Page 96 of Fall Over You

That sucked the last of my tirade out. “I’m sorry. That was really insensitive of me. That was probably awful.”

He nods and chews his lip, but he doesn’t let me go, still holding me while he looks at me. “It was. But that’s all in the past. Today, we have a couple things we can tackle. Raccoons, and acquiring nicotine gum.”

I smile, but what Dusty said before our wedding rings through my mind, that Tyler likes to fix things so everybody’s comfortable. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to fix my problems right now. Or ever.”

He rubs his lips together and looks down at me. “It’s not about fixing. It’s about helping someone you care about when they’re having a hard time. And removing animals that I do not want as roommates.”

I throw my arms around his waist and hug him tighter. “Thank you.”

He kisses the top of my head. “I’m glad you’re quitting for Ellie, but I’m really glad you’re quitting for yourself. I want you healthy for a good, long time.”

I shiver, partially from the draft in the house and mostly because that’s a really sweet thing to say. “You want to keep me around? Even when I’m an absolute bear?”

“Yeah, I do.” Tyler jostles me in his arms. “You’re important. We gotta take care of you too. Take care of your roof. The hole in your ceiling. Your health.”

I can’t handle how nice he’s being, so I crack jokes. “My body is telling me that taking care of it right now involves fighting a raccoon for my cigs.”

He chuckles. “I know it’s miserable. I’m surprised this is the first time you’ve snapped.”

I look at him with a raised brow. “You think the midnight pumpkin cutting wasn’t me snapping?”

THIRTY-SEVEN

TYLER

“Gentlemen, we gather here today to vanquish an enemy.”

Dusty paces in front of Becca’s bedroom door, slapping what looks like a giant butterfly net across his palm.

Jake looks like he’s about to go birth a calf and also ride in a rodeo with a long-sleeved Western shirt and work gloves that go almost to his shoulders. He is fully playing into Dusty’s bullshit, nodding and grunting along as each point is made.

Jake also called his and Becca’s friend Caleb in to participate in this shitshow. He’s holding a squirrel trap and looks slightly bored.

“The enemy has attacked one of our own, going so far as to touch my sleeping sister’s face⁠—”

“Wait, it touched her face?” Caleb asks.

“Yes, that’s why you have to wear the mask, Caleb,” Jake insists, shaking what appears to be a game-worn hockey goalie mask at him.

“You’re not wearing it!” Caleb argues at Jake.

“I have my hat,” Jake shoots back.

Caleb screws up his face. “That’s not—you know what? Whatever. Shouldn’t Becca see a doctor if the thing touched her face?”

“You try getting my wife to do something she’s supposed to do,” I say, putting my hands up. My cheeks go red immediately after, because this marks my first time calling Becca my wife to the guys.

I have a wife, and I made a little “my wife is stubborn” joke. Look at me go.

Dusty rolls on, a preacher at his anti-raccoon pulpit. “There may be more of them than us⁠—”

“How many?” Caleb asks.

“Like a hundred,” Jake says.

“It’s probably less than a dozen,” I correct.

“You’re really killing the mood, Tyler. Focus,” Dusty demands. “We gotta be pumped up to get these motherfuckers. Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes!”