No attachments, he reminded himself sternly. Business only. He’d make sure of it.

If she fell for him…well, that would throw everything off. He didn’t want entanglements or hurt feelings. He’d fended that off before with women in the past.

And of course, he would never fall for her.

“So, Leo,” Jack said, leaning back in his chair and tapping his fingers on the armrests. “I can see by that smitten look on your face that you might be in love with her.” He addressed Tessa. “But no way are you in love with this clown.” Back to Leo. “Cloversville?”

Leo opened his mouth to answer, but Tessa spoke instead. “That,” she said coolly, waving her hand dismissively in the air, “was the past. A lot has happened since then, and we’re totally in love.” She levelled her gaze at Jack. “Can we please get on with this now?”

Jack looked at her sympathetically. “If he knocked you up, you don’t have to marry him. You know that, right?”

Leo rolled his eyes. “She’s not knocked up.”

Jack responded by frowning deeply. “I don’t want any sort of coercion here.” He leaned over his desk. “Tessa, honey, don’t do it.”

“Oh, for the love of…” Tessa honey? Just how well did Jack know her? There were times when his Texas-born-and-raised friend was just too much.

Jack assessed Leo carefully. “I’ve known you since you were four, and I get how you throw yourself into anything with all you’ve got. But this…this is just…hard to stomach.”

Leo felt a little torn. He caught Tessa’s eye, and she seemed to agree silently that this was between the two of them.

“Neither of you is going to say anything?” his friend asked.

“Just do it, Jack—please,” Leo instructed.

Jack’s gaze drifted back over to Tessa. “Tessa?”

She smiled at him in a sweet way—a way she never smiled at Leo. She leaned across the desk and patted Jack’s hand. Patted his hand? As in, touched him? Why were these two so friendly, anyway? “It’s okay,” Tessa said. “I’m not being coerced”—she tossed Leo a wink—“too much.”

Leo stood and tugged at her elbow to help her up—and to get her away from Jack. “You heard her, Mayor. Let’s do this.”

A minute later, Leo was standing next to Tessa in front of the big palladium window that overlooked their hometown. As Jack dug up the words to the ceremony on his phone, Leo looked down on Main Street. The candle factory. The florist. The hardware store. The year-round Christmas shop. The art gallery, the antique stores, and the craft brewery. The green fields and rolling hills and the steeple in the distance. The sights of his growing up.