Start Me Up

"How do you feel about dogs?" Shea asked Tessa as they walked hand in hand down a sidewalk together. They had been in Kelowna for going on three weeks now, and Tessa had to admit that she almost didn't want to go back to Nashville in August. She hadn't quite believed Shea when he told her how great summers were here and she wasn't complaining about him being around so much, especially when he barely had any clothes on.

She looked over at him, brow raised as they headed into the park near his home and asked him, "Why do you always have to put me on the spot like this?"

He laughed, "I do?"

Nodding she explained, "You just randomly ask these obviously important to you questions when I least expect them."

"I never even knew I did that." He admitted though it sounded right now that he thought about it. His parents did always tell him he had to worst timing for bringing things up.

She tucked an arm between his own and his side, wrapping it around his back as she told him, "Dogs are nice."

"How would you feel about owning one... with me?" He was hesitant to ask because, frankly, he was afraid that this would be another of those things Tessa put under 'fast tracking' their relationship. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable, he didn't want to push her into something she wasn't ready for especially given the fact that she had only just moved in with him a few weeks previously.

Shea wanted to move that quickly with her, hell he would ask her to marry him tomorrow if he felt she would say yes rather than freak out and go straight back to Nashville to pack up her things and disappear off the face of the earth. Shea was ready for a life with Tessa, and he knew that she was too but they were on different levels of ready and he was learning to be okay with that and to figure it out as they went. Learning.

Tessa shrugged and told him, "That could be okay... but can we cap the maximum weight off at like forty pounds? I'd like to walk the dog, not the other way around."

Shea let out a laugh and nodded, and he told her, "You, me, a new house and a dog... one might think we're actually in an adult relationship."

She smiled over at him and joked, "I know, it's terrifying."

"It feels right though... right?" He asked her curiously.

Tessa nodded her head and assured him, "It feels perfect."

Shea glanced at the watch on his wrist, it was almost noon, so he asked her, "How does lunch on the boat sound?"

Tessa turned to glance at him, squinting her eyes slightly from the sun, and she told him with a grin, "Anything to get you out of those clothes."

Shea laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to pull her into his side as they started back toward the house. It didn't take them long to get home; maybe fifteen minutes, and while he packed up and made sure they had everything they needed Tessa sat at the end of the dock with her feet in the water and her flip flops next to her texting with Tara. Shea was methodical about getting things ready to go out on the boat and Tessa had stopped bothering trying to help because mostly she got in his way.

"You writing a novel over there?" Shea asked her as he hauled a cooler into the boat by the dock.

Tessa looked over at him through her sunglasses and smiled, joking, "Yeah, a tell all about you."

"Oh yeah? About what?" He asked her in amusement. There wasn't much to tell about him, at least he didn't think so.

"All your weird quirks and tendencies. Where you like to have sex and if you're a top or bottom guy which by the way it drives me crazy that you're a top guy because I don't like having to give up control." Tessa stated, and his cheeks flushed but he laughed anyway.

"Yeah, well, if it were up to you we would never have sex in normal people places and I already injured you twice I'm not really looking for a third time." Shea told her, shooting a smile her way as Tessa smiled to herself, obviously remembering each of those times. The first had been the counter in her apartment when his grip on her had slipped and the second had been only a few days ago when his strength had sent them both tumbling to the floor of the shower.

"Ah but those bruises make for really great stories." Tessa told him with a cheeky smile.

He couldn't help it; the corners of his lips turned up into the slightest of smiles as he turned away from her.

He asked her, "What else are you putting in this tell all?"

"Mmm... how you may look like a big, huge mountain man but secretly you're just a big teddy bear, how you like your steak, what you like in a woman, how you don't actually like blondes." Tessa told him with a grin, and then she added, "I'm also considering adding in that you're not as painfully shy and awkward as the media makes you out to be, and that you actually do enjoy life."

"People think I don't enjoy life?" Shea asked her curiously, brow lifted.

With a smile, she informed him, "You are dull as can be with the media babe, like seriously if I didn't have a vested interest in you I would probably have no interest in watching your interviews at all."

"I am not dull!" He exclaimed as he tossed a beach bag he had found laying around in one of the closets into the boat. He had filled it with important things like sunblock and an extra pair of sunglasses because in three weeks Tessa had already managed to lose two pairs. It was a good thing she wore cheap gas station sunglasses.

Tessa shrugged and stated, "You have the on-camera personality of a wet mop."

"I will throw you off this dock." Shea threatened, rolling his eyes when she shrugged her shoulders without looking up from her phone.

"You would just think that with how many years you've been at this you would have picked up a few tricks to appear somewhat three-dimensional on camera." Tessa told him, glancing up long enough to grin over at him.

He couldn't help but laugh.

He held his hands out to her and told her, "Get in the boat before I leave you behind."

She smiled to herself as she climbed into the boat and took the spot next to him. Tessa watched him while he steered them somewhere different than the last time they had gone out on the lake and she realized how much more she liked this version of Shea.

Sure, she liked him all year round, but this was different. He was more relaxed, he didn't stress out, and he was very much in his element now as opposed to during the season. He was a very simple man, something she already knew, it was easy to please him and Tessa loved that about him.

Still, there was a striking difference between the Shea she was used to and the Shea she was seeing now. The more she paid attention to the changes that he went through as they settled into the off season back in Kelowna the more Tessa realized that she had absolutely nothing to worry about in terms of what it would be like to spend all their time together. He made sure that every day was something different; a different location on the lake, he taught her how to fish, he had even let her drive the sea-doo, they walked almost everywhere, some days they did things around the city and some days they didn't get out of bed all day.

As the boat came to a stop and Shea turned in his seat to face her Tessa told him what she had really been doing before getting on the boat, "I was texting Tara, by the way."

"I figured." He told her with a smile, asking after, "How are they?"

"Pek's is driving her crazy but I told her that was gonna happen. An entire summer with him where she doesn't have the escape of either of their jobs? Yikes." Tessa stated, making Shea let out a laugh. She then told him, "I think we need to invite our friends out for a few days... I miss them."

Again Shea laughed, and he told her, "I know... I kind of miss them too."

"Maybe soon?" Tessa asked him curiously.

Shea thought about it for a moment before he smiled and said, "How about... we plan that vacation we've been talking about so that maybe the last two or three days everyone can meet us out there and we can all do a mini vacation together?"

"That sounds like your brain is not as rusty as we thought!" Tessa exclaimed with a wide grin on her face.

He narrowed his eyes at her and told her, "Please note the fact that we're in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by water."

"You're all talk." Tessa stated and she let out a scream when Shea got up and picked her up, tossing her over his shoulder before he jumped out of the boat.

When they surfaced Shea asked her, "You think so?"

She pushed her wet, blonde hair from her face and then looked around and stated sadly, "And there goes sunglass pair number three."

Shea let out a laugh and told her, "I brought an extra pair, don't worry."

"You're cute." She told him as she wrapped her legs around his waist and Shea placed his large hands on her hips.

"You think?" He asked her with a cheeky smile.

Tessa nodded and told him, "The cutest."

"Yeah, I think so too." She laughed as she pulled away from him and splashed him with water. Shea returned the favor by grabbing her and dunking them both underneath the water again.

They had spent hours out on the lake before heading back to the house, Tessa had gotten dinner ready while Shea got everything put away from their afternoon adventure and they had simply enjoyed each other's company over dinner. Shea had cleaned up, and Tessa had gone upstairs to get the lake water out of her hair and when she came back down the house was empty.

She could see a fire in the firepit in the backyard from the kitchen so she figured Shea was out there. She grabbed a beer bottle from the fridge and headed outside, closing the patio door with her foot. Shea glanced over his shoulder from his spot on the wicker couch when he heard the door open and he smiled over at her as she approached him. She handed him a beer as she sat down next to him and pulled her bare feet up onto the padded cushion under them as she leaned into his side and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I was thinking about that whole vacation thing." Tessa told him, her voice soft and Shea turned his head and glanced down at her with a quirked eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? Got a better plan?" He asked her curiously as he leaned over and popped the top off of his beer bottle against the edge of the fire pit before he got comfortable again and took a drink.

"Well... what if instead of planning a whole separate vacation we extend the Vegas thing for a few days and have everyone meet us there?" Tessa asked him. It seemed, to her at least, the smarter thing to do; to plan onto an existing trip rather than plan a whole other trip after that.

"For the awards? You want to go to that?" She asked her in surprise and the tone of his voice caused her brow to raise.

She nodded her head and asked him curiously, "Of course I do, why wouldn't I?"

"I just... that's not your scene."

Her cheeks flushed, "If you didn't want me to go that's fine, really."

"No, no don't get me wrong Tessa I'm glad you want to go, I wanted to ask I just wasn't sure how." Shea admitted, he had been hoping that she would accompany him because frankly, it wasn't his scene either and the whole thing made him a little uncomfortable so having her there with him would make things at least somewhat bearable.

He hated attention, that much was obvious to pretty much everyone.

"Well, now you don't have to ask." Tessa told him, adding with a grin, "An excuse to get dressed up and be on the arm of the second hottest guy in the building? I'm there."

"Second hottest, huh?" Shea asked her in amusement.

Nodding her head Tessa said, "I hear there's a very high chance that Patrice is gonna be there."

Shea's cheeks pinked up as he said, "You're not allowed anywhere near him."

Tessa laughed and leaned over to kiss his cheek softly. She told him, "Don't worry, I'm really good at the look but don't touch policy."

He damn near growled.

"Although, I don't know... you in a suit... there are few things in the world that get me going more than that." Tessa assured him with a smile on her face. She laid an arm over the backs of his shoulders, hand on the opposite side of his neck from her and she leaned over and kissed him quickly.

When they pulled apart he told her with a smile, "There better be nothing."

She smiled at him and said, "Well... you with no clothes on is better than you with any kind of clothes on."

"Alright, that's allowed." He told her, adding in, "But nothing else."

"Really nice shoes too, but you knew that already." Tessa told him with a grin.

He had to admit, "Yeah, I've accepted the fact that you would trade me in for a pair of heels."

"But only good shoes, I promise I would never trade you in for Payless." Tessa told him with a laugh.

"Good, you pay less you get less." Shea stated, making Tessa laugh loudly. He then told her, "I'd like to think I'm at least worth those shoes with the red bottoms."

Tessa smoothed out the hair at the side of his head as she assured him, "Oh, babe you are worth more than the original Stuart Weitzman Marilyn's."

"I don't know what that means but I'm gonna assume it's expensive." Shea stated and Tessa nodded her head.

She informed him a little too casually, "I believe they went for seven figures at an auction."

Shea choked, and spit out his mouthful of beer when she said this, he sputtered and wiped his face with the inside of his t-shirt before he exclaimed, "Women."

"The only reason they were so expensive was because they had earrings that Marilyn Monroe wore as the big design feature." Tessa explained to him, adding in, "They weren't even pretty shoes either, honestly."

Shea let out a laugh, "Nothing with that price tag ever is."

"That's not true. I can name one thing that is." Tessa told him.

His brow raised in curiosity and he asked her, "What's that?"

"You." She told him with a soft smile and he leaned over to kiss her quickly.