The Bachelor's Sweetheart

“I didn’t talk with Mom, but I did talk with Jared. He and I both know alcoholics who are successfully working a twelve-step program, me through my counseling and one of Jared’s close friends on the motocross circuit.”

Sure, they’re successfully working a program—a program of fooling everyone around them.

“Jared agrees with me that we should meet with Dad and hear him out.”

“Big brother says so, so we should all fall in line. Well, count me out of your little family reunion. And don’t give the old man my phone number.”

“I wouldn’t without your permission.”

“You’re not going to get it. Tell Natalie hello from me, and enjoy the rest of your honeymoon.” Josh hung up without waiting for a response from his brother.

Josh gunned the engine of his truck and threw gravel as he tore out of the parking lot. By the time he’d reached the stop sign at the corner, he’d gotten control over himself. Leave it to their father to reappear just as he and his brothers were all doing well and were accepted by the locals who’d either scorned them or pitied them when they were growing up. That was probably it. Dad had gotten wind of their collective success and wanted to cash in on it. He turned left on US Route 9. Might as well follow his original plan and go to the apartment, use his excess adrenaline to unstick those windows. Then he could stop off at the Majestic if he saw the lights on there. His stomach grumbled. If Tessa hadn’t ordered pizza for her and Myles, he would when he got there.

Yeah, that was what he needed to put the evening behind him. To hang out and watch some flicks with his best bud. Tessa would understand. She always did. He couldn’t believe Connor and Jared, Jared especially, were giving in to their father. Josh wasn’t about to be sucked in. There was no such thing as a recovering alcoholic.

* * *

Tessa started a clip from a new Disney film that had gotten good reviews as a film kids and adults could both enjoy.

“Disney?” Myles said. “I thought you wanted to increase attendance.”

“Give it a minute. You haven’t even seen the opening yet.” Myles hadn’t been anywhere near as objective judging the movies as Josh was, favoring blow-’em-up action adventures and panning everything else. While Josh liked thrillers and action-adventure films, he wasn’t big on gratuitous violence. He’d said seeing gunfire firsthand took the attraction out of it. That was about the only thing he ever said to her about his tour in Afghanistan.

As the clip ended and Tessa marked the film as a “yes,” she heard what sounded like footsteps on the stairs to the projector room.

She tensed. “I locked the theater door, didn’t I?”

“You did.” Myles’s mouth tightened into a thin line.

So it hadn’t been her imagination. He’d heard the steps, too. Night noises never made her edgy when she and Josh were viewing clips. Tessa glanced sideways at Myles. She’d seen Myles grow from a teen into a young adult since she’d moved to Schroon Lake but still thought of him as Jamie Payton’s oldest kid, all six-foot-one, and hundred and eighty-five pounds of him.

“I’ll get the lock on the room door,” he said. “You get ready to call 911.”

The door swung open as Myles rose, and Tessa clenched the arms of her chair.

“Hey,” Josh said. “Got any pizza left?”

Her heart dropped back from her throat to her chest. She hadn’t thought about Josh and that he had a key for times when he worked late and stopped by after she’d already started viewing the clips.

“Um, I finished the last piece,” Myles said. “I’ll run out to the diner and get you something if you want, like if you guys want to be alone.”

“Good idea.” Josh pulled a few bills from his wallet. “Ask for my usual burger and fries. They’ll know. And something to drink. Take your time.”

Myles pocketed the money and grinned at Josh.

“Why did you do that?” Tessa asked.

“I’m hungry. With the accident and fixing the windows at the apartment, I didn’t catch any supper.”

Tessa crumpled the napkin on the table next to her and tossed it at Josh. “Not the food. The take your time. You’re giving Myles the wrong idea about us.”

“Hey, I have a reputation to uphold. I’m with a beautiful woman. What man wouldn’t want her all to himself?”

Tessa warmed at his compliment while she also weighed whether to pick up her paper plate and chuck it at him. “As big an honor as it may be, I’d rather not join the long list of Josh Donnelly’s former girlfriends. I prefer being on the more exclusive just-friends list.”

“And you’re at the top of that one. So what’s wrong with my wanting to have you to myself for a few minutes? This is our usual Monday evening.”

Tessa attributed the uptick in her heart rate to residual ah from the heartwarming romantic comedy clip she and Myles had watched before the Disney one. After all, this was good old love-’em-and-leave-’em Josh. No one she could take seriously.

“Do you have any clips left to view?”

“A couple.” Tessa ran the videos and they talked about the films. She added them to her show list and shared the titles of the others she was ordering.

When Josh finished reading and commenting on her choices, he ran his hand over his hair and glanced around the room as if making sure they were really alone. “I’ve got some news.”

“About the accident? Someone we know?”

Josh dropped into the chair beside her, where Myles had been sitting. “About my—”

“Yo, incoming food.” Myles stomped up the stairs like half a detachment. “I’ve got your food.” He inched the door open. “Didn’t want to walk in on anything.”

“Get in here. There was nothing to walk in on.” Tessa glared at Josh.

“Yeah, right. I know that.” Myles gave Josh a nod that she was sure he didn’t think she caught. He handed Josh his food and fumbled for the change.

“Keep it for gas,” Josh said.

“Thanks. Tessa, you don’t mind if I leave now that Josh is here?”

An inexplicable wave of apprehension almost made her urge Myles to stay.

Myles cleared his throat. “A friend. You guys know her from church. Kaitlyn Flynn. She lives with Jack and Suzi Hill. She’s in my algebra class at the college. She texted me for some help with our assignment. The Hills’ house is on my way home. If I leave now, it won’t be too late to stop.”

Tessa was pretty sure she’d never heard Myles string together that many words about himself in one conversation. “Go ahead. I’ve showed you how I judge and choose the movies. That’s what you wanted.”

“Yeah. I’ll come in early on Friday to be here for the candy delivery.”

“That would be great.” Tessa pinched her lips and held her breath until she heard Myles’s last footfall on the stairs. Then she broke out in laughter. “Poor boy. From what Suzi told me, their former foster child Kaitlyn is a math whiz.”

“So her call for help was all a setup.” He joined in Tessa’s laughter. “I should warn him.”

“And break his heart? What guy doesn’t want to be the white knight riding in on his trusty steed—in this case, math skills—to save the damsel in distress?”

“True. But some of us have more finessed rescue skills.”

“You’ve never been watching from the outside.”

He grinned. “So that’s what you do, watch my moves?”