Chapter 6 Tessa #2
Tessa’s eyes widened as her heart seemed to leap into her throat, and realization dawned on her like the sun breaking through clouds. No, no. They’d had one kiss. One amazing, world-melting-away kiss, but that was it.
Suddenly, flashes of memory rushed through her brain like a montage of all the years they’d known each other.
Ryan teasing her. His feigned seductions that she’d always dismissed as games.
Her anger and disgust at him for seemingly having a new girlfriend every time she saw him.
All the times she’d reluctantly gone on blind dates fixed up by her friends and brother, but the guys never measured up to some impossible standard she couldn’t quite define.
Now she realized who she’d been measuring them all against—Ryan!
“Oh no,” Tessa muttered, not meaning to say it out loud.
“Sorry?” Clara said, turning to look at her.
“What?” Tessa gulped, a roaring sound filling her ears. She glanced up and caught Ryan staring at her in a weird, questioning way. “Uh... I just realized the time. I have to get Misty.” She forced herself to concentrate on Clara. “That picture is beautiful, Clara. You have such artistic talent.”
“Thank you, Tessa,” Clara said, and for the first time, she gave Tessa a genuine smile that actually reached her eyes.
It made Tessa frown worriedly as she realized how much Clara seemed to crave praise and validation. That wasn’t good. That kind of desperate need for approval could be dangerous in the wrong circumstances. Like a crush on someone she thought was her hero.
“If Ryan doesn’t want it, I’ll take it,” Tessa offered.
“I want Ryan to have this one,” Clara said firmly, looking back at Ryan. “But I’ll draw you another one. What’s your favorite bird?”
“A bald eagle,” Tessa replied, not really thinking about her answer. “I’m sorry, Clara, but I really do have to go get my dog.”
“Thank you, Clara,” Ryan said, his eyes meeting Tessa’s with an expression of concern. “The picture is gorgeous, and it’s a very nice gesture.” He glanced at it in his hand once again. “But you’ve thanked us enough for saving your work. I’m sure it’s what anyone would have done.”
Clara looked like he’d slapped her again for just a moment, but she recovered quickly, her smile snapping back into place like a mask.
“Of course,” she said. “You just don’t realize how much work you actually saved me that day. I’m on such a tight deadline for my book.”
At that moment, a large bird swooped low over them, calling out loudly with a distinctive croaking cry.
“Oh!” Clara’s eyes lit up with genuine excitement.
“That’s a Great Blue Heron! I’ve been trying to sketch one all week!
” She looked back at Ryan, and Tessa could see the hope in her eyes.
“I have to go see if I can get close enough. It was so nice running into you again, Ryan. Perhaps next time we could get ice cream together.”
With that rather large hint dropped into the conversation like a stone into still water, Clara said her goodbyes and hurried off toward the pond where the heron had landed.
“Is everything okay?” Ryan asked Tessa as soon as Clara was out of earshot.
“Yes,” Tessa said quickly, too quickly. “I... uh... I just have to get Misty and then get the bread that Lori wanted me to get, and if you don’t get to the bakery in time, they sell out of the good loaves and...”
“Is that why you’re running away so suddenly?” Ryan interrupted. “Or is it because of this?”
Before Tessa realized what he was about to do, he pulled her to him and kissed her again. She started to protest, her hands coming up to push against his chest, but her treacherous body melted into his instead, her fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt as she kissed him back.
When they finally came up for air, both breathing hard, Ryan looked at her with an intensity that made her knees weak.
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he said softly. “From the first moment I met you, when your mother moved into Seabird Cottage, I knew you were the one.”
Tessa was stunned by his admission. Her mind reeled back to that time. Maggie was still a baby, not even a year old, and her husband had just left them for someone younger and more exciting. She’d been devastated, exhausted, and determined never to let anyone hurt her like that again.
And she’d seen Ryan, and he’d been everything she was against. Gorgeous. Charming. And seemingly with a different woman every time she visited her mother, at least until he’d gotten engaged to that awful Wendy woman.
She gave herself a mental shake, trying to process what he’d just said.
“Are you at a loss for words?” Ryan asked, teasing her softly. “I never thought I’d see the day when I left Tessa Ryder speechless.”
“Ryan...” Tessa’s voice came out rough and scratchy, and she had to clear her throat. “This is crazy.”
“Why is it crazy?” Ryan asked, his hands still resting on her waist. “I’ve been in love with you for so long that I don’t see it as crazy at all. Unless you don’t return my feelings.”
Wow. That was direct and so very Ryan, Tessa thought. But then again, she preferred people to be that way. If more of the people she cross-examined in court and even her own clients were that straightforward, her life would be so much easier.
“You know it’s not just me that would be in a relationship,” Tessa said carefully.
“There’s Maggie as well, and...” She swallowed hard.
“And I’ve stayed single all these years because I don’t want someone to come into her life for us to fall in love with him, only to have our hearts broken when the next woman who takes your fancy comes along.
” She looked at him. “I can handle that, but Maggie… she doesn’t deserve that.
She’s only ten. I have to protect her heart.
If I ever did have a relationship, it would have to be with someone stable, you know.
Not someone whose interest would be swayed by the next beautiful face that came along. ”
“Is that what you think of me?” Ryan asked, and his hands dropped from her waist as he pushed himself back away from her. Now he looked like she’d just slapped him. “Really?”
“Ryan...” Tessa started, but he stopped her with a raised hand.
“Answer the question, Tessa,” Ryan said, and she could hear both anger in his voice and see hurt flashing in his eyes.
“Is that what you really think of me? After what I went through three years ago? After you were the one who came to New York to help me when Wendy tried to kill me after I broke off the engagement?”
“I came to help you with the legal matters and because I was your friend,” Tessa said, but even as she said it, she realized now that it had been much more than that.
She’d known from the moment Ryan introduced her to Wendy that the woman wasn’t a nice person.
But Ryan had teased her mercilessly, saying she was jealous.
That had angered her, and she’d told him he’d find out the hard way what Wendy was really like.
Then he did find out, and she’d felt guilty about that. And relieved, a small voice at the back of her head admitted.
Ryan stood pushing himself off the bench and stared at her for several long moments, and she watched as the picture of the bird in his hand got progressively more crumpled in his grip.
“You’re crumpling that beautiful sketch,” Tessa pointed out, desperate to break the awful tension.
He frowned, looked down at the ruined picture, and then shoved it at her.
“Here, you can have it,” he said flatly. “I dislike birds anyway.”
Tessa took it carefully, trying to smooth out some of the creases as she stood up in front of him.
“Ryan,” she said, her heart going wild in her chest. “Please, can we just talk about this?”
“About what, Tessa?” Ryan said, his jaw set, his eyes dark with anger and pain. “About the fact that I just told you I’ve loved you for longer than I can remember, and you shot me down because you think I’m some kind of Casanova that you can’t trust with your heart or your child?”
“No,” Tessa denied quickly. “That’s not what I—”
“It’s exactly what you meant, Tessa,” Ryan interrupted, his voice hard. “You know, not everyone is your ex-husband. No matter how hard you try to push them into the same box as him in order to protect yourself, using your daughter as your shield.”
The words hit her like a physical blow. He glanced at his wristwatch.
“I have to go get my truck,” he said shortly. “They’re probably done with the window by now.”
With that, he stepped around her, giving her a wide berth, and stormed off across the park.
“Ryan!” Tessa called out, spinning around to go after him.
Before she could take more than two steps, a hand clamped over her mouth and nose from behind, pressing a cloth against her face that reeked of something chemical and sickeningly sweet.
The fumes burned her nostrils and made her eyes water instantly.
An arm like a steel band wrapped around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides and lifting her slightly off the ground so her feet could barely touch the grass.
Tessa tried to scream, but the sound was muffled completely by the hand and cloth. She struggled, kicking backward and twisting her body, trying to break free from the iron grip that held her, but whoever had grabbed her was impossibly strong and knew exactly how to restrain her.
The world began to tilt and spin around her as the fumes from the cloth permeated her senses.
Her limbs grew heavy and uncooperative, her struggles becoming weaker and more uncoordinated with each passing second.
She felt giddy and light-headed, as if she were floating, and her vision started to blur at the edges, darkening like a tunnel closing in.
She tried to hold her breath, tried to fight against the encroaching darkness, but her lungs were already burning from the chemical assault and her body was betraying her, going limp despite her mind’s desperate commands to keep fighting.
The last thing Tessa was aware of before the darkness pulled her under completely was being dragged backward, away from the path where Ryan had disappeared, and into the shadows beneath the trees