Falling for the Bachelor

Tessa Hamilton never imagined the hardest part of having her best friend help renovate her small-town movie theater would be keeping her heart safe. She can’t fall for a man who has no interest in a serious relationship with any woman…and who doesn’t know the secret she hides. Besides, Josh Donnelly is too eager to leave Paradox Lake—especially when his estranged father returns. Tessa struggles with the turmoil, but as she falls deeper for the bachelor, she knows she must be honest if there’s any chance for them. But will telling Josh put everything at risk—including their friendship?

“What man doesn’t want a beautiful woman?”

Tessa scoffed, tempted to pick up her paper plate and chuck it at him. “I’d rather not join the long list of Josh Donnelly’s former girlfriends. I prefer being on the more exclusive ‘just friends’ list.”

“You’re at the top of that one. But what’s wrong with wanting to be alone with you? After all, it’s Monday.” They spent every Monday reviewing movie clips in her theater.

She readied the video and sat beside him in the dark theater. Each time she found herself leaning into him, she sat up straight. What was wrong with her?

She attributed the uptick in her heart rate to the heartwarming rom-com preview they’d just watched. After all, this was her best friend, love-’em-and-leave-’em Josh. No one she could ever take seriously.

But even in the darkness, she could see the corner of his mouth turn up in what she called his “killer smile.” The smile she’d been immune to.

Till now.

JEAN C. GORDON’s writing is a natural extension of her love of reading. From that day in first grade when she realized t-h-e was the word the, she’s been reading everything she can put her hands on. Jean and her college-sweetheart husband share a 175-year-old farmhouse in upstate New York with their daughter and her family. Their son lives nearby. Contact Jean at Facebook.com/jeancgordon.author or PO Box 113, Selkirk, NY 12158.

The Bachelor’s
Sweetheart
Jean C. Gordon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance

with the riches of God’s grace.

—Ephesians 1:7

In memory of my “baby” brother Jim, with thanks to Bonnie Jean, my favorite Drug Court Coordinator and former alcohol counselor, and the guys at the Coeymans Volunteer Fire Department open house who patiently answered all of my questions.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

The heat was unbearable, worse than anything Josh Donnelly had ever experienced, even during his National Guard tour of Afghanistan. A rivulet of sweat ran down his back. He wanted to pull at his collar so he could breathe, cool off his back. But people would see him.

“The ring,” the guest minister prompted him.

Josh felt like he was aiding and abetting the enemy as he dug in the pocket of his tuxedo jacket. All through high school, after their older brother, Jared, had left Paradox Lake, he’d protected their younger brother, Connor, from their father and the fallout of his being the town drunk. He should be protecting him now from making a potentially huge mistake. Josh handed the wedding band to Connor. Not that his baby brother’s soon-to-be wife wasn’t a good person. Nor did he doubt that Connor and Natalie Delacroix loved each other—for now.

But the Donnelly men weren’t cut out for marriage. That was what he and Jared had always said. They’d agreed they had too much of their father in them to let any woman get close enough to love them. They couldn’t risk ultimately hurting someone the way Dad had hurt Mom. That is, they had agreed until last summer when Jared had married Becca Morgan. Now Connor had fallen victim.

Pain squeezed Josh’s chest as he caught the loving look on Connor’s face when he slipped the ring onto Natalie’s finger. Don’t do it. Josh glanced around to make sure he hadn’t said that out loud. He was good. No one was staring at him. No one except his bud Tessa Hamilton, who was sitting halfway back in the church, her bulletin covering her mouth, eyes sparkling. She was laughing at him.

Tessa knew how he felt about marriage and didn’t hold it against him—one of the many reasons they got along so well. But that didn’t mean he was going to let her get away with laughing at his discomfort. Josh smiled to himself. He had the perfect revenge. He’d ask her to dance at the wedding reception. Tessa didn’t dance. She said her dancing wasn’t for public consumption.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife,” the minister declared. “You can kiss your bride.”

Connor pressed his lips to Natalie’s. Then they turned and faced the guests hand in hand.

“I present Mr. and Mrs. Connor Donnelly,” the minister said.

The guests stood and applauded. Josh’s gaze went to his mother, who was standing next to his grandmother and stepgrandfather, Harry, in the front pew. Harry smiled down at Grandma with almost the same expression Connor had had when he’d slipped the ring on Natalie’s finger. Josh glanced across the aisle to Natalie’s parents. Terry and John Delacroix stood hand in hand much like Connor and Natalie. Connor was different than him and Jared, more like their mother—although Jared appeared to have become the poster boy for marital bliss. And Connor was a minister, the pastor here at Hazardtown Community Church. Maybe he and Natalie would make it work.

The organist began the recessional and the applause stopped. As Connor and Natalie started up the aisle, Josh stepped front and center and offered his arm to Claire Delacroix, Natalie’s sister and maid of honor. Jared fell into step behind them with Natalie’s oldest sister, Andrea Bissette, and the rest of the wedding party.

Josh bit the side of his mouth to keep from laughing as he passed Tessa and she glanced from him to Claire with a raised eyebrow. Tessa had been trying to fix him up with Natalie’s sister since Connor and Natalie became engaged last Christmas. And Connor had been warning him off as if he wasn’t good enough for Connor’s future sister-in-law. At one point, Josh had considered asking Claire out just to irritate Connor but had thought better of it. Why jeopardize the brotherly bond for a woman he’d only move on from in a month or two? Not that there were many available women left in Paradox Lake for him to move on to. Even more reason for him to finish his engineering technology degree and blow this burg.

The wedding party lined up with his mother and Natalie’s parents outside at the bottom of the church steps to greet the guests. Their grandparents were the first in line.

“You’re next,” his grandmother said when she reached him in the line. Her husband chuckled. A chill ran down Josh’s spine, remembering Gram saying something on that order about Jared before he succumbed to Becca’s charms.

“Josh and Claire do make a cute couple,” Claire’s grandmother added, kissing Claire on her cheek.

“Oh, Marie, I thought I’d told you he’s seeing Tessa Hamilton, Betty’s granddaughter.”

Marie Delacroix nodded with a sympathetic look at Claire. Josh smiled at the lovingly tolerant look Claire returned. Being in their early thirties, he and Claire were fortunate to still have their grandmothers.

“Gram,” he said, “Tessa and I are friends. That’s all.”

“Famous last words. Jared and Becca and Connor and Natalie were friends first, too.”

Josh looked over his grandmother’s head at her husband, who chuckled again. “Edna, we’re holding up the line.”

Gram gave Harry “the look,” the one that Josh recognized as a silent “you’re pushing it.” But she continued down the line, giving Jared a hug and telling him how handsome he looked. Friends and family filed by behind his grandmother, shaking his hand and exchanging small talk.

“Natalie, I’m so happy for you and Connor.”

Josh’s ears perked up at the sound of Tessa’s voice. A smile spread across his face as he thought about his plans for the reception.

“Josh, this is my uncle,” Claire said, breaking his private gloat.

“Nice to meet you,” he said, shaking the man’s hand.

Tessa stepped up next. “Claire, you look beautiful. I love the bridesmaid dresses.”

Some guy Josh didn’t recognize stood close behind Tessa, as if he was with her.

“I know.” Claire dropped her voice. “I was thinking I wouldn’t be embarrassed to wear the dress again in public.”

Josh narrowed his eyes, thinking back to the ceremony. A date? He didn’t remember seeing anyone sitting close enough to Tessa in the pew to suggest they were with her. Tessa stepped in front of him, and the man bent and gave Claire a hug.

“Hi,” Tessa said. “I see you didn’t expire up there. For a minute it looked touch and go.”

He ran his gaze across her face, masking the irritation her comment ignited. He’d had things in hand up at the altar, totally in control. His mood softened. Tessa looked different. Her rich chestnut hair was down, softly framing her face. And her eyes...he couldn’t put his finger on it. They were different, more defined. He dropped his focus to her lips and took in the pink sheen along with the creamy tan of her flawless skin. Makeup. He stared at her. Tessa was wearing makeup.

“What?” she said. “Are you so traumatized you can’t talk?”

“You look nice.”

She blinked and drew her head back.

Smooth, Donnelly. Way to give a compliment. But he was used to seeing Tessa on a buddy level.

“As in not how I usually look?” Tessa tilted her head and drilled her gaze into his.

“Yeah.” It slipped out as if his mouth had no connection to his brain. Time to bring out the reinforcements. Josh drew his mouth into the slow half smile that always worked on women. “Unbelievably, you look even more beautiful than usual.”

Tessa rolled her eyes. She rolled her eyes. Not dating for the past few months had put him more out of practice than he’d thought. The Smile always used to work.

“Catch you later at the reception.” He nodded toward the people lined up behind her and squelched the urge to glare at the man in front of him.

“This is my cousin Pierre, from Montreal,” Claire said.

Josh sized up the competition as they shook hands. “Nice to meet you.”

“Ravi de vous rencontrer également,” Pierre said.

Josh’s gaze pierced the back of Pierre’s head as he moved on. Was the guy showing off, or didn’t he speak English? Josh shook his head. He didn’t know what had gotten into him. There was no competition. Josh liked Tessa too much to let their relationship become anything more than a friendship.

* * *

Tessa waited for her grandmother on the sidewalk in front of the church, a small distance from the group of friends and relatives gathering there. She didn’t quite feel part of them, even though she’d been in the area and belonged to Hazardtown Community Church for several years. She’d caught the glare Josh had given Claire’s cousin. Pierre must have gone along with her suggestion he speak to Josh in French. She’d told him that Josh was working on his French for a possible promotion to a position in Quebec. It was essentially true. Josh’s employer, GreenSpaces, had an office in Quebec, and Josh’s ambition was to fast-track himself up the corporate ladder by whatever route was available. And his French was awful.

If she didn’t know better, she’d think Josh was jealous. Tessa studied the rugged lines of his profile and gave in to the momentary pleasure of having a man as attractive as Josh show an interest in her. But he’d better not be going in that direction. She had it from his own mouth that his love-’em-and-leave-’em reputation was dead-on, and her record in romance was dismal. Tessa followed the line of people from Josh to her grandmother and lifted her hand to let Grandma know where she was in the growing crowd on the sidewalk. No, she wasn’t going to let Josh think about the possibility of them being anything but friends. Not now when she was going to need his friendship and help more than ever.

Her grandmother joined her. “Edna said the wedding party is going down to the lake for some photos, but we guests can go to the church hall for hors d’oeuvres while we wait.”

Tessa listened to the birds chirping as they walked around to the hall door at the back of the church building. The early-afternoon sun promised the day would meet the record spring temperature the TV meteorologist had forecast.

“Connor and Natalie certainly have a gorgeous day for their wedding, considering it’s only late April and we had piles of snow left a week and a half ago. I’m sure their photos at the lake will be beautiful,” Tessa said.

“The wedding would have been lovely, even if we’d had a blizzard,” her grandmother said. “Natalie and Connor are perfect for each other, although it took them long enough to figure that out.”

Tessa stifled a laugh. Her grandmother, along with many of the other parishioners at Hazardtown Community Church, had started working on marrying off Connor almost as soon as he’d accepted his calling there.

“Connor and Jared have come so far, despite the stigma of their father,” her grandmother said. “They do their mother proud.”

Tessa didn’t miss that her grandmother had left out Josh, who was as successful as his brothers, if not as outwardly upstanding and charitable. Jared had selflessly invested a great deal of his racing winnings in bringing his motocross school to Paradox Lake to help the local economy and employment situation. Connor was their beloved pastor, at least now, after getting off to a rocky start with some of his congregation. Josh was a good man, too. Sympathy welled in her. He didn’t show enough people the real Josh she knew.

She wished Grandma could see that. Tessa knew her grandmother didn’t really approve of their friendship. But if Josh would agree to her plan, she was sure Grandma would change her mind about him. Maybe because they were just friends and that’s all they’d ever be, Tessa was confident Josh was the one time her man intuition was correct. Taking and releasing a breath, she opened the hall door for her grandmother.

“Oh, good,” her grandmother said, looking at the place cards at one of the round tables next to the long wedding party table near the door. “I’m sitting with Edna and Harry and Marie. I didn’t know if I would be, them being the grandparents.”

Tessa wasn’t surprised. Natalie knew how close the three women were, and not many of their generation were left in the church. “You go ahead and get something to eat, if you want. I’ll look for my seat.” A pang of loneliness struck Tessa as her grandmother joined her friends at the hot hors d’oeuvres station. Tessa walked around the hall, looking for her place card, and found it at a table with other members of the church singles group. Without the bride and groom, and Josh and Claire in the wedding party, the group barely filled the eight-person table.

After grabbing a cup of tea and some veggies to munch on, Tessa returned to the table to find Lexi Zarinski, one of Josh’s many former girlfriends, and a couple of acquaintances seated at the table. The table makeup reminded Tessa that almost all of her friends were married now. Hitting thirty was apparently the clock striking midnight on the single life. She chatted with the group through dinner, intermittently glancing across the room to check on her grandmother, who appeared to be thoroughly enjoying her friends, and on Josh. She needed to catch him and find out when they could talk, preferably tonight.

When they’d finished eating, the DJ put on “Yours Forever.” Connor rose, took Natalie’s hand and led her to the dance floor in the middle of the room. “Natalie is so beautiful,” Lexi gushed, going into a monologue of every detail of the bride’s gown and why it was perfect for her.

“And don’t Claire and Josh make a great couple?” Tessa interrupted Lexi’s soliloquy as Josh led Claire to the dance floor when the DJ invited the wedding party to join the bride and groom. If Josh ever got his act together concerning women, he and Claire were perfect for each other.

Lexi pinched her lips together, and Tessa regretted her casual observation. Apparently, Lexi still had feelings for Josh. One of the guys at the table asked Lexi to dance, ending the awkward moment. Tessa tapped her foot to the music under the table, totally out of time, she was sure, but no one would notice.

“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

Tessa 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.

“I’ll get those.” Josh was out of his seat before the attorney could even push his chair away from the computer.

Taking his copy from the top, he handed the other one to Tessa, sat and reread the revised clause. When he’d finished, Tessa already had a pen in hand, ready to sign.

“Looks okay to me,” he said, picking up the other pen the attorney had laid out on the desk.

“Hold off on signing until I get someone to witness your signatures.” The attorney left them alone in the office.

“You are all right with my change?” Josh asked, breaking the silence.

“I guess I have to be. No one else will do the work as cheaply as you will.”

“You got other bids?”

“No,” she shot back. “But I thought you had more faith in me.”

“I have plenty of faith in you. It’s the tourist trade I’m not so sure of.”

The attorney returned with Josh’s former girlfriend. “This is Lexi Zarinski. She’s filling in for the next few days while our receptionist is on vacation.”

“I know Josh and Tessa from church. Hi.”

“Hi.” Josh and Tessa signed and dated the agreement. The attorney took both agreements and placed the second sheet with the witness signature line on top.

Lexi signed them both with a flourish. “I’m taking my lunch break now. Do you guys want to join me at the diner?” Although Lexi had included Tessa in her invitation, her gaze rested on Josh. He rearranged the pages of the agreement on the desk in front of him.

“Sorry, I’ve got to get over to the school. I’m telling Hope’s class about my job for career day.”

“And I told Grandma I’d go with her to her doctor’s appointment in Ticonderoga.”

“Okay, maybe another time.” Lexi made her exit.

The attorney rose and shook their hands. “Nice seeing both of you again.”

“Thanks,” Tessa said.

Josh nodded. He looked around for Lexi lurking as they walked across the reception area to the door. “I was going to ask you if you wanted to get some lunch, but I don’t have time now.”

“I would have taken you up on the offer. Maybe even treated to make up for my outburst about you getting paid.” She stopped when they reached the sidewalk and looked up at him. “You know, I could just hug you for what you’re doing for Grandma and me.”

After the way Tessa’s glamorous appearance at the wedding had affected him, he was glad she didn’t.

* * *

Josh grabbed his laptop from behind the driver’s seat before he headed into the building that housed the Schroon Lake Central School, grades kindergarten through twelve, his alma mater. He signed in at the main office with Thelma Woods, who’d been the office manager for as long as he could remember.

“The third grade room is the same as it’s always been,” Mrs. Woods said.

“Okay, and I’ll be taking Hope home after school.”

She leafed through a small pile of papers clipped together. “Yes, I have the note from Becca right here. You’ll need to sign out before you leave.”

“Will do.”

“Josh.” Hope called to him as he left the office.

He waved at his sister.

A middle-aged woman was leading a group of kids including Hope down the hall past the office. She stopped. “Mr. Donnelly?”

“Josh.” He offered his hand.

“I’m Merilee Bradshaw, Hope’s teacher. We’re on our way back from lunch. You can walk with us.”

He stepped in line with Hope.

“Is that your daddy?” the little boy in front of her asked.

“No,” Hope huffed. “Like I told everybody, Josh is my brother. I have three big brothers. Jared, who I live with. He talked to our class last year. Mrs. Bradshaw said we had to have different people this year. Connor. He’s the pastor at my church and on his honeymoon with Natalie, so he couldn’t come today. And Josh.”

Josh shook off the pang of hurt that he was apparently Hope’s third choice. “Who’s your friend?” He nodded at the little boy.

“Owen Maddox, and he’s not a friend. He’s a boy.”

“Can’t boys be friends? Tessa is my friend, and she’s a girl.”

“You’re a grown-up, and she’s your girlfriend. That’s different.”

“No, she’s just a friend who’s a girl.”

Hope looked skeptical. Gram at the wedding, now Hope. What was so hard for everyone to get about Tessa and him being friends, not a couple?

“Our room is the next one,” Hope said.

“I know. It was my third grade room, and Jared and Connor’s, too.”

Mrs. Bradshaw stood at the classroom doorway, counting heads as the kids filed in. She closed the door behind her last student. “Everyone put your lunch boxes in your cubbies, so we can hear Mr. Donnelly’s talk.”

Josh waited for his sister and, when she finished, she led him to the middle of the room. “This is my desk, and this is my friend Ava.”

“Hi,” the little girl at the desk beside Hope’s said. She eyed his laptop. “Are you going to show us racing videos like Hope’s other brother did last year? They were really cool.”

Yeah. Josh was sure they were. Jared was cool. “No, we’re going to design a solar-powered go-cart.”

“But you didn’t bring any wood or stuff.”

“On the computer. You’ll see everything we do on the screen up front.” Josh had thought the kids would like brainstorming ideas for a go-cart and using the computer-aided design program to draw plans. His talk was hands-on. He planned to let the kids come up and use the program to add their details. And he’d gotten permission from his boss to print out copies of the plans at work for Hope to bring in and hand out to everyone on Friday.

“Oh,” Ava said.

“Mr. Donnelly, we’re ready.”

Despite the lack of enthusiasm from Hope’s friend Ava, the talk went as well or better than Josh had hoped. The kids had some great and outlandish ideas. And Josh seemed to have made a friend in Hope’s non-friend, Owen. The little boy latched on to him to the point of asking if he wanted to sit next to him at his desk for the second job presentation of the afternoon. With Hope’s permission, he did.

“Class, let’s thank Ms. Foster and Mr. Donnelly for talking to us today,” the teacher said when the other speaker had finished her presentation.

“Thank you, Ms. Foster and Mr. Donnelly,” the classed chimed.

A bell rang.

“That means the buses are here,” Hope said.

“Everyone get your things together and line up,” Mrs. Bradshaw said.

She led the queue of third graders to the main door while Jared and Hope headed to the office to sign out. Owen trailed behind them.

Josh stopped. “Owen, don’t you need to get on your bus?”

“No, I wait for my mom in the office. She’s a teacher’s aide. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.” Josh hoped he wouldn’t regret his hasty agreement.

“You know a lot about go-carts. Have you ever made a Pinewood Derby racer?”

“No, I haven’t. I wasn’t a Boy Scout. But my nephew made one.”

“I want to make one, but Mom doesn’t know anything about building things.” Owen stared at his feet. “And my dad’s at Dannemora. We moved here so it’s not so far to drive to visit him.”

Josh swallowed the lump in his throat. The maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility. Although his father had never been in more than the county jail for a few days, Josh could certainly relate to an absent father.

“With all the stuff you know, we could make a winner.”

He squatted to Owen’s level. “I can’t make any promises, but who’s your Scout leader?”

“Mr. Hazard.”

“I know Mr. Hazard. I’ll talk with him and see what I can do, okay?”

A smile lit Owen’s face. “Okay!”

“I’ll have to have your mother’s permission to help you.”

“You can wait with me now and talk to her today.”

Josh stood. “No, I want to talk to Mr. Hazard first.”

“All right.” Owen took a seat in the office, and Josh signed Hope and him out.

“Bye,” Owen said as they left. “See you tomorrow, Hope.”

“Bye, Owen.” Hope’s goodbye sounded friendly enough. If it hadn’t, he would have had to have a talk with her, which wouldn’t be in sync with the fun-brother persona he cultivated. Hope’s situation as the new kid last school year hadn’t been a lot different from Owen’s.

“Can we build something, too?” she asked as he made sure she had the seat belt buckled across her booster seat correctly.

“What do you want to build?” If he didn’t watch it, he’d have so many projects going he’d have to take a leave of absence from his real job to do them all.

“A castle in the backyard at my house.”

“I’ll need to talk with Jared and Becca about that one.”

“All right, but I’m sure it will be okay.”

Josh wasn’t as sure. “I missed lunch. What do you say to an ice cream sundae at the diner while I get a burger and fries?”

“I say yes. Becca and Jared only let us get cones.”

Score one for big brother Josh. Since he didn’t plan on having any kids of his own, didn’t have it in him to be a husband and father, he figured it was his place to spoil Hope and Jared and Becca’s family and any kids Connor and Natalie might have.

Hope caught him up on everything third grade while he ate his late lunch.

“Be sure to talk to Jared,” Hope said when he walked her into the house.

“Talk to me about what?” Jared asked, walking in behind them.

“Tell him, Josh.” Hope scampered off to the other room.

“Hope asked me to build her a castle in your backyard. I assume she means a playhouse castle.”

“Better check that. With Hope, you never know. She could mean a full-scale stone-wall moat-surrounded castle.”

Josh laughed.

“I don’t see a problem. I’ll talk with Becca, and you can work the details out with our little sister.”

“I have something else I want to talk with you about.”

“My loan to Tessa? It’s the same as the loans I’ve made to other local businesses. It has nothing to do with whatever you two have going on.”

Jared, too? “Friends. We’re friends. And that’s not what I wanted to talk with you about. It’s her loan, her business. What I want to talk to you about is a little boy in Hope’s class, Owen. He sounds like a good candidate for your motocross school program. His mom’s a teacher’s aide at the school, and he said his dad is at Dannemora.”

Jared whistled.

“After my talk, the little guy asked me if I’d help him build a car for the Pinewood Derby.”

“Are you going to?”

“Probably, after I talk with Ted Hazard, his Cub Scout Leader, and Owen’s mother.”

“Your job, Tessa’s renovation, Hope’s castle, this kid’s Scout project and your volunteer fire department commitment. Think you might be spreading yourself a little thin?”

Josh stared at his older brother. “I can handle it.”

Jared might have the money to throw around to help people, but he didn’t have an exclusive on giving.

Chapter Three

The apartment was in worse shape than Tessa had expected. It looked like she had a good couple of hours’ work clearing junk out before she even got to scrubbing off the years’ worth of grime on everything. At least the appliances were in good condition, or they should be. Her grandmother had bought them from Jared and Becca last fall when they’d remodeled their kitchen, with the thought she might rent out the apartment.

She opened a box blocking the way from the kitchen to the living room. A combination of dust and mold tickled her nose. “Achoo!”

“God bless you.”

Tessa spun around. “Josh, what are you doing here?”

“I had to pick up a few things at the grocery store, so I thought I’d swing by and see my new place.” He weaved his way around the boxes and crates into the living room and peered into the bedroom. “Not much room for my furniture.”

“Funny. When Grandma and Grandpa had the attic in the house insulated and sealed off to cut their heating costs, they moved everything that had been in the attic up here.”

Josh stood in the middle of the living room, the top of his head almost touching the swag light that dangled from a hook in the ceiling. “It has potential.”

Tessa followed his gaze around the place. “You’ve been reading real estate ads again. Looking for another house to flip?”

“Not this summer, not with the work you want me to do on the theater. And Hope asked me to build her a castle in Jared’s backyard.”

“A castle?”

“A playhouse that looks like a castle—I checked. We’re still working out the details. And...” He hesitated. “With my degree almost finished, I’m hoping to have a project manager position with GreenSpaces lined up somewhere else by the end of the year.”

Although Tessa knew Josh’s ambitions, the thought that he could be leaving the area in a few months knocked the wind out of her.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I don’t see anything coming along before we get the theater work done.”

She sucked in a breath. “It’s not that.”

“Then what?”

Was the man that thick? “I’ve gotten used to having you around, irritating as you can be, especially since almost everyone else I know is coupled off now.”

He walked across the room and tugged a piece of old wallpaper that was curling down from the ceiling. “You don’t have to stay around here.” Josh pulled the wallpaper off in a long strip. “Say the word, and I’ll put out feelers for any civil engineering jobs with GreenSpaces, or elsewhere. I’m always looking.”

“Yeah, I know.” She pushed a couple of strands of hair that had fallen from her topknot out of her face. It shouldn’t bother her that he didn’t say he’d miss her when he left. But it did.

“Want me to stick around...”

Yes.

“And give you a hand here this afternoon?”

Tessa laid her finger along the side of her face as if she was thinking deeply. “I could use your brawn to move stuff out to the Dumpster behind the theater.”

“Ah, saving my brains for the paid project.”

“Right. I wouldn’t want to use them all up before I got my money’s worth.”

“Ha! There’s not enough money in the US Mint to buy all my smarts. Where do you want me to start?”

She tapped her foot against the box she’d been opening when Josh arrived. “This box can go downstairs for the Dumpster. It says ‘for library sale,’ but I don’t know what year. The books smell moldy. I’m sure no one would want them.”

“Are they old? Maybe you could find collectors online looking to buy some of them.”

Tessa usually appreciated Josh’s creative ways of making a few extra dollars, but not today. The musty stale air of the apartment was giving her a headache, and everything Josh said or did bugged her.

Josh strode over and lifted the box. “Whew. Cancel that thought. I’ll take this downstairs, out in the fresh air. You can open some windows. There’s a nice breeze that will blow some of the smell out of here. We’ll regroup when I come back.”

She watched him heave the box to his shoulder and head back out. Regroup. Yeah, that’s what she needed to do. She’d become too dependent on her friendship with Josh. It was enabling her to hang back and not try to establish other friendships.

Josh burst back into the apartment a couple of minutes later. “I’m back. Point me in the direction of the next thing you want trashed.”

Several hours and countless boxes later, the natural light in the apartment was growing too dim to continue working. They’d stashed the things worth keeping in the crawl space storage area that ran behind one wall of the living room. Tessa didn’t have a clue why they hadn’t been put there in the first place. The rest was in the Majestic’s Dumpster.

Tessa tossed her cleaning cloth on the kitchen counter. “We’d better call it a night before it gets too dark to find our way out. I’ll call the power company tomorrow and have the electricity turned on.”

“No, I’ll put it in my name. I didn’t expect the free rent agreement to include utilities, and...” He grinned, emphasizing the smudge of dirt on his cheek. “The contract doesn’t include them.”

“Since when are you such a stickler for rules?”

“Since my getting paid depends on your financial success. Don’t want to cut into your seed money.”

Her chest tightened. He didn’t have faith in her. And if he, her best friend, didn’t, who would?

“Hey, lose the long face. I’m teasing. If you have an extra key you can give me before I leave, I’ll stop by after work tomorrow and see if I can open those two windows that are painted shut.”

But tomorrow was the first Monday of the month, the evening Josh usually came over with pizza or Chinese to view promotion clips of upcoming movies so she could choose what to order. A hollow grew inside her. This was Josh. Of course, business would come before fun—and friendship?

She dug in her jeans pocket for her key ring. “Right here.” Tessa wound the key off the ring.

He took the key. “I can’t give you much other help finishing the cleanup here until next weekend. But don’t worry about having the place ready for me to move in on Thursday. Connor said it would be fine for me to stay at the parsonage while he and Natalie are away.”

“Sounds good.”

“Then pack up whatever you’re taking with you, and I’ll drop you at the house.”

“No, you go ahead. I’ll walk. I need some time out in the fresh air to clear my head of the smell of Mr. Clean.” And of other things, like the fear that our business partnership isn’t the brilliant idea I thought it was.

* * *

Tessa pressed the latch to the front door of the house, only to find it locked. She’d forgotten that Grandma was going to dinner and then a musical prayer concert at the Camp Sonrise Conference Center Auditorium with Josh’s grandparents and Marie Delacroix. After she unlocked the door and let herself in, she dropped into the closest chair. Maybe Josh was right. Maybe the theater was a lost cause, and she should start looking for an engineering job. Opportunities here were slim, though, and she hated to leave her grandmother alone.

She pushed herself out of the chair to see what she could rummage up for supper. Her grandmother’s words about Mrs. Delacroix inviting her to share her house ran through her mind. Grandma wasn’t alone. Her roots were here. She had friends here. Grandma didn’t need Tessa living with her any more than her parents needed her at the mission in Lesotho or, self-pity crept in, Josh needed her presence in his life. He couldn’t seem to be with her lately without telling her about how he was out of here as soon as he found the right job opportunity or that she should look for an engineering job somewhere else.

Tessa found a note written on ivory stationery bordered with lilies of the valley in her grandmother’s perfect penmanship.

I defrosted the leftover beef stew if you want it for supper, and Edna brought over a strawberry-rhubarb pie made with fresh rhubarb from her garden. There’s vanilla ice cream in the freezer. Love, G.

Tessa pulled the container of stew from the refrigerator. If she knew Grandma was well settled with friends, she could look for a job, maybe in Saratoga Springs or Glens Falls. Glens Falls was within commuting distance, if not for the months of bad winter weather. Tessa opened the stew container, and her stomach lurched. But that would mean moving and operating the Majestic weekends only, even during the summer tourist season, or not at all. Wherever she went, she’d have to establish a whole new support system. She’d come to Schroon Lake nearly six years ago and was still working on fitting in. And this was the most comfortable place she’d ever lived.

She replaced the lid on the stew container. Pie and ice cream sounded like a better supper. It had three of the four major food groups—dairy, grain and fruits and vegetables. Her hand lingered on the container after she’d placed it back on the refrigerator shelf, her parents’ frequent reprimand sounding in her head. You have to set an example. You can’t simply choose to do whatever you want.

She should have the stew. What kind of meal was pie and ice cream? Tessa grabbed the pie and closed the refrigerator door. She could have whatever she wanted for supper. There was no one here to set an example of good eating habits for, and Grandma wouldn’t say anything. She cut a large piece of pie and smothered it in ice cream. Her cell phone rang as she polished off the last bite. She checked the number, figuring it could be one of only three people. Grandma checking up on her. Her heart warmed. Josh. The warmth ticked up a degree. Or Uncle Bob, whom she would call back later, or tomorrow.

She didn’t recognize the number. “Hello.”

“Tessa, it’s Maura.”

Her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. “Oh, hi.”

“I missed last week’s meeting and wanted to give you my new home phone number. We moved into the house yesterday.”

“Congratulations,” Tessa said.

“Thanks. I’ve got my work cut out for me the next few days unpacking.”

“Me, too. I’m getting the apartment above my grandmother’s garage cleaned out to rent. No one’s lived in it for years.”

“Have fun with that. I wanted to invite you to our housewarming party weekend after next.”

Tessa twisted her hair around her finger. “What day?”

“Saturday evening. Some of the others from the meeting are coming. You can bring a guest.”

“It’ll depend on whether I can get Myles to cover for me.” Relief edged with guilt flowed through her. She was thankful for the excuse. She didn’t know whom she’d bring except her grandmother. Josh didn’t know about her addiction. His hard feelings for his father had made her afraid to tell him and jeopardize their friendship—an accommodation to fitting in, like her drinking had started out as an accommodation to fitting in at college. She’d also chosen AA meetings in other towns where she’d be less likely to run into anyone from church or from the movie theater. Another accommodation.

“I hope you can come. Everything going well?”

“Yes and no.” Tessa told her about the loan for the theater, the contract with Josh for the work and his bomb that he expected to have a job somewhere else by the end of the year. “I don’t know if it’s the project and wanting so badly for it to work out or the thought of my good friend moving, but I’m unsettled.” She dropped her voice. “I wanted a drink last night, for the first time in forever.”

“You should have called me.”

“It went away as quickly as it came, and my grandmother had something she wanted to talk with me about.”

“You know what you have to do with your uncertainty,” Maura said. “Give it up to God.”

“I know. I’ll get back to you about the housewarming.”

“Great. Call if you do need anything, and I’ll see you tomorrow at the meeting.”

“I will. Bye.”

Tessa set her phone down, folded her hands and rested her elbows on the table. “Lord, I know only You can control my life. Direct me away from the pull of my addiction. Help me to know and accept the things I can’t change, like Josh’s inevitable move away from here, from me. I fear that I’ve let myself become too dependent on our friendship, that I’ve exchanged one dependency for another and that my reliance on him could jeopardize my sobriety when he leaves. Guide me to depend on You, the one who is always there for all of us. I place myself in Your hands. Amen.”

* * *

The fire siren went off at the same time Josh received the text. He drove directly to the Schroon Volunteer Fire Department hall, bypassing his original destination, the apartment above Tessa’s grandmother’s garage. A quick glance at the parking lot showed only one other vehicle. He turned off his truck and read the text. An accident on US Route 9, near Paradox Lake, with possible fire potential. An Essex County Sheriff’s deputy was already on the scene.

Josh heard the wind-down of a motorcycle slowing and turned to see Emergency Medical Squad members Jon Hanlon, a local obstetrician, and his wife, Autumn, a midwife, pull in. With only him and one other firefighter here, he still had time to call Tessa and let her know that he probably wouldn’t be over to work on the windows at the apartment tonight.

“Hi,” Tessa said, picking up on the first ring. “You just caught me. I was about to put my phone on vibrate.”

“Right. Monday night video clips.”

Tessa always turned her ringtone off and made him do the same, so any calls or texts wouldn’t interrupt their viewing. He’d forgotten all about their regular Monday date, or rather non-date, yesterday when he’d said he’d stop by the apartment tonight. Josh waited a second for her to ask him to join her.

“You headed over to the apartment?” she asked.

Josh tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “No, that’s why I’m calling. I’m at the fire hall. There’s been an accident on Route 9.”

“I’ll let you go, then. I have to run and meet Myles at the Majestic. He’s interested in learning how I choose the movies to show.”

“Yeah, more people are pulling in. I’ve got to go. I’ll see about the windows tomorrow night.”

“Sure, whenever you get to them. It’s your place now. Bye.”

Josh slammed the truck door behind him. There was no logical reason Tessa watching the video clips with Myles should bother him. He’d encouraged Tessa to make more friends since his plan was to move up the ranks at GreenSpaces somewhere else. But Myles was a kid, a college student, not really their contemporary. Josh strode across the parking lot and into the fire hall. Tom Hill, the fire chief and owner of a car repair shop in Paradox Lake, and his son, Jack, were already suited up.

“Hey, Josh,” Tom said, raising his hand to someone behind him. Jon and Autumn walked by them to the EMS vehicle.

“Grab your gear. It looks like we have enough volunteers now to take the tanker up.”

His brother Connor’s new father-in-law and brother-in-law had come in behind the Hanlons. With so many members working in Ticonderoga and other surrounding villages, getting a crew together could be hard.

Jack took his position behind the wheel of the truck while Josh and the others put on their protective gear. Tom pressed the button to open the hall door, and Jon and Autumn went ahead in the emergency vehicle followed by Tom in his pickup.

Josh and the other guys piled into the truck. Adrenaline rushed through him as the siren screamed and the lights flashed, increased by the fear he had whenever they responded to an accident that someone he knew might be involved.

He spotted the flashing lights of the sheriff car and the EMS vehicle when the fire truck raced through the intersection of Routes 9 and 74. Jack pulled the truck ahead of one of the accident vehicles, a pickup truck with a smashed left fender sprawled diagonally across the two lanes of the highway. The wrecker from Hill’s Garage was already there, along with one from a garage in Schroon Lake. But Josh didn’t see a second vehicle. He hopped off the truck and saw it, a compact station wagon with a crushed top rolled off the road in a small gully, resting against a stand of pine trees. A second emergency vehicle arrived from Newcomb as Jon and Autumn carried a stretcher down the incline.

Tom returned from talking with the deputy who was directing traffic. “A woman and two kids. Doesn’t look good. The other driver is intoxicated.” Tom jerked his head toward the deputy’s car, where a middle-aged man sat staring out the window.

Bile choked Josh. The unkempt dark hair and strong profile reminded him of his father. He turned away and caught his breath. It wasn’t him. Dad was dead, had been for nine years.

“Let’s get the hose and extinguishers down there. The jaws of life, too,” Tom commanded.

Josh joined his fellow volunteers, glad for the action to stop his thoughts. When he and the rest of the team reached the car, Jon and Autumn had a small unconscious form on the stretcher. He swallowed hard. The child looked about Hope’s age, maybe a little younger.

The child’s eyes opened. “Mommy?”

“We’re working on getting her out,” Autumn reassured him.

“There’s a woman and another child trapped inside,” Jon reported to Tom. “We talked to the little boy. The woman is unresponsive. Moriah and Newcomb are on their way.”

“Newcomb’s here,” Tom said. “Pulled in right after us.”

As if on cue, the second emergency squad came down the bank.

“We’ll get this little guy up,” Jon said. “I don’t like the looks of that smoke from the engine, not with all the dead winter growth.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Tom said. “Jack, Donnelly.” He motioned to the front of the car, and Josh and Jack began soaking it.

The third emergency squad arrived as Josh and the other firefighters were tramping back up to the road.

Tom approached the deputy when they reached the pavement. “If you want to get him to county lockup—” he jerked his thumb toward the deputy’s car “—we can take over traffic control.”

Josh made a furtive glance toward the car. The man had his head down, chin resting on his chest. It couldn’t be Dad. He looked away. One wrecker had removed the pickup, and he could hear the fading siren of the Schroon EMS team on its way to the hospital. Hill’s truck waited to take the car. Soon after, the other two rescue squads had extricated the woman and other child and taken off for the hospital.

“You guys can head back to the fire hall,” Tom said. “I’ll go back to the shop with the wrecker.”

“The guy in the cruiser,” Josh said. “Anyone we know?”

Tom shook his head. “The deputy said he didn’t have any ID.”

Josh wiped his forearm across his forehead. Responding to accidents always took more out of him than the actual physical demands warranted. He looked at the evening sky. If it wasn’t too late, maybe he’d stop by the Majestic and hang out with Tessa and Myles. The drunk in the deputy’s car and the little boy on the stretcher were juxtaposed in his mind. He could use some companionship to take the edge off before going back to the empty cabin.

His cell phone buzzed as he walked to the truck. It could be Tessa. He stopped and checked the phone. Connor’s, not Tessa’s, name flashed at him. Two missed calls and a text. His little brother was on his honeymoon. What could he want?

Josh swiped his finger across the screen and went stock-still when he read the text.

Call me. We got back from the beach, and there was a voice-mail message on my cell, forwarded from the parsonage phone. From Dad.

Chapter Four

Josh stared blankly at the phone screen. The colors of his apps blurred together. He shook his vision clear and jammed the phone back in his pocket. Dear old Dad. He had no doubt the call Connor had gotten was from their father. It fit his MO. Reappear after a bender expecting the family to welcome him home as if nothing had happened. Except this bender had lasted nine years. Dad had known better than to call him or Jared. He’d called Connor because Connor was a minister and most like their mother, making him the only one of them likely to take the call.

Josh grabbed the door handle and hurled himself into the back of the fire truck, looking over at the cleared accident scene. Bile rose in his throat as he focused his mind on the glimpse he’d had of the man in the sheriff’s car. Once they were back at the firehouse and he called Connor, the first thing he was going to ask was when his father had called and from where. His skin tightened. If it was his father, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d hurt someone driving drunk. Only this time it was kids.

“You all right, Josh?” Paul Delacroix, Connor’s brother-in-law, asked.

Josh blinked Paul and the other guys in the truck into focus. “Yeah.”

“Kids,” Paul’s father said. “I hate responding to injury accidents, but it’s always worse when kids are involved.”

“Right,” Josh said. And not only in car accidents.

When they got to the firehouse, Josh took his time stowing his equipment. Now he sat in his pickup in the parking lot, his finger hovering over Connor’s call notice on his phone screen. He touched it and pressed the phone to his ear.

“Hey, Josh,” Connor answered.

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

Connor laughed. “No, we just got back from supper.”

“So, was it really him?” Josh refused to personalize the man by calling him Dad.

“Yeah, it was Dad.”

“You’re saying that from the message he left, or you got back to him?”

“I called him back before we went to dinner.”

“And he was drunk.”

“He didn’t sound drunk, wasn’t slurring his words.”

That didn’t mean he hadn’t been impaired enough to hurt that family.

“Dad called to—”

Josh clenched his free fist. How could Connor sound so calm about this? “I have a good idea why he called.”

“He—”

Josh cut Connor off again. “What time did he call and when did you call him back?” Connor had probably called when their father was in the sheriff car and still had his cell phone, before the deputy had taken him to Elizabethtown and booked him. “Where did he say he was calling from?”

“Back off. Do you want to know what he said or not?”

“I’d like the answers to my questions. When you called and texted me, I was responding to an accident caused by a drunk driver. A woman and two kids hurt. When we got there, the sheriff’s deputy already had the other driver in his car. From his profile, the driver could have been the old man.”

“The woman, the kids, do you know who they are?”

“No, only that one of the kids looked about Hope’s age. The rescue squads took them to Glens Falls Hospital. Tom Hill probably knows.”

“I’ll call him later. As for Dad, he left the message this afternoon. I called him back about five-thirty at the Super 8 in Ticonderoga.”

The original call had been too early to be the old man calling for Connor to bail him out of the DWI. But the callback was in line with the accident before the deputy had left. “That’s what he told you, he was at the Super 8?”

“No, the number he called from that I called back was the Super 8. I did a reverse phone number lookup before I called.”

Josh rubbed the back of his neck as some of the anger drained out of him. The man who’d caused the accident this evening couldn’t have been their father. “Where’s he been and what does he want?”

“All over the country. California mostly. He said being homeless was a lot more comfortable in San Diego than in Plattsburg.”

“I’m supposed to feel sorry for him? He had a home here.”

“No. He’s in a twelve-step program and wants to make amends to us.”

“I don’t believe that for a minute. I wonder what he really wants out of us.”

“He said he went down to Pennsylvania and talked with Mom.”

Josh shook his head. “Unbelievable that he could show his face to Mom after everything he put her through, including dropping off the face of the earth and letting her think he was dead. Did you call her? He was probably looking for his share of money from her selling the house in Paradox Lake, the one she wore herself out working at the diner to pay for.”

“I didn’t talk with Mom, but I did talk with Jared. He and I both know alcoholics who are successfully working a twelve-step program, me through my counseling and one of Jared’s close friends on the motocross circuit.”

Sure, they’re successfully working a program—a program of fooling everyone around them.

“Jared agrees with me that we should meet with Dad and hear him out.”

“Big brother says so, so we should all fall in line. Well, count me out of your little family reunion. And don’t give the old man my phone number.”

“I wouldn’t without your permission.”

“You’re not going to get it. Tell Natalie hello from me, and enjoy the rest of your honeymoon.” Josh hung up without waiting for a response from his brother.

Josh gunned the engine of his truck and threw gravel as he tore out of the parking lot. By the time he’d reached the stop sign at the corner, he’d gotten control over himself. Leave it to their father to reappear just as he and his brothers were all doing well and were accepted by the locals who’d either scorned them or pitied them when they were growing up. That was probably it. Dad had gotten wind of their collective success and wanted to cash in on it. He turned left on US Route 9. Might as well follow his original plan and go to the apartment, use his excess adrenaline to unstick those windows. Then he could stop off at the Majestic if he saw the lights on there. His stomach grumbled. If Tessa hadn’t ordered pizza for her and Myles, he would when he got there.

Yeah, that was what he needed to put the evening behind him. To hang out and watch some flicks with his best bud. Tessa would understand. She always did. He couldn’t believe Connor and Jared, Jared especially, were giving in to their father. Josh wasn’t about to be sucked in. There was no such thing as a recovering alcoholic.

* * *

Tessa started a clip from a new Disney film that had gotten good reviews as a film kids and adults could both enjoy.

“Disney?” Myles said. “I thought you wanted to increase attendance.”

“Give it a minute. You haven’t even seen the opening yet.” Myles hadn’t been anywhere near as objective judging the movies as Josh was, favoring blow-’em-up action adventures and panning everything else. While Josh liked thrillers and action-adventure films, he wasn’t big on gratuitous violence. He’d said seeing gunfire firsthand took the attraction out of it. That was about the only thing he ever said to her about his tour in Afghanistan.

As the clip ended and Tessa marked the film as a “yes,” she heard what sounded like footsteps on the stairs to the projector room.

She tensed. “I locked the theater door, didn’t I?”

“You did.” Myles’s mouth tightened into a thin line.

So it hadn’t been her imagination. He’d heard the steps, too. Night noises never made her edgy when she and Josh were viewing clips. Tessa glanced sideways at Myles. She’d seen Myles grow from a teen into a young adult since she’d moved to Schroon Lake but still thought of him as Jamie Payton’s oldest kid, all six-foot-one, and hundred and eighty-five pounds of him.

“I’ll get the lock on the room door,” he said. “You get ready to call 911.”

The door swung open as Myles rose, and Tessa clenched the arms of her chair.

“Hey,” Josh said. “Got any pizza left?”

Her heart dropped back from her throat to her chest. She hadn’t thought about Josh and that he had a key for times when he worked late and stopped by after she’d already started viewing the clips.

“Um, I finished the last piece,” Myles said. “I’ll run out to the diner and get you something if you want, like if you guys want to be alone.”

“Good idea.” Josh pulled a few bills from his wallet. “Ask for my usual burger and fries. They’ll know. And something to drink. Take your time.”

Myles pocketed the money and grinned at Josh.

“Why did you do that?” Tessa asked.

“I’m hungry. With the accident and fixing the windows at the apartment, I didn’t catch any supper.”

Tessa crumpled the napkin on the table next to her and tossed it at Josh. “Not the food. The take your time. You’re giving Myles the wrong idea about us.”

“Hey, I have a reputation to uphold. I’m with a beautiful woman. What man wouldn’t want her all to himself?”

Tessa warmed at his compliment while she also weighed whether to pick up her paper plate and chuck it at him. “As big an honor as it may be, I’d rather not join the long list of Josh Donnelly’s former girlfriends. I prefer being on the more exclusive just-friends list.”

“And you’re at the top of that one. So what’s wrong with my wanting to have you to myself for a few minutes? This is our usual Monday evening.”

Tessa attributed the uptick in her heart rate to residual ah from the heartwarming romantic comedy clip she and Myles had watched before the Disney one. After all, this was good old love-’em-and-leave-’em Josh. No one she could take seriously.

“Do you have any clips left to view?”

“A couple.” Tessa ran the videos and they talked about the films. She added them to her show list and shared the titles of the others she was ordering.

When Josh finished reading and commenting on her choices, he ran his hand over his hair and glanced around the room as if making sure they were really alone. “I’ve got some news.”

“About the accident? Someone we know?”

Josh dropped into the chair beside her, where Myles had been sitting. “About my—”

“Yo, incoming food.” Myles stomped up the stairs like half a detachment. “I’ve got your food.” He inched the door open. “Didn’t want to walk in on anything.”

“Get in here. There was nothing to walk in on.” Tessa glared at Josh.

“Yeah, right. I know that.” Myles gave Josh a nod that she was sure he didn’t think she caught. He handed Josh his food and fumbled for the change.

“Keep it for gas,” Josh said.

“Thanks. Tessa, you don’t mind if I leave now that Josh is here?”

An inexplicable wave of apprehension almost made her urge Myles to stay.

Myles cleared his throat. “A friend. You guys know her from church. Kaitlyn Flynn. She lives with Jack and Suzi Hill. She’s in my algebra class at the college. She texted me for some help with our assignment. The Hills’ house is on my way home. If I leave now, it won’t be too late to stop.”

Tessa was pretty sure she’d never heard Myles string together that many words about himself in one conversation. “Go ahead. I’ve showed you how I judge and choose the movies. That’s what you wanted.”

“Yeah. I’ll come in early on Friday to be here for the candy delivery.”

“That would be great.” Tessa pinched her lips and held her breath until she heard Myles’s last footfall on the stairs. Then she broke out in laughter. “Poor boy. From what Suzi told me, their former foster child Kaitlyn is a math whiz.”

“So her call for help was all a setup.” He joined in Tessa’s laughter. “I should warn him.”

“And break his heart? What guy doesn’t want to be the white knight riding in on his trusty steed—in this case, math skills—to save the damsel in distress?”

“True. But some of us have more finessed rescue skills.”

“You’ve never been watching from the outside.”

He grinned. “So that’s what you do, watch my moves?”

His tease hit a little too close to the mark. Sad as it sounded to her, she did watch him with other women, wondering when he’d start dating someone and have less time for her. Another sign she was too dependent on their friendship.

“Who could miss them? But get serious. Before Myles got back with your food, you said you had news.”

Josh unwrapped his burger and lifted the roll. “Catsup, mustard, pickle. Good. They didn’t forget the mustard.”

Sometimes Josh was as reticent in his communication as Myles. “That’s the news, the diner puts catsup, mustard and pickles on its burgers?”

He lifted his pointer finger while he finished chewing the bite he’d taken of the sandwich. His throat muscles worked as he swallowed. “Connor got a phone call from our father today.” His jaw hardened. Josh placed the burger on its wrapper on the table.

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