14. Tessa #2
“Good,” he said, grinning wider. “Because I love you, too.”
“Oh, yeah?” she said, too terrified to open her eyes, even if his smile had now infected her own. “Prove it.”
“Oh, I’ll prove it,” he said, pulling her close as he easily pushed her tray away, climbing over her.
His weight pinned the comforter to her, and subsequently to the bed, pressing her down further into the mattress.
She knew she was completely trapped, but in the best possible way.
Given what Greer did for a living, anyone else in her position would be terrified.
But she got to see a side of him that very few did. Loving, tender, careful in all aspects. And it made her want to give herself to him, completely.
Which she did, for the next two hours.
“Tired, sweetheart?” Greer asked as she leaned against his strong chest. They’d been on the train for hours (and hours and hours), and she’d been watching the same sort of landscape fly by the windows the entire time. Railroad depots. Tree line. Railroad tracks. Over and over and over again.
“So tired,” she admitted, snuggling into him further. She was under his arm, her ear to his heart, and he’d been holding her for so long she was pretty sure his arms were probably numb.
Hers were, wrapped around his middle. But there wasn’t a chance in the world she was going to stop anytime soon. Even if the hard plastic seats were rendering everything else they touched on her body numb, too. Greer was just too good to pass up.
She craned her neck up to face him. “Do you think we’ll make it in time?”
It was a dread that she’d been pondering for hours now.
They got themselves packed in record time, leaving everything they didn’t need in the trunk of her parents’ car.
The garage Greer had talked to promised to have a tow truck over later on that day, and they would call next week after they’d had a chance to look it over.
In the meantime, they managed to book a rideshare down to Brunswick, walking into an old-fashioned brick terminal building to catch the train back to Boston.
Tessa watched the time like a hawk as they sat on the train, waiting for it to go.
She pored over the subway alerts as they traveled, monitoring the T to see if it was running on time.
She knew they’d have to race to get to the Green Line, which would probably be busy at the time of day they were traveling.
“I think so?” Greer said, a small bit of hesitancy in his voice as he settled back against his seat, taking her with him. “It’s not a guarantee, but it doesn’t mean anything changes for us. We still try.”
“Yes, we will,” Tessa agreed, feeling her phone buzz in her pocket. Sitting up slightly, hating to give up her comfy spot, she reached for her phone and opened her messaging app.
Good news! I got a hold of Anne, and she has no problem letting go of the necklace. She’s called the gallery, and the general manager is boxing the piece up as we speak. She’s leaving early today, but will leave it in the security office for you.
We can’t thank you enough!
“Tierney was able to get a hold of her friend,” Tessa said.
“What’d she have to say?” Greer wondered, leaning forward to see her phone better.
Tessa lifted the device up, settling back against him. “Says Anne is more than willing to take the piece out. She’s called the gallery, and the general manager is leaving it with security for us to pick up.”
“Easy peasy,” Greer said, though she was sure it was meant to settle her nerves rather than state the obvious.
When a voice came over the loudspeaker declaring they were finally getting close to their station, the energy inside the car seemed to change, folks around them getting antsy and moving around in their seats more.
Children’s voices seemed to grow, and more people were grabbing after their bags, probably with the plan to sprint off the train just like Tessa and Greer were.
Watching more buildings appear down the tracks as the train physically began to slow, Tessa sighed in relief at seeing her home city again.
She was dog-tired, for sure, but there was something beautiful about coming full circle.
Just a few days prior, she’d left as a scared woman, not wanting to leave her parents’ home for fear of her ex finding her.
But she did it anyway.
And the benefits of that were more than she could have ever imagined at the time.
“So, what do you think of your first train ride?” Greer asked, causing her to look up at him in shock once more.
“How did you know this was my first time on this train?”
Greer laughed, snugging her to him as the train began to slow even more. “Call it a hunch.”
She grinned. She actually had been on trains before, but mostly while vacationing in Europe.
But he wasn’t wrong. This was her first time on the train into Boston despite using the subway on the practical daily.
Still, if she was reading him clearly, he was pretty excited to show her something he knew rather well, and she hadn’t experienced before.
A long, uncomfortable ride in hard plastic seats with the man she loved?
“It was the best.”
Greer broke into a wide grin as the train began to slow for its final stop.
Folks began gathering their things and filing out in a relatively orderly fashion as he took her hand, walking them straight to the exit.
As he set the pace, he jogged them down the concourse.
She let him lead, his big body carving the way for the two of them through groups of travelers as he brought them onto the street.
More, it was like a sea of people voluntarily parting as he approached.
“It’s like you’ve got a spotlight on you,” Tessa remarked as a group of teenagers gawked at Greer, head and shoulders above the crowd. “Is this what it’s like to be a celebrity?”
“Don’t ask me if I’ve gotten used to it,” he said discreetly, smiling and winking at a group of college-aged boys, one with his phone up. “Cuz it’s still weird as anything to me.”
“You’ve earned it, though,” she said, turning the corner and eventually seeing the small station off in the distance. The sounds of traffic and voices were a comfort to her, reminding her that she was finally home again.
Home with one more goal to achieve.
Taking the stairs to the sublevel of Boston and hearing the familiar whoosh of the subway in the tunnels brought Tessa back to reality even more.
As the cool air washed over them, she and Greer stepped directly onto a train with its doors wide open, standing nearby and holding onto a pole as they waited for their journey to continue.
“Alright,” Tessa said, pulling up her phone. “The gallery should be just off the T stop, so it hopefully won’t take too long to get there.”
“I doubt it,” Greer said, making note of the time as he seemed to study the screen and the map she brought up. Then he pulled her into him for a hug. “We’re gonna make it, Tess.”
“I hope so,” she said, just as the doors swished closed and yet one more train in their journey began to drive off again. She refused to get her hopes up. “There’s too much that could still happen in the next forty minutes.”
“Okay, Ms. Sourpuss,” he said, leaning back with a grin.
“Hey,” she said, poking him in the torso. “You be positive, I’ll be realistic.”
“I’m positive you’re hot,” he said, causing her to burst out laughing.
The audacity!
“Focus, Greer,” she teased once she got her breath back under control. She was grateful that, even though they were in a relatively packed car at this time of day, nobody seemed to really hear what they were saying.
Or at least care.
All teasing aside, Greer was a prime example of focus.
He was serious about his fitness and his career, and was probably the most disciplined person she’d ever met.
Taking a page from his book, she took in a deep breath through her nose, filling her lungs with the scent of diesel and the general perfumes and colognes of those around her.
Knowing Greer, he could tell that she was getting antsy now that they were this close to getting that necklace back.
And he wasn’t wrong.
“Once we get the necklace…” she said, the wheels in her mind spinning for what came next.
“Go on,” he said, his deep voice resonating inside of her, warming her insides.
“We should take it directly home to my dad,” she said, realizing all at once that she hadn’t even given thought to this end of the plan. “Once he has it, maybe we could get dinner? We can go wherever you like.”
“I like the sounds of that,” he said, giving her a smile. “You feel like going out or staying in?”
She interrupted the end of his sentence with a big yawn, which she had to cover with the back of her hand. It made them both laugh together.
“Well, I guess that answers that,” he said, feeling the train begin to slow down. When she realized they were finally at their stop, they gathered their things, waiting for the doors to open.
Showtime!
Carefully walking up the steps toward the surface again, Tessa was hit with the warm, humid air that summer in Boston was famous for. It wasn’t quite like a sauna, but there was no denying that the air was heavy, even as the sun had begun to descend in the sky.
After a few short consults with her phone, they found themselves turning the corner to an adorable period home buried deep on a street full of Colonial American architecture.
“This has to be it,” Tessa said as they walked up the sidewalk. A small sign framed with colorful stained glass declared “The Rose and Thorn Gallery.” The sign marked the end of a stone walkway leading to the front of an old, gray home with a porch and a thick black door.