Start Me Up

January 2016

"I have to leave you now. I'm going to that corner there and turn. You must stay in the car and drive away. Promise not to watch me go beyond the corner. Just drive away and leave me as I leave you."

Tessa looked up from her spot at her desk in the guest room of Shea and Amelia's house when a knock on the door interrupted what she was trying to get done. She turned her head over her shoulder as she mumbled something that she was sure was completely incoherent and the door opened and Shea stepped inside.

She leaned over and tapped the space bar on her laptop to pause her movie and her brow raised as she asked Shea, "What's up?"

"I wanted to see if you wanted to do dinner?" Shea asked her softly, glancing around the guest room. Amelia was out of town, visiting their family in St. Louis while she was there for her usual threw times a month work trip. She had been gone three days already and the first day Shea had been on a road trip but the day before Tessa had opted to take a sandwich into the guest room to finish up her work.

She shrugged her shoulders and asked him, "What were you thinking?"

"Beef stir fry maybe?" She shrugged and then nodded but her eyes were still on whatever paper she was writing on. Shea looked around the guest room again, his eyes fell onto the open suitcase next to the bed and he joked, "You know you can unpack right?"

Tessa turned her attention to Shea and she followed his eyes down to her suitcase. Her cheeks flushed and she told him, "Yeah, I know."

His eyes drifted over to her desk, something he had built the day before she got to Nashville three weeks previous. There were papers everywhere, there was a cork board leaning against the wall that was covered in fabric swatches and paint chip cards and her laptop next to her was paused on a black and white movie. So he asked her curiously, "What are you watching?"

"Roman Holiday." She told him, he shrugged his shoulders to say he didn't know it and Tessa wasn't surprised.

Shea dropped onto the end of the bed next to the desk and he smiled and asked her, "What are you working on?"

"My very out dated resume." Tessa stated, crossing something out with her pen before she muttered, "Don't even know why I'm bothering."

"Because you have a job interview tomorrow?" Shea asked her with a grin that made Tessa smile and roll her eyes at him.

She chewed on the cap of the pen for a moment before she said, "Not like I'm gonna get it anyway."

"You're always so hard on yourself Tess." Shea told her softly, watching as she averted her eyes from him and back to her resume in front of her. She wanted to edit everything on paper before she fixed it on the computer, ever the perfectionist.

She wasn't sure why but she told Shea, "Who's gonna hire me? Honestly. I haven't worked anything but odd freelance jobs in six years."

Shea didn't know what to say to that so instead he changed the subject and asked her, "How about you give me a hand with dinner? Take a little break."

She sighed but closed her laptop and headed into the kitchen with him, and while Shea got to work on the rice and cutting the beef Tessa grabbed a knife and started on the vegetables. They worked in silence for a long time.

When Amelia and Shea had offered Tessa the guest room after Tessa had finally told everyone about she and Jacob Tessa had turned it down originally. Then, after months of not knowing what she was doing, of spending all of her energy on fighting with lawyers and Jacob she was worn out and lost so when Shea had offered again she took him up on it. Three weeks later she had no idea what she was doing. She had sent out resume's to every single interior design firm in Nashville and the surrounding area and had only gotten one bite and she was completely positive they wouldn't hire her in a million years.

Tessa had worked for a firm for two years right out of college, but then after she and Jacob had gotten married she had only done odd jobs here and there, very infrequent for the last six years. She wouldn't even hire herself based off of her resume.

Shea glanced over at her and he pulled her from her thoughts when he told her, "The guys and I are going for a couple drinks tonight, you should come."

She hesitated, and then told him, "I'm not sure. I should probably finish that resume."

"You need a break, and the guys are all really looking forward to seeing you." Shea told her and Tessa instantly felt bad. She had been here three weeks and she had only seen them twice, even when they came over she stayed hidden in her room down the hall and she knew that everyone had noticed. Tessa sighed when Shea smiled over at her and told her, "Just an hour and then we can ditch them."

He knew he had her.

"Alright, but one hour only." Tessa told him as she tossed the vegetables into a fry pan and poured out a little bit of olive oil into the pan as well before she turned the element on. She moved out of the way for Shea to start cooking the meat and Shea kept glancing over at her so Tessa finally turned to him and asked, "What?"

"Nothing." He lied.

"Bullshit." She called him out on it.

His cheeks flushed and he sighed, before he asked her, "Did you ever consider leaving Jake... you know, before all of this?"

"Before he left me?" Tessa asked, and Shea nodded slowly. She shrugged her shoulders and admitted, "Sometimes. When things were bad between us it crossed my mind a few times."

"Why didn't you?" He asked her curiously.

"Because I don't like giving up, because I see things through. I always thought if we worked on things that everything would go back to normal." Tessa told him, and then before Shea could ask anything else she said, "Obviously that wasn't the case, so now I'm living in your guest room trying to figure out how to get the last decade of my life back."

Shea smiled gently and he told her, "I think you just need to spend the time to figure out who you are now, you know? Six years of marriage is a long time, and you're a completely different person now than you were when you got married so it makes sense that now you don't really know who you are."

She couldn't help but joke, "So what, I'm supposed to go on some retreat and chant naked in a hut and figure out who I am now?"

He let out a laugh and joked back, "Whatever floats your boat."

- - -

When they arrived at Tin Roof Tessa was immediately pulled into a tight hug by her favorite big, blonde giant of a goaltender, and she couldn't not let out a laugh at that. When he let her go he took a not subtle at all look at her and then he told her, "You're very distracting."

Tessa glanced down at her outfit and then she looked back up at Pekka and asked him, "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

As she sat down between Shea and Roman, and across from Pekka and Craig, Pekka told her with a smirk, "Nothing, I think you look sexy as hell it's just you know, wouldn't want any of the men here to like trip and fall to their death because they were staring at you instead of watching where they were going."

Shea and Tessa both rolled their eyes, and Roman grinned over at her and told her, "I too think you look pretty good."

Tessa turned to him and told him, "We've been over this before, I am way too old for you buddy."

His teammates had a laugh at his expense but Roman, cool as ever, responded quickly, "Age is just a number."

"Not when it's an eight year difference." She told him, patting his forearm gently.

Craig grinned over at Tessa and told her, "It's all harmless, he's shacked up now."

Tessa turned to Roman in surprise, "Are you really?"

He flushed and nodded, pulling his phone from his pocket to show her a picture of himself and a red head. Tessa smiled as he told her, "Her name's Harper, but she lives in San Francisco."

"He's a helpless mess all of the time. Constantly needing our help to figure out how to make it work." Pekka joked, and Tessa rolled her eyes at him.

She told Roman, "I want to hear all about her some day when these morons aren't here to interrupt us."

Roman nodded and Tessa looked over when two more people joined their table, sitting at each end. Tessa only knew one of them, it was clear, so Shea told her, "Tess this is James, he's sort of new... for you at least. Nealer this is Tessa, Amy's sister."

James leaned across Shea to hold his hand out for her, and Tessa was impressed. She shook his hand and Pekka told James with a grin, "Don't even try man, not only will Webs murder you but she's already made it very clear to all of us, even myself unfortunately, that none of us have a chance with her."

James' cheeks flushed and Tessa turned her attention to Pekka, telling him, "One, Shea is not my keeper, I do what I want and two, being nice and introducing yourself like a normal person does not equate to trying to get into someone's pants. At least not for normal human beings."

There was stifled laughter and Pekka grinned over at her and told her, "See this is why I don't see why you won't date me. You could be the one to keep me in line finally you know. I'm sure everyone I know would be very thankful for that."

Tessa had to hold her laughter in when everyone at their table nodded their heads in agreement with Pekka's last statement. She told him, "That's not the kind of full time job I'm looking for, sorry."

Pekka shrugged his shoulders and told her, "Suit yourself, but if you start dating one of these fools I'll never talk to you again."

With a wicked grin on her face Tessa turned to James and asked him, "Wanna go on a date tomorrow?"

Everyone laughed, Pekka narrowed his eyes at her but smiled nonetheless and said, "Oh how you wound me."

James, playing into the game Tessa started, looked at her and asked her with a smirk, "Dinner and dessert?"

She let out a laugh and Roman called out, "Dude, not cool. We've been trying for years, get in line."

Her laughter got even louder when Shea announced, "Alright stop hitting on my sister-in-law when I'm around, do it on your own time."

She patted his shoulder and assured him, "Don't worry, hockey players are so not my type."

Roman grinned and informed her, "I play tennis during the off season."

She smiled over at him and told him, "Okay, athletes are not my type."

James grinned, "Sometimes I flip houses during the summer."

"Jesus fucking Christ." Shea muttered, downing half of his beer. Tessa turned to James, and it was the sort of glint in her eye that Shea hadn't seen in so long that made him shut his mouth and let the conversation continue.

She asked him, "Really?"

He nodded his head, "Yeah my dad was in real estate growing up and so sometimes in the summer we all pick a house and fix it up just as a thing to do together."

Pekka informed James, "Tessa sort of does the same thing."

"Really?" He asked her in curiosity.

She shrugged her shoulders, "Once upon a time yeah."

"Well if I had known that when I bought my house last year..." He trailed off and glanced at Tessa, who smiled, her cheeks flushed.

That was when Shea downed the rest of his beer and got up from the table, heading over to get another drink, he regretted even bringing Tessa now. Tessa watched his retreating back in confusion but before she could contemplate his weird behaviour she was pulled into another conversation with the men at the table with her.

Shea, waiting for his second beer, wasn't even sure why the guys hitting on Tessa bothered him so much. Get a few drinks in them and they would hit on practically anything that moved, and Pekka had always flirted with Tessa and in the last five years it had never once bothered Shea until now. Now he wanted to square up and slug him in the face for it.

Maybe it was because the flirting was never serious to anyone; Tessa had been married, and she was only ever in Nashville once or twice a year so everyone knew it was harmless fun. Now she was living in Nashville, newly single and suddenly the guys all thought maybe they would finally have a chance with her. Hell, maybe they did have a chance with her.

Did he really care if Tessa dated one of his teammates? After everything she had been through with Jacob Shea knew that a guy like Pekka, or even James, would be good for her. He knew they would appreciate her, and respect her and take care of her in the ways that Jacob didn't. Shea knew that Amelia had been hoping that now that Tessa was single she might finally give in to all of Pekka's advances, probably a little selfishly so that Tessa would have a reason to stick around Nashville for.

She could do a hell of a lot worse than a guy like Pekka, but just the thought made Shea's blood boil and he didn't even know why.

When a new, ice cold beer bottle was placed in front of him Shea grabbed it and he headed back to their table, giving his head a shake as he went. He dropped into his seat, and found Pekka grinning at him like a Cheshire cat. Shea's brow lifted, "What?"

"Tessa's gonna do my house for me." He said, still grinning.

Shea turned to Tessa, and she told him, "Might. I might do his house for him. It depends on how my job interview goes, and what exactly this new house looks like."

"It's white. Like really white. Like everywhere." Roman told her, laughing when she turned to Pekka with a raised eyebrow.

He shrugged, "What? I liked the outside and it has everything I need. Big house, lots of space for family. I figured I could just add some flare to it as I went."

Craig told Tessa with a grin, purposely trying to poke fun at the goaltender, "Which never happened. He's been living there for like eight months and it looks the exact same."

James told her, "Worse than my house back in Pittsburgh... which was pretty bad."

Shea found his grip on his beer bottle tightening as Tessa laughed and told Pekka, "Okay, I'll help you out."

"You're my hero." He told her with a laugh.

Two and a half hours later Shea sulked into the house in front of Tessa. She slipped out of her shoes and picked them up in one hand and watched as Shea walked into the kitchen, poured himself a glass of orange juice and practically slammed the fridge door shut.

She approached with caution and asked him softly, "Did I do something to piss you off tonight?"

Shea turned to her, the look of permanent annoyance that he had been wearing all night faded into what she thought might have been regret, and then confusion as he asked, "No... what do you mean?"

She shrugged her shoulders and told him, "You barely said a word to me all night."

"You looked like you were doing fine in the company department." Shea stated, a little more annoyance fuelled than he had wanted.

Tessa rolled her eyes and told him, "You're the one who wanted me to come out tonight. If I remember correctly you specifically said I needed to get out and move on with my life."

"Yeah and we also agreed on an hour." He muttered.

"You could have said something if you wanted to leave Shea. I would have gone with you, or you could have just gone home, I could have gotten a ride with one of the guys." Tessa told him, crossing her arms over her chest.

Shea put his glass in the dishwasher and as he was headed down the hall to his bedroom she heard him say, "Yeah, I'm sure you could have."

Her brows crunched together, what the hell was that?