The Bachelor's Sweetheart Read Online Free

began to whistle when they walked into the kitchen.
    â€œGrab a couple of mugs, spoons and the tea tin.” Her grandmother bustled over to the stove, turned off the gas and lifted the kettle from the burner. “And the hot plate from the dish drainer. Since it’s just the two of us, I’m not going to bother with a teapot.”
    Tessa had the mugs, tea and hot plate on the table when her grandmother brought the kettle over. She put a tea bag in each mug, and her grandmother filled them with boiling water.
    They sat next to each other at the small round table.
    â€œYou’re the only one in the family who drinks tea plain, like me,” her grandmother said.
    Tessa stirred her drink, watching the tea bag swirl around. She pressed it against the side of the mug and placed the tea bag and spoon on the table. “But we didn’t come in here to talk about tea or sugar. What happened to your decision to stay in Schroon Lake?”
    Her grandmother dropped her gaze to the mug of tea sitting in front of her. “I found out how little you have left of the money your grandfather gave you to make a go of the Majestic.”
    Tessa started. Grandma wasn’t a person to go snooping around in other people’s business. “How?”
    â€œI went paperless with my bank statements and was having trouble printing them out from the bank’s website. I stopped in at the bank to see if someone could show me what I was doing wrong. Along with my other accounts, the bank officer gave me the statement from the joint checking account your grandfather set up for you when he was sick. He must have put me on the account, too.”
    â€œI wasn’t hiding it from you.” Tessa couldn’t keep the defensive note out of her voice. The days when she purposely hid her actions were over. “I didn’t want to worry you while I figured out what we were going to do.”
    Her grandmother reached over and squeezed her hand. “Honey, you don’t have to struggle for me. Your grandfather didn’t leave you the theater to tie you to it or me or Schroon Lake. He left it as an option, if you wanted to come and run it while you figured out what you really wanted to do. You didn’t seem happy with your engineering job with the State Department of Transportation in Albany.”
    â€œI wasn’t. But I don’t want you to have to leave everything you love because I didn’t come through for you.”
    Grandma and Grandpa had been there for her when her parents hadn’t been. They’d opened their home to her for school breaks when she’d been partying her way to disaster her first year at college because she was trying so hard to fit in. They’d given her nonjudgmental guidance to right herself with God and go back to college her second year. They’d stood by her when Blake had broken their engagement because he’d found even her “controlled” drinking a problem, and afterward when she’d fallen into a spiral of binging that had landed her in rehab.
    â€œWe loved you. You do for those you love. You don’t owe me anything. And it’s not like you’d leave me out on the street, or that I’d have to move away, unless I want to. Who knows, if I go see those condos Bob is hounding me about, I might like them. And Marie Delacroix has mentioned several times that she wouldn’t mind having someone share her house with her. It’s smaller than this monstrosity and easier to manage.”
    â€œBut you love this monstrosity, and I have a plan that will let us stay right here.” Tessa explained Jared’s loan and Josh’s agreement to help her with the work.
    Her grandmother’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve thought this through, prayed on it? It sounds to me like you’d be taking on a lot. A loan, all that remodeling. How much time will Josh have to help you? Edna says he practically lives in his office at