Big Love in a Small Town (Contemporary Romance)
Read Big Love in a Small Town (Contemporary Romance) Online
Authors: Kate Goldman
Published by Kate Goldman
Copyright © 2015 by Kate Goldman
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems – except in the case of brief quotations in articles or reviews – without the permission in writing from its publisher, Kate Goldman.
I want to dedicate this book
to my beloved husband, who makes every day in my life worthwhile. Thank you for believing in me when nobody else does, giving me encouragement when I need it the most, and loving me simply for being myself.
As another tear plopped onto the keys of her laptop, Tessa Jacobson sighed in frustration. Was she ever going to stop crying? It sure didn’t seem like it. Three weeks had passed since Davis had broken up with her and moved to Nashville with his band, and as each day came and went, Tessa still felt her heart continuing to break.
Tessa was crushed. According to Davis, it was for the best that they broke things off, and it wouldn’t be good for either of them to attempt a long-distance relationship, but she completely disagreed. How could he so easily toss seven years together down the drain like that?
What compounded the pain was the fact that not only had he left her, but he was sharing a two-bedroom apartment with the rest of the band – including Shauna Reagan, their lead singer and a girl that Tessa never really liked.
Sure, Davis promised he still cared for her, that there was no one else involved in his decision to end things, and that the breakup was what was truly best for the both of them, but that didn’t stop Tessa from fearing that Shauna had probably already sunk her claws into him. After all, Davis was a musician, and a good-looking one at that. Why wouldn’t Shauna try to steal him away?
I guess it isn’t stealing – he isn’t mine anymore,
she thought as she dabbed her eyes with a tissue. After a deep breath to steady herself and a sip of hot tea, she attempted to finish the announcement currently filling her computer screen.
Tessa knew she was going to have to start pulling it together. She was at work, for goodness’ sake, crying in her cubicle. Mr. Hart, the editor of
The Clearhill News
and her boss, had been understanding and tolerant so far, but the good people of Clearhill, Georgia, needed their newspaper three times a week, no matter what was going on in Tessa’s personal life.
However, no matter how hard she tried to focus, the words just wouldn’t come. How could she write up engagement announcements for several happy couples with her heart feeling like lead in her chest? She scanned through her other assignments, looking for something to work on that would better fit her current mood. She would just have to go back to the announcements later.
When she’d managed to get a couple of paragraphs into a write-up about an upcoming road closure, Tessa heard her phone vibrate from its place inside her top desk drawer. Her hopes rose for a fleeting second, hoping it would be Davis, even though he hadn’t contacted her since the day he left. When would she ever quit hoping it was Davis?
It, of course, wasn’t him, but Tessa was pleased to see that it was Natalie, her best friend since childhood, wanting to have lunch together in a little while. Natalie was a paralegal at a lawyer’s office just two blocks from the newspaper.
This was one of the things Tessa loved about living in a small town – everything was in walkable distance, but the atmosphere was homey and cozy, unlike bigger cities. She’d studied journalism at Georgia State in downtown Atlanta, so she knew what it was like to live in both worlds, and moving back home to Clearhill had definitely been the perfect choice for her after she graduated. It would take something really special to get her to move back to a big city.
With her spirits livened a bit, she spent the rest of the morning pounding out the road closure article before leaving to meet Natalie at the Corner Café, their favorite place for lunch.
Scanning the crowded bistro, she spotted Natalie at a small table near the window. Natalie waved, and Tessa hurried over, draping her emerald-green pea coat over the back of the metal chair before sitting down.
“Hello, lady,” Natalie said with a grin gracing her flawless face, pushing a cup of cinnamon hot chocolate, the Corner’s signature drink, towards Tessa.
Tessa and Natalie, while both beautiful, were completely opposite in looks. Natalie was blonde, fair-skinned, tall and wafer thin, while Tessa was dark-haired with a peach complexion and a petite, hourglass figure.
“Quit trying so hard to cheer me up,” Tessa muttered, but she couldn’t help but smile after taking her first sip of the delicious warmth.
“Tessa, as your best friend since third grade, it’s my job to cheer you up and remind you that this whole situation is really in your best interest,” Natalie reminded her for what seemed like the twentieth time.
“I’ve heard you, Nat. Loud and clear – over and over. It still doesn’t make it any easier. Davis and I were together for seven years, since our senior year of high school.”
“You are wearing rose-colored glasses, honey. Are you counting your entire junior year of college when you two were broken up because you caught him cheating on you...red-handed? I think you’re having selective memory issues, and I’m here to remind you of all of the bad stuff that you happen to be conveniently forgetting.”
Natalie was, thankfully, the harsh dose of truth Tessa needed. Things with Davis hadn’t been perfect, and it was good to be reminded of that quite often while in the midst of her current heartbreak.
Tessa noticed the sun reflecting off the three-carat rock that graced Natalie’s hand, courtesy of Natalie’s perfectly wonderful fiancé. Of course, Tessa was beyond thrilled about her best friend’s engagement, but she’d just lost a relationship with someone that had meant the world to her. Even if Davis wasn’t always worth the love and affection she’d freely given him, it was impossible not to mourn the loss. It was easy for Natalie to point out how Tessa was much better off without Davis, but Natalie had someone to share life with, and Tessa was very much alone now.
After their food arrived, the conversation took a change for the better in Tessa’s opinion. She was tired of talking about what was wrong with her love life. Camera crews were setting up just across the street on the town square’s grassy lawn, providing the perfect distraction from their current topic of discussion.
“What do you think they’re filming now?” Natalie asked, before taking a bite of her sandwich.
Tessa pushed her salad around, trying to remember what movies had been on the filming schedule that the town’s Chamber of Commerce had sent over to the newspaper office. The chamber wanted the newspaper to keep the town’s filming status front and center, so it was part of Tessa’s job to know what was happening.
“I think it’s a love story with Nate Wilder and Ansley Madison. The name of the movie, according to the list, is
In Her Arms,
” Tessa finally remembered.
“Wow. They are really big stars. I wish Clearhill would have become the Hollywood of the South when we were teenagers and I had time to care more,” Natalie replied, referencing the name Clearhill had taken on about a year ago, thanks to the numerous movies and television shows that were constantly filming in the area – especially downtown where she and Natalie worked and lived.
“I know, right? Between the newspaper and my shifts at The Grille, I don’t have time for stargazing, but I sure wish I did.”
“How’s it going at The Grille?”
“Crazy busy. I make too much money to quit – even if I do hate serving.”
“Yeah, I definitely miss the extra money, but I agree, being a waitress sucks,” Natalie said. She had left The Grille three months earlier after getting a raise at the law firm. Tessa wasn’t that lucky. The Grille was the nicest restaurant and bar in Clearhill, and the tips she earned in two evenings were sometimes more than her weekly pay at
The Clearhill News.
Noticing that the lunch hour was quickly coming to an end, the girls finished up their lunch, and hurried back to work. Time always flew faster during lunch than it did during the rest of the day, but Tessa made sure to keep a close watch on the time since she did have to be at The Grille as soon as she closed the newspaper office at four.
A couple of minutes before it was time for her to leave, Tessa changed into her black shirt and pants so that she could power walk over to The Grille and get right into the swing of things once she arrived.
Despite the swift pace of her life at the moment, she was thankful that her two jobs kept her busy enough to keep her mind off of the fact that she was still getting over a terrible breakup. As long as she kept going, she figured at some point her heart would eventually start healing.
At the stroke of four, Tessa gathered her things, and sprinted out of the door, making sure to lock it behind her. She was the last one to leave on Fridays. Everyone else cut out at noon, but she used the extra time to proof her articles, and she enjoyed the peace and quiet.
The air had grown significantly colder as the afternoon waned into early evening, and when she burst into the restaurant’s back kitchen door, she’d never been more thankful for the excessive warmth coming from the fired-up ovens and stove tops.
Tessa put her bag and coat on the shelf in the tiny storage closet and donned her little ruffled apron. She went to the small powder room and applied her favorite red lipstick, stuck in a pair of diamond studs that were a Christmas gift from her parents two years ago, and pulled her long, glossy hair into a sleek ponytail. She knew that looking good exponentially increased her take, especially during happy hour.
With one last turn to make sure she was presentable, Tessa headed out to the floor with the biggest smile she could muster plastered across her face. The crowd was already thick, with every high top and table in her section filled with locals who were thankful that the workday was over and were ready to get their weekend started.
A couple of hours into her shift, Tessa slipped into the kitchen to take a quick break. Of course, table nine still needed their bottle of Merlot, and twelve was waiting on their rib eyes, but with the rush of happy hour turning into the flurry of the Friday evening dinner crowd, if she didn’t take a step back to breathe, at least one of her patrons was going to end up with their order in their lap and not on the table where it belonged.
“Come on, Tessa. We’ve got this. Only four more hours to go!” Natasha, another waitress, sarcastically joked as she picked up a couple of baskets of artisan bread.
Tessa smiled and shook her head, grabbing up the steaks that had come up while she had been hiding in the back of the kitchen, and headed back into the fray.
On and on the crazy pace went, every table packed, Tessa being tugged in twenty different directions nonstop, until, finally, around 10:30, the dinner rush was blessedly over. From that point until they closed at eleven, it would probably be pretty quiet, with only a few random guests coming in for desserts or drinks.
Tessa used the time to help the bartender restock, and to count and recount her totals. At ten minutes until closing, all she could think about was going home and drawing a nice warm bath. That is, until she saw, from her position behind the bar, that the hostess was leading someone to her section.
Damn,
she thought. There went the possibility of her leaving on time tonight. Tessa ducked into the kitchen to grab a basket of bread for her guest. Better to get on top of things quickly, and hope that she could get out of here before midnight.
The man seated in her section had his back to the kitchen; but as Tessa walked towards the table where he was seated, she could tell that he wasn’t from Clearhill. He was definitely either part of the filming crew or an actor – they had a more polished, yet edgy style that was unlike anything she’d seen before in her small town. It wasn’t that the Clearhill townspeople weren’t put together or anything, it’s just that the film industry folks were different – different but cool.
Maybe staying late won’t be so terrible, after all,
Tessa mused. She was actually kind of excited to get to interact with someone from one of the movie sets.