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I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact that we now have an arsonist in our town. The scariest part is, an arsonist isn’t someone who sets one fire and is done. They set multiple fires and usually don't stop until they get caught.
If we don’t end up finding him, and soon, our town could be in some real trouble.
* * *
I glance over at Natalie,who's sitting in the passenger seat of my truck, fiddling with her lip. Tonight is her big fundraising gala and she’s anxious. I lean over the console and grab her hand, holding on tight so she’ll stop fidgeting.
“It’s going to be great.”
“I know.”
“Are you sure? Because your fidgeting tells me you’re worried about it.”
She looks over at me and blows out a deep breath.
“I just feel bad about not being there right now.” Natalie told me this will be the first year she won’t be at the gala before it starts. Apparently, it’s bothering her more than I realized.
Right now, we’re headed to Megan and Todd’s house to all get ready together. Why we need to get dressed as a group is lost on me, but I’m going with it.
“So, call Emily and check in,” I suggest, since she’s there handling the set-up instead of Natalie.
“No, she’s fine. I know she’s fine, but it’s still hard to hand over the reins.”
I pull into the driveway and see a bunch of cars are already here, which makes me inexplicably nervous. This will be the first time I’m meeting the whole group of Natalie’s friends.
I already know almost all of them since we went to school together, but meeting them as Natalie’s boyfriend changes the situation a little bit.
I jump out of the truck and watch Natalie get out on the other side. She’s told me numerous times she hates when I open the door for her because it makes her feel helpless. I don’t completely understand, but who am I to deny her anything.
We both grab our garment bags from the backseat and head towards the porch. The two-story house has stone trim around the bottom, and stone columns line the front porch. It makes me want to fix up my house to look as nice as theirs.
Natalie walks right into the house, and I follow behind like a lost puppy. Looking around, the whole room is open, and everyone is gathered in the huge kitchen. I take in the group surrounding the island. I know most of them from school except the guy with Lucy and the girl with Cooper. If memory serves, Lucy is with Max, and Cooper is with Quinn.
“Hey, guys!” Natalie says as she walks towards the group. “Most of you already know Tucker. Tucker, this is the group!” she says with a wave to everyone.
I awkwardly wave. “Hello.” I don’t know why, but it feels weird.
“Hey, Tucker! Good to see you, man.” Todd comes over and shakes my hand. With his dark hair and eyes, he comes across as intimidating, but he’s actually a pretty cool guy.
“Welcome to the nuthouse!” Levi jokes, and everyone laughs, which helps to ease my nerves. As brothers, he and Cooper look a lot alike with their light brown hair and brown eyes.
“We should get going if we have a prayer of getting ready on time,” Megan says to the girls. They quickly head upstairs, leaving the guys in the kitchen.
“Do any of you understand why we needed to get ready together?” Max asks after the girls are gone.
“I wondered the exact same thing on the drive over here,” I say, and the guys all shrug their shoulders and laugh.
“I won’t ever understand half of what they do, but I’ll just keep following along like I always have,” Todd jokes.
We hang out in the kitchen, sipping on bourbon and talking until it’s time to get dressed. We get our suits on quickly and are back in the kitchen waiting on the girls.
The tie around my neck feels a little tight, but I think it’s mostly because I’m not used to wearing clothes like this. I’m also afraid I’m going to bust out of my suit jacket before the night’s over. I had to get this thing tailored to fit my huge ass shoulders, so we’ll see if it holds up.
I’m going to be out of my element this entire night. A guy like me, who grew up on the wrong side of town, doesn’t normally get invited to these sorts of things. Hopefully, I won’t embarrass Natalie. She deserves someone on her arm who can make her look good, and I want to do her justice.
I’ll mostly be taking my cues from the guys around me and just hope like hell I do her proud because I’m so fucking proud of her.
