Tank wanted nothing more than to drop by the hospital first thing in the morning, but he didn’t. He also wanted to avoid Tessa and Jazz, not sure what they’d be thinking about this whole thing, and in general he just felt like taking a day off to go fishing.
Okay, that was a lie. He never fished. He just wanted to sit by the water, have a few beers over the course of a few hours and then pack away the fishing poles before going back to whatever was up next.
He also wanted to see Leila and yet didn’t go to check if Hilary and she were still home.
“Thomas Michaels for Lanestrong Events,” he told the guy behind the counter as he entered the office building. He hadn’t gotten his own card yet because he usually came with either Tessa or Evy, but now that neither was an option he had to officially sign in and hope someone upstairs would agree to—
“Here’s your security card. Sign here, here, and put your info in here. If you lose that card you’ll have to pay a fine of ten thousand dollars for the resetting of the system. Miss Rowan said she’d tell you the rest upstairs.”
Speechless, Tank signed and filled out the papers before taking his own security card, walking over to the elevator and swiping it through before grinning to himself. He did feel quite important, although he knew he wasn’t office staff.
The moment the door opened and he stepped out, his heart got lighter.
“Daddy!” The ecstatic scream was followed by little feet hitting the floor in rather rapid, uneven succession. He caught Leila before she fell and wrapped her tiny body in his arms, inhaling her sweet toddler scent as if he hadn’t seen her in forever.
“It’s Tank, remember? Not Daddy,” he whispered and his heart broke while jean-clad legs and black heels stepped toward him. He didn’t want to look up to see who they belonged to when a small hand came to rest on the little girl’s shoulder. Tank recognized the ring instantly.
“The future Mrs. Jesse Connor,” he said as a way of greeting, his eyes still on Leila, who watched him funnily.
“Lei, why don’t you go and check on Johnny?” Tessa suggested and the little girl lit up, stumbling away adorably. When Tank no longer had an excuse to stay where he was, he stood, finding Tessa’s dark eyes tender.
“How are you doing? Hils had some words this morning, but not much, and I just… I was worried about you.”
He blinked. “About me?”
She nodded, her brows furrowing. “It still surprises you, after all you’ve done for us, that I worry about you? Do I like giving you shit? Hell yeah. You were an ass and I’ll make sure you won’t ever forget that, but Tank, you proved more than once that you’re also Jazz’s brother in all things but blood. We’re bound to tease each other.” She winked and he closed his eyes, the relief so great, he was surprised his feet didn’t lift him from the floor because he felt so light.
“I wanted to call her about a million times last night, wondering if she would believe me if I told her what I’d done.”
“And you came to the conclusion she wouldn’t?”
When he shook his head, Tessa leaned forward, hugging him tight. He pulled her against him, squeezing her briefly.
“She thought about forgiving me for doing it anyway, and I think that made me even angrier than her thinking I cheated in the first place.”
Tessa stared at him. “What? Why?”
“Because she clearly thinks she deserves being cheated on, as if she’s not good enough for a guy to not stray. I’m mad at her for thinking I would, when I did everything to prove to her I changed and I love how things are. I am really mad, and hurt, but I cannot really blame her because my track record of having girlfriends is a glorious zero. But for her to think she’s not worth anything but second place? A second-class life? It breaks me. And makes me realize I failed in making her—”
Tessa stopped him with her hand on his chest. “Tank, as much as I love how you love her, this is on her. Hilary tried to tell her that you didn’t cheat, and so did I. God, I don’t give a damn what you did. I didn’t yesterday, either, or I would’ve asked you when you picked up Leila. She spoke in your favor so strongly, defended you whenever, and suddenly she doubts you? Nope. It’s not your fault, no matter what’s happening from here on.”
He closed his eyes. “Jazz believed I’d go and cheat. I saw it on his face.”
“Did not! I was pissed at you for making it look like that. I know insane girls and their crazy minds, and we have an office full here. You dropping off the child for a few hours? How was I supposed to know they wouldn’t hunt you down with pitchforks?” His best friend came out of the room that was now Evy’s office and winked at him.
He hadn’t been there the day before when Tank had picked up Leila, and he’d worried about seeing him again, especially because Jazz had assured him he’d injure him should Evy get hurt, but they seemed to be fine. Another fucking weight lifted off his shoulders.
“Jazz goes running when he needs a break, but he makes sure people know he loves us before he does.”
“Tessa takes long walks with the music blaring. She even dances in the forest when she thinks no one sees it,” Jazz whispered. “We’re okay with breaks. We’re just not okay with you looking so excited about them.”
Tessa laughed, leaning into Jazz, who kissed the side of her hair. “True. I usually bawl my eyes out when I’m ready for one and Jazz ushers me out of the house. And he’s getting so grumpy, not even food can fix it.”
Jazz bumped her side with his hip and then drew her back in.
“Tank, how about you take Saturday off to just do manly things? I don’t know, go to a sports bar and hang out? I can take Leila off Hilary’s hands and check on Evy with her. Jazz needs a break, too.”
The way Jazz stared at her, clueless, made Tank grin, concluding his best friend didn’t need a break as much as Tessa needed him to go with Tank.
‘Thank you’, he mouthed and she nodded.
“Fine, man date on Saturday. I’ll pick you up,” Tank stated to Jazz before getting serious.
“I’m going back to the venue, check the last lights with the electricians and see about getting started with the decorations since I didn’t manage anymore yesterday.”
“I’m coming,” Jo announced, making the three chuckle. She couldn’t have been more obvious about listening in on them.
Tessa shook her head with a grin. “Scar needs to stay. We changed the entire design of the place holders and whatnot and need to redo them. I’m doing soldier interviews all day, and Jazz is going to look the waiters and staff over with the security. I’m very glad you’ll be at the venue. There’s someone dropping by today from one of the B-list starlets. I forgot her name, but he wants to scout the venue and see where he wants her seated to best protect her. Also, you need to—”
Scratching the back of his head, Tank sighed. “Can you write that all down? I’m not sure I can remember all that,” he admitted and Tessa laughed, turning away, still talking to him, which prompted him to follow.
She looked like she owned everything there, as if the world belonged to her. Her strides were even, her shoulders squared and her back straight. She looked like a woman on a mission who’d be deterred by no one and nothing.
Evy hadn’t looked like that anymore in the last few days. She’d almost appeared defeated and maybe that was the main reason she’d though she could move the furniture alone.
She’d just wanted to manage something successfully.
Sighing, he forced himself to listen to Tessa instead of thinking about her best friend.
No matter what would be happening that day, he would definitely go and see her later tonight—even if it was just to have her screaming at him.
* * *
Her phone rang early the next morning. Not that Evy minded because she’d been up for hours anyway, her mind too preoccupied to allow for peaceful sleep.
“Jackson?”
“How’s it going?” She knew the snarl, knew the tone and was glad she hadn’t checked the screen before. She most likely wouldn’t have picked up, and that could’ve ended badly for her.
“Mr. Lanestrong,” she said as a way of greeting. “Right now is not a good time. I need to be at the venue in a little under ten minutes to meet up with some electricians.”
She wouldn’t tell him she was currently indisposed.
He snorted briefly. “So everything’s on track?” As if he knew more, which was ridiculous, Evy reminded herself. He just knew how huge this gala was, and he also knew how much trouble it was to organize it on such short notice. He was an ass, but he knew how to do the job.
“Well, we’re behind with the table decorations, but other than that we’re absolutely going to have everything ready by the time the event comes around. And now, I really need to go.”
“I just wanted an update. Call me the day of the event. I want a final update beforehand. Remember what’s on the line.”
As if she could forget.
“Bye, Mr. Lanestrong,” she stated and then hung up, resting her head back.
She stared at the ceiling, her mind a million miles away as the door opened.
For a crazy moment she thought it would be Tank with her daughter, but since they’d had a fight, she didn’t think he’d be back.
It was her mother.
“Evangeline, can I come in?” she asked cautiously and Evy pointed at the chair next to her bed. She was a little dumbfounded about her mother asking for permission, but then figured it didn’t matter.
The resentment spreading in her since the day before had only grown. She didn’t even know what to really say to her mother, besides the fact that she hoped she’d never treat her daughter that way, and instead would do everything so Leila thought she rocked the world—either with help, or without.
The chair scratched as it moved across the floor, her mother’s hand trembling as she pulled it back.
“How are you feeling?”
Useless.
Alone.
Helpless.
Hopeless.
“I’m tied to the bed, and the gala is coming closer and closer. My entire life depends on this. Lanestrong won’t let me stay here if I cannot excel at this event.”
“Tessa and your friends will do everything to make it work, I’m sure,” Dana Jackson announced quietly and Evy glanced at her.
“How do you know?”
Her mother looked sheepishly at her. “I went and checked out your office because I was curious where you work now. It was buzzing. I have to admit, I remember Tessa to be a lot more…”
“Submissive?”
“A push-over.”
Evy gaped. “That’s what you thought about my best friend? That she was a push-over? And you still gave me shit about her helping me, about me not being able to do things alone?”
Her mother shrugged. “You ask for anything, and she does it.”
Evy struggled to sit up, glaring at the woman who’d raised her. “That’s not being a push-over. That’s being an incredible friend. I cannot believe you considered that a weakness.” God, it wasn’t Evy who needed a reality check, it was her mother.
“Your sister got fired.”
The topic change didn’t surprise Evy the least. If she watched her mother closely, she could tell something weighed heavily on her mind—and it sure as hell wasn’t her eldest daughter.
Never the eldest.
“Did she now?” Why was her voice so flat? God, she loved her family, but what in the world was wrong with her that she suddenly couldn’t care less?
“She slept with her boss, and his wife found out. It caused a huge drama. We… there was a huge fight. I mean, your father and I separately had a huge fight with her. Turns out she rarely gets a job because of her qualifications. Or rather—”
“I know, Mom,” Evy interrupted her, feeling unbelievably tired. It was as if it suddenly made sense that her mother was there. She needed a new shining girl since her little sunshine had ruined her own reputation.
The realization that her mother wouldn’t be here had her sister not messed up made her heart break and her head ache. She’d done everything to earn her mother’s approval and now she suddenly didn’t want it anymore.
“I wish she was more like you. I have always wished for that. You were my strong one, my independent one. You never needed a mother after you turned twelve. See, you don’t even have me in your emergency contacts.”
Evy blinked, and then blinked again, as if she was slow to understand. And maybe she was, because the words coming from her mother’s lips didn’t make any sense at all.
“I did everything by myself because you never saw me. You always made me feel as if I couldn’t do a damn thing alone, and I tried to prove to you I could. That I was strong, and could do it, and that you could be proud of me.”
“I was always proud. And jealous of those people you let in. Like Tessa. You never worried about asking her for things. When you were down, when you were close to tears, you ran to her, not to me.”
Of course she had, because she’d thought her mother would just see another weakness in her daughter.
Tears came to Evy’s eyes and she tried to blink them away.
“Over the last months, hell, maybe even longer, I managed to estrange almost everyone, and guess what? It didn’t stop when I came here. In fact, I think it got only worse because I wanted to do this job right.” Evy sobbed and took a moment before she could say her next sentence. “I suck at peopling so bad, I even managed to make the only guy I ever loved run for new hills.”
And they’d been probably a tight C-cup or so.
“The guy from yesterday? Thomas?”
She nodded, searing pain racing through her at his name. She wanted to have him close and whisper her confessions only to him, but before that would happen she’d have to have a talk with him, and she wasn’t sure she could get through it.
She’d decided to forgive him, no matter how stupid that was, because she wanted him. Wanted him so much it hurt.
“He didn’t look as if he was a person to easily leave your side.”
“He strayed, Mom. He strayed from my side.”
Her mother’s expression got soft even while her eyes hardened in anger. “Then he didn’t deserve you in the first place. There’ll be others,” her mother assured her, awkwardly patting her hand.
The thing was, Evy didn’t want anyone else any longer.
* * *
The Aquarium was beautiful, but Tank didn’t see it any longer when he passed through to get to the room they had to prepare for the gala, and he was always surprised how big the space was—and how much it had already transformed. There were fairy lights everywhere and yet he knew they hadn’t hung all of them yet.
“We started making the flowers Tessa and Evy suggested hanging, and it’s so much fun,” Jo babbled next to him and he nodded slowly, his mind everywhere but on the task at hand.
“Are you okay?”
Tank blinked. “What do you mean?” He smiled. “I’m perfectly fine.”
She nudged him and he shook his head with a smile. Jo was like the mother he never had, and certainly like the grandmother one always wished for. “You aren’t. I can tell when you aren’t, although today it was easy. You never before corrected Leila when she called you Daddy, and it makes me think you—”
“Stick your nose where it doesn’t belong? I absolutely agree.”
His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out hastily, but it wasn’t Evy.
He should’ve known.
However, it was a call he had to take.
“Michaels?”
“Thomas, it’s Stacey. I was wondering if you managed to get an answer faster. I know I promised no strings attached, but—”
“You said you wouldn’t push me,” he muttered, turning away from Jo. She pretended to watch some fish, but he knew better.
Stacey sighed, regret coming through loud and clear. “And I usually keep my promises, especially if they are made to amazing guys like you, but there was another person interested,” she explained.
Tank wasn’t the least bit surprised since it had been an incredible deal.
“Finish the papers, Stacey. Deed it to Evangeline Jackson. I’ll message you her details.”
Silence greeted his words and he wasn’t the least bit shocked. “Stacey, I appreciate everything you’re doing, seriously, but I need the papers in her name. The house is perfect, and she needs it. I’m sure she’ll love it, and she won’t be mad about me making the decision alone.” Well, not madder than she already was, at least, he added mentally.
“A house?” Jo echoed and Tank closed his eyes. He’d forgotten she was there.
“Thomas, this is a big decision. As in, a huge decision, and you should make it with her.”
He shook his head, invisible to the pretty blonde on the other end of the line. The house was barely ten minutes’ walk from Tessa’s in the middle of the forest and Tank knew Evy would love it more than anything.
Plus, being so close to Tessa would ease a lot of problems, and whenever they needed the help—which he was sure they would—her best friend would be around.
Jazz and Tessa rocked that family thing. Did they have issues? Yes, but they both were one hundred percent in the relationship and child thing. He and Ev? That was a different matter. He didn’t know what he was doing and Evangeline loved her daughter, but it was obvious she was overwhelmed with finding a balance between what she’d longed for, and what her new reality was.
Tessa wouldn’t judge and Tank needed that. Hell, they both did.
“I don’t need to talk to her about it. I’m sure she’ll love it just the way I thought. The previous owners will still leave everything inside, right?” He’d already planned to replace the sofa and the bed, and create a child’s room for Leila, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to keep the rest of the furniture just to get them started.