Back In The Bedroom

8

REILLY HAD A STAFF ROOM and three offices: one for his office manager, one for the temps he hired and the farthest one for himself. He let Tessa into the temp’s office and tried to ignore the little voice in his head, the one that was berating him for caving in and keeping her there.

Tessa sat at the desk and looked at the computer, which he leaned over her to boot up. Just as he did, his office manager poked her head into the office, having clearly just arrived because she held a steaming Starbucks coffee cup and still wore her sweater.

“You’re late,” he said, watching the computer screen and not noticing that Tessa’s hair smelled like something he wanted to bury his nose in.

Much.

How was it the little pixie of a woman with her long hair and mossy eyes that flashed her every thought could make him yearn so damn much he ached?

He hated to ache.

“If I’m late,” Cheri said, casually sipping from her cup. “It’s your own fault.”

“That’s right,” Reilly agreed. “Because everything is my fault.”

“Eddie called.” Cheri gave him a long, undecipherable look. “Said to make sure you don’t take out your mood on anyone. Anyone being your temp today.” She smiled at Tessa. “Hello, there. Has he taken his mood out on you?”

“No,” Reilly said. Damn, he was going to have to introduce them. “Tessa, this is Cheri. She’s my office manager-”

“Ha.”

Reilly sighed. “What, now you’re not my office manager?”

Cheri just looked at him.

“She also thinks she runs my life,” he added in an aside to Tessa.

“Well, if you ran it better, then I wouldn’t have to interfere,” said Cheri, calmly sipping her coffee.

“In any case,” he felt compelled to admit to Tessa, “she does happen to know her stuff and she’ll be showing you what to do around here.”

“And?” Cheri asked sweetly.

“And…lunch is at twelve?”

“And…?”

He stared at her. No, he wasn’t going to do this, he wasn’t going to tell Tessa-

“What he’s trying to get to,” Cheri said. “Is the fact that I’m also his mother. He often forgets to mention that.”

Reilly closed his eyes. Opened them.

And found Tessa studying him with unabashed curiosity. “I don’t know why,” she said to Cheri, “but I didn’t imagine he had a mother.”

“I know,” said his mother, smiling serenely. “He’s quite annoying and stubborn, isn’t he? I have to say, he didn’t get either of those traits from me.”

“I’m just misunderstood,” Reilly said and Cheri laughed and hugged him.

Tessa remained mute but it wasn’t, he was sure, out of loyalty to him. Not after how he’d treated her this morning, but honest to God, all he wanted was to just move on from what had happened Friday night.

He couldn’t, however, not with her needing this job because of money. Four long days.

He was really getting tired of his father with his interfering ways, this belief that life was all about fun and laughter-often at his own son’s expense.

Tessa was still watching him with those eyes. And then there were the bruises on her delicate throat. They were killing him.

So, fine. She was going to be in his hair for a few days. At least she smelled good.

If only he didn’t remember that she tasted even better.

SOMEHOW REILLY MANAGED to put Tess out of his head and bury himself in work. Thankfully he’d picked an occupation he was well-suited to and was good at. Numbers didn’t argue, numbers didn’t manipulate. Numbers just let him be.

Overall, he supposed, things went well. They all stayed busy and Tessa actually did know her way around an accounting ledger.

At the end of the day, she appeared in the doorway of his office, her eyes shining, her mouth curved in a smile as she held out a stack of files he’d asked Cheri for.

He couldn’t help but notice that she had been enjoying herself since he’d convinced her to stay. But he had a feeling she always enjoyed herself, enjoyed life. Damned if that wasn’t unexpectedly attractive.

“I brought the Sarkins files up to date, all the way through to the general ledger,” she said. “And Cheri and I together handled the Anderson account as well.” She started to go, then stopped. “Oh, and your father’s on line two.”

He picked up the phone. “After what you’ve pulled,” he said to Eddie. “I am not going out with you and a pack of women to the game tonight.”

Eddie’s long-suffering sigh sounded in his ear. “I told you, no pack of women. Just a couple. And that’s not why I called.”

“You want me to thank you for the old, grumpy office help?”

“That’s no way to talk about your own mother.”

“You know damn well I’m referring to Tessa.”

“Who’s not old and grumpy.”

Reilly drew in a deep breath and looked at Tess, who was still standing there. “Which is my point.”

“She’s good, isn’t she?”

“You know she is. Look, I don’t know what you’re up to, but-”

“Son, I’d love to stick around and listen to you sound like an ass, but I have a bigger problem than even you at the moment.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The burglary…you remember the four guys the police hauled in?”

Yes, he was fairly certain he remembered.

“Well, apparently a few of them have prior records and when the cops held those up, dangling some sort of deal, they squealed like the three little pigs. They said the whole thing was set up by someone I knew. It turns out she’s…”

Reilly waited impatiently. “She’s what?”

Eddie sighed and said, “An ex of mine.”

“An ex. Shocking. Do they have any idea which one of the thousands it might be?”

“There weren’t thousands. Hundreds maybe, but-”

“Get to the point, Eddie.”

“It was Sheila Vanetti. Your mother always refers to her as the crazy one and it turns out, she’s right.”

“Where is she now?”

“Missing, funny enough, and the police haven’t been able to track her down. And they think…well, this is embarrassing, to tell you the truth.”

“They think what?”

“That she’s trying to scare me,” Eddie said laughing. “Funny, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Reilly said. “A laugh riot.”

“They even think I need protection. Can you imagine such a thing? Me being stalked? How hysterical is that?”

“Hysterical.” Christ. “Did you hire a bodyguard?”

His mother appeared in the doorway. She’d always had a sort of sixth sense when it came to Eddie and, sure enough, she wore her worried frown.

“I thought,” Eddie said, “that given your last occupation, you could handle it for me.”

“I’ll be right over.”

“Thanks, son.”

When he’d hung up, Tessa said, “Is everything okay?”

He rubbed his eyes. “Not really.”

“What is it, Reilly?” This from Cheri, who looked far more worried than an ex should look. But he told them everything and, when he was finished, both of them watched him with that look that said they believed he could do anything.

Apparently Eddie thought so as well.

All these damn tugs at his heart. And he didn’t have a clue what to do about them.