Right now? She’s making pottery.
Six months ago, it was diamond paintings.
She’s a wild one and doesn’t hold back at all.
“I know,” I say softly as she shuts and locks the door, the last customer driving off. “The clinic has been busy, or I would be around more.”
She gives me a sideways glance before rolling her dark-brown eyes that match my own. Her dark hair is up in a curlybun on top of her head as she pushes her blue glasses up her nose. I’m a full head taller than her, but my sister carries herself like she’s 6’2”. She’s a little thing but, like a kitten, her claws are sharp.
Tessa starts to break down one of the two espresso machines with her back to me. Her bright-yellow tee displays her business name, a business she built from the ground up. On my dime. To make up for the fact that I left when she was thirteen and never came back, I constantly sent her money. When I lost my grandfather, he left me a trust, and while Tessa wasn’t my dad’s, I have basically given her half since we were able to reconnect. My grandfather is probably rolling over in his grave, but I don’t care.
While I didn’t speak to or see her for ten years, I have never stopped loving my sister. It took her a while to realize it, because her mom is a fucking piece of work. She did everything she could to extort money from me when my dad passed, and when I didn’t give in to her, she took Tessa away from me. She bad-mouthed me, made me out to be the villain, the one who didn’t want to be in Tessa’s life. By the time Tessa was eighteen, the damage was done, and she wanted nothing to do with me.
I’ll never forget the day she called and said that her grandma had told her the truth. That her mom was the reason I wasn’t in her life. Tessa didn’t make it easy, but she gave me a chance to be her brother. It’s been tense for the last five years, but I’ve done my best. I knew she needed more, so I took a leap of faith, bought a practice from a retiring doctor in the next town over, and now I’m only forty minutes from her. I needed her to see I was serious about us having a relationship. But with how busy I’ve been, I’ve dropped the ball.
Plus, I do better when it’s just Kip and me.
He won’t leave me.
“I have seen you three times in the last two months, and each of those were holidays.”
I grimace. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“And instead of asking me, you just show up with a check for the app repairs.”
“I want to help,” I explain. “I’m proud of what you’ve built. I want you to continue to succeed, and you need the app, Tess.”
She rolls her eyes again. “I can afford it.”
“I know, but I can too.”
She leans into the silver counter, shaking her head as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Doesn’t make the fact that I haven’t seen you any better, Mot.”
I swallow hard at the nickname she used to call me before my dad passed. I lick my lips as I nod. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“I want weekly dinners,” she says after a bout of silence. “I don’t care if we go out, if we stay in, I’ll cook—I don’t care. I just need to see you.”
“Done,” I say without hesitation. “As long as you’re not dating anybody dumb as fuck.”
Her brows rise as she gives me a dry look. “At least I’m trying. Who are you dating, Dermot?”
“Touché.”
She’s got me there. I don’t even remember the last date I went on. Wendy? Marie? Who knows. I have spent the last year making sure the folks of Holiday Ridge are healthy and happy. Yeah, women have flirted with me, and more than one older lady has a granddaughter or niece for me, but I haven’t been interested. I’d rather be inside with my books and my dog.
“Maybe if you grew some balls, you’d go next door and hit up your crush,” she teases with a waggle of her brows that has me quickly flashing her a dark look.
“I should have never told you about her.”
“You didn’t. I saw how your nose almost broke the glass of the clinic when she stepped outside to hang a wreath on her gate.”
Shit, my ears are burning with embarrassment. If Tessa saw it, then I know my office manager has. I can’t help it, though; my crush is one gorgeous lady. “I did not,” I lie, which Tessa just giggles at.
“You did. I don’t know what you’re waiting for.”
“Nothing. There is nothing to be said or done.”
She gives me a come-on expression. “Have you told her you’re her biggest fan?”
