Relieved that Norm was involved with someone, Tessa offered her hand. “Tessa Rose.”
Marcy must have believed the Message received answer in Tessa’s return gaze and abrupt handshake, because she visibly relaxed. She nodded, then hurried down the stairs.
“Your girlfriend?” she asked Norm, who hadn’t shut his door yet.
“Yep.” He tucked his hands in his back pockets. “Anything you need help with?”
“Everything’s fine, but thank you for asking. Bye.” She retreated before he could reply. Resting against her closed door, she surveyed her domain. Small was hardly the word for it. One medium-size room, a utilitarian bathroom, a one-person kitchen with counter bar and one surprisingly roomy walk-in closet with enough space for her meager belongings.
It was hers, though, from the sofa bed where she would sit and sleep to the four place settings of dinnerware she had yet to unpack. Twenty-nine years old and finally living on her own. No more accounting for where she was every second of the day. No more listening to her mother worry aloud about the potential dangers facing them everywhere. No more seeing her father age day by day.
No more enduring her brother sitting in his wheelchair by the front window, watching the world go by, venturing out once a month or so, otherwise living in a television world.
He hadn’t said anything when she announced she’d found her own apartment and was moving out, but she figured he was glad to have her gone. Her pleas to do something for himself always fell on deaf ears. He hadn’t done anything to improve his life for years. And she’d taken all the whining she could bear about his bad luck.
She pushed away from the door, stripped down to her underwear right there in the middle of the room and tugged on a T-shirt and cutoffs so that she could finish putting her home in order. She felt a little wicked going braless, even though she knew no one would catch her at it, but she draped her bra over the doorknob, anyway. If someone did come, she could always put it on fast.
The phone rang just as she started scrubbing the bathtub. Peeling off her rubber gloves as she went, she hurried into the living room.
Breathless, she picked it up on the fourth ring. “Hello?”
“This is Chase Ryan.”
Tessa sank onto the couch. “Hi.”
“I wanted to make sure you got home all right.”
The sound of his voice did things to her. Made her shiver. Made her unconfined breasts feel strangely fuller.
“Tessa? Are you okay?”
“Fine. I’m fine.” His voice, the memory of his serious face and the admiration he hadn’t hidden for the way she’d handled Stone Man streaked through her mind. She wasn’t used to being treated as a capable adult. He couldn’t have any idea how much it meant to her that he had.
“No sign of the teenager?” he asked.
“None. Thank you for your concern, though.”
“I’m having a friend in the police department check him out, just to be sure. He’s fairly new to the area, and he’s gained a reputation fast with the kids around here.”
“Is he the kind of boy you try to get involved at the Center? Do you seek out the troubled kids, Chase, and set them on a different path?”
“I do what I can. Sometimes I succeed.”
Sometimes I don’t. The unspoken words carried resignation. How had she become connected to him so fast that she could hear what he didn’t say?
Because what’s forbidden is always more of an allure.
Tessa ignored her thoughts and stretched out on the sofa, letting all the sensations settle in. She was hot and cold and shaky and...alive. Maybe it was just reaction to her success—her emancipation from her old life and inauguration to her new one.
Regardless, Chase Ryan was a bonus she hadn’t counted on. Now she had to figure out what to do about it. He needed her—or someone like her.
And her family would die if she—
“Tessa? Where’d you go?”
“Um, I was just thinking that maybe you could go ahead and schedule a self-defense class for the weekend. Might as well capitalize on my current fame.”
“I’ll get on it right away.”
She didn’t move after she hung up the phone. Instead, she closed her eyes and imagined his face. An old image superimposed itself for a moment, then got shoved behind the newer one without effort. She’d entered into a risky business. The route she’d intended to take no longer seemed the right one. No longer made sense. No longer seemed plausible, even.
Because in all of her plans, she hadn’t counted on there being so much to lose.
Two
Chase knew the minute that Tessa arrived at the Center for her first day at work. He didn’t leave his office to greet her, but let her go to the day care center on her own.
The Center hummed with talk of her. She’d attained sainthood with just one miracle.
“Good morning.”
He turned from the window. She hadn’t gone to day care first, after all. There she stood, in a denim jumper, a baby blue T-shirt that matched her eyes, and sneakers painted with teddy bears and balloons. Head to toe, she looked like a preschool teacher.
“Morning,” he said. “Are you ready for this?”
“You bet. I hardly slept last night, I was so excited.” She leaned against the door frame, as if she had all the time in the world, not the three minutes she really did have before she should be reporting to Chandra.
“I posted a sign-up sheet for your self-defense class,” he said. “It hadn’t been up an hour before it was half-full. I expect that by the end of the day, it’ll be a sellout.”
“You can schedule two or three sessions if you want, in order to fill the demand. I’ll be concentrating more on awareness than technique, and smaller groups would work better. I’d also prefer coed.”
“We pretty much do everything coed here. I don’t believe in segregating them. The only way the Center can be successful is to have everyone a part of everything, like a family. We preach tolerance. We try to elevate everyone’s self-esteem. If we don’t, we lose the girls to single motherhood and the boys to gangs.”
Soft. Her eyes were so soft as she smiled at him. Tempted him. As if to say that he could share with her, things he’d never shared.
“I like your philosophy, Mr. Ryan,” she said.
“It’s not mine alone. It’s what’s been proven to work.” He walked around his desk and came up beside her, close enough to smell her perfume, close enough to thread his fingers through her curls, if he’d wanted. If he’d been allowed such a luxury. “I’ll walk you to day care.”
“I can manage. I just wanted to say good morning. It’s important to greet people, don’t you think? And to let them know when you’re leaving.”
So—he’d been put on notice that she would be saying hello and goodbye every day. That she would seek him out. That he should seek her out if he was leaving for some reason.
“Are we allowed to hug?” she asked.
His hands curled into fists. “What?”
“Do the adults hug the children here? There are so many rules these days. Sick, sad rules because people cry abuse so easily.”
“Oh.” Disappointment swept through him