Tessa stood back a bit behind Wallace, so Brylee didn’t see her and watched with such envy it brought tears to her eyes. She looked away when she saw that Wallace was watching her.
Gage set Brylee down and turned to her.
“Baby, would you happen to—”
Tessa stepped forward with her hand out. “Hello. We’ve never met before.”
Brylee looked confused but played along.
“No, we haven’t.”
Gage sighed and looked toward the ceiling. “Are you going to introduce yourselves to each other?”
Brylee nodded. “My name is Brylee. What’s yours?”
“My name is … Tammy.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you.”
Tessa looked up at Gage and knew without a doubt he didn’t believe either of them.
“Baby, why don’t you take your new friend up to your playroom? I’ve got a few calls to make.”
“Okay.” Brylee took her hand. “Come on, Tammy.”
Tessa looked back when they were halfway up the steps to see Gage pull his phone from his pocket, but his eyes were narrowed and pinned on them.
At the top of the stairs, Brylee started yanking her down the hallway.
“Hurry,” she said.
They got to a room, and Brylee closed the door behind them. Tessa looked around in amazement. It was a room every girl dreamed about having.
“We’ll play later. Now, spill it,” Brylee said.
Tessa pulled her over to the window seat. She told her about the conversation she overheard a few weeks ago and how she thought they made up and started having sex. But the last week, Nate had been distant and hadn’t made love to her. She went on to tell her about what happened at the construction site.
“Oh, wow.”
“Am I overreacting?” Tessa asked.
“No. I’d do and think the same thing. What are you going to do? Do you have any family to go to?”
Tessa shook her head. “None. I thought about going back to the home I grew up in. It’s the only place that I have.”
“You can stay here. My daddy won’t mind.”
“No. I need to start moving forward and build a life for myself.”
Brylee stroked her arm. “That’s not easy for women like us to do.”
“I don’t have a choice. I think I’m strong enough to make it just fine.”
“What can I do to help?”
“I hate to ask, but can I borrow some money? I promise to pay you back. I’ve got some in a bank, but Nate took care of it, and stupid me, I never asked where it was. I know my mother had a lot of money, which will help a lot.”
“When do you want to go?”