Woven Wishes (Whispered Wishes Book 4) (8 page)

“So you were paying attention after all,” Nicholas remarked, looking at Dawn’s headshot. “I have to admit, when you didn’t hire her on the spot, I was surprised … and nervous. She’ll be thrilled, I’m sure.”

Tessa managed to smile and threw her head back as she watched her husband leave the room. It was a lucky guess, but at least one thing was going right today.

She slid her laptop out of her briefcase and placed it on the table in front of her. Did she dare look again? Maybe she’d imagined the email. After all, she hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep, and she’d had a lot of alcohol to drink last night—more than she’d had in a long time. Plus, despite all of the laughs, the SHOES meeting did get a bit intense at times. As much as she’d tried to avoid it, the topic of Scott’s sudden departure did come up with her sisters, along with the pain that never fully went away. The possibility that her brain was playing tricks on her earlier, especially after the walk down memory lane they’d all taken last night, wasn’t entirely farfetched.

She slowly opened the top to her computer and waited for the piercing beep, signifying her Wi-Fi connection. Reluctantly, she brought her eyes over to her email still open on the screen … hoping … praying, that despite the fact that Nicholas had seen it, the message never really existed.

Unfortunately, no amount of hoping and praying would make that wish come true. There it was, the email from Sophie’s father that she’d read earlier—the first type of any contact from him since her pregnancy. Her heart raced as she read through it one more time.

“What do you think he wants?” Nicholas asked, his words startling her so much, she jumped clear out of her seat, nearly knocking the top of her head into his jaw.

“I don’t know,” she whispered as she sat back down, hand over her racing heart. “But I don’t like it. I don’t trust him, Nicholas.”

“You could always just ignore him, pretend like you never saw his email. Frankly, he deserves it after the way he ignored you and Sophie all these years. Except …”

Tessa turned around to look at her husband. She knew exactly what he was going to say, and he was right.
Damn it.
“Except then I’d be denying Sophie a chance to meet her biological father. And no, I wasn’t going to say
real father
,” Tessa said, finishing his sentence. Standing up, she wrapped her arms around Nicholas’ neck. “Lord knows you’ve been more of a real father to Sophie than that bastard ever will be. Thank you for that.”

“I do love that little girl.” He pulled Tessa in tight. “And I’m pretty fond of her mother, too.”

“Fond?”

“Oh, okay, I’m head over heels, hopelessly in love. Better?”

“Much,” she said, managing a smile before sighing. “I still don’t know what to do. I mean, I know I have to tell Sophie I heard from him, but do I let her meet him? What if it’s too much for her?”

“There’s something you’re forgetting here,” Nicholas offered.

“What?”

“Well, there is a chance Sophie may not want to meet her father. If you were seven, would you want to meet the man who deserted you?”

“No, but I never worded it that way to her, not exactly at least. I believe the story I gave was that he wasn’t able live near us, but that I was certain he loved her and thought of her often. I also told her that one day he might come back.” Tessa cringed at the sound of the groan coming from her husband. “I wanted to tell her the truth, but she was so young, I didn’t feel right telling her he was a coward who had no heart or conscience. I figured once she got older, then maybe I could explain it better. I don’t know. Maybe, I’m the one who’s the coward.”

“No, you were trying to protect your daughter.”

“It’s just Sophie always looked so sad when I talked about him, and I wanted to give her something to hold on to. Like you said, I didn’t want her thinking the asshole just up and left her.” She paused to rub her temples. “Of course she’s going to want to see him. She’s been waiting seven years for him to return.”

“I still think you should give her the option before you respond to his email. If you decide to respond that is.”

“Yes.” Tessa nodded. “It’s the right thing to do. But she’s not going to meet him alone. There’s no way in hell that’s happening.”

“Agreed.”

“So we’ll wait for Sophie to get home from school and then talk to her?” Tessa asked, searching her husband’s eyes for reassurance.

“Yes. Don’t worry, sweetheart. Everything will be fine. I won’t let anything happen to either of you. Promise.”

“Okay.” Tessa wished she could honestly believe her husband. “Tell me something, Nicholas,” she asked, looking up at him.

“Anything,” he responded, gazing back with adoring eyes.

“This woman we just hired to be the lead. She was good?”

“Outstanding,” he said with a chuckle.

Chapter 16 – Ava

“So you thought the guy was hot, what’s the big deal? You didn’t throw him down in the middle of the museum and rip his clothes off, did you?” Holly asked, laughing.

“Of course not,” Ava replied. It was just like her sister to make a joke out of something that seriously bothered her. There was a reason she kept most of her problems to herself, and this was a prime example. “It just made me uncomfortable that someone other than … Max?” Did she have her dates mixed up? She watched as his car drove up the driveway. She could have sworn he told her he wasn’t coming home for another few days.

“Other than Max what?” Holly asked. “Ava? Are you still there?”

“I have to run. Max just got home. I’ll talk to you later. I’m glad you’re feeling better. Love you.”

“Love you, too … and don’t beat yourself up. You’re allowed to think another guy is—”

Ava clicked end and tossed her phone on the counter before Holly could finish her sentence, although she knew exactly what she was going to say. For the record, she disagreed. In all her years of marriage, she had never once swooned over another man … well, not one that was standing two feet in front of her. Rock stars, nineteenth century artists, and actors on the big screen didn’t count.

“Hey, Av,” Max said, dropping his airline issued luggage in the middle of the living room. His coat, cap, and suit jacket quickly formed a pile on top of it, all to stay until his dutiful wife unpacked, sorted, laundered, and put everything away.

“Babe.” She gave him a hug and quick peck on his lips before reaching for the cap and coat to hang up. “Are you home early?”

“Yeah. Two of my flights were cancelled at the last minute. Not enough tickets sold, so they consolidated them with other trips. I left you a message this morning. I guess you never got it?”

“Oh,” Ava said, feeling flustered at his unexpected arrival. “No, I haven’t had a chance to check my messages. But … this is great. I’m glad you’re home,” she said, smiling. Of course she was happy. Her husband was home. Where he belonged. She hugged him again and took his hands in her own. “The kids will be so excited. Ryan,” she yelled. “Ryan! Come in the living room. I have a surprise for you!”

Little footsteps scrambled down the hall and stopped suddenly in the doorway to the living room.

“Daddy! You’re home!”

“There’s my little big guy,” Max said, beaming at the sight of Ryan running toward him. Lifting him up, Max twirled him around before squeezing him tight and returning him down to standing. “I sure did miss everyone. So, Ryan,” he started, squatting down to talk to his son, “what have you and Mommy been up to?”

“Oh, we had the funnest adventure this morning, Daddy!”

“Adventure, huh?”

Ava looked nervously from her son to her husband, wondering just what exactly Ryan was about to tell Max.

“Yup, Mommy took me to the museum this morning. We went to a big room where there were lots of paintings.”

“Well,” Max said, smiling, “that sounds like lots of fun.”

“It was. Especially the part where Mommy fell asleep with her eyes open and was dreaming. That’s when I met the man.”

“What?”

Crap.
There was no good way to explain the situation. “I wasn’t sleeping or dreaming, sweetie,” Ava began.

Max stood up, furrowed his brow, and looked at Ava. “So who was the man?” he asked.

“See what happened was,” she started, “we went to see this exhibit that was a one week only show of Julien Henri. Well, you know how much I adore his work, right?” She waited for some sort of acknowledgement from her husband, but he only stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. Taking a deep breath, she continued. “Anyway, the place was pretty much empty, so we sat on the bench in the middle of the room. Just the two of us. I guess I kind of got lost in the pieces, because the next thing I knew, Ryan was in the next room having a discussion about the paintings. My little art lover.”

“You didn’t notice him wandering off?” Max asked with a raised voice and wide eyes.

“No, it’s okay,” Ava assured, rubbing his arm. “See? He’s right here. Everything’s fine.”

“Ryan, why don’t you go back to the playroom? Mommy and I need to catch up for a little bit.”

“Okay, Daddy,” he said before skipping back down the hall.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Ava said, hoping to calm her husband down before things got too out of control, “but he was honestly fine. I found him right away. He just wanted to look at some more paintings. We had a talk about not going anywhere without me.”

“And hopefully about not talking to strangers. I’m guessing that’s where the man comes in?” Max asked, running his hands through his hair.

“Well, that’s the thing. He wasn’t a stranger after all,” she answered.

“I don’t get it.”

“Remember when we were getting ready to move here from California, and I was in the middle of setting up a big exhibit for that artist Gregory Douglas?”

“Sort of.”

That meant no. She couldn’t blame him, though. It was a crazy time in their lives. They were worried about the move back to Forest Hills, worried her pregnancy with Logan was taking too much of a toll on her, worried about finding enough time to properly care for Jenna, and worried the airline was about to make another round of massive cuts.

“Well, it was a huge exhibit, and a lot of work for me, but because of the timing of our move, I had to miss it in the end. Turns out the artist, Gregory Douglas, was visiting the museum today, and that’s who Ryan wound up talking to. Quite a coincidence, if you ask me. Anyway, you should have seen him, Max,” Ava said with a tiny laugh. “He was pointing to the paintings trying to explain the colors and brush strokes, like a real professional. It was so adorable.”

“Are you referring to the part about how you lost our son or the part about how he was talking to someone he thought was a complete stranger? Because I’m really not finding anything adorable about this story, Ava.”

“Max, I really think you’re overreacting. I told you, he’s fine, and Gregory—”

“What if it wasn’t this guy Gregory, Av? What if it was someone who wasn’t interested in learning about paintings? What if it was someone who snatched Ryan up and ran out the door with him? It only takes a split second.”

As the reality of the situation hit her, tears streamed down her face. She could try to rationalize the events all she wanted, but the truth was she wasn’t paying attention, and she’d gotten lucky. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, shaking as Max wrapped his arms around her. “You’re right, and I’m so sorry.”

Chapter 17 – Tessa

The silence from the street was enough to drive Tessa insane as she sat on the couch and read yesterday’s Arts and Entertainment section of the newspaper. The article in front of her was a review, but after five reads she couldn’t say if was for a movie, book, recording, or play. She also had no idea if the review was positive or negative. The words only stared blankly at her, never registering into her subconscious.

 On most days, the sound from the screeching brakes of the school bus would pull her out of whatever work she was engrossed in. She’d open the door for Sophie, give her a kiss, ask her how school was, and watch as she got started with homework with her high school babysitter for a minute or two before returning to the theater for several grueling hours of rehearsals. Today would be different. So very, very different. For starters, the bus was late … only three minutes, but to Tessa it felt like three hours. And there would be no afterschool babysitter. Not anymore. With Nicholas there to take over the business side of things, she could hold all of her rehearsals during school hours and be home for Sophie after school and at night. She peeked out the window for the twentieth time.

“Watching for the bus every two seconds is not going to make it get here any faster, you know,” Nicholas told her, taking the newspaper out of her hand and exchanging it for a cup of hot tea. “It’s herbal. The box said it was good for calming the soul. I figured you could use it right about now.”

“You’re so good to me,” she replied, taking a sip. “It’s perfect.” As she placed the cup on the table, the sound she’d been waiting for jolted her out of her calm moment. “She’s here.” Tessa watched her daughter step off the bus.

Sophie bounded through the front door with the biggest smile on her face. “Mommy, I had
the best
day!” she said, full of energy and glee … her entire body radiating with excitement. “You’re not going to believe it. First, Mrs. Cliffman chose
my
family tree art project for Community Month. She’s going to hang it in the lobby for
thirty
whole days.
Everyone
will see it. Then, I got picked to use the bongos in music. I’ve been waiting
all year
for my turn, and
then
I found out I came closest to guessing the correct number of jellybeans in the giant jar on Mr. McKinley’s desk. So guess what I won?” She reached into her book bag and pulled out a giant sack of candy. “Yup,
all
the jelly beans. They’re mine now!”

“Wow,” Tessa said, taking the enormous bag from her. “You really did have a great day. That’s wonderful, sweetie.”