2. Tessa #2
“Times were tough back then,” he said, lifting a shoulder. “They came on some hard times, and in an effort to bring them around, she sold the necklace. Broke her heart, too. It was one of the only things she brought with her from Ireland.”
“That’s terrible.” Giving up the country you were raised in was hard enough, but to lose one of the only things you brought from home, especially one so beautiful, had to be painful.
“Every now and then, I would search the internet for one. At first, I was trying to find a duplicate, just so we could have some version of it back in our family. But then… I got lucky.”
Tessa peeked over at the screen as her father struck a few more keys, bringing up an email.
“I’ll spare you the details, but long story short, I found this antique shop in upstate New York that had a version of it. Only when we started talking, and they started telling me about the wear marks on it, did I realize that I had accidentally found Grammie Alice’s necklace.”
“But… How?” Tessa asked. “How did you even know where to look?”
“At first, I was just surfing the internet, casting a wide net anywhere that might have a necklace like that. But I found a box of her old letters and started to go through them. She had a friend who wound up marrying an antique dealer before they moved out to New York. I took a chance on it.”
Tessa’s ears perked up, hearing her grandmother had old letters her father still had. “You must have bought the necklace then?”
“Well, that’s where things get a little sticky,” her father said, turning his chair toward her. “When I contacted them, they had no record of it being sold. They figured that it must be somewhere in their storage room. I offered to pay double fair market value for it.”
“That’s a good deal,” Tessa said. It was a beautiful piece to start with, and if it had appreciated over time, double the cost would net someone a good profit, for sure.
“The problem is, they’re a small shop without anyone to spare to hunt for the piece. But they did say that if we wanted to come up, we could have free rein to look for it.”
“That’s fantastic,” Tessa said. “So, are you planning on going up?”
“Here’s the thing,” he said, leaning forward on his desk. “I have something for your mother for our anniversary, but I’d love to be able to give this to her as well. And for that to happen, someone needs to go and get it this week.”
“Dad,” Tessa said, doing quick math in her head like always.
“We’ve got less than a week until the anniversary party, and it’ll probably take three or four days to get it.
One day to drive up, one day to drive back, plus a day or so to hunt through storage.
Do you really think we can get it in time? ”
“Not me,” he said. “I was hoping I might be able to convince you.”
“Wait, what?” she asked, not following at all.
“I can’t leave, not for four days anyway. It’ll make your mother suspicious, and I want this to be a surprise for her.”
“And you want me to do it?” she asked, wondering why he chose her for this task.
Certainly, he could have hired it out? He could have employed a courier, perhaps given them extra money for the storage room search.
She’d never made a trip like this on her own before.
Any traveling she’d ever done was with her family and, while she had the basic gist of how it was done, the idea of traveling to a place she’d never been, all on her own, was a little unnerving.
Still, this was her father. If there was anyone she’d do it for, it was him.
“You’re one of the only people I’d trust with this.” He nodded. “I loved my grandmother dearly, and getting this back would honor her memory. Giving it to your mother would mean everything to me.”
Tessa’s heart pinched at her father’s declaration.
Their thirty-fifth anniversary was coming up on the Fourth of July, a longstanding joke her father made that the whole country was celebrating their marriage (Thanks for the party, USA!).
But more than that, her father was still head over heels in love with her mother.
She often caught them kissing in a corner or giving eyes to one another across the room.
So, of course, he would want to give her something of this magnitude for a milestone in their lives.
“Alright, I’ll do it,” Tessa said. “But I’d like to take a look at those letters of Grammie Alice’s.” The idea of being able to read directly from her grandmother’s penned words was too good an opportunity to pass up. It’d be the only chance she’d have to get to know the woman one-on-one.
He sat back, studying her. “You know, I thought you were going to ask if you could take Greer along with you.”
“What would make you think that?” she asked. “You know there’s nothing real going on between us.”
“I know that,” he said, completely privy to the plan that Andrea had come up with for getting Tessa free from her ex. “But it’s a long trip. Might be nice to have some company.”
“Greer is on a strict training schedule,” she said, which was generally her cover.
And it wasn’t like it was untrue. Greer’s job was fighting, and he was very good at it.
You didn’t get that way by skipping work.
Still, for a brief moment, she let her mind consider the possibility of him coming along.
No question, he’d make the trip a lot of fun.
“Ask him anyway, you might be surprised at the answer,” her father said, standing up from his desk and striding over to a locked filing cabinet. “He seems like a nice enough kid. And of course I’d cover everything for him too.”
Punching in a code, the top drawer released, and deep down inside her father lifted out a shoebox lined with yellowed envelopes. Carrying it back over to her, she found herself rising out of her seat to meet him.
“Is this them?” she wondered, taking the box and sifting the tips of her fingers over the neatly lined letters.
“I had to keep this all under wraps. Your mother’s a sneak,” he said, chuckling.
“You won’t find a whole lot of salacious details in there, though.
Back then, if you didn’t want it on the front of the newspaper, you didn’t put it down on paper.
But you can read between the lines a little bit, get a feel for her. I know I did.”
Tessa smiled up at her dad, who had been raised by his grandmother and grandfather. “I know you miss her.”
He smiled sadly and nodded. “Every day.”
“I won’t let you down,” she promised, leaning in to give him a hug. “I’ll get her necklace back for you.”
“If it’s there, I know you’ll find it,” he said.
And as Tessa held onto one of her most favorite people in the world, she began to plan out the trip in her mind.
She needed to decide which car to take, not to mention book a hotel to stay in while she was there.
She’d need to map out gas stations and service plazas, food delivery, and restaurant availability.
Also, outfits for each possible weather occurrence.
Clothes for when it was cold, or blazing hot as it could be in the summer.
Work clothes to crawl around an old storage room in, and traveling clothes that would be comfortable to drive in.
But she’d get there. She had a plan.
Even if so far, her plans hadn’t worked out quite the way she thought they would.