As Love Blooms (23 page)

Then he covered her lips with his own and did his best to chase away every thought of being only friends.

No magic carpets were needed tonight to carry Tessa inside Aunt Sam’s mansion. Just thinking about Reese made her float right through the door. She felt as if she’d been baptized in fairy dust.

“Well, Charlotte, look who finally decided to grace us with her presence,” Hannah teased.

Charlotte tipped Tessa’s chin upward. “And from her dreamy expression, I think she has a lot to tell us about.”

With a sigh, Tessa leaned against the wall of the foyer and closed her eyes. “As much as I love you two, I think I’ll keep this secret to myself.”

“Uh-uh-uh.” Hannah wagged her finger. “After all these years of you pestering us after we spent time with a fellow, you are not getting away without spilling the beans.”

“I know how to make her talk.” Charlotte snaked her arm through Tessa’s and pulled her close. “Let’s go in the kitchen. I think there’s a piece of chocolate cake with your name on it.”

“Really?”

“Hot out of the oven.”

Charlotte delivered generous slices of cake to each of them, then began to pour glasses of milk to go with it.

Tessa licked her lips. Charlotte’s chocolate cake ranked right up there with Oreo biscuits. She picked up her fork, but Hannah yanked the confection away before she could snag a bite.

“Details, little sister,” Hannah said. “Did he kiss you?”

Tessa’s cheeks flamed, and she tried to douse them with a swallow of the ice-cold milk.

Hannah winked at Charlotte. “I think that’s a yes. What do you think?”

“I think you may be right.” Charlotte pulled out a chair and sat down at the small, rectangular table. She forked a bite of cake and waved it in front of Tessa’s mouth. “What I want to know is, was he a good kisser?”

“And you two call me immature.” Tessa gave them a mock glare, then began to laugh. “And he was an excellent kisser, not that I have many to compare him to, mind you.”

“No, of course not.” Hannah pushed Tessa’s plate back and then began to eat her own cake. “Tell us about the whole day, and don’t leave out a moment.”

Tessa told them about the church service, about eating with Mrs. Baxter, and about learning to trap shoot, but she didn’t tell them
everything
. Some secrets were meant to be tucked away in her heart.

“What did you discover about Reese you didn’t know before?” Charlotte picked up her empty plate and set it in the sink.

“Several things. Besides being an excellent trapshooter, he is like a son to the lady who runs his boardinghouse, and her dog now thinks Reese is his owner.”

Hannah shrugged. “A man who has a dog can’t be all bad.”

“All bad? Reese is all good.” Tessa leaned back in her chair and touched her lips. “He’s sweet and kind and—”

“And you, my sister, are smitten.” Charlotte returned for Tessa’s empty plate. “But remember, no man is perfect. Every man has his flaws and his secrets.”

“Reese isn’t like that. He’s genuine. He has his feet planted firmly on the ground.”

“That’s a good thing, because your head is clearly in the clouds.” Hannah stood and squeezed Tessa’s shoulder. “I’m thrilled for you,
Tessa, but like Aunt Sam always says, guard your heart. You can only fall in love for the first time once.”

Love? Is that what she was beginning to feel? Her sisters slipped from the room, but she remained. She stared out the window and watched the electric lights flicker in the house across the way.

She touched her fingers to her lips. After the kiss, they’d sat on the porch and talked another hour. What had she learned about Reese? That he’d been drawn to her from the first time they’d met, and he intended for them to be much more than friends.

Secrets? Not her Reese. Flaws? Nothing she couldn’t handle.

A future together? She certainly hoped so, both in the park and outside of it. Her full heart strained at the seams.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you.

It was hard to live a lie.

A cold, irritating rain drizzled around Reese as he surveyed the garden he and Tessa were planting. It trickled down the back of his neck and beneath the collar of his shirt. He raised the collar of his jacket and tugged it closer, then glanced at Lafayette. The bloodhound plopped on his paws as if he’d lost patience with Reese.

Normally, Lafayette didn’t accompany him, but he’d seemed so restless after three days of rain that Reese thought a day in the park, even a rainy one, would do him good. Now he wasn’t so sure.

He wasn’t sure about a lot of things.

Since Tessa wouldn’t be coming today, he should go into the greenhouse and work, but he had some serious thinking to do, and he needed to do it here in his garden.

Mr. Nussbaumer had given him this area to create
his
garden, yet it bore little of his mark. All around it he could see bits of Tessa shining through, but his personality? It simply wasn’t there, and pretty soon Tessa was going to see that too. Would she say
anything? If she did, how was he going to tell her that he hadn’t been truthful from the beginning?

That first day, she’d blown in like a breath of fresh air, and even before he saw the garden plans, he’d wanted to help her. But his offer to use her garden plans to impress his boss? That had been a lie too. After he viewed the plans, he knew he needed her creativity as much as she needed the chance for Mr. Nussbaumer to discover her talent.

“It made sense at the time.” He squatted and rubbed Lafayette’s head. “She got what she wanted, and I got what I needed. But now that I like Tessa, I don’t think she’ll be impressed to learn I’ve been using her to make up for my inadequacies. And if there’s any chance she could be the one, I’ll need that job in the conservatory to support a wife.”

Lafayette cocked his head at him.

“What? You think I’m jumping the gun? Well, you’re the only one I’ll admit this to, but I can’t get that girl out of my thoughts.” He stood. “Come on, boy. Let’s go somewhere and warm up. Maybe if we get busy, I can make sense of all this.”

Sure, hard work. His father always said it was all he was good for.

Rivulets of water trailed down the windowpane, and Tessa traced the path with her finger. Enough windows were open in Aunt Sam’s house to let in the rain-scented breeze.

Three long days without gardening. Three lifetimes without Reese.

“Tessa, dear, how long are you planning to sit there staring out the window?” Aunt Sam sat down at her writing desk. “You can’t make the rain stop by sheer will.”

“I wish I could.” Tessa crossed the room and plopped down at the piano with a sigh. She plucked out a series of discordant notes.

“It isn’t like you to be unable to entertain yourself. Why don’t
you do something you enjoy, like reading a play or one of those Munsey books you’re so fond of?”

Tessa snagged the May issue of the story paper from the table and thumbed through it, but even Zane Grey’s
The Light of the Western Stars
failed to keep her interest for more than a few minutes.

She heaved a long sigh.

“Tessa, find something to do, or I shall put you to work cleaning ashes from the fireplaces.”

“You wouldn’t do that.”

Aunt Sam arched her brows.

“You would?” Tessa hurried from the room before her aunt could make good on the threat. Several minutes later, she returned with her collection.

Aunt Sam looked up. “What on earth are all of those?”

“My scrapbooks.” Tessa thumped them down on Aunt Sam’s desk. “And the box on top holds the mementos I’ve yet to include. I thought I’d put them in.”

“An excellent rainy day activity.”

“I thought I’d spread these things out in the parlor. Do you mind?”

“Not at all, dear.”

Tessa picked up the stack and jostled the albums onto her left arm. “Can you hand me the glue?”

With a nod of her gray head, Aunt Sam opened a drawer on her desk, removed a bottle of glue, and deposited it in Tessa’s hand. “Enjoy your project.”

It didn’t take long to cover the table with clippings and programs she wanted to include. She opened the glue and caught a fishy whiff. Before she was done, the whole room would reek.

“Tess,” Aunt Sam called from the adjoining study. “Why don’t you put some music on the Victrola?”

“Great idea, Aunt Sam.” Tessa opened the doors to the cabinet where the heavy records were kept. She pulled one out of its paper
sleeve and slipped it onto the Victrola. After winding the player, she flipped the switch and set the needle down on the spinning turntable. Soon, strains of “When the Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves for Alabam’” filled the two rooms.

Halfway through the song, Aunt Sam came into the parlor, dancing a little jig to the music.

Tessa giggled. “You might be almost sixty-five years old, but you don’t act like it.”

“I think we all have two ages. One that we actually are, and one that we feel like we are. Inside, I have been sixteen forever.”

“Me too,” Tessa admitted. “No matter how old I get, I think I’ll never feel old.”

“Then dance with me.” Aunt Sam restarted the record. Amid a flurry of laughter, they moved to the silly song like schoolgirls.

The butler stepped into the doorway and cleared his throat.

Aunt Sam turned and frowned at the interruption. “What is it, Geoffrey?”

“There’s a Mr. King here to see Miss Tessa, ma’am. Shall I send him away?”

“No!” Tessa put a hand on Aunt Sam’s arm.

“Even I expect some modicum of decorum, dear.” She turned to Tessa and winked. “After you introduce me, I shall retire to the study—with the doors shut.”

“Thank you, Aunt Sam.”

Geoffrey bowed slightly. “I’ll show the young man in, ma’am.”

Tessa glanced around the room. What a mess. She hurried to the table and began to assemble her supplies. She hastily gathered the scraps of paper and lifted a pillow on the couch, stuffing some of the scraps beneath it.

“What will Reese think if he finds my things scattered from here to eternity?” she whispered.

A familiar male hand stilled her efforts. Heat searing her cheeks, she looked up into Reese’s face.

“What will he think? He’ll think he should have called ahead like a true gentleman.” He grabbed a waste paper basket from beside the desk and held it out to her. “Sorry about that, but I didn’t want to wait another day to see you.”

Tessa dropped the contents in her hand into the wastebasket and smiled sheepishly. “Aunt Sam, this is Reese King.” She motioned her hand toward her aunt. “Reese, this is my aunt, Mrs. Samantha Phillips.”

Reese set the wastebasket down. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Phillips.”

“And you as well, Mr. King.” Aunt Sam gave him a slight nod, a hint of smile on her lips. “Now, if you two will excuse me, I have some work to attend to.”

After she’d closed the double doors, Reese swallowed. “Is your aunt upset that I’ve called on you like this?”

“No, not at all. She’s giving us some privacy—but not too much.” Tessa dipped her head. Shyness was a strange sensation she couldn’t recall ever feeling before. She motioned to the couch. “Shall we sit?”

The maid entered the parlor. “Miss Tessa, would you care for refreshments?”