Chapter 10
Monday night trivia still hit different from the other side of the bar. Teddy pushed his peas around his plate.
“What’s eating you?” Nate asked.
“Nothing.” He flicked a quick glance to the bar. Jessica was there, her hair up, with a few loose curls dancing around her neck.
“If you say so. Did Joan come and see you, Owen? To ask about conveyancing on her place.” Teddy’s ears perked up even though Nate’s question didn’t involve him. He straightened in his seat.
“Joan’s selling?” Teddy asked.
Nate scratched at his beard. “She’s thinking about it. She’s had a good offer out of nowhere.”
“Joan’s pretty cut up about it,” Lulu said, nudging a plate of nachos towards Teddy. “She doesn’t want Jessica and Sam to have to find somewhere else, but the money would be a help to her.”
Teddy’s attention shifted back to the bar where Jessica was loading cocktails onto a tray.
There was an awful lot of responsibility on her shoulders.
More than he’d ever considered because, really, their lives looked nothing alike.
No wonder she wasn’t interested in contesting the will.
Everyone knew how much she loved Joan’s house.
“Hi Teddy,” Kylee said from behind him and his whole body tensed. It had been bad enough at work. Every time he turned around, she was there. He’d stopped eating lunch in the tearoom, preferring to go for a walk.
“Hey,” he said, mostly because Lulu would kick him under the table if he were rude.
“Everyone keeps raving about trivia, so I thought I’d check it out, but I’ve missed the start.” She toyed with the ends of her blonde hair. “Am I too late?”
What a metaphor. If only Kylee would recognise it.
“Are you meeting anyone here? As long as the team’s started, you can jump in any time.” Lulu smiled politely.
Kylee settled her hand on the back of Teddy’s chair, and he leant forward. He’d bet his next paycheck he knew what she was coming.
“I don’t have a team.”
Don’t say it. Don’t say it. The Jameses were a close family. If any family was going to develop simultaneous group telepathy, it would be them. If that could manifest right now, it’d be very helpful. The silence stretched, and Teddy held his breath. They were so close.
“Why don’t you join us?” Eloise offered, gesturing at the empty chair next to Teddy. Damn it. His future sister-in-law’s heart was way too big. Nate and Eloise weren’t engaged, but it was a matter of time. Teddy was sure of it.
“I’d love to! Thanks so much.” Kylee practically dove into the chair and immediately shuffled over, pretending she was looking at the quiz sheet in the middle of the table. Any closer and she’d be sitting in Teddy’s lap.
Sorry, Eloise mouthed to Teddy.
“How are you settling in?” Lulu asked when no one else said anything.
“So well. Your son’s amazing. He’s been really helpful at work and super kind and nice.
My uncle has all these silly rules, and well”—there was that lip wobble again—“Teddy’s got his girlfriend now, but I’m so glad we can be friends.
Although, if they break-up …” Kylee squeezed his arm and gazed at him adoringly. “I’ll be waiting!”
Right, so, message still not received. Awesome.
“That’s … nice,” Alice said, pulling her glasses out of her sparkly handbag.
“What do you know about Teddy’s girlfriend, Kylee?” Lulu asked. “He won’t tell us anything.”
“You’ve brought that on yourself, Mum. You get way too excited,” Nate teased Lulu softly, bumping his shoulder against hers.
Kylee stole a chip off Teddy’s plate. He was going to say something when Lulu pinned him with a warning. Kylee shrugged as she chewed. “Not a lot. He doesn’t talk about her much at work.”
“Because we’re at work.” And they weren’t friends. And Jessica wasn’t really his girlfriend, but soon she could be his wife? Teddy was still wrapping his head around everything.
The next half hour was torture. It was hard to tell if Kylee noticed how quiet and withdrawn the rest of the table became as she kept up a constant stream of chatter. When she excused herself to go to the bathroom, Teddy downed the rest of his beer and started to stand.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Owen said. “You’re not leaving.”
“Unless you and Jessica have plans?” Lulu’s eyes lit up.
Speaking of the potential future Mrs Teddy James, Jessica was winding her way through the tables, her black denim jacket looped over her arm.
“Hi everyone,” Jessica said when she was standing behind Teddy. When she rested her hand on the back of his chair, his first instinct was to lean towards her. “Having a good night?”
“We sure are.” Lulu smiled warmly. “All finished?”
“I am. I was wondering if I could steal this guy for a bit?” She tapped Teddy on the shoulder. His urge to lean towards her intensified, coupling with a mad thought that maybe he could put his hand over hers, feel her palm underneath his.
“You can have him forever,” Lulu quipped.
Jessica flushed, and the heat in Teddy’s cheeks suggested his reaction mimicked hers.
“Oh, hi,” Kylee said from behind them.
“Hey,” Jessica replied, and Teddy stood, angling his body closer to hers.
Teddy didn’t know what to do with his hands. Should he reach for Jessica? How would she react? How would it make him feel? “Kylee, this is Jessica. Jessica, Kylee. Jessica’s my—”
“Girlfriend,” Jessica interjected, slipping her hand into Teddy’s.
Spoiler alert: having Jessica touch him felt great.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Kylee’s tone implied otherwise.
“You too.”
Lulu’s gaze ping-ponged between everyone like she was following a tennis match.
Teddy scratched his beard. “We’re going to take off.”
“I guess I’ll see you again this weekend?” Kylee asked Jessica whose eyebrows rose. “At the company picnic?”
“Um.” Jessica’s eyes were wide and so, so blue. The kind of blue someone could easily get lost in. “I’m working … unfortunately,” she added the last word as though it was an afterthought.
Kylee brightened. “That’s a shame. Don’t worry—I’ll keep Teddy company for you.”
Teddy’s shoulders slumped.
Jessica squeezed Teddy’s hand. “You know what, I can probably take the day off.”
They were only a few steps away from the pub before words started tumbling out of Jessica’s mouth.
Every time she’d seen Teddy, she’d wanted to cringe.
Crawl inside herself and wither away from embarrassment.
They were barely friends despite what Teddy had said, and she’d asked him to marry her.
“I wanted to apologise,” she started, balling her hands into fists so she didn’t wring them together.
“What I suggested was totally out of line. I wasn’t thinking. ”
“It’s not how I expected my first marriage proposal to go,” Teddy replied, and she was relieved to hear his usual jokey tone.
“I’m shocked it was your first.”
“Not as shocked as Mum would be.”
Her shoulders relaxed. This was going to be fine.
Teddy wasn’t the kind of guy to hold a grudge.
“Anyway, I’m sorry. I was panicking because Joan’s going to sell her house, and it’s the first one that’s felt like our home.
I automatically inherit the money when I’m thirty. That’s not that far away.”
She could keep going like this for another five years.
She’d find somewhere else for them to live in Wattle Junction, even if that meant they had to get a smaller place without a yard so she could afford Owen’s fees.
She’d make it work. In quiet moments when life wasn’t so busy, Jessica tried to remind herself to be proud of how she always found a way to make things work.
It wasn’t easy to give herself grace, but she’d keep trying.
“Where’s your car?” Teddy asked when they reached Jessica’s house.
“At the shop. I had to get it towed there yesterday. There’s something wrong with the pistons, and they might have to rebuild the engine or something.
It’ll be fine.” Her little Skoda had been old when she’d bought it, and the mechanic had said the thing no one, least of all a single mother, wanted to hear: that it might not be worth fixing.
She also hadn’t looked too thrilled when Jessica had asked if payment plans were available.
“What are you going to do without a car?” Teddy’s expression was stricken.
“I’ve got my bike.”
“But what about Sam?”
“He doesn’t drive much,” she said, hoping for one of Teddy’s easy smiles, but it didn’t come. Instead, he continued looking at the empty space in the carport where her car usually was.
“You can use my car if you need one.”
There was the sweetness Teddy was almost as famous for as his cheekiness. She smothered the smile that threatened. “The one you use every day to get to work in a town twenty minutes away?”
His jaw ticked. “I could ride. It’s not that far.”
“But you don’t need to, Teddy. I’ll figure it out. Thank you, though.” It wasn’t worth mentioning that she rarely left Wattle Junction.
Teddy’s heavy sigh filled the night air around them. “I always knew that I had it good. But it wasn’t until I started paying attention in the last few weeks that I realised how easy my life is.”
This was an odd segue.
“I live in my brother’s flat and pay cheap rent.
Nate very generously paid for my uni degree, so I don’t have any student debt.
I work hard, but it still feels like maybe I’m not as appreciative of how blessed my life has been, and unintentionally, I’ve hurt people.
Been careless with their feelings. I want to fix that.
Give something back to the universe to try to balance it all out. ”
Oh, Jesus. Jessica had heard this song before. Knew all the words by heart.
“I don’t need your pity, Teddy,” she said softly because even if Teddy’s intentions were pure—and she didn’t doubt they were—pity was still pity.
He walked over to the front verandah of her little cottage. Sam’s gumboots were stacked neatly next to a bucket of plastic dinosaurs. The outside light was on, and the little orb glowed above their heads. “It’s not pity.”
Jessica huffed.
“It’s not. It’s a chance to do something for a friend that will help them. And an opportunity for me to hit pause and reassess how I live my life. It’s hard to believe, but I think everyone who says you can eventually get sick of casual sex might be right.”
This was all getting very deep. Jessica hadn’t meant to send Teddy down the path to an existential crisis. She sank onto the steps. “You’re being too hard on yourself, Teddy. You’re a good guy. Everyone thinks so.”
He sat next to her, angling his body towards hers. “Then let me keep being a good guy and help you. But I do have one condition.”
She steeled herself, chewing on her bottom lip while she waited for Teddy to continue. Was there anything he could ask for that she wouldn’t agree to?
“The marriage has to be a secret. Mum will be devastated if she finds out I got married without her.”
That was easy. “Okay.”
Teddy nodded, and a shadow crossed his face. “How quickly can you get the money you need for the house?”
“My lawyer said it shouldn’t take long once I can provide a marriage certificate.
There isn’t anyone else to contest the will, so we wouldn’t have to be married for more than a year or so.
We might even be able to get an annulment if the money comes through quickly and we don’t consummate the marriage.
Which we wouldn’t. Because it wouldn’t be real.
So there would be no need to, you know.”
Thankfully, Teddy ignored what she’d said and leant forward, resting his elbows on his knees. Even like this, he was still so big. Jessica’s feet were resting on the second step from the top and his were on the ground.
“I don’t know if that’s going to be quick enough. Mum said the buyer is negotiating with Joan.”
The ball of worry that seemed to live in her stomach permanently twinged.
“But I might be able to help. What if I covered the deposit, and when your money comes through, you buy me out?”
Her chest squeezed. “Oh, Teddy. No. Thank you, but that’s too much.”
“It’d be a loan.”
“You’d trust me with that?”
Teddy turned to her, and their gazes locked together. “You’re going to be my wife, Jessica. Can’t trust anymore than that.”
Heat diffused throughout her body. Jessica had already been someone’s wife. And it had never affected her like this when Rob had referred to her as his wife.
“So we’re getting married? And pretending to date?” she asked.
There was the smile she’d been hoping for earlier. “I guess so. Think you can get a day off to come to my company picnic?”
“Of course. Should we …” Jessica paused. “Should we have dinner before that? To go over our plan?”
“Are you asking me on a date, Jessica Sonoto?”
She cleared her throat. “A fake date.”
Keyword: fake.
Just tell that to her heart.