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Chapter 5
Tucker sat on his couchwatchingThe Western Hunterand eating a sandwich for lunch. His bird dog, Sundance, lay beside him with his head up and alert, staring at the food, but keeping a respectful distance. Tucker had never given him people food, but there was still hope in his eyes. Sundance was a six-year-old Brittany who went almost everywhere that Tucker went.
Most times, if Sundance couldn’t go along, Tucker didn’t go.
Tucker’s phone beeped. He picked it up to see an icon at the top that he didn’t recognize. He swiped down and still didn’t understand. He tapped it, and an app called Date Out opened. What the heck was Date Out? Whatever it was, he had a message from someone named May: “Hey, thanks for shooting an arrow at me. I’d love to chat.”
Shooting an arrow at her?He hadn’t shot an arrow at anyone! Whatwasthis? He clicked around the app, trying to figure it out, and landed on someone’s profile. Someone named Wolfgang, someone who “enjoyed the great outdoors” and was “looking for love.” As Tucker tried to understand what he was looking at, a ball of dread formed and grew in his gut. Who was Wolfgang? And why was he on Tucker’s phone?
And then he saw Wolfgang’s phone number, and it looked an awful lot like his own.
Had his phone been hacked? That didn’t make any sense.
And then a theory came crashing down on him with such force that he seethed with anger. Sundance pulled his head back an inch. Tucker opened his text messages and wrote to Kash in all caps, “WHAT DID YOU DO?” He waited ten seconds for an answer and then realized that he wasn’t going to get one—obviously.
And now he had to deal with this May person. She wasn’t the one who’d broken into his phone and downloaded an app. He didn’t want to punish her for Kash’s crime. She would think he was a rude jerk. Or at least, she would think that about Wolfgang.
He stared down at the phone, thinking about what to write and how to start it. He hated writing. He wasn’t good at it, and he usually avoided things he wasn’t good at.
He wrote “Hi” and then immediately deleted it. He didn’t want to sound like a toddler.
“What on earth do I say?” he said aloud to no one in particular. Sundance’s ears went up a little as if to say, “No idea, boss.”
“What do I say?” Tucker said again, this time asking the dog.
But Sundance still didn’t know.
Somewhere in the depths of his mind, his mother’s voice echoed.When in doubt, just be honest.
He took a deep breath. Being honest was easier than trying to sound smart. And really, why did he care what this woman thought of him? She was never going to meet him, never going to even know who he really was.
“Hi,” he wrote again, and this time he left it, deciding it was okay to sound like a toddler. Toddlers were honest. “I am very surprised to see your message, as I didn’t even know this app was on my phone. I think my brothers downloaded it. Sorry to have wasted your time.”
He hit send before he could think too much about it, and she immediately responded with a little laughing face. “I’m sorry, but that’s hilarious. Why would they do that to you?”
He did not think it was remotely hilarious.
“Because they’re jerks.”
Another laughing face. “I doubt that was the reason. If they wanted to be jerks, they could do something meaner than downloading a dating app ... unless you are married, and they are trying to get you in trouble with your wife.”
He couldn’t help smiling. She was a clever one. Though if a married guy were on a dating app, he probably wouldn’t admit being married. But she could say that she’d checked. It was a diplomatic move. Was he chatting with a politician? “No, not married. What do you do for work?”
“Kind of hard to explain, but I work for the government.”
Wow, if he was right about her being a politician, he was going to be very impressed with himself. “Are you a politician?”
“NO!” she sent in all caps. “Not even close. I’m not nearly that big of a deal. I’m nearly invisible.”
She was invisible? “Are you with the CIA?” he sent, trying to be funny.
“Something like that,” she wrote, followed by a little white ghost that he assumed represented the wordspook.
She was messing with him, obviously, but he couldn’t blame her. He wouldn’t want to be giving out too much personal info to some random dating app dude either. “Are you military?” he asked, figuring she could well have something to do with the Ellsworth Air Force Base.
“No,” she answered quickly.
So much for that.
