Page 6 of The Summer We Kept Secrets (The Destin Diaries #4)
“ W hatcha reading?” Tessa stuck her head into the main bedroom, looking for Lacey but seeing Vivien on the king-sized bed, a notebook on her lap.
“If I told you, I’d never hear the end of it,” Vivien said, closing the notebook and letting it fall on the floor next to her with a glimmer of guilt in her eye.
“Come on in. I assume you’re looking for your star employee.
She’s in the shower. She’s got a date with Roman. ” Vivien added a grin. “Your son.”
Tessa slowed her step, the words hitting deep. She was still getting used to the discovery that Roman Matteo wasn’t merely a great-looking NFL wide receiver who’d stolen Lacey’s heart—he was the baby boy she’d given up for adoption twenty-five years ago.
But his arrival did more than add a new person in her life to love. The secret Tessa had kept to herself for all those years was out now, and had somehow unlocked a stirring in her heart she didn’t recognize or understand.
The sensation was real and made her restless, prowling around the house trying to nest in a place that really wasn’t home.
“Come. Sit.” Vivien waved her into the room. “Don’t look too closely since I haven’t finished this room or several others. I have another design client, and we’ve officially turned into the shoemaker’s children.”
Tessa came all the way in and headed for the only chair, plucking one of Lacey’s tops off the seat before she got comfy. “Honestly, you two should have your own rooms.”
Vivien laughed and gave a vague gesture toward the notebook she’d dropped. “Hey, it’s Summer House rules—no matter how big Eli built this house, we still have a crowd. Every time Lacey’s about to move into the spare room down the hall, we get another person. Meredith’s coming, have you heard?”
“I did hear that from your mother, who is quite excited,” Tessa said, tucking her feet under her to settle in for a chat. “It’s very clear that Maggie’s kryptonite is— are —her grandchildren. Did you see her rocking Atlas like he was the Second Coming?”
Vivien laughed softly. “My mother does seem happy, doesn’t she? So rare.”
Reconnecting with her lifelong best friend, finally understanding what happened in the past, and meeting her first great-grandchild all seemed to work like a charm on the usually formidable Maggie Lawson.
“So Roman’s leaving this week, huh?” Tessa asked, glancing toward the closed bathroom door as the shower stopped and some humming started up.
Vivien nodded. “He has meetings with his agent and coach in Jacksonville and then…” She made a face. “Has Lacey talked to you yet?”
“Talked to me about what?”
“Time off,” Vivien whispered. “Roman’s asked her to drive over later this week, spend some time in Jacksonville, then go down to meet his parents.”
Tessa lifted her brows. “Goodness. Things are progressing. Of course she can have time off. We have two events this month and she’s done all the legwork to get them ready. I love that he wants her to meet Faith and Bob.” She smiled. “I’d like to someday, too.”
“I’m sure you will, and they will thank you to the stars for giving them that amazing man.”
“And I’ll thank them right back for raising him so well when we meet at the rehearsal dinner.”
“I can hear you two!” Lacey called from the other side of the bathroom door, making them both crack up. “Every word.”
“Dry your hair so you can’t eavesdrop!” Tessa exclaimed. “Or else I won’t give you time off to go be an NFL girlfriend!”
They shared a look as the hair dryer started.
Vivien dropped back on the bed with a wistful smile. “That sound reminds me of what I was just reading.” She reached down and picked up the notebook. “A Destin diary, this one when we were fifteen.”
“We need to have another oral reading around the bonfire,” Tessa said, reaching for the purple suede notebook she remembered Vivien scratching in late at night in the room all the girls shared.
She smoothed her hand over the material, transported to a time when life was so easy and free and fun.
“Fifteen, huh? What was happening that year?”
“The bathroom sitch.”
Tessa snorted. “I know. I hogged.” She flipped to a random page and saw the name “Peter” with a heart, then looked up at Vivien. “I see you still had your crush.”
Vivien groaned. “I can’t read them anymore. I miss him.”
“He’s coming back,” Tessa reminded her. “Moving to Destin and taking a job with the PD. And not just for you, remember? Although, I’m sure his hope is eternal.”
“He won’t be here for a while,” Vivien said on a sad sigh. “He has to sell his house and find something else, and close up a bunch of cases in Pensacola. He could change his mind, you know. And it would be my fault for breaking up with him.”
“Are you sorry for that decision?” Tessa asked. “’Cause I’m pretty sure he’d take you back in a heartbeat.”
“I’m…still wondering. Enough that I can’t read those diaries.”
“I’ll read one,” Tessa said, turning to the first page and skimming the words. “‘Tessa, though. TESSA.’” She looked up. “All caps? Really?”
“Read the next sentence.”
She did. “‘I love that girl to death, but she thinks every shower is full-blown beauty pageant prep that takes forty-five minutes.’”
Tessa stared at the words, feeling a sharp pang of guilt hit, and not for the bathroom hogging from the past. She closed the cover with a thud.
“Not much has changed,” she said glumly.
Vivien frowned. “What do you mean?”
Looking up, she sighed and decided to share some of what had been on her heart. “I’ve been freeloading here for almost four months, Viv.”
“Freeloading?” Vivien blinked. “Tessa! Don’t say that. First of all, we all have our own bathrooms now.”
She thumbed toward the ensuite. “You don’t.”
“I don’t need a bathroom to myself,” she insisted. “You belong here, Tessa Wylie. As much as anyone.”
But the truth was…she didn’t belong here. She didn’t belong anywhere.
Tessa gave her a small smile but couldn’t help the tightening in her chest. “Technically, this is your house. Yours and Eli’s. And Crista’s. I’m just…the add-on who never left. The squatter, remember?”
Vivien narrowed her eyes and pointed at her. “Don’t do that. Don’t minimize what you are to this family. You’re not an add-on. You’re a Wylie, and this house wouldn’t be the same without you. Your very DNA is in this property.”
Tessa nodded but said nothing, appreciating the sentiment. But these thoughts were definitely part of the feelings that had been nagging her.
As much as she loved this house—and she did, deeply—she was forty-nine years old and still sleeping in the guest room of a home owned by someone else. It was starting to feel like a comfortable pair of jeans that didn’t quite fit right anymore.
Maybe that was the difference with having her secret out in the open. She didn’t feel like she had to run all the time.
“Anyway,” Vivien pointed at the diary, “if you’re dying to dig through those, be my guest. I need a break from reliving my teenage obsession with Peter McCarthy.”
Tessa grinned. “Are you sure? You might miss these painfully detailed entries about his jawline.”
“Oh, I’ve memorized those,” Vivien said dryly, rolling off the bed. “I’m going to transfer my new obsession to Atlas. I have a full workday tomorrow and want to get my Auntie Viv time in.”
“You’re done with Danny’s house,” Tessa said, thinking of Vivien’s last rather complicated design client. “Who’s your new client?”
“A couple who wants to remodel their guest house, I have more work for Fiona, and I do have to finish this place in case we sell in November.”
“You guys haven’t decided that yet?” Tessa asked, knowing that was her hard deadline. If the Lawsons sold, she had to leave. If they didn’t sell…well, she couldn’t sponge off their hospitality forever .
“Too much going on to make that decision,” Vivien said. “But it’s officially summer now, and Kate’s here and Jonah, and Meredith’s coming. We’ll table the discussion for a while, I think. Oh, did you hear that?”
“Baby’s crying.”
“Yep.” Vivien grinned and rubbed her hands together.
“He needs Great-Aunt Viv. I’m off to spoil him.
Happy reading. Please don’t remind me about the hearts around Peter’s name and, honestly, I never cared about the bathroom.
I was just jealous because you came out more beautiful every time. Still do.”
She blew a kiss and disappeared out the door.
Alone, Tessa leaned back, the purple notebook in one hand, her phone in the other. She flipped the notebook open again to the same entry.
Anyway, I gotta go. Tessa just went back into the bathroom, so I have to sit outside the door for forty minutes to keep my place in line .
The sense of déjà vu didn’t feel good, not right then.
Maybe it was time to go. And honestly, maybe it was time to consider something she’d never had before—a place of her own.
Not a rental. Not a shared room. Not a free suite at the Ritz.
A real home. She wanted to put down roots for the first time in her life, and she certainly could afford something modest. She’d saved a lot from her years at the Ritz—they’d covered her living expenses and paid well— and her new business was truly booming.
Not giving herself a chance to think too hard, she tapped the phone and got on the internet browser. With one fast thumb, she typed Zillow into the bar and waited for the house-hunting app to light up. When it did, she added the zip code, vaguely aware that the hair dryer had gone off.
She began to scroll through local listings. A stunner near the water for over a million and a half. A very affordable shack not far from the marina that looked like it had survived a hurricane and not much else. A townhouse that looked a little dark and dingy.
Tessa shook her head. “Good grief.”
But then she spied a “charming coastal bungalow.” The house had three bedrooms in 2,200 square feet, and was fifteen minutes away on the other side of Henderson Beach State Park.