AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, please tell her I said hi.”
“I will. We listen to your music all the time. What can I get you?”
“Bacon cheeseburger with onion rings and a chocolate shake,” I say.
“Times two,” Tucker adds. Heather writes down the order, nods, and hurries back behind the counter.
“I didn’t know Rachel Laramie got married.”
“She didn’t,” Tucker says with a shrug. “She works at the hospital as a nurse.”
“Who’s Heather’s daddy?”
“Rafe McKenna.”
I feel my jaw drop. “Rafe McKenna, the science teacher?”
Tucker nods. “I guess they had a thing going all through school. Rachel got pregnant in college, and when word got out, Rafe’s wife divorced him.”
“Whoa. Rachel is like five years older than us, but how did I not hear about this?”
“Why do you think?”
I shrug. “Yeah, well. I hate town gossip. It’s one of the reasons I left. I don’t like listening to it, and I don’t like spreading it. I was the subject of it for far too long.”
“I know.”
Our food is delivered quickly, and I dig in, sighing in absolute delight at the familiar sensations on my tongue.
“Smm mmmp.”
Tucker laughs. “Say that in English.”
“So good.” I take a drink of the shake and grin. “Best food in the world. And I’ve been all over the world, so I know.”
“I won’t argue.”
We eat in silence, both of us hungry. And when our plates are clean, we sit back, regretting our life decisions.
“I ate too much.”
“We should have split it,” I agree, but Tucker frowns at me.
“Hell, no. I don’t share Charlie’s food.”
“You’re so selfish.” I toss an onion ring at him, and he pops it into his mouth.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Tucker pays the bill, and we walk out to the car, but when he puts the key in the ignition, I stop him.
“Can we talk for a minute?”
“Sure.”
“I know I said we’d never speak of it again, but I’m dying to ask some questions.”
He sighs. “Okay. Ask.”
“Why isn’t Valerie around?”
“She didn’t want the baby,” he says flatly, not looking my way. “She wanted to give her up for adoption. I wanted to keep her. So, my dad drew up papers that she signed, stating I would have sole custody, and she gave up all parental rights.”
Tucker’s father is a well-respected attorney in New Hope.
“Her parents went along with that?”
“They were ecstatic. We were nineteen, Scar. Val’s parents wanted her to wash her hands of it and move on with her life. So, she had Chloe, passed her to me, and never saw her again. Once she recovered, her parents moved them all out to New Mexico or Colorado or something. I haven’t heard from her since.”
“She just walked away?”
“Yeah.” He reaches over to cover my hand with his. “And I know that’s a sore subject for you.”
“I don’t know which is better,” I admit. “Valerie leaving before Chloe could know her, or my mom leaving when I was eight.”
“Neither way is good,” he says.
“Well, I’m going to be really catty and admit that I’m glad she’s gone because I don’t like her, Tuck. She doesn’t deserve Chloe.”
He laughs and brings my hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to my knuckles.
“I know it makes me a bad person.”
I also hate the thought of Tucker having sex with her. It’s irrational, but it’s there all the same.
I could scratch Valerie’s eyes out for ever putting her skanky hands on him.
“What are you thinking?” he says.
“Horrible thoughts.”
He raises a brow. “Like?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Tell me anyway.”
I sigh. “I want to do bodily harm to Vicious Valerie for ever touching you. I’m not good at being jealous, Tucker, but I admit, I am, and I don’t like it.”
“No?”
“Not even a little.”
“Interesting.” He leans over, drawing our faces closer together. “I wonder what we could possibly do to make you not think about that.”
“I don’t know,” I whisper, watching his full lips as he licks them, imagining what they’d feel like. “What do you think?”
Without answering, he cups my jawline in his big hand and presses his lips to mine. I’d swear the whole universe exploded.
The kiss is soft and sweet. Not tentative. No, he knows what he’s doing, and he’s damn good at it. But it’s gentle, just like Tucker. Thorough. And just as I slide my hand up his firm chest to his face, a rhythmic beep echoes in the car.
“Chloe,” he says as he pulls away from me, staring down at me with lust and regret swirling in his eyes.
“You’d better see what she needs.”
He pulls his phone out of his pocket. “She’s ready to come home.”
“It’s only eight.”
“That’s not a good sign.”
9
~ Tucker ~
“Chloe, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just drive.”
“It’s not nothing if you’re crying.”
She looks up, catching my eye in the rearview mirror. Her cheeks are tear-stained, the makeup she fought so hard for, long gone.
“Did someone hurt you? Did someone touch you?” Kids are cruel these days. My blood boils at the thought of some punk doing something to my baby girl. “What’s the twerp’s name, I’ll—”
