Woven Wishes (Whispered Wishes Book 4) (3 page)

“You’re firing me?” she asked, her voice filling with anger.

“N-no,” Tessa told her. “Not at all. I just think with your talent … your
amazing
talent, this job will only hold you back. It’s like you said, you’re a Hollywood actress. That’s where you belong. On the big stage with a packed house and a giant marquee out front flashing your name.” She raised her hands up as if she were picturing such a scene filled with bright lights and fanfare. “As much as we’d love to be able to do that here, we both know it’s just not going to happen. Our theater rarely sells out, and we certainly don’t have a marquee out front. At most we take out a tiny ad in the local paper. Hell, the salary we’d be paying you would barely cover the cost of this mediocre meal.” She looked over to her husband as he smiled and nodded, his face full of pride and approval, giving Tessa the strength she needed to continue. “You’re an Academy award-winning actress. Now go find an Academy award-winning role.” Tessa stood up, took a deep breath, pointed to the door, and prayed her near Academy award-winning speech would work.

The look on Stella’s face was absolutely blank as Tessa quietly slid back into her chair. Had she just hammered the final nail into her tiny theater’s coffin? Her heart raced as she waited for Stella to do or say something.
Anything.

“Well,” she finally said, in a surprisingly calm voice, “I believe I do quite agree with you. Having only spent a few short hours here in Forest Hills, I can see this is not the place for me. However, I must say, I’m quite impressed with you, Tessa. For you to sacrifice the success of your theater for my happiness is indeed a noble gesture. One I will not soon forget. I especially appreciate the fact that you’re able to recognize my obvious talent. I’ll be sure to mention your
little theater
to my publicist upon my return to Hollywood. Perhaps she can work it into her next press release.”

Rising from her seat, she kissed Nicholas on both cheeks and whispered in his ear loud enough for Tessa to overhear, “Do look me up the next time you are in town, darling, so we can pick up where we left off.” Looking over to Tessa, Stella curtly nodded, before holding her head high and walking off, nearly knocking the waiter over as he carried her Caesar salad toward them on a silver tray.

Tessa held in her laughter until they were sure Stella was safely inside of the waiting limousine.

“What a horrid woman,” she said, trying to catch her breath.

“Darling,” Nicholas said, trying to imitate her uppity tone, “I will act in your insignificant production, but only if you fly in the best chefs from around the world to prepare all of my meals. However, the food will not be enough to satiate my appetite. You will have to give me your incredibly sexy husband as well.”

Tessa looked at Nicholas and smirked. “Very funny, hot shot. A little advance warning would have been nice, you know.”

“Honestly, I had no idea she’d act like that. She wasn’t that way at all the last time we’d gotten together. I guess a few awards can really change a person.”

Sighing, Tessa swirled the water in her glass, watching as the liquid rolled up close to the edge without going over. “And so now I’m once again without an actress … with only a few months to go and no real budget to hire anyone. What am I going to do, Nicholas?”

Taking his wife’s hands, he gazed into her eyes. “You’re going to let me help you, that’s what.”

“I already told you. I don’t want your money.”

“And I’m not giving it to you.”

“Then … what are you talking about?”

“As I see it, you need money, and I’m looking for a new business venture, so I’d like to invest in the theater.” He held up his hand to stop her as she started to speak. “Don’t think I’ll just be handing over money. In exchange, you will make me your business manager and partner. You handle the creative side, and I handle the financial side. What do you say, Mrs. Schilling? Do we have a deal?”

Tessa studied her husband’s face. He seemed sincere. Could this actually work? She didn’t really have any other options at this point. She smiled reluctantly and accepted his hand for a shake.

“Deal,” she responded.

Chapter 5 - Holly

By the time the pizza arrived, Ryan was fast asleep, curled against Holly on Ava’s couch. She sat with her nephew for a while, enjoying the serene sounds of his soft and rhythmic breathing, before sliding her arm out carefully from behind his head so as not to wake him. He looked too peaceful to disturb. He could always eat later.

Holly, on the other hand, didn’t realize just how hungry she actually was until she’d had some time to relax. As crazy as Ava’s house was, it always seemed to calm Holly down. She loved the chaos—there were always kids running, laughing, and even arguing. She loved it all, even the mess; it felt lived in, comfortable. To her there was nothing better than a house full of children. Her own house was so quiet ... too quiet.

She carefully got up and walked over to the table to grab a slice of the almost gone pizza. Ava’s two older children had already devoured it and retreated to fight over whose turn it was to watch television, while Sophie remained at the table, picking at her piece.

“Not hungry, hun?” Ava asked.

“No,” Sophie replied, hanging her head down.

Holly sat down next to her niece and rubbed her back. “What’s the matter, sweetie? Do you want to talk about it?”

The tears began before she could get the words out. “We were working on a family tree in art class and some kids were teasing me because I don’t have a dad.”

“What are you talking about? Of course you have a dad. You have Nicholas.”

“No, I mean a
real
dad. Mommy said that Scott guy loves me and stuff, but she won’t tell me why he’s not here.”

Holly looked to Ava for help. This was not a discussion they should be having with Sophie, and it wasn’t the first time it had come up either. Tessa really needed to be the one talking to her about this; she was old enough to know.

“Oh, honey,” Ava said, joining them at the table. “Nobody really knows why your dad isn’t here with you, but your mom is right. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you or think about you. It’s just … your dad was so young when you were born.”

Holly shut her eyes, willing her thoughts to go away.
They weren’t even trying. Sophie was a mistake.
She needed to stop!
The circumstances surrounding Sophie’s birth were irrelevant. Tessa loved her daughter. They all did. She was just feeling bitter about her own situation.

“You know, in my opinion,” Ava continued, “Nicholas is a thousand times more your
real
father than Scott. He loves you so much, Sophie. You’re a very lucky girl.”

“I know, Aunt Ava. I love Nicholas. He’s the one who takes care of me most of the time anyway. Mom’s always at the theater, and some days she gets home so late, I don’t even see her.” She reached for her pizza and took a bite, smiling at her aunts.

Holly gave her niece a kiss on the cheek and walked out into the living room, toward the front door as an overwhelming urge to scream took over her. Ava swiftly followed.

“Hol, I know what you’re thinking,” she said, grabbing her arm, “but everything Tessa does is for Sophie’s best int—”

“I was pregnant,” Holly blurted out, interrupting Ava mid-sentence. She didn’t know why she’d never bothered to tell either of her sisters before. How were they supposed to support her fully if they never knew? “Seven weeks along ... until today.”

Ava wrapped her arms around her. “Honey, I’m so sorry. When you said the in vitro didn’t work, I didn’t realize you meant— Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered, wiping away a fresh round of tears. “We were waiting ... and now we have nothing left to wait for. We have nothing at all.”

“You know that’s not true. You have a lot, and it doesn’t mean you won’t—”

Holly put her hand up and shook her head to stop Ava. She knew her sister meant well, but she couldn’t bear to hear the speech again.
There’s still time ... it will happen ... don’t give up ... you’re still young.
She’d already heard it all. None of it was true.

Ava sighed and gave Holly another hug. “I’m here for you. For whatever you need, Holly. Anything. Are you feeling okay? Any physical pain?”

“Thank you. I’m fine, just a little cramping.” Holly sat down on the couch, curled in her sister’s arms. “I know I probably surprised you a little there with my announcement, but I kind of don’t really want to talk about it right now.”

“Okay, hun,” Ava said, straightening up.

~~~

 “So what’s going on these days at work?”

Holly laughed, appreciating how Ava was trying to make meaningless conversation to take her mind off her bigger issues.

“Not much. You know how fifth graders can be. The girls look around wondering which boys have a crush on them, while the boys are counting down the minutes until class lets out. Meanwhile, I’m trying to teach them how to solve for “x” so they can all be productive members of society one day. Only eighty-two school days until summer vacation ... not that I’m counting or anything.”

At first, Holly and Ben had tried to plan their pregnancy around her work schedule. They’d hoped she would be due at the end of June and able to take the summer off to be with the baby so as not to miss any work. After a while, they realized their plans were not quite so easy to
plan
after all. Eventually, Holly cared less about her due date and more about just getting pregnant.

Ava laughed. Holly knew her sister was counting down the days, too—only she was counting the number of days her kids would still be
in
school. She’d never admit it, but she always seemed thankful for the start of school again in the fall. Holly knew having all three kids home full time for the summer was exhausting. Even so, she’d trade with her big sis any day.

“Any plans for the summer?” Ava asked.

“Ben’s boss offered him a couple of weeks at his cabin in the mountains in August. We said no at first because we thought I’d be too far along to travel … well, I guess we can go now that there’s no ba—” Holly stopped herself, unable to finish.

“You should go, Holly!” Ava ordered. Ryan stirred on the other couch, and Ava lowered her voice. “You and Ben deserve a vacation. It sounds perfect. I would love to get away with Max. We haven’t been away alone together in years.”

“Seriously, with all of the flying Max does, why don’t you just go with him? He could fly you to some exotic island—just the two of you. Or to London or Paris! You know how much you’ve always wanted to go to Paris and see all those art museums you love so much.”

“We used to talk about taking a weekend trip to Paris all the time back when Max and I were first dating. That was so long ago. Everything is different now. It’s not like I can just get up and go.”

“Why not? Ava, you know I’ll come watch the kids for you.”

“Thanks.” She looked like she was going to say more, but the knock at the door interrupted her. “That must be Tessa.”

Chapter 6 - Tessa

“What a night!” Tessa and Nicholas burst through the door, laughing hysterically, looking as if they had come from some fancy movie premiere in Hollywood. “Ava, you wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”

Ryan moaned from the commotion, and while his eyes lightly fluttered, he did not wake up.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t see him there,” Tessa said, taking her tone down several notches. “Hey, Hol. I didn’t know you’d be here.”

Holly smiled politely and pulled the quilt off the back of the couch, carefully wrapping it around Ryan as she picked him up. “I’m going to put him to bed, Av. In case you were wondering, Tessa, you daughter is upstairs. She fell asleep waiting up for you.
Again
.”

“What’s with her?” Tessa asked after Holly walked upstairs.

“Oh, she’s just having a rough day. Anyway, Sophie’s just fine,” Ava lied. “So your meeting went well?”

“No, it was awful. Nicholas arranged for Stella Russo to take over as my lead, but it turns out she’s an uptight pompous bitch. She left before we ate … because I fired her. I hope I never see that horrid woman again. Of course, that means I still have no actress for my play.”

“Stella …
Russo
? I don’t understand. Why all of the smiles and giggles, then?”

“Your sister’s performance was stage-worthy,” Nicholas explained. “I mean, it’s not every day you see someone put a Hollywood A-lister in their place. It was priceless. Maybe you want to consider taking the lead yourself, Tessa?” he asked, turning to his wife. “You’ve got some hidden talent there.”

“Oh, no,” she replied, still laughing. “As much as I actually enjoyed my role tonight, I prefer to be on the sidelines. But that was fun. You should have been there to see the look on her face, Av.”

“I’m sure she would have loved to have been there,” Holly declared as she came back down the stairs, “but she was too busy having fun wiping your daughter’s tears away. Isn’t that right,
Av?”

“I thought you said Sophie was okay?” Tessa asked with a concerned tone. “What’s going on?”

 “I’ll go check on her,” offered Nicholas, obviously wanting to get out of the line of fire.

“What’s going on is that the poor child misses her mother. She had a bad day at school today. She wanted to talk to you about it, only you weren’t around. You’re
never
around. She went from her afternoon babysitter, right to her evening caretaker. If I had a child, you’d be damn sure he or she would be my priority.”

Tessa just stood there and stared at her sister. Holly’s hostility toward her seemed to be getting worse. It wasn’t her fault Holly couldn’t get pregnant. Of course Sophie was her priority. She may not have been planned, but she loved her more than life itself. Didn’t Holly understand the pressure she was under to get this production together—especially without a lead actress? Her daughter knew how much she loved her, didn’t she? Didn’t she understand her time constraints? Still, a good mother would make time for her daughter. Tessa sank into the living room chair, hanging her head as tears overflowed past her eyes and down her cheeks.