You Were Meant For Me (Wishful 10)

Tess lowered the pillow. “Like, your current wife, Sandy?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t understand.”

He settled back against the cushions, obviously bracing himself for this story. “You know your mother and I met at the University of Washington. What I never told you was that I didn’t start there. I was at Ole Miss for my first two years of college. That’s where Sandy and I met.”

“You knew her in college?”

“Yeah. We were friends. Couldn’t be more than that because she was already married to her high school sweetheart. But that didn’t stop me from falling in love with her or her with me.”

“Did you have an affair?”

“No. We never crossed that line. Her husband was an ass. Immature, selfish. She decided to leave him. We had this whole big plan to get her away, start divorce proceedings. When she didn’t show at our meeting place, I went to find her. I thought maybe Waylan had come home to find her packing and stopped her from leaving. I saw her with him through the window, and it looked like they were reconciling, like she’d chosen him. So I left, without a word. Without getting closure. And damn if that didn’t stick with me. For years. If I’d known what was really going on…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “Doesn’t matter. What I need you to know, to really understand, is that your mother and I didn’t break up because you weren’t a strong enough glue.”

“You were in love with someone else.”

“Yeah. Always have been, even if it took me years to admit it. When I married Maura, I was truly trying to move on. We had passion and affection and respect. Plenty of marriages turn into more from less than that.”

“I won’t settle for less.” It seemed she was an all or nothing sort of woman.

“That’s your decision. And I support you in it, whatever you choose. But be clear on this: My relationship with your mother failed because my heart wasn’t in it a hundred percent. It had nothing to do with us suddenly becoming parents before we were ready, before we’d figured things out. This baby—your baby—is not an automatic death sentence to whatever is between you and Mitch. It’s not a guarantee that you two will turn out like your mother and I did.”

Tess clung to the pillow, as if that was somehow going to stop the dizzy spin of her world realigning. With this one detail, he’d just rewritten the story of her life. She couldn’t get her head around it.

Was he right? Was there still some kind of a chance for the two of them to salvage their relationship? Tess wanted to believe him. Was desperate to cling to any shred of possibility that things weren’t destroyed. But she was so very afraid.

Shifting, she crawled into his lap, curling up as she hadn’t since she was a little girl, so her head was tucked against his shoulder. “I hope you’re right.”

Her father held her for a long time, stroking her back. “I do have one thing to ask of you in all this.”

Tess tensed. Please don’t ask for more details about how we got together. “What?”

“Can we come up with some other name for me than Grandpa? I just don’t feel that old.”

And though her heart was broken, she managed to find a laugh.

She was gone.

Mitch had known that when he saw her car wasn’t in the garage, but he’d torn through the house anyway, hoping to find something—anything—to prove him wrong. He dropped down onto the bed in the suite down the hall from their room, staring into the closet. Some of her things were still there, but the suitcase and most of the clothes weren’t. Several hangers lay strewn on the floor, as if she hadn’t been able to get out fast enough to take care in packing. He shouldn’t have been surprised that she hadn’t stuck around to work through all of this. Bolting was a thing she did. He knew that from first-hand experience. She’d been scared of what she felt in Scotland. It had been far more than fear he’d seen in her face today. It had been utter devastation.

He could relate. The foundation of his world felt cracked, and he was terrified it couldn’t be mended. But all of his own agony and frustration was secondary for the moment. Because Tess was out there, scared and upset and behind the wheel. It wasn’t safe. And beyond the worry that she’d get into an accident, he had no way of knowing whether she was, even now, on the way to the airport to meet the company’s private jet to walk out of his life forever.

She’d told him she wasn’t going to do anything to keep him from their baby. But she’d also said she wanted to stay and keep exploring things between them and here she was gone, without a word, without a note. Again. So, no, he wouldn’t put it past her to run far and fast because apparently her fear was bigger than anything she felt for him.

You don’t love me.

The look on her face…the utter heartbreak. Mitch still couldn’t get over the fact that she truly didn’t believe him. He’d spelled it out, and she’d heard none of it. How the hell was he supposed to combat that?

Where the hell was she so he could try?

The doorbell rang. Mitch bolted down the stairs. But, of course, it wasn’t Tess. Aunt Sandy stood on his front stoop. Maybe she was here to browbeat him over his involvement with Tess in the first place. Taking over that duty for her husband? Or maybe for his own parents because they were too ashamed of him they couldn’t even ream him in person. He didn’t really want to open the door to any of that. But maybe she had news about Tess. He needed that more than he needed to protect himself from recriminations.

“She’s at The Babylon.”

Mitch’s hand flexed on the open door. So she wasn’t driving and she hadn’t left town. Yet. But was it only a matter of time? Until she could make the necessary arrangements?

He’d worry about that later. For now, he let go of the fear and worry over her safety and let all his own hurt and frustration come to a boil. How the hell had his life gotten to be such a damned mess?