3. Greer #2
“It’s okay, it happened long before I was born,” she said. “My dad says I look just like her, only my hair is blonde and hers was black.”
“Go on,” Greer said, loving the way that she seemed to light up from the inside when she talked about things she was passionate about.
“She came over from Ireland with her family when she was a young woman. Apparently, she was great with numbers and had a really big personality. She was known as a person who loved big.”
“Like someone else I know,” Greer said, giving her a fleeting wink. A beautiful blush began to crawl up her neck and splash across her cheeks. “Your dad said you were up here planning a trip. That he was sending you to pick something up for him in New York?”
“Yes,” she said, turning to dig around in a box of photographs next to her. Pulling out a fistful, she passed through them quickly like a Vegas card dealer, until she found what she was looking for. “There. See the necklace she’s wearing in this picture?”
Greer leaned forward as she did, sliding into her personal space under the guise of taking a closer look.
He could feel the warmth radiating off of her skin, and taking a deep breath, her scent filled his lungs.
Even her perfume smelled classy, sophisticated.
Something light and floral with a sidecar of all things Tessa.
Taking a look at the picture she held, he realized he was staring at a wedding photo. The groom stood in a black suit close to a bride in a white dress and veil, holding her like he cherished her. In turn, she looked relaxed. Happy.
Clearly, they cared for one another deeply.
“Oh, wow,” he said, looking at the gold, heart-shaped pendant around the bride’s neck. It was certainly an eye-catching piece of jewelry. “It’s beautiful.”
“It’s something she brought with her from Ireland.
She sold it shortly after they got married,” Tessa said, her brow furrowing slightly as she sat back.
“I’ve been reading through her letters, and apparently, they fell on hard times when the business my grandfather was working for closed down.
I guess the owners were into some shady deals, and because of that, nobody wanted to hire him. ”
“What’d they end up doing?” he asked, sitting back and wrapping his arm around his propped-up knee, totally invested in this story now.
“Well, she sold the piece to a friend of hers who married an antique dealer. They gave her a good price, and she was able to make the money stretch until he was finally hired again. But I guess when she tried to get the necklace back, it was gone.”
“Did they know where?” Greer wondered.
“She never said in her letters.” Tessa shook her head.
“But I think that’s how my father ended up reaching out to them.
It’s been a few generations, but the family still owns the antique shop, and they said that even though my great-grandmother was told it wasn’t available, they have no record of it ever being sold. ”
“How is that possible?” Greer asked.
“No idea.” Tessa shrugged. “But the important thing is that they suspect that it’s in their storage.
They’re still a small, family-run business, and they don’t have enough people to spare someone to go look for it, but they told my dad that if we wanted to come up, they’d give us free rein to search.
He wants to give it to my mom for their anniversary, so he asked me to go and pick it up. ”
“Tess, I don’t like the idea of you going up there all alone,” he began, voicing the concern he had the moment her father brought it up to him. “Can you wait until Thursday? Wednesday night even?”
Tessa looked uneasy. “I’m not sure. We’re already really cutting it close, having to go this week. I’m not sure I can hold off any longer.”
“Let me come with you,” Greer asked, scooting aside a pile of paperwork and inching closer to her. He reached out for her hands, needing more than anything to have her full attention. “Going alone is dangerous.”
“That’s not true,” she argued. “It’s just an overnight trip.”
“Nothing is simple when you have a stalker watching your every move,” Greer said. “Listen, Coach has given us a long weekend for the holiday. I’m off Friday through Monday, and if you really want, I can probably cut out Thursday too. It’s what, a couple of hours off?”
“It’s a four-hour drive,” she said, already deep into planning the trip.
“Okay, four hours,” he said. “If we leave late on Wednesday, we can get up there for the night, and I can come help you sort through whatever storage they have to find this necklace.”
“I don’t know,” she said, wrestling with her thoughts, if her fidgeting fingers were any indicator. “Wouldn’t you rather be doing something else? You guys don’t get a lot of days off.”
“We don’t,” he assured her, stroking his thumbs across her knuckles. “But a spontaneous trip out of state sounds fun. I’ve never been to that part of New York before, and I could use the break. I bet you could too.”
She cracked a smile at that notion. “I really could use a break from everything.”
“Atta girl,” he praised, shuffling to get his feet underneath him.
As he rose, he helped her to stand, being mindful of the piles of letters she had all around her.
“Wait until Wednesday. That’ll give you time to plan everything out, and then we can go together.
Between the two of us, we can find the necklace in half the time, and be home with plenty of time to spare. ”
“I’m not sure about that,” she said, glancing down at the hands he still held onto.
He noticed that she didn’t try to pull away.
“C’mon,” he said softly. “Give it a chance. I bet you’ll see we make a great team.”
He could practically hear her thoughts as she hesitated, her fingers fidgeting in his once more.
“Okay. But only because it gives me more time to plan.”
“You can plan as long as you like,” he said. “But I’m not sure it’ll be all that complicated. Ride up, search, ride back. Simple.”
She cocked her head at him. “You’ve never planned a thing in your life, have you, Greer?”
“Not if I can help it,” he said, grinning.
Unable to stop himself, and apparently on a desperate mission to prove how spontaneous he was, he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her in for a gentle kiss.
There was absolutely no reason for it. They weren’t in public, and cameras weren’t watching.
He just wanted to share it with her, something just for the two of them.
When he felt her whole body tense in shock, he wondered if he’d gone too far.
But just as quickly, she relaxed. Keeping it quick, as God only knew what he’d get himself into if he kept going, he stepped back to take her in.
He felt a great sense of satisfaction at her cheeks blushing in response, her chest rising and falling.
Breathless.
“Sometimes, things are better left unplanned,” he said with a smile.