Tessa's Wishes (Whispered Wishes #3) (10 page)

“Yes, you were. Fresh after graduation, I was slinging burgers, and trust me, it was not my dream job. So why didn’t you stick with it?”

She picked up the wine glass and began swirling the red liquid around the edges slowly. Why was she hesitating? Getting pregnant with Sophie was nothing to be ashamed of. It wasn’t her fault Scott couldn’t handle the pressure. She loved her daughter more than anything else in this world. If this guy—who was practically a stranger—couldn’t handle the fact she had a child, then he wasn’t worth her time.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Am I getting too personal too soon? I have a tendency to do that sometimes. I just find you so easy to talk to.” He flashed a caring smile at her, and she suddenly felt more at ease.

“No, it’s fine.” She smiled back. “Sometimes life doesn’t turn out quite as we plan, but in the process we wind up with unexpected gifts … amazing gifts, actually. That’s what happened to me. My gift is my daughter. Her name is Sophie, and she’s three years old. The short story is I needed to find a career that could support the two of us better.”

Taking another sip of her wine, she waited for Todd to make up some excuse as to why he had to cut their date short.

“She’s lucky to have such a loving and selfless mother. I hope I get to meet her one day.”

This time the caring look didn’t come from his smile, but came straight from his eyes. It was honest and sincere and traveled directly to her heart.

Chapter 18

“And so you’ve always been interested in finance?” Tessa asked as they finished their coffee.

She and Todd had been talking in the restaurant so long, they’d completely lost track of time and missed the play. When they realized what had happened, they decided to order dessert and keep talking. Actually, it was more like Todd asking questions and Tessa doing all of the talking. He seemed fascinated by her history: her background, her sisters, her daughter, her past mistakes. It was as if he needed to absorb every last detail of her life.

She was glad she’d told him about Sophie right away. With the few dates she’d actually had in the past, bringing up the subject of a daughter was always a source of major anxiety. In addition to the timing of when to bring the topic of Sophie up, there was always the how. Plus, she worried incessantly about what her date’s reaction might be. What if yet another guy walked out on her?

Not that this was a serious relationship or anything … it was just one date.
The first date.
Would there be a second?

Tessa finally decided it was her turn to start asking some of the questions. She started with neutral topics about finance in general—interest rates, the stock market, bond yields—safe subjects she knew he’d feel comfortable talking about before asking more personal questions. Just who was Todd Mitchell? He didn’t seem to mind being the subject of her interrogation.

“Would you believe my story is similar to yours?” he asked, tilting his head just slightly while raising his eyebrows. His eyes smiled, flirting without words.

Looking at Todd, she giggled. “You have a three year old daughter named Sophie, too?”

“No,” he laughed. “I wanted to go into the arts. Music actually. I played guitar and a little piano. In fact, we were probably at the university during the same time, although I didn’t take any theater classes.”

“And I didn’t take any music classes,” Tessa told him. “But small world, isn’t it? So what was your career plan? Did you have visions of becoming a big time rock star? The next Paul McCartney perhaps?”

Todd shook his head and smirked. “See, now you sound like my mother. That’s exactly what she asked me. The answer was, I had no idea. I just knew I loved making music. Period. Past that, I seriously had no clue how a music degree would help me. Eventually, I realized I could play music without a fancy piece of paper signed by the university president. However, I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to support myself that way. So I dropped out of the music school and declared finance as my major. I’m not really sure why I picked it to be honest, except my roommate at the time was a finance major, and he seemed to like it. I know, not exactly the preferred method for picking one’s path in life, but here I am. It all seemed to have worked out okay.”

“I suppose you must have liked it since you’ve stuck with it.”

“I got lucky,” he said. “After some initial grunt jobs.”

“Like slinging burgers?” Tessa joked.

“Right,” he laughed. “Like slinging burgers. Well, after that, I really just was in the right place at the right time. I’ve been fortunate with how things turned out. What’s that saying? Timing is everything? I guess I had fate on my side.”

“I used to be a big believer in fate,” she said, looking away.

“Not so much anymore, I take it?”

Shaking her head, she felt the sting of tears starting to form. Time to change the subject and quickly. “Do you still play guitar and piano?” she asked, forcing a smile.

“No. Sadly, I haven’t picked up my guitar in ages or sat behind a piano.”

“Why not?”

“Work. Life. I’ve been so wrapped up in other things. Talking about rates of returns and stock yields all day hardly gets my creative juices flowing. Maybe I need some new inspiration. Like tonight—tonight has been very inspirational.” Even in the dim lighting, she could see a hint of a sparkle shining through his eyes.

“But we
were
sitting here talking about rates of return and stock yields,” she reminded him, grateful for the low lighting. She could feel her cheeks getting flushed from his comment.

“Well, somehow coming from you, they seem so much more interesting.” He reached across the table placing his hands over hers. A warm surge swept through her body.

She tried to steady her breathing and was grateful that he only held the top of her hands, as her palms were a sweaty mess. When the waitress came by, he let go, giving Tessa the opportunity to take another sip of her coffee before discreetly wiping her hands in her napkin.

“Can I get you two anything else?” she asked.

“No, I think we’re all set,” Todd replied. “Just the check, please.” Turning to Tessa, he said, “I’m sorry we missed the play. It’s such a nice night. Would you like to go for a walk in town?”

“That would be great,” she replied, putting her hand back on the table. She waited for him to take it again, but the waitress promptly returned with the bill. She was grateful when he slid several bills in the leather folder without flinching. “Would you excuse me for a moment?” she asked. “I just need to check in with my sister to make sure Sophie is okay.”

“Of course. Take all of the time you need. I’ll wait for you by the front door.”

“Thank you.”

Picking up her phone, she waited until he was far enough away and dialed Holly’s number.

“How’s it going?” her sister asked as soon as she answered.

“Hello to you, too,” Tessa replied laughing. “It’s going good.” She knew Holly probably wanted every detail, but didn’t want to waste time at the moment since Todd was waiting for her. “I’ll fill you in later. How’s Sophie?”

“Fast asleep. I wore her out.” She tried to stifle a yawn as she talked.

Tessa laughed. “You mean she wore you out.” Peeking around the corner, she could see that Todd had his back to her and was gazing out the front window. “Anyway, I’m probably going to be another hour or so. Is that okay? Feel free to crash on my bed or the couch if you want.”

“It’s no problem. Go have fun.”

“Thanks, Hol. I owe you one.”

“You owe me more than one, but that’s what sisters are for,” she replied. “Love you. Be safe.”

“Always. Love you, too.”

Chapter 19

Stars lit up the sky as Tessa and Todd made their way toward Forest Hills’ quaint downtown area. The streets were crowded for a Tuesday night, with people out window shopping and enjoying the comfortable temperatures, which were unseasonably warm for late February. Perhaps that old groundhog was wrong for once. They could use an early spring after the brutal winter they’d endured.

Despite the brief hand holding in the restaurant, Todd did not reach for her hand as they walked down the street. She didn’t know whether to feel disappointed or relieved. Scratch that … she definitely felt disappointed, although she wished she could be certain her palms were not sweaty. She wiped them against her jacket just in case and hoped the warm breeze would take over to dry them off if necessary.

They managed to keep the conversation going while strolling along. Todd asked if Sophie was okay at home with her sister, and Tessa asked if he had a busy day at work tomorrow. They’d stop at shop windows occasionally to take note of items of interest and, of course, made the obligatory comments about the weather, mentioning what a nice night it was for winter on the east coast. Both seemed a bit nervous as to where, when, and how the walk would end.

“It’s been ages since I’ve been down this way,” Todd told her, looking around. “When I was in college, we used to come down here all of the time. There was a little pub, right here on this corner. The owner used to let me play guitar on Friday nights pretty regularly.”

“O’Grady’s,” Tessa replied, smiling. “I remember it. When I was in school, we used to come out to see a cute boy play guitar here on Friday nights.” She stopped in front of the pub that was now a flower shop to study his face. “You were the cute boy?”

“What do you mean
were
?” he teased, smirking just enough to bring out his dimples. “Are you saying I’m not cute anymore?”

“Yes,” she replied. “I mean no.” She laughed.
Oh, he was definitely still cute.
“I mean … it’s funny I didn’t recognize you. We came out to see you all the time. You look so different now.”

“Wait a second.” He smoothed his hair back, fully exposing his forehead, and parted it on the other side. Then pulled a pair of tortoiseshell eyeglasses from his front pocket and put them on. He positioned his hands as if he were holding a guitar. “How about now?”

“Yes! The glasses are a little different, but there’s no doubt about it. You’re the cute boy with the guitar!”

“I wear contacts now,” he said, pulling off the glasses and fixing his hair back the way he wore it now. “And yes, the frames are different from the ones I wore back in college. These are actually some reading glasses I picked up in the pharmacy. Even with the contacts I need them for some things. Getting old is so much fun. I probably should have had them on before when we were looking at all those statements, but I left them at home.”

“Wow, I can’t believe I knew you back then … well, sort of. I don’t think we ever talked or anything. The pub was always so crowded. You really knew how to pack a house.”

“I don’t think it was me,” he said. “It was probably those happy hour prices. Fifty-cent drafts tended to bring college kids in. Even if it was only the crappy stuff in Dixie cups.”

“Well, I was there to see you, and now suddenly here we are, back at the pub. Of course, it’s a flower shop now, but still. We’re back at the same corner. Stuff like this always blows my mind. My sister, Holly, reconnected with someone she knew in high school years later, and they just got married.” She felt her cheeks getting flushed again. “I’m going to shut up now.”

Todd grabbed a single pink rose from the canister of colorful flowers on the sidewalk and handed the man a dollar bill.

“For you,” he said, holding it out to Tessa.

She smiled. “Pink is my favorite color. Lucky guess?” she asked.

“Maybe,” he responded.

She looked down and blushed. “I hope you didn’t think when I brought up my sister getting married I was implying we were … Sometimes I say stuff without thinking first. I was just being silly.”

Putting his fingers under Tessa’s chin, Todd lifted her face back up. “No, not silly at all,” he said. “Remember what I said at dinner about being at the right place at the right time? That doesn’t just have to do with coincidence.”

“I told you. I don’t believe in that fate stuff anymore,” she said.

“What if I can convince you you’re wrong? What if I can convince you there’s a force that’s greater than you and me. Look around you, Tessa. Here we are standing outside the building of the place where we were first brought together. Only we never knew we were supposed to meet for some reason. It took all of these years to figure it out. Maybe fate was trying to tell us we weren’t ready yet, you know? You still had to have Sophie, and I still had to get my career started.”

Could that be true? Was this fate’s doing?
She nodded slightly, unable to speak, mesmerized by his words, his eyes,
his lips.

 He continued, still keeping his hand softly resting under her chin. “But now fate brought us back together—to this spot. It means something. The right place at the right time ... I just happened to come to your office yesterday and wind up spending most of the day? Then we eat dinner at a restaurant that’s within walking distance from here? I didn’t plan that. My intention yesterday was to drop the statements off and leave. I actually had a busy day scheduled and kind of got in trouble for blowing off some important stuff.”

“I’m sorry about th—” Tessa started, but Todd put his fingers to her lips to stop her.

“No, it was meant to happen that way. The same way this was … again completely unplanned. We missed the play and decided to go on this walk, and now, here we are, at the place where maybe we were destined to meet all along years ago, but for some reason didn’t. I don’t think those are coincidences.”

“So what do we do now?” she asked, barely able to get the words out.

“I think I’m supposed to kiss you,” he replied, leaning in to Tessa’s waiting lips