“Nothing. It’s not important. Just…” She made a frantic gesture for him to close the door. Jamie shook his head, so she slapped his arm as hard as she could. He glared at her, but closed the door.
“Give me Monica’s number,” she hissed.
“No.”
“Are you going to call her back?”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on! I can’t get in touch with her dad and we need to find out if he knows!”
“He looked right at me, Tessa. He knows. We need to stop screwing around and tell Eric before he finds out from Kendall.”
“No! We can’t! Just let me… I’ll go down to Kendall’s office right now, okay?”
“No, I’m going to tell Eric. This is one disaster you can’t cover up. I don’t even want you to.”
As he turned toward the door, Tessa leaped up and grabbed his shirt.
“Hey!”
“Please don’t. Please!”
Jamie seemed alarmed to find her sprawled over her desk. Her pack of paper clips slipped to the floor with a crash. “Tessa, calm down.”
“Tell me you won’t tell him and I’ll calm down.”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m not.” She felt tears spring to her eyes, and she hadn’t even summoned them to soften him up. Jamie’s shoulders fell, and when she knew he wasn’t going to dart for the door, she let go of his shirt and climbed off her desk. “He’s going to be so mad, Jamie.”
“I know that.”
“He’ll never let you take on more of the business.”
“Maybe I don’t deserve to take on more.”
She knew that wasn’t true. He didn’t have any responsibility, so he didn’t act responsibly. But Eric didn’t see the logic in that reasoning. He wanted Jamie to prove himself first, and every year the tension grew between the two men. Something had to give. And Tessa was afraid her family would be the thing to break.
“You said you’d give me a chance,” she pleaded.
“I didn’t say that. I just stopped arguing with you.”
“Please, Jamie.” His jaw tightened in stubbornness. She grabbed his hand and wrapped both of hers around it. “Pleeease?”
She knew the moment she had him. She always did. And not a second too soon. Her office door snapped open again, and Eric stuck his head in.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing!” she answered.
Jamie held her gaze, and for a moment, the serious line of his mouth worried her. She gave her head one tiny shake and squeezed his hand one last time before letting him go.
Eric clearly didn’t buy that they were just having a cozy brother/sister talk. “Guys,” he said flatly.
Jamie took a deep breath and Tessa closed her eyes. Please.
“The person Tessa was with last night? It was Luke.”