Page 33 of Homebody (The Long Road Home #21)
Chapter Thirty-Two
D ean hadn’t texted like he said he would. It didn’t matter how many times Tessa had checked her phone from the moment she opened her eyes that morning, no text appeared.
Now, facing the wall of stone-faced women in front of her as she walked through the door of Ruby’s salon, the lack of texts from Dean started to make sense.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” Tessa asked, breathless as her mind went to bad places.
Had his plane crashed? She resisted the urge to double over and vomit at the thought.
Finally, Susan stepped forward and took both her hands. “Tessa. I’m so sorry.”
“What’s wrong? Tell me. Please,” she begged on a whisper.
Contrition and empathy mixing in her expression, Susan said, “He knows. Dean knows I paid you.”
Now she really worried her morning piece of toast was going to come back up.
“He knows?” she repeated, while having trouble wrapping her head around this. “How?”
“Juniper,” Ruby spat. “Who is now banned from my salon, FYI.”
“Maybe he just needs some time. I’m sure he’ll forgive you,” Red said, her uplifting words not matching her compressed lips and furrowed brow.
“I really liked him,” Tessa whispered, more to herself than to the three women.
“I’d hoped you did,” Susan said, smiling sadly before she visibly rallied. “That makes it even more important that we fix this.” Susan turned to Ruby and Red.
Both women nodded.
“We can do it,” Red agreed with her usual enthusiasm.
“How?” Tessa asked. “Dean must hate me.” He hated her so much he hadn’t even called to yell at her.
“He forgave me,” Susan said.
“You’re his mother. I’m… nothing .” She nearly choked on the word and the truth behind it. How could being nothing hurt so badly?
“Tessa.”
She spun at the sound of her name. Irrationally hoping the male voice somehow, impossibly, belonged to Dean. That he’d flown back to work things out between them.
Instead Liam stood in the doorway.
“I was hoping to catch you here.” Liam’s dark expression told her he knew too.
She drew in a breath. “It’s okay. You can say I told you so . You were right. I should have told Dean the truth. About everything.”
Liam shook his head. “I’m not here to gloat. Are you okay?”
“No,” she answered, being completely honest. In fact, she was going to be totally and brutally honest about everything from now on. That couldn’t result in things being any worse than they were now.
“Give him some time to cool off,” Liam suggested.
“That’s what I said,” Red chimed in.
“Thank you. All of you. But it’s no use.” She drew in a breath, feeling strong and proud that she hadn’t broken down and cried in front of them all.
Maybe she was just out of tears after all the crying she’d done last night. Possibly she was in shock and it would hit her later. Either way, she needed everyone to move on from the subject. “Can we all get back to work now?”
All of them, the four horsemen there to witness the apocalypse of her now dead love life, nodded.
“Good. Thanks. I’ll be at the lab later,” she told Liam then turned to Ruby. “I’ll go restock the supplies.”
With one final glance at the group, which had yet to disperse, she moved past them and to the back where she hoped to hide and not have to speak to anyone for the rest of her shift.