Chapter Twenty-two
Tess had dropped Bree off with a stilted agreement that it had been a good day and they’d meet tomorrow evening.
The fact that again tonight, Bree had not wanted to be with her—that was the bottom line she’d focused on, and it had hit her harder than she wanted to admit.
She’d driven home in a state of despair.
She felt as if she’d scored another rebuff—she knew what We need to talk meant.
She fed Thelma and Louise, then crawled into bed after she showered.
The cats weren’t going to let her pull the pillow over her head and close the world out until she’d spent some time paying attention to them.
Thelma crawled into her lap and kneaded the blanket until Louise charged across the mattress and landed on top of Thelma.
They rumbled with contentment as they took turns stretching out next to Tess and headbutting her hand until she stroked them.
Their purring usually comforted Tess, but tonight, even their antics didn’t lift her spirits.
Tess chewed herself out for feeling so let down.
It was really more than wanting Bree in her bed tonight, even if that had crossed her mind several times today.
She knew that the commitment had only been for sharing this raffle prize day with Bree, but she’d let herself want more than that.
Worse, she only had herself to blame. Bree had been clear that a relationship was not on her agenda with all the change in her life.
She’d hear Bree out, but she was upset with herself because she should never have let herself feel this way. She’d spent decades learning the lessons of protecting herself. Why couldn’t she just ignore that obnoxious hole in her heart instead of setting herself up to make it bigger?
The best sleep Tess had was from five to nine a.m. because before that she hadn’t managed to doze off—and four hours certainly wasn’t enough.
She ran on her treadmill but couldn’t convince herself to drag her exhausted derriere on another virtual climb up Kilimanjaro, so she settled for a Welsh coastal path.
Then she read the Sunday news and fretted until it was time for Thelma’s vet appointment.
Her upcoming meeting with Bree twisted in her gut, leaving her nervous and without an appetite all day.
Tess was back home from the vet by five o’clock and opened a can of chicken noodle soup.
She needed to eat something, and she hoped it would settle her stomach.
She tried to focus and absorb more details of the court operations budget, but she couldn’t concentrate on the numbers.
She was nervous and tired. Not the Sunday state of mind she’d been hoping for after the raffle prize day with Bree the day before.
She’d been hoping for something a lot more romantically optimistic.
Finally fed up with the anxiety that had worn on her since her parting from Bree last night, Tess headed out to her car at six thirty p.m. She wore what she’d put on after she’d cleaned up from her treadmill run—jeans, a white T-shirt, and a black blazer.
She refused to go out of her way to look good for Bree this evening.
It was getting dark, and so she turned on her headlights as she backed out of her driveway.
The Steam Stop was about a fifteen-minute drive, so because she had plenty of time, she decided to take the longer, less traveled route to the coffee shop and avoid the heavier congestion through the main part of town.
She didn’t want to deal with traffic this evening.
As Tess drove down the darkened road on the far edge of town, she looked in her rearview mirror.
There were headlights rapidly coming up from behind.
She tightened her grip on the steering wheel, full attention on her driving.
She continued to glance in her rearview mirror.
Tess realized the vehicle was approaching way more rapidly than seemed wise, and then its headlights illuminated the interior of her car.
While she was considering that it must be a large van or pickup truck with the headlights so high, the lights switched to high beam and Tess eased off the gas.
Maybe they just wanted to pass. She slowed down, but the vehicle just continued to trail her.
Apprehension flooded Tess as she attempted to breathe evenly and her heart rate rose.
She pulled as far to the right as she could manage and still remain on the roadway.
She slowed but didn’t want to stop when she was out here alone.
The driver brought the vehicle within a few feet of Tess’s bumper and settled there.
Tess strained to see the road ahead with the glare of the headlights behind her.
She shifted her rearview mirror to diminish the obstruction to her vision, but she wanted to maintain some view of what was happening behind her. They could pass, but they didn’t.
She traveled a few hundred yards with blinding lights in her rearview mirror while her pursuer rode her bumper.
Then the driver pulled alongside and paralleled her Mercedes.
The vehicle came within a foot of her driver’s door, and she was afraid she was going to be pushed off the road.
All Tess could discern as she glanced sideways out her window was that it was definitely a truck with a dark-colored passenger door—at least the blinding lights were no longer reflecting in her mirror.
The vehicle’s window was high enough that she had no view inside.
Just after the truck inched even closer and Tess gripped the steering wheel for impact, headlights approached from the opposite direction.
The truck driver delivered a few short honks, pulled in front of her, and then finally sped off before there was a head-on crash.
The approaching car slowed, its horn still blaring, and then it continued on its way in the opposite direction.
She hadn’t been able to read the truck’s license plate in the moments she could see it, the identification obscured by mud or something else.
Out here in the dark and alone, Tess battled to control her shaking. The rapid draw of her breath alternated with the loud whoosh of exhalation, and those were the only sounds that filled her car. She decided that she needed to pull over.
She took her right hand off the steering wheel and touched her scar. She rubbed it, thinking of the incident that had come so close to killing her. Her heart wasn’t simply hammering in her chest—she could feel her distress pounding in her ears.
Tess concentrated on regulating her breathing. When she had her terror under control, she pulled her phone out from her blazer pocket and called Stella Myers.
After describing what had happened and assuring the police chief that she was unhurt, they agreed that Tess would file a report tomorrow, but that she didn’t need the chief tonight. Chief Myers said she’d have one of her on-duty officers cruise that end of town, so Tess drove on to the meeting.
The digital clock on her dashboard showed that Tess was over ten minutes late when she finally pulled in at the Steam Stop. She wondered if Bree had waited for her.
Bree was visible at the isolated table in the small back room of the coffee shop. It was the same place where they’d sat before when the agenda had been an effort at a reset of their relationship after Tahoe. That agenda certainly hadn’t been accomplished, mostly due to their chemistry.
Tess wondered where their relationship was tonight, only a single night after they’d shared the best day of whale watching and an evening of dinner and dancing and kissing. Her mood had certainly changed.
“Are you okay?” Bree asked. “You look hassled. And you’re rarely late.” Bree’s brow was furrowed, and there was no denying the concern on her face.
Tess nodded but remained silent. She was reaching her limit, but she wasn’t going to tell Bree that.
She’d decided as she’d finished the drive that she just wanted to hear what Bree had to say, why she’d stopped a romantic evening in its tracks, even though she’d given so many signals that she also felt that they’d grown so much closer.
Tess didn’t think that she’d misread that, so maybe their growing closeness had triggered Bree to decide to call this meeting and follow through with her belief that she wasn’t ready for a new relationship.
To end things. All Tess could do was try to hold herself together.
Bree nodded back. “Let me get you a drink. Coffee or tea or something else?”
“A green tea’s fine.” Tess waited while Bree collected the tea.
She didn’t believe that threat out there on the road had been random.
Not after she’d been shot, and someone seemed to be toying with Bree too—the money bag, the flat tires—maybe even because of her.
She didn’t know what the danger was or who was behind it. But first, she’d hear Bree out.
“Here you go.” Bree set the tea on the table.
“Thanks.” Tess took a deep breath to calm herself.
“It’s been a long day, so why don’t you tell me what’s going on.
We both know that we’ve grown close, even with those reasons why we shouldn’t.
So I need to know what else is going on with you.
You wanted this talk.” Tess knew her tone was challenging, but she was on the verge of falling apart.
Well, she wasn’t going to do that in front of Bree.
She carefully took a sip of her tea and waited.
“Tess.” Bree nodded and then looked at her. “Please hear me out. I know I’ve come across as inconsistent. Not doing a great job of avoiding our connection, our chemistry. Actually embracing our connection, our chemistry. Then seeming to back off.”