“You were taken from a bar to a sleazy hotel, and you have no memory of how you got there?” Faith’s voice vibrated.
“Yes. It could have been much, much worse. But I had no bruises, no injuries. I wasn’t beaten. And... once I realized where I was and what had happened, I called Zane.”
No one seemed surprised by that.
Relief mingled with sorrow for her and anger toward whoever had taken her to the hotel made the air in the room pulse with an energy Tessa couldn’t describe. She felt no sense that these women thought they were better than she was. Tessa was ashamed, but she knew that the shame was self-imposed. These women only wanted to see justice for her. It broke something inside her and began the process of mending it all at the same time.
“But let me back up to before I called Zane. I still have no real memory of what happened. Nothing from ten p.m. until I woke up. Sometimes I get a vague flash. A well-dressed man, the bar, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t get his face to come into focus. I was alone on a bed, and there was no sign of a struggle. The blankets weren’t even wrinkled. My purse was still there, but my phone was dead. The phone in the room was an old rotary, and I knew I could call any of you. But Luke and Faith were planning to spend the day building the ramp for Hope to be able to access the house. Emily and Gil were driving to meet their parents in Asheville. And none of you knew about my drinking except for Zane. So I called him.”
“What did he do?” Hope asked.
“He tracked my phone from my last known location, found me, took me to get some food, and came back to my apartment with me. I was so embarrassed. So ashamed. I could barely look at him, but he stayed with me the rest of the day. I told him everything. At that point, there was no sense in trying to hide the truth. He went with me to talk to Jacob. Then he told me about this rehab center that he’d already looked into. And the following Monday, he drove me to rehab even though he was barely recovered enough to drive. It had only been a few weeks since he’d been shot, but he insisted, and I wasn’t in a position to argue.”
“Wow.” Sharon shook her head. “I had no idea. I mean, I knew about the rehab, but I had no idea what led to it.”
“I was in rehab all summer. When I got out”—Tessa smiled at the women in the circle—“none of you asked me for details or got nosy. You simply accepted me back. And I appreciated that you were going to let me talk about it when I was ready. But then we went to the Outer Banks, and we went diving, and I was tentatively excited about living life as someone healed and whole. I didn’t want to talk about the past. I kept thinking that I would tell you all the details eventually, but the time never seemed right. And the longer time passed without discussing it, I guess I thought I could just forget it had happened and move on with my life.”
Ivy raised a hand. “Is that how Zane got a keycard to your apartment?”
“Yes. He took care of my plants while I was gone. He watered them every few days. Checked my mail. Paid my bills. Even drove my car around every so often. When I got out, I asked him to keep the keycard. In case he ever needed it.” Tessa couldn’t resist teasing Ivy on this one. “I never imagined he would need it so soon. But I was glad he had access to my home the day you needed asafe place.” Zane hadn’t hesitated to take Ivy to Tessa’s apartment when they’d needed to get her out of the line of fire, but his familiarity with her apartment, and easy access to it, had raised a lot of eyebrows at the time.
“So was I,” Ivy said. “This place is awesome.”
Hope shifted in her chair and lifted a finger. “I get everything you’re saying, but Zane was a bear when we went to the Outer Banks. We all concluded that something had gone very wrong between the two of you, but then when Ivy had her drama, the two of you seemed closer than before. We were all very confused.”
“So were we,” Tessa admitted. “I’m afraid that before the night in question, Zane saw me several times while I was drunk. And once”—she gulped in a breath and then went on as fast as she could—“I made a pass at him.”
“Oh.” Hope widened her eyes. “That would explain a lot.”
“Yes, it does,” Ivy agreed. “Zane would never catch a pass made by a drunk woman.”
“Definitely not.” Faith frowned. “And with his childhood, growing up with an alcoholic mom, I’m guessing that didn’t exactly endear you to him.”
“You could say that.” Tessa forced herself to continue. The embarrassing parts were almost over. “The bottom line is that I’d made no secret of the fact that I was extremely attracted to him. And then it was awkward, because in my mind, he didn’t reciprocate those feelings. But then he came to my rescue and promised he wouldn’t abandon me. And he didn’t. He drove me to rehab. Took care of my stuff while I was gone. Wrote me letters, sent cards and care packages, et cetera. He came to my graduation from rehab and was so proud of me. But when I first got home, it took us a while to figure out who we were to each other. Things were tense, and there was a lot of emotion between us. I was so thankful foreverything he’d done, but I also felt like he was being controlling now that I was out. It was complicated and confusing.”
Tessa tried to choose her next words carefully because she wouldn’t hurt these women for anything in the world. “After Ivy and Gil got together, everyone was paired off. Emily started dating Liam a few weeks after Ivy and Gil’s situation. Hope finally realized how perfect Charles was not long after that.”
Hope shrugged. “It’s true.”
“Everyone had a person.”
Faith dropped her head. “Except for you and Zane.”
“We were both so happy for each of you. But we also wanted to give you some space and time to be alone. You didn’t need us tagging along on all your dates.”
“We never minded.” Ivy reached for her hand and squeezed. “I’m an expert at being a third wheel, and we never would have made you feel that way.”
“I know, but there were a lot of nights after everyone had gone home to be with their person that Zane and I wound up together. We’d both work late, partly because we had nothing else to do, and it was always a little weird, until one night we laid it all out.”
All four women leaned toward her. She could tell their curiosity was burning high. “The bottom line is that we acknowledged our mutual attraction, but we also agreed that the timing simply wouldn’t work. I needed to focus on being the healthy and healed person I was becoming. Anyone serious about recovery knows that it’s wise to wait a year, bare minimum, before considering any new relationships. I knew it. Zane knew it. And we were both serious and committed to my recovery. So we decided to be friends.”
“Did that work?” Sharon didn’t try to hide her skepticism.
“It was a little awkward at first, but we figured it out. We always went dutch, we never went to my apartment, we drove two carsand met when we went out to eat. It was never a date. So while all of y’all were falling in love, we were eating out, going to movies, walking or riding bikes, that kind of thing.”
“And you never...” Faith let the words trail off, but her meaning was clear.
“No. Nothing physical. We became friends. Best friends. We talk a lot. Text too much. We read books together so we can discuss them. Since he’s been in DC, it’s been harder, but sometimes we even watch shows together with the phone on speaker.”
