Home For The Holidays

Deidre, I noticed, was looking much better than she had been, but I knew the next few hours were going to be hard on her all the same. “You ready? If at any time you feel like you can’t do this, just give me a heads up.” All she knew was that today was revelation day. She had no idea what I knew or how I was going to reveal it. She just knew she had to be here to watch while Jared and I tore Tessa’s world down around her.

“I’m good. As long as nothing happens to my kids, I’m good.”

“Okay, let’s go inside.” I guess Tessa had seen us from the upstairs window because she came bounding down the stairs when we stepped inside. “What’s she doing here? What game are you playing?” She addressed me.

“Stay in your lane if you can remember where it is. She’s my guest, and these are my nieces. You wanna eat here today? I suggest you back off right now.”

I said all this with a smile and an even tone in my voice because my nieces were present. Jared took over, getting down on their level to talk to them, and it was as if the rest of us weren’t even in the room. “Do you want to come with uncle Jared and see the gifts me and your aunty Samantha got you?”

Tessa scoffed at his use of aunty and uncle, and I grabbed her arm and dragged her down the hallway before she could say another word. She shrugged out of my hand when we reached the living room, which was the first room we came to. “Let go of me. Don’t think just because we’re in your parents' house that you can do whatever you want. I live here now.”

I couldn’t help it; I laughed in her face. “You really are a delusional twit. Listen up; if you step one toe out of line here today, I will wipe the floor with your ass and then put you on the street where you belong. You doubt me? Run upstairs and ask my brother who’d win this fight. If you think for a second that because he’s the son of this house that my dad would take his side, think again. I’m the baby, baby, and this baby always wins. If you weren’t raised by farm animals, you’d know how families work. Now, my nieces are here. Are you going to behave like you have some sense, or are you going to stay in your room all day?”

“It’s Xmas!”

“Your point? You make one more wrong move, and you’re out. Try…me.” Yup, I’m channeling Michele again. She huffed, and I raised my hand in a threatening manner, making her take a step back. “Thought so!” I left her to decide how she wanted her day to go and walked out of the room and right into trouble. Well shit!

* * *

TOM

* * *

Now is my chance. I doubt I’ll get another one like this since she seems to be a master at evading me. I saw Sam and Tessa having some kind of discussion in the living room and decided to grab the chance. Jared was in the great room with mom and dad and the girls, my girls.

I’d started suspecting for some time now that they were indeed mine. But until last night, when dad showed me a picture that I thought was of one of the girls that turned out to be my sister at their age, the last of my doubts went away.

I knew when I saw her yesterday that I’d made the biggest mistake of my life. All the old feelings came rushing back. The love, passion, everything I felt the first time I laid eyes on her. It was like coming out of a fog or awakening from a coma after many years. I wanted to go after her when she left, but it was not the right time. There was still Tessa to deal with.

Yes, Tessa, I wonder why she’d chosen to mess with my life. I’ve spent the last two years with her, and yet it’s as if I never knew her at all. Sure we’d become more like roommates than lovers, but I never once suspected that she was anything other than honest with me. Until things stopped adding up, and I started to see cracks in her façade.

It had taken me too long to realize I know, but better late than never, at least that’s my hope. I found my balls for the first time in way too long to recall and approached her in the doorway of the great room where she was standing watching the girls as they tore into the mountain of gifts my family had bought them. I feel like a complete bastard because I hadn’t got them anything, but hopefully, if she gives me another chance, I can make it up to her and them.