Let It Snow (The Hope Falls Series) (8 page)

But being back here, seeing Jake again, still single, no
kids
… It made her question whether or not she’d done the right thing all those years ago. Had she made the right decision for both of their lives? At the time, it had seemed like the only option—if she’d truly loved him, which she had, she’d had to let him go. So he could be happy. But now? Now she just wasn’t sure.

As she pulled up under the large sign featuring a giant camera lens that read ‘Say Cheese’ in the center, she saw a very familiar red VW Bug parked around the side. It hadn’t even occurred to Tessa until right this second that Mary might not be here. Or even that Say Cheese might not even exist anymore.

It was strange, but when you left a place, especially one that felt so much like home, it just seemed like everything should be exactly the same as it had been when you return. But a lot of times it wasn’t. So seeing that Say Cheese was still open and Mary’s car was parked beside it made Tessa want to do a happy dance. She was almost as relieved as she had been last night when she’d finally gotten to pee.

When she’d moved to Hope Falls her senior year of high school, Mary had been looking for a photography assistant and hired Tessa even though she’d had zero experience. From the first session she’d assisted on, Tessa was hooked. She’d loved it all. The equipment, lighting, angles, focus. It had become her passion overnight, and Mary had supported her every step of the way.

Climbing out of her car, she hopped over a large puddle that had formed in front of the sidewalk and practically skipped up to the front door. As she entered, the small bell that hung above the entrance rang. Tessa was flooded with warm fuzzies as she looked around the small lobby of the photography studio and saw that, aside from some of the pictures that hung around the walls, it looked exactly the same as she remembered it.

A tan couch with purple throw pillows sat against the side wall. There were two oversized chairs, one deep purple and one a walnut brown, that were positioned opposite the couch. And a round oak coffee table sat in the center, creating a warm and inviting sitting area for customers to look through their proofs or browse through the albums.

The walls were still painted a muted lilac with white trim. Dark chocolate brown curtains hung in the doorway, separating the lobby from the studio. And the best part was that the small coffee bar Tessa herself had built still sat in the far left corner of the room. There was a fresh pot brewed, but oddly enough, the room didn’t smell of coffee. It smelled as it always had, like cinnamon and cupcakes.

“Well, shut the front door and call me Sally. If it isn’t Miss Tessa Hayes?” Mary’s voice sounded loudly from behind Tessa. “I heard you were back in town and hoped you would stop by, sweetie pie.”

When Tessa turned around, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Mary Higgins had not aged a day in the last thirteen years. Standing a good three inches shorter than Tessa, she still wore her hair piled wildly on top of her head in a loose bun. It was the same eye-popping shade it had been the last time she’d seen her. Of course the fact that she dyed it fire-engine red helped to hide grays, but her face looked exactly the same as well—a perfectly round circle with full cheeks, big brown eyes, a button nose, and penciled-in brows.

She was even dressed the same, wearing a loose-fitting pair of black slacks and one of her signature colorful animal sweaters. Today’s featured a big peacock with its feathers spread boldly across her large chest. Tessa’s favorite had been one that had showed bullfrogs on lily pads with a large heart in the middle of them.

“Hi, Mary,” Tessa beamed as she threw her arms around her mentor and hugged her tightly.

Pulling away from her, Mary shook her head, making a tsk-tsk-tsking sound. “Have you been eating? You’re thin as a rail.”

“Yes, I have. I promise,” Tessa assured her. Mary was always trying to “fatten her up” and “put some meat on her bones.”

Reaching up, Mary cupped her hands, cradling Tessa’s cheeks. She smiled up at Tessa like the sun was shining down on her. “Well, I didn’t think it was possible but somehow you managed to get even prettier.”

Tessa leaned into Mary’s soft palm. She didn’t want to start crying again, but she’d missed feeling nurtured and…special. Her Gran had passed nine months ago, but it had been well over five years since she’d had her faculties about her. Tessa had never imagined how painful it was to watch a person you love slip away slowly until they don’t even know who they are, who you are, where they are. It was heartbreaking.

Mary’s eyes grew worried when Tessa began tearing up, “You okay, pumpkin?”

“I will be,” Tessa spoke in faith, because honestly she had no idea if she would be.

“Come on.” Mary ushered Tessa to the couch. As soon as they were seated, she handed her a tissue. “So why do you look like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders?”

“Oh, I’m fine. Just a lot of emotions are coming up being back here.” Tessa tried to gloss over how she was feeling.

“Young lady, I may not have seen you in a month of Sundays but I do know that something is heavy on your heart. Is it Adeline’s passing or your run-in with Jake?”

Tessa looked up at her in shock. “How did you—”

Mary interrupted, explaining, “Oh, well Stella over at the Pack ‘N’ Pay overheard Henry on the phone with Lauren talking about your grandma’s place. Then she told Nadine, who gets her hair done by Rosemarie over at Curl Up and Dye, who came in to pick up an eight-by-ten of her granddaughter’s christening and filled me in.”

“Wow.” The gossip train seemed to be moving full steam ahead in Hope Falls.

“And Marty over at Carson’s Garage was at JT’s last night. He went home and told Velma, who he’s been shacking up with since his Margaret passed, God rest her soul, that watching the two of you reminded him of the people on her shows. You know how that woman loves her soaps. Anyhoo, he told Velma that he couldn’t hear what ya’ll were sayin’ but that it was mighty entertaining. I ran into Velma, who went to go pick up Marty’s blood pressure medication down at the pharmacy this morning. I was there getting my insulin.”

“How are you feeling?” Tessa asked. Mary had been a Type 1 diabetic since Tessa had known her.

“Good days and bad days.” She shrugged it off. “But I don’t want to talk about my blood sugar. I want to hear about you. Tell me everything.”

Tessa leaned back into the couch, curling her feet beneath her, and took a deep breath. If Mary wanted to know everything, they were going to be here for a while.

*

Jake was just shutting down his computer when there was yet another knock on the door. Seriously, this place was like Grand Central Station today. At least he’d already decided that there was no way he was going to get any work done. Not after Tessa had been there.

He still had several hours before basketball tonight so he thought he’d go home, grab Lucky, and go on another run. In high school, when he’d been on the football team, Jake had always been exhausted when they’d had two-a-days—practice before and after school. He was hoping that a double-up on his running would have the same effect on him now.

But first he had to deal with whoever was at the door. “Come in.”

His brother walked in and shut the door behind him. He casually took a seat and leaned back in the chair, making himself comfortable.

“Can I help you with something?” Jake asked. He was really not in the mood to shoot the shit with anyone. Luckily his brother really wasn’t a ‘talker,’ so he wasn’t too worried.

“I just wanted to come by and make sure you were okay,” Eric said.

“I’m fine.”

“Really? Because I gotta tell you, I have never seen you look like you did last night when you saw Tessa.” Eric’s brow lifted.

Jake knew that his brother had developed a reputation for being a master interrogator on the force, but this was Jake’s office, not an interrogation room, and whatever was or wasn’t going on with Tessa was none of Eric’s business.

“I was just surprised to see her,” Jake answered honestly. He had been shocked as hell to see her in JT’s last night.

Eric continued his line of questioning. “What happened between you guys?”

“You were there. Nothing.”

“Not last night, smartass. In high school.”

“Why do you care?” Jake wasn’t sure what the sudden interest was. It’s not like Eric could be interested in Tessa. He was engaged to Lily and happier than Jake had ever seen him in his life.

Eric leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Look, the few times I came home from school that year, you guys seemed inseparable, and honestly, the two of you kind of reminded me of Mom and Dad.”

“What are you talking about?” Jake knew his brother had a point. He just wished he’d hurry and get to it.

“I’m talking about how you two were together. Anyone who was around you guys for five minutes could see it. You guys had this…connection. The only other time I’d ever seen it was between Mom and Dad. Then you call me and tell me you’re engaged and the next thing I know she’s gone and you turn into a man-whore asshole.”

“Hey, I’m not an asshole.” Jake wasn’t even going to try and defend the ‘man-whore’ title.

“No, not anymore. But you were. For years,” Eric stated flatly.

“So, what, do you want an apology? Did my brief stint as an asshole hurt your feelings?” Jake asked sarcastically.

“No, I want to know what happened.”

“You know what happened. You just summed it up perfectly. We were together. We were happy. We were going to get married. She left.” That was the story that everyone knew. The only people who knew the whole story were himself, Tessa and Adeline. And Adeline was gone now. So just he and Tessa knew. It was no one else’s business.

“She just left? For no reason at all.”

No
good
reason.

Jake knew his detective brother was not going to drop this so he figured he might as well tell him a version of the truth. “She realized that she didn’t want to get stuck living in a small town. She knew that after school I planned on coming back here to live. She didn’t want that. She wanted to see the world. So instead of going to school in Southern California, like we’d planned, she went to New York.”

Eric sat there silently, his expression was unreadable. Jake couldn’t tell if he was buying it or not. Jake was actually getting uncomfortable under his brother’s stare and he hadn’t even lied. He just hadn’t told the
entire
truth. Jake actually felt a little sorry for the criminals his brother interrogated.

“Well, she’s back now,” his brother finally said.

“Not for long. After she gets Adeline’s affairs in order, she’s going home.” Jake closed the files on his desk and unlocked the desk drawer he kept them in.

“Where’s home?”

“San Diego.”

“She’s here now. Are you going to do anything about it?”

“Nope.” Jake’s patience was quickly running out. First his sister, now his brother. He was sure as soon as his parents found out she was in town that they would be up his ass too. Because they didn’t know the whole story. How he’d gotten on his knees in the hospital room when she’d told him she was leaving and begged her to stay. He’d told her he would go with her. That he would do anything to be with her. That they could work it out.

She’d looked him right in the eye and told him to leave, to get out of her room. Screamed it, actually.

They didn’t know how he’d gone back the next day but she had already been discharged. Or how he’d driven like a maniac to her grandma’s house and then yelled at Adeline when she wouldn’t tell him where Tessa had gone.

No one knew how he’d punched holes in his walls that night out of helpless frustration. Or how he’d gotten black-out drunk almost every night the first year of college just trying to forget her.

No, all his family knew was that they had been together. They had been engaged. Then she’d left. And that’s all they ever needed to know.

‡

T
essa pulled into her grandma’s driveway next to a very nice Mercedes SUV she assumed belonged to Lauren. The expensive silver vehicle looked out of place parked in front of the rundown two-story house. Tessa’s heart sank as she took in the peeling paint and the overall dilapidated appearance of the home.