“Tonight?”
“Tonight.” Tessa closed her eyes. She was tired from the sun and the stress, and she wished she could put Sophia to bed, then slide under the sheets with Zach. “People on the Hill work crazy hours.”
“What do you do with Sophia when this happens?”
“When Corrine was alive, I left Sophia at home. Since she passed, I handle these things from my home office, or I have Abby stay with her.”
“And how often does this happen?”
“Two, three times a year. It’s always crunch time just before submitting a bill to Congress.”
When Zach pulled into the condo parking lot and slowed, Tessa was already opening her door. “Can you get her inside? I’m going to run ahead and change.”
“Um…”
“Try not to wake her until after I leave. She’ll get less upset that way.”
“Upset?” was all she heard him say before she hurried toward the stairs.
Sophia would be bitchy no matter who tried to get her out of the car. Might as well let Zach experience all the “angel’s” little quirks.
Tessa jogged the steps and let herself into the condo. In the bedroom, she dragged her one and only suit from the hanger. She really only had to look professional from the waist up for the video conference, but she’d feel silly walking into a lawyer’s office in half a suit.
Zach’s footsteps sounded on the stairs, along with Sophia’s sleepy whine and Zach’s attempts to soothe. Tessa brushed her hair and rolled it into a quick bun, then she grabbed her briefcase and peeked around the doorjamb.
“Shh, shh,” Zach said, bouncing Sophia gently in his arms as he wandered into the living room.
When she caught his eye, Tessa put her index finger to her lips. Sophia’s head was on his shoulder and her eyes were closed. But a steady whine murmured from her throat, along with random words like “want Mommy” and “not tired.”
He lifted one arm out to the side as if to gesture What the hell? and mouthed, What are you doing?
Tessa used two fingers to make the motion of someone walking and pointed toward the door. Zach, pulled his phone from his back pocket, and showed it to her, mouthing, Text me.
Tessa nodded, and while Zach paced the living room keeping Sophia’s back toward the door, Tessa hurried on tiptoe out of the condo and closed the door quietly. There she paused and tilted her head toward the door to listen. When no frantic temper tantrum erupted, Tessa hurried to the car.
She pulled up the directions Gordon had sent her and started her GPS. Pulling out of the driveway, Tessa sighed in relief and rolled the window down a little to let the cool night air in. The roads were dark and quiet, and she relished this rare moment alone. Only now did she realize she hadn’t had a moment away from Sophia or Abby or Zach or the fear of losing everything.
She let her mind turn toward the meeting ahead of her. She had no doubt she would be calming nerves and smoothing feathers, and from the sound of things, she’d also be doing more negotiating.
The thought of negotiating brought her mind back to Zach again and their conversation at dinner. She was in for a lot more negotiating with him, because judging by his affection for Sophia, he wasn’t going to give up easily.
The sign for the law offices of Snyder and Smith appeared around a bend. Tessa slowed and turned into the parking lot, forcing her thoughts back to the work at hand. Once she closed this deal and pushed this bill through Congress, Tessa could relax a little and try to f
igure out how to arrange time for Sophia to see Zach. But she couldn’t do any of that working five twelve-hour days a week in the office.
She pulled into a parking space and shut off the engine. “First things first,” she told herself as she reached toward the passenger’s seat and grabbed her briefcase. “Gotta get the junior partner position before you can breathe. Gotta be able to breathe to think.”
She popped the door handle and pushed the door open. Then froze. Something she’d caught sight of from the corner of her eye dragged her gaze to the backseat. Sophia’s sparkly white Pegasus lay against the navy-blue seats.
Her stomach dropped and swirled. “Oh no.” Instinctively, she reached for it, then sat staring at it for a second. “Shit.”
If Sophia woke and wanted this, all hell would break lose at home. The combination of finding Tessa gone with no Abby to turn to and her newest, beloved stuffed animal missing would be enough to melt Sophia into an inconsolable puddle of misery.
Tessa glanced at the dashboard clock. Then at her phone.
Let a sleeping dog lie.
She didn’t like what her subconscious was telling her, but one more look at the clock on the dash, and Tessa knew all she could do was hope for the best.