CHAPTER 18 #2
“I’ll make it up to you later,” she says with a suggestive whisper, and he smiles back at her, and her tense shoulders finally relax. Smiles haven’t been easy to come by this past week, and when she does finally get them from him she melts.
“Out of the way, Kelly!” Katie says, pushing Tristan back and taking Tessa’s hand. “Come on! Come sit with me and talk!”
Tessa giggles and let’s Katie pull her inside, the heavy topic of what Tessa discovered today suddenly forgotten.
“Well, well, well,” Tessa’s head whips around at the unmistakable voice of Jordan Kelly, and the look on his face instantly puts her at ease.
He’s smiling shyly, thank God, and looks just as much of a grizzly bear as he did when she was 20 and he was 22 getting ready to graduate and play in the NFL.
“Hi, Jordan,” she says, her voice coming out smaller than she had intended.
Jordan takes a few steps towards Tessa and envelops her in an unexpected bear hug, crushing her to his chest, causing a goofy grin to break out across her face.
She allows herself to hug Jordan back, feeling the familiar warmth that is a Kelly hug, and smiles sweety at him when they finally step away from each other.
“I’m really happy to see you,” Jordan says, giving her shoulder a rough pat. “And I always felt badly about how I spoke to you the last day we talked. I was an asshole, and I’m sorry.”
“I’ve never gotten an apology that sincere from you,” Katie whines, crossing her arms in defiance.
“Shit, me neither,” Tristan chimes in.
“You weren’t an asshole,” Tessa says. “You were protecting your brother. Tristan is lucky to have a brother who loves him that much. You did make me cry, though,” she adds with a teasing wink.
“You made my girlfriend cry?” Tristan says, half serious, half teasing. Tessa’s heart palpitated at the word girlfriend. They hadn’t discussed anything beyond them being exclusive, which they both assumed was grown up terms for boyfriend and girlfriend.
“And I feel bad about it,” Jordan retorts, holding his hands up in surrender.
“I’m so happy you guys are still together,” Tessa says, changing the subject quickly. “And I see you’ve been busy. Tristan was telling me this is baby number 3?” Tessa asks, gently rubbing Katie’s growing bump.
“He’s an animal, Tessa,” Katie says dryly. “He hates it when I’m not pregnant.”
Tessa laughs and her cheeks blush, her eyes glued to the floor, but she could still feel Tristan’s heated gaze on her skin.
They hadn’t said a word to each other about wanting kids, but Tristan refused to finish anywhere but inside of Tessa, and there was a primal look in his eyes whenever he did it that made her feel like she could melt into a puddle at his feet.
Tessa shook the thought away, really not needing to get turned on at the thought of Tristan getting her pregnant, especially in front of his brother, who surely was noticing the intense blush of her cheeks.
When she did finally look up at Tristan that primitive look was in his eyes that she was just thinking about, and she blushed even harder.
I must be ovulating, she thought.
“Anyway, we wanted to come and give Tristan some love,” Jordan said, sitting on the couch, which everyone else followed. “Something like this is never easy.”
Tessa’s heart sped up again at the reminder of the positive PED test, and she took a heavy seat next to Tristan.
“Actually, I have something to tell you.”
Tristan immediately looked at Tessa, worry and concern pouring out of his green eyes.
He placed his long arm along the back of the couch as she sat perched on the edge, turning her body to face his.
He noticed that her fingers were clutching anxiously at the hem of her shirt, and he reached out one of his hands to cover both of hers, urging her nerves to calm.
“What is it, baby?” he asked gently.
Tessa looked over her shoulder at Jordan and Katie who were sitting just as anxiously, and Tessa gave them a smile.
“I want you guys to hear this too. Maybe you can help me figure out what our next move is.”
“Tessa, spit it out honey, you’re making me nervous,” Tristan said.
Tessa nodded and took a deep breath before bringing her eyes up to Tristan’s.
“When I was at the facility early this morning, it was dead quiet, no one else was there yet. I walked past Dr. Hines’ office and overheard him on the phone. Tristan, he was talking to someone on the phone about tampering with a drug test.”
Tristan immediately straightened up and looked over at his brother who scooted to the edge of his seat.
“You’re shitting me,” Tristan said, and Tessa shook her head no.
“No, I stood there and listened to the whole conversation. He was talking to someone about only agree to tamper with one test and not doing another unless the other person upheld their end of the deal.”
“What deal?” Jordan said.
“It’s two people fucking with me?” Tristan asked, his mind immediately racing with possibilities.
“Tristan…” Tessa said gently, placing her warm hand on his forearm. “I heard him say Kiana’s name multiple times.”
The room went deadly silent and Tessa shifted in her seat uncomfortably.
“That crazy bitch,” Katie’s deep voice was the one to break the silence.
“I overheard everything, baby,” Tessa said softly. “He agreed to tamper with your test if she had sex with him.”
“Ugh! Gross!” Katie exclaimed and Jordan chuckled.
“Holy shit, she fucked the old man? Just to get back at Tristan? She is insane,” Jordan says. “How you didn’t end up baby trapped by that crazy woman is a miracle, Trist.”
“I never fucked her without a condom,” he said quickly.
“I knew she was crazy from day one. I thought it was just typical cleat chaser craziness, you know? But she’s certifiably unhinged.
I fucking knew she would do some shit like this,” Tristan sighs heavily and hangs his head low.
“I just never had much motivation to actually break things off with her. I figured it wasn’t a big deal to stay with her if she was threatening me because all I cared about was football.
But then the universe put you right in front of me,” Tristan picks his head up and looks at Tessa who has an apprehensive but empathetic look on her face.
“And that was what I needed to make the clean break.”
“Gotta give it to her, at least she follows through on the crazy,” Jordan said with a laugh. “So that’s it then? We can tell Rice and Brett that the test was tampered with and he’ll get reinstated.”
“I can’t just walk in there with my word,” Tessa says firmly. “They can’t do anything about it if I just say I heard something. We need to figure out how to get definitive proof.”
“Okay,” Tristan said with a nod, deep in contemplation.
“She’s flying in on Saturday,” Tessa said, causing everyone to look at her. “She wants another test to pop positive and Hines said she would have to put out again. So she’s flying out on Saturday to meet with him. There’s got to be a way for us to get some physical evidence.”
“Ugh, grossssss,” Katie whined again at the thought of having sex with a 65-year-old.
“I always thought you were a dumbass for getting involved with her in the first place,” Jordan said. “But thank God you wrapped it up with her. You might have ended up with five babies and five diseases.”
Tessa looked over at Tristan and squeezed his arm.
“Can we stop talking about my boyfriend fucking the crazy girl, please?” she said, and Tristan chuckled beside her.
“You’re cute when you’re jealous,” he whispered into her ear and she swatted him away.
“So can we figure out how we’re going to do this, please?” Tessa asked impatiently.
“After Tristan orders me a large pineapple pizza,” Katie said, rubbing her protruding belly. “I’m starving.”
“I’m not watching you eat pineapple pizza,” Jordan said with a grunt.
“It’s your fault! You put this baby in me and now I suddenly crave fruit on pizza.”
Tessa smiled wistfully as they bantered, her gaze fixated on Katie’s growing belly.
Tristan watched Tessa closely, feeling that pull in his chest to finally tell her that he loves her and that he wants all of those things with her.
His big challenge was going to be how to convince her not to run from it, and that they could somehow make a long distance relationship work.
He didn’t care what it took, he just knows he needs to be with her, and that this time, it will be forever.
The four of them shared a cozy and informal dinner together at Tristan’s kitchen table, alternating between catching up, mostly Jordan and Katie with Tessa, and discussing how they would get irrefutable evidence against Dr. Hines and Kiana.
After brainstorming some ideas together, they ultimately decided that Tessa would consult with Tristan’s lawyer in the morning to see what the best route to take was, but they all agreed on one thing: the truth would come out this weekend, and Tristan would be immediately allowed back on the field.
“I can’t even tell you how good it was to see you again,” Katie said to Tessa as the four of them stood on the front porch saying their goodbyes. The sun had long since set over the horizon and the chill in the fall air was biting.
Tessa quickly embraced Katie in a tight hug and then gave her belly a Phil.
“I wish you guys could stay longer,” Tessa said dejectedly. Something about having Jordan and Katie here felt so familiar and comfortable, like all of this was real and unbreakable.
“Me too, but Jordan has practice tomorrow,” Katie answered with a sad smile.
“Might be my last season,” Jordan chimes in, jiggling the kay keys in his hand. “Something tells me we’ll spend plenty of time together in the off season.”
Tessa smiled and gave Jordan another hug, even though they had already shared about 10. Her heart had always hurt at the memory of their last phone call, so having him here was intensely healing for that part of her soul.