Chapter 2 Tessa #2
“I am serious,” she teased, sitting up a bit to take another drink. “But honestly, it doesn’t take telepathic talent to feel something’s working on you, honey.”
His expression softened at the term of endearment, which might have been the first time she’d called him that. She hoped it wouldn’t be the last.
He exhaled, slow and heavy. “There’s a woman I’ve been counseling for almost a year. Brace yourself, because it’s tragic.”
So many of his patients had tragic stories. How he faced death, sorrow, and personal loss every day and maintained a great sense of humor was a mystery to her.
“I’m braced,” she assured him.
“Her name’s Morgan and she’s twenty-six. About two years ago, Morgan had a baby girl, named Olive.”
Olive. Tessa swallowed at the mention of a baby with a precious name, dreading the rest of the story. Not the child, please, God, not the child.
Closing her eyes, she whispered, “Go on.”
“It’s not what you think,” he said quickly. “The little girl is fine, but Morgan’s husband and her parents were in a fatal accident on the way to the hospital the morning after Olive was born.”
She gasped, putting her hand to her mouth. “No!”
“Yes,” he said simply. “Obviously, I can tell you all this because it’s public knowledge.”
But how poor Morgan handled the loss probably was not. She waited, still, while he gathered his thoughts.
“She doesn’t have family,” he said. “Her parents are gone, and she had no siblings. Her late husband’s family is basically estranged.
They don’t want anything to do with Morgan or their granddaughter, who they blame for their son’s death, for reasons I will never understand.
Morgan’s very young, not just chronologically but emotionally.
She’s more like a teenager and…” He huffed a breath.
“She’s on very shaky ground and needs more than I can give her. That’s the problem.”
Tessa let out a soft whimper of sympathy. “What will you do?”
“Well, I’m going to tell her the next time I see her—which could be tomorrow, depending on her mood, because I will always make room in my schedule for her—that I have a possible solution.”
“Good,” Tessa said.
“But it’s not perfect,” he replied. “I’ve contacted a psychiatrist colleague of mine who could get her into an inpatient treatment at a facility not far from here, which I believe she really, really needs. And fast. Her insurance will cover most of it, but…”
“Does she need money?” Tessa asked, leaning forward. “Because I’ll help. I really would. I—”
He reached over the table, showing the first smile she’d seen since they got up there. “You’re so sweet.”
She’d been called a lot of things in life, but sweet? She just shrugged. “I’m human, Dusty. I can’t imagine the pain she’s going through.”
“It’s bad,” he acknowledged. “I worry she might…” He didn’t finish, but he didn’t have to. “She’s not stable and needs serious psychiatric help. But I don’t think she’s going to take it.”
“Why not?”
“Because the program requires at least one full month in the facility. She’s afraid—and rightly so—that Olive would become a ward of the state. She’s terrified she’d never get her back.”
“They’d keep a child from her mother?”
“She has a, um, history.” He shook his head.
“I can’t go into that, Tessa, but she’s on shaky ground with that kid.
No one is threatening to take her, but I just don’t see any path forward for her and that’s the problem.
” His voice roughened. “Morgan doesn’t want Olive to end up in the system.
She loves her more than anything, but she knows she’s not in a place to care for her properly right now. ”
They sat in silence, the waves whispering below.
“And this is what’s weighing on you?” Tessa finally asked.
He nodded. “I don’t know how she’ll take the news that I found a place and…Olive…”
“Should stay with us.” The words were out before she really gave it too much thought.
And Dusty whipped his head around. “What?”
She stared at him, trying to gather up a rationale but not sure she had one other than it seemed right.
“We could take care of her for a month,” she said. “How hard can it be?”
He didn’t answer right away, but searched her face in the gold vineyard lights as if he were trying to see if she was kidding.
“You’d…take on a two-year-old for a month?”
“Of course.” Tessa waved a hand like he’d said a weekend.
“I love little girls. I told you I saved Nolie from repeating third grade with her dyslexia. And I have a houseful of Wylies and Lawsons to help. My July is not that busy—well, there’s one wedding, a birthday event, and an anniversary party on the Tessa Wylie Events planning calendar.
But Lacey is itching for more responsibility.
How much trouble could a two-year-old girl actually be? ”
He choked a laugh. “Well, neither one of us knows because I’ve never been a father and you…”
Gave up my son, Roman, for adoption.
And that thought just made the need to do this burn a little brighter.
“I’d love to help her—and you,” she said. “I mean, would we have to qualify or do some kind of home visit?”
“Not if it’s only for a month,” he said, his voice rising just enough to tell her he was considering this crazy idea. “We’d just be, well, babysitters. No legal binding or issues.”
“Then let’s take her.”
“Tessa.” He breathed her name.
“What?”
He got up and sat on the side of her chaise, reaching for her hand. “You’re amazing, that’s what.”
“And I didn’t even wear my short shorts,” she joked, as she always did when the attention was too much to bear.
“I mean it,” he said, leaning closer. “You are…wow. What a good, good heart you have.”
“Tell anyone and my reputation is ruined.” She’d made that joke a few times in her life, too.
Why did she put such a protective wall around herself? She didn’t know and right then…she was starting to feel like it should really come down.
She put her hand on Dusty’s cheek, grazing her thumb over his close-cropped beard.
“I don’t know how good my heart is,” she said, “but it is tender. And I can’t stand for this poor Morgan to have so much pain and grief and a two-year-old to worry about.
Let her get help. Little Olive—how I love that name—can stay upstairs in my apartment with me.
I’ll meet Morgan and if she’s one hundred percent comfortable, I’ll take her.
We can share parenting duties and get our taste of something we never had. ”
He took a slow, deep breath. “Okay.”
“Okay?” She sat up, a smile pulling as she realized just how much she wanted this. “Really?”
“Of course.” He reached for her. “You’re making it very difficult, you know.”
“Making what difficult?”
“Not to…fall.”
She smiled, knowing what he meant. “All part of my evil plan.”
He just shook his head and pressed a kiss on her hair. “Nothing—not one cell in your body—is evil,” he said. “You are good and beautiful and funny and I…”
She held her breath.
“I can’t wait to co-parent with you.”
And let it out with a soft laugh. “It’ll be our next great adventure.”
He pulled her close, and kissed her—slow, grateful, full of promise.
And for the first time in a long while, the future felt wide open.