The Bachelor's Sweetheart. Jean C. Gordon

Чтение книги онлайн.

       Chapter Two

      Tessa hugged herself for warmth as she walked the short distance from the Majestic to her grandmother’s house. The unusually warm spring day had turned frosty with nightfall, and the light coat she’d worn to the wedding wasn’t enough to ward off the chill of the air or her thoughts.

      After dropping her grandmother off at the house, she’d gone over to the movie house, figuring her part-time college student employee, Myles, would be closing up about then. She should have waited until he checked in with her in the morning as she’d asked him to do. The Saturday night—generally her biggest night—receipts were dismal. And she couldn’t attribute it all to the large number of people attending Connor and Natalie’s wedding. As her grandmother’s house came in view, the moon and streetlight spotlighted the shutter on the second-floor window the winter winds had knocked askew. The theater building wasn’t alone in needing work, although all the house needed was some cosmetic touches and basic upkeep. Maybe she could extend Josh’s contract to cover whatever she couldn’t do on the house herself.

      Tessa trudged up the steps of the house she and her grandmother shared and stepped into the living room. She locked the front door behind her. Before she’d moved in with her, her grandmother had never locked her doors when she was home. She’d finally convinced her they should at least lock up at night. “Grandma, I’m back.”

      “I’m in the kitchen,” she answered.

      Tessa slipped off her coat and reached in the pocket for her phone when her text alert chimed. She frowned at the name.

      “Your uncle Bob?” Grandma stood in the doorway drying her hands on a dish towel.

      “Yes.” Tessa read the text.

      I need you to work on your grandmother. Maybe she’ll listen to you. We’re going to lose the introductory price on the condos if she doesn’t agree soon.

      “I just got off the phone with him before you came in.” Her grandmother sighed. “I guess I have to make a final decision. Maybe I should take the train down to Albany and let Bob show me around the community he and Kathy are moving to. But I can’t imagine living someplace where everyone is over fifty-five. I think being around you kids helps keep me young.”

      Tessa smiled at her grandmother’s last comment as she hung her coat in the closet. “I thought you had decided you didn’t want to leave Schroon Lake and all of your friends.”

      “Come on into the kitchen.” Her grandmother avoided her question, waving the dish towel toward the doorway. “We need to talk.”

      Tessa tensed.

      “I put some water on for chamomile tea. I shouldn’t have had that second cup of coffee at the reception. It’s past my usual bedtime, and I’m not at all sleepy.”

      Tessa followed her into the kitchen. She could use something calming, too. An old longing awoke. Even after five years, the craving for alcohol was there deep inside her. She breathed in. Lord. And out. Help me. “Tea would be great.”

      Grandma’s old metal teakettle began to whistle when they walked into the kitchen.

      “Grab a couple of mugs, spoons and the tea tin.” Her grandmother bustled over to the stove, turned off the gas and lifted the kettle from the burner. “And the hot plate from the dish drainer. Since it’s just the two of us, I’m not going to bother with a teapot.”

      Tessa had the mugs, tea and hot plate on the table when her grandmother brought the kettle over. She put a tea bag in each mug, and her grandmother filled them with boiling water.

      They sat next to each other at the small round table.

      “You’re the only one in the family who drinks tea plain, like me,” her grandmother said.

      Tessa stirred her drink, watching the tea bag swirl around. She pressed it against the side of the mug and placed the tea bag and spoon on the table. “But we didn’t come in here to talk about tea or sugar. What happened to your decision to stay in Schroon Lake?”

      Her grandmother dropped her gaze to the mug of tea sitting in front of her. “I found out how little you have left of the money your grandfather gave you to make a go of the Majestic.”

      Tessa started. Grandma wasn’t a person to go snooping around in other people’s business. “How?”

      “I went paperless with my bank statements and was having trouble printing them out from the bank’s website. I stopped in at the bank to see if someone could show me what I was doing wrong. Along with my other accounts, the bank officer gave me the statement from the joint checking account your grandfather set up for you when he was sick. He must have put me on the account, too.”

      “I wasn’t hiding it from you.” Tessa couldn’t keep the defensive note out of her voice. The days when she purposely hid her actions were over. СКАЧАТЬ