Seduced in Secret (2 page)

Tyson, victory glinting in his eyes, placed the ring back in her hand.

She held it up. “This is a ring,” she said. “It’s a symbol. It can be a symbol of a lot of things. Love…” She paused. “Or ownership. You treat me like a toy. Or a pet.
No, Tessa…not that dress. No, Tessa…those colors don’t flatter you. No, Tessa…beach weddings are so passé.
You don’t love me, Tyson. You think I’m a malleable, pretty little thing to have on your arm. But I’m done.”

She placed the ring down and rose.

“Tessa.”

She looked down at Tyson. His face had flushed red with anger now.

Slowly, he stood and moved so that they stood eye to eye.

“Be very certain you understand what you’re doing, darling,” he said softly.

To her shock, she found herself smiling. “Tyson, darling, for the first time in a very long time, I
am
.” She hesitated for a moment and then said, “I hope you can be happy one day.”

Then she turned and walked away, feeling like she’d left a thousand pound weight behind her.

Chapter Two

The rest of the day dragged on.

Four hours. She thought entire lifetimes passed between each slow tick of the clock that hung in her office.

At quarter ‘til four, Jeanie poked her head in.

“Your coin-lover is on the phone.”

Tessa hoped against hope. “Please say the child has a high fever…something we can easily call an emergency, right?”

“No.” Jeanie made a face. “One kid has had a cough, no fever for two days. Her other son has some allergy issues. She won’t let us take a note for the doctor and insists on being seen.” She bit her lip. “How much money did she send in?”

“Eighty-four dollars. In coins.” Tessa grimaced. “It cost her almost thirty to send it. It doesn’t even add up to ten percent of what she owes the office. I’ll handle the call. But we’re not seeing them. Neither of those are emergencies. I’ll talk to the doctors before we leave.”

She spent twenty minutes on the phone, being called everything from a bitch to a communist to a baby-killer and she by damn well better have a lawyer ready because the whole damn practice would be sued.

“Ma’am, if you’re willing to make a payment—” She glanced at what was owed and grimaced. “Of two hundred and twenty dollars on Sam’s account and one-ninety on Joey’s, then I’d be happy to set up an appointment for tomorrow morning. We don’t have any appointments left for this afternoon.” She checked the computer—the woman had ranted at her so long, the doctors had just logged off for the afternoon. “The doctors are no longer in the facility so nobody is available to see you.”

“I’d bet they’d see me if I wasn’t some poor single mom!” The irate mother had worked herself up into a frenzy now.

In the background, Tessa could hear the kids crying.

“Ma’am, the doctors are done for the day. We’ve tried to work with you on payments. You wasted thirty dollars in postage simply to mail in
coins
. If you’d cashed the coins in, that would have been an extra—”

“You uptight cunt. Don’t tell me how to pay my damn bills. Put my kids on the schedule for tomorrow!”

“That’s enough. I’m not tolerating the abuse.” Tessa documented the phone call, rolling her eyes as the woman continued to rant. “We gave you sixty days to bring your account into better standing. I’m sorry this hasn’t been acceptable for you.”

She hung up the phone and looked up at Jeanie. “Turn the phones over. I’m begging you. And warn the service they may…no. Just turn over the phones and get the on-call manager on the phone.” She shot the calendar a look. She’d have to notify the doctor on call, too. She noted the mother’s name.

The mom would be making numerous phone calls over the weekend. Tessa was sure of it.

“She hates you,” Jeanie offered helpfully a little while later.

“I noticed.” Tessa was still documenting the call.
Everything
had to be documented.

“Notify the docs?”

“Yes.” Tessa rubbed her neck. “They’re being dismissed. Dr. Harvey said he didn’t care what the balances were at this point. They could pay in full on Monday in gold doubloons and they’d see be dismissed. They’ve been warned about the abusive behavior before—by him.”

Jeanie grimaced. “Maybe you should let
him
call her and tell her.”

“Sure. I’ll pass along that message.” She rolled her eyes. The notification would be done via official, USPS mail, as was protocol, but it was an amusing image.

Dr. Jerome Harvey stood six foot seven and Tessa wouldn’t be surprised if the earth trembled under his big boots. His voice was smooth and mellow and deep, matching his dark brown eyes. More than a few of the office staff had entertained a crush on him at one point or time. Personally, he was a little too intimidating for Tessa, although she’d seen him melt while holding a newborn baby girl. And every time his wife came in to see him.

The big black man was married to a woman just a couple inches taller than Tessa’s five foot three and Amelia’s voice was a match for Jerome’s.

At an office picnic, she’d seen the two of them get into an argument—it had sent birds screeching from the trees. Five minutes later, they’d been wrapped around each other.

The idea of him handling the unhappy parent Tessa had dealt with was more than a little amusing—and appealing—but that was Tessa’s job.

Fortunately, though, one she wouldn’t have to deal with until next week.

“Go on, you all,” she said. “Get out of here.”

She had a few more phone calls to take care of then she was going to do the same.

Maybe, if she were lucky, her mystery man would call her tonight.

∞

As she drove into her drive, she saw Caleb in the yard next to hers, his lean body tanned, gleaming lightly with sweat. His gloved hands gripped a tree as he carefully eased it into a hole in the ground.

Tessa told herself she didn’t need to feel guilty as she stood there and studied his muscled back. His body was far from perfect. At least, society’s idea of perfect. He was lean and hard with muscle, but there were scars, a number of them. The worst one was low on his back, just left his spine, disappearing below the waistband of his low-slung khaki colored work shorts. The light coat of perspiration made him look that much more tantalizing and she swallowed, told herself to look away.

But then her eyes drifted back and she let herself stare.

After all, she’d given the ring back.

Although, okay, it was still kind of odd to be ogling her best friend.

Caleb had been her best friend for years. His grandmother had lived right across the street from the house where Tessa that had lived all her life. She’d bought the house from her parents when they decided to move to Florida. Caleb’s father had died when he was twelve and both Caleb and his mother had moved in with his grandmother, leaving the two of them to spend the rest of their childhood growing up together. They’d gone to school together since kindergarten, but while she’d gone to college, he’d joined the Navy.

Contact had been sporadic then.

Caleb had always been focused on one thing—becoming a SEAL, just like his father.

He’d done it, too.

That life had a left a mark on him, although she didn’t see how it couldn’t.

His laughing face had become more solemn and his eyes rarely smiled. Infrequent visits home, sporadic letters, none of that changed their friendship. He’d come home, they’d visit and laugh and talk and it was like the time since they’d last seen each other faded away.

But soon enough, he was gone again and she’d be left to wonder if that time would be the last time. The last time she’d see his slow, almost reluctant smiles, or the last time she’d tease a laugh from him, or the last time they’d sit outside talking until the moon rode high in the sky.

And then he took a bullet in the thigh.

He’d been working an op—he wouldn’t tell her what or where, so she didn’t bother asking. He’d just sent her an email out of the blue one day. It was short, simple and to the point.

Dear Tess,

Please don’t worry, but I’m in the hospital. You made me promise to write you if it ever happened, so I’m keeping my promise. I took a bullet in my back. Don’t panic. I’ll be fine. But it looks like I’m getting an early discharge. Maybe you can pick me up from the airport when they finally spring me. I’ll call you.

Months passed before the call came and when it did, she was there to pick him up from the airport. His mother had long since left and moved. But to Caleb, home was the house across the street that sat empty…like it was waiting for hm.

He’d limped out of the airport, using a cane to help him walk and she’d looked at him and known.

He’d told her not to worry, but she had and she knew she’d been right.

He’d almost died.

He’d never tell her and she wouldn’t ask, but she’d almost lost her best friend.

It had been close to two years since then, and he’d been working on rebuilding his strength and going to school.

After a moment, he drove the shovel into the ground and called out, “You going to keep staring at me or come over here and talk to me?”

Heat flushed her face, but she managed to respond levelly. “Just making sure you don’t overdo it over there, old man. You finally got to getting around without that cane after all.”

He slid her a glittering look, a half smile curving his mouth up.

“You come over here and say that to my face, sweetheart. Calling me an old man?”

“Well…if the shoe fits.” She shrugged and made a face at him. Then she darted inside.

As good as it might feel to unload on Caleb, it was a two-edged sword. She could tell him anything. But if she did, he’d see far more than she wanted him to know. Because he saw
everything
.

She wasn’t quite sure she was up to that today.

∞

When the door shut behind her, Caleb braced his wrists over the top of the shovel and tipped his head, staring up at the sky.

Tessa was good at neatly placing him in her organized little world. He was in the space she’d set aside for
friend
and as far as she was concerned, that was the only space he’d ever occupy.

He had no problem proving her wrong, but there were days when he thought it just might take a battering ram to make her see it.

It hadn’t been enough that he’d asked her to the prom.

Hadn’t been enough that he’d written her every week while he was gone in the Navy.

With a smirk on his face, he lifted up the shovel and caught some dirt, dumping it back in around the base of the tree he was planting. His grandmother had always wanted a dogwood right in this spot. He hadn’t been able to plant it for her while she was alive, but he always figured, better late than never, right?

Of course, that theory wasn’t always a good one. It definitely wasn’t proving to be a good one when it came to Tessa.

Tessa.

Brooding, he slid a look toward her house and then grabbed the shovel, went back to shoveling dirt back into the hole.

Better late than never.

Yeah.

Right.

His mother hadn’t understood why he’d insisted on keeping the house after Gran had died. She’d remarried just a few years ago, moved to South Carolina, happy—
really
happy—for the first time since Dad had died. She wanted the same thing for Caleb. What she didn’t understand was that Caleb’s happiness was here, living in the cottage-style house across from Gran’s old Cape Cod.

It had always been Tessa for him.

He’d come back to find her involved with some stiff-necked doctor who couldn’t appreciate that the sky was blue, much less the woman he had in Tessa.

Ol’ Tyson, the idiot couldn’t appreciate the sweetness of her, or the sharp attitude that slid out on occasion. He couldn’t appreciate the wry sense of humor or the loyalty or the brains or the determination.

Caleb could. And he had, for what seemed like all his life.

Maybe if he’d told her that before he’d left for the Navy, things would be different.

Still brooding over it, he went to his knees and tamped down the earth. His back twinged and his left knee stiffened up, but he ignored it, pushing through the lingering, familiar pain as he scooped, patted, pressed.

He moved on to the next tree and continued to work through the heat of the evening, his eyes adjusting easily to the fading light, his muscles warmed, body finding a rhythm. Sometimes he wondered why he’d elected to go to law school at all.

He was happiest outside.

A bottle appeared in his line of sight.

He smiled and dragged a forearm over his brow. “Haven’t you heard you’re not supposed to drink and plant?”

Tessa chuckled. “I think you’ve planted enough.”

“Well, maybe.” He looked up and studied the yard. “Maybe. For now.”

The four trees he’d bought were down, along with about half a dozen flowers and a couple of shrubs.

“Knock off already and sit down, have a beer with me.”

He rose, tipped back the bottle, and drained half of it in a series of short, thirsty pulls. Then, after giving Tessa the bottle to hold, he stripped off his dirty gloves and tossed them into a heap near the rest of the gear he used in the yard.

“Miss Betty would have loved this,” Tessa said softly.

“Yeah.” He ignored the ache in his throat as he held out his hand and took his beer back.

She held up her bottle and they clinked the neck. He saw hers and grimaced. “I thought we were having a beer together, Tess. That shit you drink isn’t beer.”

“No.” She smiled at him and took a dainty sip of her cider. “It’s much, much better. I don’t know how you can stomach that crap you drink. Even the smell is repulsive.”

“Puts hair on your chest.” He winked at her. It was an old, familiar argument.

She glanced at his bare chest. Save for a scattering of hair that started at his navel and ran down, Caleb couldn’t really boast a lot of chest hair. “Clearly, it’s slow to work.”

He chuckled and started up the cobblestone sidewalk.

She followed him and they settled on the porch, side by side. She’d changed out of her pretty little pink suit into a pair of capris—pink again—and a white T-shirt that read
Automatic doors make me feel like a Jedi
. He’d brought her the shirt from Seattle when he’d had a weekend’s leave.