together to prevent any of the brain-mouth disconnect he'd suffered with Tessa last Saturday. “Okay, Tessa will be obligated to pay my cut only after the safety-net amount has been reached. And, as it already reads, if I can't finish the work for any reason, she'll owe no royalties and I'll reimburse her fair rental for any time I've been in the apartment.”

Tessa hadn't liked that clause, but he had to protect her, both of them, if he received a promotion offer from one of the other GreenSpaces offices.

“Correct,” the attorney confirmed. “If you have ten minutes, I can type the change in and print out a new agreement for you to sign, unless you have any other questions or problems.”

“No, I'm good, and I don't have to be at the school until one.”

“I can stay, too,” Tessa said. She pulled out her cell phone and tapped on the screen while the attorney made the changes. The room was quiet, except for the click of the computer keyboard, followed by the whirr of the laser printer on the other side of the room.