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Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
How could I be so stupid?!
How could I be so stupid as to say that out loud to someone who I’ve only been dating a few weeks?!
Someone who lives on his own Doomsday clock that only he can see.
Someone with one paint stained flipflop always right out the door.
It’s Tucker’s turn to take a moment and analyze the situation except it isn’t the art getting the stare down but me. His eyes slowly sweep themselves across my face, noticing my rapidly racing pulse, and overly widened eyes, regret running nonstop around in them.
While I don’t resent falling in love, I loathe fucking mentioning it.
Especially to the person.
Stupid me and my not thinking before speaking!
“See, I don’t always make you bad with words,” Tucker coos back prior to picking up his sculpting tool. His cocky smirk starts its stretch from ear to ear. “Sometimes I inspire the best ones.”
Uncertainty of what exactly he means only remains for a moment longer.
“I love you too, June Bug.” He shoots me a quick wink and returns to his project. “And when we get home, I’ll show you just how much.”
An overwhelming amount of redness rips through my complexion forcing me to sharply turn around and flee to prevent it from being seen. However, spinning too fast combined with a lost paintbrush on the floor cause my elbow to painfully crash into the nearby wall. The thud is loud enough that I’m sure it’s gathering stares, yet it’s the lone voice in the crowd that manages to splinter the embarrassment that’s thrumming through my ears.
“You okay, baby?”
Glancing over my shoulder to lock eyes with a worried Tuck fills me with a different type of reprieve.
You know what?
I really am okay.
I’m more than okay.
I’m the best I’ve probably ever been, and I know he has so much to do with that.
And you know what else I know?
That I’ll always be okay with Tucker Frost in my life.
After all, love can get a person through anything that the crazy, unpredictable world throws at them…right?
Chapter 15
Tucker
Holding in my laughter as I push the mostly eaten dish June’s direction is practically impossible. “I think you should try a bite.”
“And I think you should agree to get coffee with Richard, so it seems like we’re at an impasse.”
She’s twitched a small teasing glare that she playfully returns.
Okay.
Poke me in the eye with a short handled paintbrush for not wanting to have a cup of cold brew with the man marrying my coldhearted mother who donated Dad’s shit to charity ten days after his death.
Ten. Fucking. Days.
Like they were getting a divorce he asked for instead of him dying.
Rich – as much as it pains me to say it – seems like a decent enough dude.
He seems like he really cares about this family.
Wants to be a part of it.
Just like Dad did.
And maybe that’s the reason I can’t seem to stop canceling on him.
I already have a dad.
Just because he’s been gone in his physical form for a few years doesn’t mean he’s not around.
Or would want me trying to fill his place like the wannabe Persephone who gave birth to me.
Supposedly.
At this point, I’d rather believe Aunt Brandi gave birth to me and merely made the mistake of letting her sister raise in me instead.
“Babe,” June warmly calls to me, hand lovingly landing on my forearm, “he just wants to…you know…do the thing.”
Her stumbling over her own thoughts threatens to make me smile. “What thing?”
“You know…the whole…thing that people do with each other.”
“People do a shit ton of things with each other, June Bug. Gotta be more specific.”
“You know what I’m trying to say! He just wants to do the thing where you hang out and connect about stuff from person to person until you’ve reached like the same stuff!”
Mischievousness saunters through my expression. “You mean bond?”
“I mean pick a time and a date and fucking commit.”
Levity lingers in my tone. “Maybe next weekend?”
“You mean the weekend of his wedding reception?”
“Is it my fault that he’ll be busy?”
“Tuck.”
Scooting closer to her on the outdoor picnic bench we’re occupying at Highland Manga and Anime Matsuri is followed by me casually pointing to the bowl of food she refuses to eat. “You should really try it. It’s pretty good for spicy miso ramen. Really authentic.”
My girlfriend pushes the bowl even further away and tilts her head in a more serious nature. “How about Tuesday? I’ve gotta finalize some college paperwork with Dad and Dakota that afternoon. I could drop you off somewhere on my way over. Pick you up on my way back?”
“Can’t.” I place the used chopsticks in the bowl beside the spoon. “That’s when I’m going suit shopping with Uncle Brett.”
June beams bright enough to court Ra, the Egyptian sun deity. “Thank you for deciding to go.”
“I’m only going because you’re my girlfriend who asked me to go with her to her boss’s sister’s wedding reception, which is weird, but we do weird things for the ones we love.”
