Page 22 of Homebody (The Long Road Home #21)

Chapter Twenty-One

U nknown number.

Dean stared at the display on his cell phone as it vibrated in his hand. This was the kind of call he would never have even considered answering normally… until now.

It was a local area code. It could be Tessa calling from a different phone rather than her cell. Maybe from the hair salon where she worked. Or, oh no , it could be something bad.

His mind turned to another scenario. A horrifying one. What if the damn woman, who didn’t own a car and got everywhere by foot or on her old bicycle, was hurt? Or was stranded and had to borrow a stranger’s phone to call him to rescue her?

Dean moved to answer the call so fast he missed poking the right spot on the screen the first time and had to tap the cell’s display again to finally answer the call.

“Hello?”

“Dean, hi.” The voice was deep and throaty. Not so much sexy but more like from too many years of smoking, both cigarettes and other things.

His heart fell all the way down to his stomach as he recognized that voice and whom it belonged to.

“Juniper,” he said without even a shadow of warmth in his tone.

She was the first person he’d ever dated seriously for the long-term back in high school. The last person he wanted to talk to now.

Dammit. The damn sly woman had tricked him. She must be on somebody else’s phone since he’d ignored all the texts from her phone.

“Dean the lean mean machine, I’ve been dying to see you since you got home.”

How he hated her using her old nickname for him. It had been fine when they were teens and he’d been on the football team back in high school. Now, not so much.

“You did see me. At the Muddy River Inn my first night back,” he reminded her flatly.

“Yeah. But we didn’t get to talk. To catch up…”

To fall into bed again? He could easily guess the words she’d left unspoken.

Dean knew damn well Juniper had steered clear of him that night at the MRI only because he’d latched on to Tessa for exactly that reason. To keep Juniper and her misplaced affections at bay.

The woman had inaccurate memories about their time together. Or times together, plural. She might count all the many times they broke up and got back together again over the years, but he remembered them all too well.

Theirs was the definition of a toxic relationship .

“Sorry. I’m really busy right now. Can’t talk. We’ll have to catch up some other time. Thanks for calling.” This time Dean made sure he didn’t miss the button to disconnect the call on the first try.

The cell still clutched in a white knuckled grip from the stress just speaking to Juniper on the phone for thirty seconds had caused, Dean turned and stopped at the sight of his mother standing silently watching him.

“Mom. I didn’t realize anyone was home.”

“That makes two of us. Who was that on the phone?” she asked.

Lie or truth? He’d been lying a lot lately. For once, he opted for the truth. “Juniper.”

What his mother thought about that answer showed clearly in her expression. “Oh. Are you going to see her?”

“No,” he answered without hesitation. And there was one way to insure that. “Maybe I’ll see what Tessa’s up to.”

Two birds, one stone. The thought of spending more time with Tessa had his heart racing. That his being seen around town with her would keep Juniper away was just a bonus.

A smile lifted the corner of his mother’s mouth at his answer. “Good. I like Tessa.”

“You do?” he asked.

“Um, well, you know, I don’t really know her very well. I do think she’s too much of a bad girl for my taste, personally. I don’t particularly like that aspect. But she is a hard worker. At least according to Ruby. And she’s always been nice to me when I’ve seen her at the salon, so…”

“Mm, hm. Gotcha.”

Something very odd was going on with his mom, but he wasn’t going to take the time to investigate. His time home on leave was too short already.

“So I, uh, think I’ll go call Tessa now. See if she’s free.”

“She is,” she jumped in too quickly to say.

He cocked up a brow at his mother’s statement.

There was that flash of uh, oh in her eyes again. “Um, I mean, she’s not working. I know because Ruby’s salon isn’t open late tonight.”

He nodded. “Oh, okay. Thanks, Mom. I’ll just go call her now then.”

His mother’s weirdness aside, the thought of seeing Tessa again, even if it had only been yesterday that he’d seen her, had him sprinting up the stairs to his room.