Page 60 of The Flight Risk

“Never been so sure of anything in my life.”

Lawson pats my shoulder. “I’m sure she’s going to say yes. I have it on good authority from my fiancée that Tess is kind of into you, too.” He smirks and continues to remove his gear. “You got this, man. I’m rooting for you!”

Excitement bubbles up inside me. I need to stop by the store to get flowers before heading home. My girl deserves the best.

I unlock the door, flowers in hand, expecting to see Tess lounging on the couch with some sort of snack and Pippa wagging her tail furiously, begging for whatever food Tess has in her hands.

Except that’s not what greets me when I walk in.

I have not seen my house this immaculate since before Tess and Lottie moved in. The pillows on the couch are untouched. The kitchen counters are completely clear of the inordinate amount of water bottles and tumblers Tess owns. No Pippa. No Lottie. No Tess. My house is void of the woman I have fallen in love with. A huge knot forms in my stomach and I pull out my phone to text Tess. But before I do, I hear footsteps upstairs, coming from my bedroom. I take the stairs two at a time. The door of my room is propped open. The only thing I see is a large suitcase open on the floor. Clothes are being dumped into it.

This is not happening.

My hand presses against the door and I slowly push it open further. Tess is gathering the last of her clothes from the dresser.

“Tess? What’s going on?”

She quickly whips her head around. She looks like a deer caught in the headlights. “Oakley. I, um, thought you were at training.” She is barely making eye contact with me. She drops the last of her clothes into the suitcase and closes the top.

“Why are you packing your things?” Panic really sets in. My entire body is heating up.

“My landlord called and my apartment is ready to move back in. So, Lottie and I will be out of your hair in a couple hours. I actually already took her things over to my place. This is the last of it.” She zips up her suitcase and props it up onto its wheels.

I scoff, “You can’t be serious.”

Her eyebrows crease briefly, but then the stoicism returns in a flash. Something is off.

She tries to laugh it off as she flips her thick dark hair over her other shoulder. “What do you mean? This whole arrangement was temporary, remember?”

She rolls her oversized suitcase past me and lugs it down the staircase. I hurry after her.

“Yes, I know that’s how it started,” I say. “As a temporary situation.” I leap off the last two stairs and stop her advancing to the door. She halts and continues to look down. “Jesus, Tess. You were going to just leave and not tell me? What the hell?”

“I was about to text you.”

Now I’m angry. “A fucking text? Really, Tess? Don’t fucking do this.”

“What am I doing? It’s simple. My apartment is ready, Oakley. There’s no deeper thing going on here other than I’m moving back to the place that I live.” She says it so matter-of-factly, completely void of emotion, like she rehearsed this over and over in her head so she can get it out perfectly.

“You are fleeing. From this. From us.”

She clutches the black handle of her suitcase and shakes her head, sticking to her story. Not budging. “No, I am not.”

I step closer to her and cradle her face into my hands. “You are.” I try to lock in her gaze, but she refuses to open her eyes. She’s resorting to her tools for dealing with heartbreak and disappointment.

She recoils and steps away from me. Slipping through my grasp. “Well, it’s not like you are for sure staying in Dallas anyway, right? Your contract isn’t even final yet. You have a slew of people in Chicago who want to see you return. Maybe you should.”

“Nothing is even decided yet. You don’t know what the future holds, Tess.”

“Exactly.” The way she snaps that word is like the final nail being hammered into a coffin. “I don’t want to risk not knowing. This is all too much and Lottie is getting too attached. She’s had enough people let her down and come and go in her life. She deserves better than two people playing house.”

“Lottie’s getting too attached? Or you are?” I say pointedly.

She winces and tears well up in her eyes, diluting the stark green. Immediate guilt overwhelms me. I hate seeing her cry and right now, I’m the one causing it. I know what her fears are and I just laid them out on the table. Even if what I said was true, I feel awful that I actually said it out loud. “Look, I know you’re afraid, but I can handle anything you throw at me, Tess. Even if it’s your fear of loving me. No matter how much you push back, I’m here for you.”

“I don’t want you to have to handle what I throw at you. You deserve so much more than that.” Her voice is shaky. She takes a deep breath and grips the handle of the door. “But it’s okay. This whole thing,” she looks around my house and then back at me, “was just temporary anyway and we can go back to what we were before. Being friends. So this is good. Just a clean break. No harm, no foul. Plus, you deserve someone like Molly. She’s better for you.”

“That’s not true, honey. I love you.”