Make You Feel My Love

Tessa adjusted the screen of her laptop on the kitchen counter and smiled at Delilah and James. “Hey guys!” She waved.

“Hey, Tess!” James grinned. “Where's my goddaughter?”

She laughed. “Paul will bring her down in a second.”

“How's....everything?” James asked carefully.

“It's great, James, I promise.”

“Swear?”

“Swear it. We’re good, better than ever.”

“I'm glad to hear that. You guys had us worried.”

“Thanks for letting me call and talk your ear off, Delilah.”

“Anytime, Tessa. I'm always here.”

“Especially now that she's gonna be stuck with Nealer the rest of her life,” Paul said as he walked into the room. “Lilah, I still have teammates I can introduce you to.”

“Right here, dude,” James pouted. “Right here.”

“I think I'll stick it out with this guy,” Delilah told him as he set Ava in her high chair. “Heaven help me,” she giggled. James leaned in to kiss her. “How are you Paul?” She asked politely.

“Pretty close to perfect,” he answered, wrapping an arm around Tessa.

“And the counseling?” She asked gently.

Only Delilah and James knew that after making up, Paul had suggested they see a marriage counselor to help them really get past everything that had happened. So for the past eight weeks, they had been meeting with someone around Paul's schedule to talk about their feelings, and building trust, and just about everything else they could have imagined.

“It's good,” he answered. “It helped save us.” Tessa smiled at him, nodding in agreement.

“She helped us to be able to say all the things we had been holding in, and deal with them head on. We learned about ourselves, but more importantly we learned to trust in each other again,” Tessa added.

“I'm so happy to hear that,” Delilah said. “We were worried.”

“Me too,” Paul replied.

“We saw Katelyn today,” Tessa announced and she laughed out loud when James’ jaw dropped and Delilah’s eyes went wide. “It was my idea.”

“Are you out of your mind?!” James demanded to know. “Why would you ever agree to that Paulie?”

“You think she gave me a choice? You know as well as I do that when Tessie makes up her mind that there is no changing it. She said we needed to apologize so we went there to do that.”

“And?” Delilah asked expectantly.

“And it went surprisingly well. Katie even wants to have dinner with the two of us,” Paul replied.

“You're going to break bread with Paul's ex?” James asked in disbelief.

“I break bread for at least two weeks in the summer with Tessa's ex so fair is fair, right?”

“Yeah but dude, you love me. And I'm practically your ex too anyway.”

Paul groaned. “Please don't ever say that again.”

James shrugged. “We shared our lives way more than teammates normally do sooo....”

“You love Paul but he only likes you, James,” Delilah said, patting his shoulder. “It'll be okay once you accept that.”

Paul rolled his eyes and Tessa giggled. “If this had happened any other way, I would have thought it was funny that we ended up in the same place as Paul's ex girlfriend from college. And before I found out, I thought Katelyn was a really nice person; I could absolutely have seen myself becoming friends with her. The truth is that it was a little weird to see her, but I love Paul, and I trust him and I refuse to let what happened define us or hang like a cloud over our marriage. It's the past and I won't hold on to it.”

“But your anniversary is like tainted,” James said.

“Way to be a downer, Neal,” Tessa replied.

“I'm just saying...”

“I made it up to Tessie; we had a do-over last month.”

“A do-over? Like a mulligan?”

“Yes, Nealer, a mulligan.”

“What did you do?” Delilah asked.

“He recreated New Year's Eve,” Tessa smiled. “Rented out the hotel ballroom just for the two of us, fancy dinner, dancing, and I even saw fireworks at midnight.”

“Fireworks? How in the hell did you manage that?” James wanted to know.

Paul smirked. “I know how to please my woman.” Delilah giggled as James gagged. “You asked Nealer,” he shrugged.

“I thought she meant actual fireworks,” he grumbled.

“The things that go right over your head,” Delilah murmured sympathetically with a sly smile to Tessa and Paul. “We’re just happy you guys are happy again.”

“Me too,” Tessa nodded. “But we found our way back.”

“Always,” Paul agreed, kissing her sweetly.

“And we wanted you guys to know first,” Tessa started with a smile. “I'm pregnant.”

“Congratulations!” Delilah said. “Faux New Years fireworks?”

“Faux New Years fireworks,” Tessa laughed. “We want you to be the godmother, Lilah.”

She placed a hand over her heart. “That's so sweet; thank you.”

They talked for a few more minutes before hanging up and after Tessa closed and put away the laptop, she approached Paul, wrapping her arms around him and holding tight. He responded by doing the same, pulling her in closer and kissing the top of her head.

“I hate how we got here but I'm glad we’re here. I wouldn't want to be in this with anyone but you.”

“Me too, Tessie. Me too.”

“I love you, Paul.”

“I love you too. Always.”

“Always,” she whispered back.

FIN