Page 69 of Tessa

“When did he go get you? Have you been with him all day? Do you know where he’s been all day?”

Eyes wide, she shook her head. “I just saw him. I thought he’d been here.”

“Nope. He left first thing this morning when Baze called him to ask why you were so upset and he hasn’t been back since. And he grounded me all day so I wasn’t allowed to leave!”

It wasn’t a very Daddy thing to say but he wasn’t feeling very Daddy-ish at the moment.

Tessa frowned at this new information and they both swung their heads to glare in Beau’s direction.

He could have gotten mad but instead, to his credit, he put his hands up in front of him in a gesture of surrender.

“I’ll explain everything soon!” he promised, “but it’s past dinnertime and the kitchen will close soon and we won’t be able to order food up, and I’m not a very good cook.”

“We could DoorDash,” Tessa offered helpfully.

“No need to do that when I’m sure there is plenty of food leftover from the kitchen. I think I heard Chef Graham made his mac and cheese tonight.”

“I’ll call!” Dax offered. Mac and cheese was his favorite comfort food and Chef Graham’s was the best he’d ever had.

Beau nodded to give his permission for that plan and Dax called down the order for mac and cheese with all the fixings, plus chocolate milk and apple pie for dessert.

Beau raised his eyebrows at that but said nothing.

“Do we hafta eat before you tell us where you’ve been all day?” Tessa asked with a frown.

“We need to talk before I tell you where I’ve been all day,” Beau answered pointedly. “And yes, we should probably eat before we talk. We don’t want to go into an important conversation hungry, with our tummies growling. I suspect Dax is the only one who’s eaten regular meals today and that’s assuming he didn’t take advantage of my absence and gorge himself on junk food all day.”

“Who, me?” Dax asked innocently, pointing at his chest. He smiled for a minute to see how Beau would react, but decided it wasn’t worth it and gave in. “I had an omelet and fruit for breakfast, and a club sandwich for lunch. No gorging on junk food, though I might have added a chocolate shake to my lunch order.”

“Oh, you might have huh?”

Dax just shrugged. He hated that he was bratting in front of Tessa but he was antsy and anxious—a lethal combo that brought out his inner brat apparently—and Tessa was giggling at him. She didn’t seem to mind.

Luckily kitchen leftovers didn’t take long to make and dinner was at their door less than ten minutes after he’d made the call. Beau answered it, slipping a tip to Chef Graham’s Little, Mariah, who’d done the delivering, and carried it to the small kitchenette, setting the table for three as he unloaded the tray.

Dinner was a somewhat awkward affair as none of them seemed to have anything to say. Beau tried a few times to make small talk but when Dax and Tessa gave one word answers to everything, his attempt fell flat.

But at least the food was good. All three of them cleaned their plates, with Tessa eating faster than he’d ever seen her eat.

“She’s only had a bowl of cereal today,” Beau offered by way of explanation.

Tessa looked up with a guilty smile. There was a tiny dot of cheese sauce on the corner of her lip, and Dax wiped it away with his napkin, and felt better about himself because that was a very Daddy thing to do.

“Thank you,” she whispered shyly. “I guess I was hungrier than I thought.”

“It’s important to eat,” Dax said, lamely. It even seemed like a stupidly obvious thing to say, but not having a clue what was going on was making him nervous.

As he stared at Tessa, Beau began moving around the table clearing plates. Dax reached for the tin of pie, and Beau stopped him.

“Can we do pie later, after we’ve talked?”

Something in Beau’s voice made Dax tear his gaze away from Tessa to look at him, and what he saw made him even more sick to his stomach. Beau looked nervous. Like actually green around the gills. And his hands were shaking. A thin sheen of sweat covered his brow.

Taken aback because Beau was always the put-together one, Dax abandoned the pie and slid his chair out from the table, spreading his legs wide and balancing his elbows on them. His chin went into his hands as he waited to see how the evening was going to unfold. Tessa copied him. Pushing her chair out, she drew her knees to her chest and hugged her legs. Her sideways glance seemed to ask again if he had a clue what was going on, but of course he didn’t.

Finally, Beau straightened, and started pacing in front of them.

“I… uh… I need to apologize to you both. Because, I think we kind of rushed into this thing full steam ahead…”