Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

14. Tessa

FOURTEEN

TESSA

“Okay, Gary, see you tomorrow,” I called to Eden’s father as he pushed open the door to the office that housed Hope to Hands.

Standing in the doorway, he grinned back at me where I sat at my desk. “Don’t stay too late. You work yourself too hard, you know?”

“Um, I didn’t show up one time last week. I would hardly call that working hard. You’re going to have to change my official title to slacker.”

So maybe I’d been distracted by a man beast who made my belly quiver.

A light chuckle left Gary. “We all deserve a break once in a while. It is summer, after all.”

“You know I like staying busy.”

“That you do, but I expect you to take care of yourself, too.”

He sent me one of those fatherly glares that made my chest stretch tight. Gary was in his mid-sixties, his hair grayed and the burdens he’d carried on his shoulders written in the deep lines set in his face.

But his eyes—they were kind.

And his heart was genuine.

Affection wobbled in my spirit.

“I am. I promise.”

Better than I’d been in years.

“Okay, then. Lock up.”

“Will do. And I expect you to go home and put your feet up and relax.”

He laughed a slow sound. “I just might do that. Drive safe, sweetheart.”

“Goodnight.”

The door swung shut behind him, and I returned my attention to the paperwork I’d been working on.

Hope to Hands was the nonprofit foundation affiliated with the private school and church that Gary had founded years ago.

I’d become a teacher here the same year Eden had.

She and I had gone to college together, and at that time, I’d had no clue what I wanted to do with my life.

Shocker.

But Bobby had sacrificed for me, worked like crazy to have the funds to put me through college, insistent that he wanted me to have the full experience without the worry of debt, so I wasn’t about to screw that up.

So, I figured, why not?

I’d tag along with Eden and go into education.

Sure, I enjoyed being in a classroom, but not the way Eden did. She was incredibly invested in each child.

It wasn’t like I didn’t love them, but there’d always been something missing.

No true passion.

But I’d found it here.

Helping the families who came to the church who were in need.

I’d taken over as executive director when it’d become clear Gary needed to let some of his responsibilities go.

I wasn’t quite sure why he was so worried about me overextending myself when the man would work his fingers to the bone, which he’d basically done.

We’d had a big scare about a year ago when Eden had found him dizzy and confused in his office. We’d worried it was a stroke, but it’d turned out to be exhaustion.

Eden had demanded he give up at least one of his positions.

I’d been volunteering at the foundation for years, so it’d made sense that I’d stand in for him since it was the source of a lot of his stress.

It turned out that I loved it.

Thrived in it.

My heart had found the place where it flourished.

Giving back in the same way as Bobby and I had received years before.

It just felt right.

I scanned over the submissions for rent assistance.

Why I felt the need to print them out, I didn’t know. But I guessed it made it tangible.

Something palpable to hold on to.

Something real because there were real people behind these forms.

I needed something that didn’t blur into another number on the screen.

The hard part was there was always more need than resources.

I separated the applications by urgency, prioritizing those who were in the process of being evicted.

A light thud that sounded from outside had me freezing.

Unease prickled through my senses, and the fine hairs lifted on the back of my neck.

I sat completely still.

Listening.

Barely breathing.

For a long time, the only sound was the manic pounding of my heart. Until there was the unmistakable crunch of a footstep just outside the door.

Fear spiraled down my spine.

A cold, icy dread.

Crap.

I should have immediately hopped up and turned the lock when Gary left.

It was a little after six, but camp had ended at four. The rest of the staff would have already left for the night. The maintenance crew worked overnight, so they shouldn’t be here for another six hours.

I tried to swallow around the terror that thickened my throat, and I reached for my phone and stood at the same second the doorknob slowly turned.

I rushed to punch 9-1-1 into my phone. My hand shook as I hovered my finger over send, and my stomach was panging with a gnawing fear.

The door swung open, and Karl appeared in the doorway, venom in his stance and a snarl on his face.

Fear throbbed, heavy and dark.

But I stood up straighter and held my ground.

I had to cover my shock when I saw his face marred in the black and blue bruises that covered the entirety of the right side.

There was a scab on his lip, compliments of me.

Clearly, his perfected arrogance had been knocked down by a notch or two.

And oh, man, he did not look happy about it.

“You need to leave right now.” There was no use trying to keep the tremoring from my voice.

Karl already knew what he’d done.

The line he’d crossed.

I would never look at him the same.

“I’ll call the cops if you come any closer. You are trespassing.”

I held the phone out between us like I was wielding a weapon.

A sneer curled his expression in hate. “Have at it, Tessa, and I’ll gladly press charges against the thug you brought into my house.”

I almost scoffed.

Milo was the thug?

“Good. Then we get to tell them all about how you attacked me, nearly choked me, then tried to force yourself on me.”

My chin quivered, half in fear and half in defiance.

After everything, I couldn’t believe he would come here.

Or maybe I should have expected it.

I’d already warned Milo that I was worried we’d only pissed him off more.

Karl was not the type of man who liked to have his ego stripped.

Feigned confusion twisted through his features. “Are you sure about that, Tessa? How could I force you when we’ve been together for years, devoted to each other? And after I’ve been taking care of your brother, providing for him? Poor guy.”

Artificial sympathy cut into his expression.

Sickness clawed at my being, and I swallowed around the bile that coated my tongue. “I ended it with you, Karl. There is no devotion. It was all a sham.”

One so different from the one I was parading with Milo.

“And even if we were still together? It doesn’t give you the right to touch me when I tell you no.”

“You owe me, Tessa.”

“I don’t owe you anything.”

I lifted the phone higher, ready to push send.

He froze for a second before rage flash-fired through his eyes. “What the fuck is that?”

The ring.

Crap.

I inhaled a sharp breath. “It’s none of your business.”

Disbelieving laughter tumbled from his tongue, the sound coated in disgust. “Were you fucking him? The whole time that you kept running off to that club, you were fucking him, weren’t you?”

“No.” I didn’t need to defend myself to Karl, but I didn’t want to incite his wrath, either.

Retribution flashed through his glare and flitted through the malign of his grin. “I don’t like being played for a fool, Tessa.”

“I didn’t?—”

He stepped forward, and the words locked on my tongue.

Every cell in my body was cut in a razor-sharp edge.

Ready to dial but also knowing it would cause a bigger mess for Milo if I did.

A blight to the picture we were trying to paint.

Karl cocked his head. A severe, ugly warning. “You owe me, Tessa. Make no mistake, I will collect.”

Then he turned and pushed back out the door.

I bent in half, and my hand shot to my desk for support. Ragged gasps of relief and fear rushed from my lungs.

I swallowed it down, grinding my teeth, searching for fortitude.

Because I couldn’t back down, even when Karl had me backed against a wall.

Night had taken hold of the sky as I eased my car down the winding dirt road that led to Milo’s cabin tucked deep in the forest. Stars blinked from the heavens, and the spiked tops of the soaring pines danced beneath the darkened expanse.

My tires crunched on the gravel, and my heart continued to batter at my ribs.

Pained affection stretched tight when my headlights illuminated the front of the cabin.

So quaint and quiet within the storm that raged in the periphery.

Both his truck and his Tahoe were parked in the front.

Milo was home.

I came to a stop and shut off the engine, then I took a steeling breath before I got out and climbed the steps to the front porch.

I put my key into the lock, my chest squeezing at the memory of Milo offering that to me, too, telling me this was my home for as long as I wanted it.

And our lines seemed so very blurred right then.

Boundaries set that I didn’t know how to live within.

I pushed open the door.

Silence echoed back.

Shutting and locking the door behind me, I tossed my bag and keys onto the entryway table, then slowly moved through the space.

Instinctively, I knew he wasn’t inside.

Drawn, I edged to the glass-paned door and peered outside.

It was still out back, no sign of movement.

It didn’t matter.

I carefully eased open the door to the lapping night.

Rays of moonlight shimmered over the placid lake, and I gulped for a lungful of the crisp, clean air before my feet took to the planks of the porch. I eased down the steps and traipsed across the lawn to the nearly completed treehouse.

Somehow, I knew he would be there.

The treehouse was just shy of being extravagant, a little like Milo’s home.

Large and lavish yet exuding a rugged charm that made it comfortable.

The children’s fortress took up the middle section of the grand maple tree that stood towering and proud to the right side of Milo’s rambling yard.

Energy whirled and whipped on a gust of wind.

I swallowed any reservations down and started up the stairs, holding on to the railing as I wound my way up the trunk to the platform that surrounded the entire treehouse.

Energy crashed through the tepid air, his presence profound.

Inhaling a slow breath, I nudged open the door that was about half the size of a standard one and poked my head through.

I found him sitting with his back propped against the wall, the warm glow of the light fixtures he’d installed in the ceiling illuminating his shape.

His face in stark profile.

His big, burly body appearing even larger in the confined space.

My stomach tilted.

The man was so gorgeous I was lucky I didn’t trip at the sight.

But what squeezed my chest was the subdued sorrow he continued to emanate. Since returning from his visit with Remy and Scout yesterday afternoon, it had hovered over him like a dark cloud.

His aura dampened.

As if every time he had to walk away from his children, another tattered piece of his heart had been whittled away.

“Hey,” I managed around the thickness in my throat. I tamped down the fear that still held fast after the confrontation with Karl.

He didn’t need me rushing in and dumping my problems on him.

The man would likely go on a rampage, and I was pretty sure that was exactly what Karl was banking on.

That Milo would seek retribution.

Karl wanted to shift the focus from himself and make Milo look like the bad guy, and Karl would come out looking all shiny and squeaky clean.

If people only knew.

Gold-hewn eyes drifted my way. Soft tenderness filled his expression. “Hey, Little Dove.”

His welcome wound around me like a caress, and the attraction I couldn’t shake flared from the depths.

“What are you doing up here?” I whispered, worried my voice might break into the solitude, but not so worried that I didn’t duck my head so I could enter.

There were some tools strewn around him, though it looked like he’d been sitting for a while.

“Figured I’d finish the shelves before I need to go into work,” he muttered, gesturing to where he was building them into a corner.

His attention to detail was insane.

“It’s almost finished,” I mused as I looked around to take it in.

He’d been working on it nonstop since we’d made our pact.

Constructing.

Preparing.

Hoping.

The floor area was large enough to be a bedroom, though the ceilings were only about five feet tall.

He’d put in two real windows that overlooked the lake, and they opened to let in the breeze.

There was a section of the roof that still remained unfinished, and everything would need to be sanded and stained.

I eased down onto the wood floor and sat beside him.

For a moment, we rested in the silence before I murmured, “They’re going to love it, Milo.”

He let go of a small grunt, and his attention swung to me. “Yeah. They will. Because of you.”

After I’d hung out with my besties on Friday, it’d become clear that we needed to talk. We’d spent too much time skirting the difficult parts.

Nerves rattled, and my tongue swept my dried lips as I looked at him.

“If we’re going to do this, I need to meet them, Milo. Become a real part of your life.”

Worry gushed from his spirit. “I know.”

“What is it you’re afraid of?” The question rushed from my lips.

Milo hesitated, roughing one of those big hands through his hair.

Attraction blazed. I couldn’t stop it. There was no chance of keeping it contained.

Finally, he let his head roll to the side where he was leaned against the wall, that gaze so intense as he stared at me. “I’m afraid of taking another person from them. The way I did their mother. That it’s goin’ to hurt them in the end.”

Pain pierced me, a blade shoved right into my heart.

God, he lived with so much unfound guilt. Didn’t he see he was good? That he deserved to have his children in his life?

I forced a faked smile, the playful words thin. “They won’t even like me. Heck, they’ll probably be glad to get rid of me.”

Milo grunted. “Hardly, Little Dove. Nothin’ not to love about you.”

I twisted a piece of my hair and tried to keep it together.

Especially when crawling onto his lap seemed like a mighty fine plan right about then.

“Redhead, remember? I’m trouble. You’ll all be better off without me.”

“Is that what you think? That people are better off without you?”

“I think they can take me in measured doses.” My laugh was hollow.

“That’s not really what you believe, though, is it?”

His fingers threaded through mine.

Fire flashed.

“Can feel you aching for a home.” He gruffed it like a claim.

My soul fluttered. “But this is your home, Milo. I’m just pretending like it’s mine. But I’m here for you…as your friend…as long as you need me to be.”

Friend.

I was an idiot.

It wasn’t close to what I felt.

And I was never so certain than right then that I was going to get my heart slaughtered.

“We just need to be careful with their hearts…and I think…” I glanced away, then back to him, shifting a fraction to face him. “I think maybe we should plan that I remain in their lives in some way. I can be their crazy Aunt Tessa, just like I am for Gage and Juni. Once you’ve gotten custody and they’re settled, we tell them we decided you and I are better off as friends.”

He lifted his back from the wall. The man overpowered the space. I could barely breathe.

“You’d do that for me?” The words were low and grumbly.

I liked them far too much, and I had to keep myself from shouting I’d probably give him anything.

“For us? Stay in their lives permanently?” he added.

“Just try to get rid of me.” I forced a wobbly tease. “Once I claim you, you’re pretty much stuck with me.”

“You claimin’ me, Little Dove?” His voice was gruff, and it was making me all kinds of tingly.

“I just might, Milo. I mean, because you’re my friend.”

Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you feel something different, too.

His eyes caressed over my face. I got the sense he might be counting every freckle.

A needy sound crawled out from my spirit.

“A friend?” He scoffed, like it was an insult. “You’re the light, Tessa. The goodness I’d never expected. You have any idea what I see when I look at you?”

Could he ever see me the way I saw him? Because every day I spent in his house, the harder it got to pretend like I didn’t want more.

Harder to pretend there wasn’t something that burned between us.

Harder to pin on faked smiles and easy laughter when what I felt wasn’t close to being light.

Not when the man made me want to fly.

We’d both somehow come to sitting fully upright, our legs drawn up so we were facing each other.

Hope lit in the space between us.

A warm, flickering glow.

“I think we kick this plan into gear on Sunday. You come with me to my visitation. Then I’ll talk to my attorney this week to schedule an appointment so we can set things in motion. Are you ready for that?”

“Absolutely,” I promised, because right then, all the concerns and questions I’d had with the girls didn’t seem so important.

We’d figured this out.

Together.

I squeezed his hand tight. “We’ve got this, Milo. We’re a great team.”

A smile tweaked the edge of his distractingly sexy mouth. “Nobody else I’d want to do it with.”

My stomach took a swooping dive.

“I know I’m great and all.” I pinned on a bright smile, and crap, his big palm came up to cup the side of my face. He ran his thumb along my jaw.

My belly twisted with want, and a needy throb pounded between my thighs.

Oh, this man made me feel things I’d never felt before.

“That you are, Little Dove.”

Intensity blazed in the space, a pull tugging between us.

I swallowed down the arousal and pushed myself to broach the topic I really didn’t want to broach. “I think we might have another problem,” I rushed like maybe we could skip right over it.

His entire demeanor darkened. A black storm gathering on the horizon.

Nope.

No skipping for Milo.

“What’s that?”

I attempted to hide it, but fear made a rebound, and a shiver raced down my spine. The confession shook when I set it free. “Karl came to my work tonight.”

Fury flashed through Milo’s face, and every muscle in his body flexed.

The hand on my cheek curled in protection.

Beautiful Beast.

“Did he hurt you?” It was nothing less than a growl.

Frantically, I shook my head. “No. But he threatened us. He saw the ring, and he thinks there was something going on with us when he and I were still together. His ego took a hit, and I don’t think he’s going to let it slide. He warned about pressing charges against you for assault, but I told him if he did, I’d press charges, too. I’m not sure it’s enough to keep him from taking action, though.”

Any upstanding judge would never rule in his favor.

But Karl had connections.

He would twist and manipulate.

Make himself look like the victim in the situation.

Worry fluttered through my being.

He gripped me by both sides of the face.

Powerful.

Fierce.

Pure, bottled mayhem.

I sucked in a shallow breath as every cell in my body came alive and leaned in his direction.

“Told you if he came around you again, things weren’t going to go so well for him.”

“And you absolutely cannot do anything reckless, Milo. We are in this to get your kids back, not so you can end up in jail because of my asshole ex. Promise me.”

My hand found his shirt, and my fingers curled into the fabric that stretched tight across his chest.

His heart ravaged at his ribs, and I could feel his ghosts in the tremor of his hands.

Violence.

It writhed and thrashed where he kept it chained.

He leaned in and grated the words so close to my mouth I could taste them. “Make no mistake, Tessa. I’d burn the fucking world down before I let him get to you.”

Then he stood and was gone.