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Wow, she’d gotten really excited about that.
His phone beeped again. “Not that I judge anyone else for drinking responsibly. It’s just not for me.”
“Why not?” Again he wondered why he was continuing this conversation. Was he really that lonely that he needed this? If so, that was pathetic.
“Alcoholism runs in my family, going back generations. I want to break the cycle.”
“That’s noble.” He hit send. He could understand. His dad had been a drinker, and it had surely wreaked havoc on his brother Kash. “I’m just too much of a control freak,” he wrote. “Anytime I’ve drank anything, I’ve ended up embarrassing myself. But it runs in my family too.”
“Well, I’ll let you get some sleep. Thanks for chatting with me. I look forward to meeting you in real life.”
He was sad that she was signing off. He’d spent all night with a woman who didn’t want to talk to him, and now that one was willing, he wanted to keep it going. He laughed at himself. “Okay. Sweet dreams.” He put his phone on the nightstand and resisted the urge to look at it when it beeped again. He needed to get some sleep. But now he was thinking about Wynona, which was weird. He remembered the way she had laughed at him when he’d saidtinderbox, and he scowled there alone in his bedroom. Why had she laughed at that? At the time, it had made him think of May and her crazytender hooks. He’d almost laughed out loud right there in the middle of the forest where nothing was funny.
Sundance jumped off the bed and whined. Oh no. Tucker had foregone his own breakfast, but Sundance had not volunteered to fast. He sat up. “Sorry, buddy. I’m off my schedule.” He pulled himself out of bed and went to put some food in the dog bowl.
Sundance thanked him by wagging his little stump of a tail back and forth. Tucker patted him on the head and went back to bed. This time he gave into temptation and checked the message. But all she had written was, “Rest well. Talk to you later.”
He smiled and put the phone back down. Good, he was glad he was going to get to talk to her later. He shook his head. This was so bizarre. His brothers had actually managed to find him a friend. He still wasn’t sure if he was going to meet her in real life, but if he did, he hoped she was as cool in person. Of course, she might not be. She might be a lunatic who liked to kick puppies. He had no way of knowing. He was basing his impression on very scant data, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was pretty cool. He lay back down and listened to Sundance crunching loudly in the other room. The house and land around them were still and quiet.
He waited for sleep to take him, but it didn’t. He couldn’t stop thinking about the mystery woman who was May. When he tried to stop thinking about her, he ended up thinking about Wynona instead, which didn’t help him either. She was beautiful, but he had less than zero interest in her. So he went back to thinking about May.
By the time Sundance jumped back onto the bed and curled up beside him, Tucker was frustrated. Maybe it was time to find those extra foot soldiers. He sat up and started making phone calls.
Chapter 16
Wynona slowed the vanas she approached the small pull-off for the trailhead. Pickups were parked along either side of the road.
“What’s this?” Craig said from the seat beside her.
“I don’t know.” But she had a sick feeling in her stomach.
They rolled by the entrance because there was nowhere to pull in. The small clearing was full of men. She didn’t dare take her eyes off the road long enough to search the small crowd for Tucker, but her peripheral caught a blur of orange and white that she thought had to be Sundance.
“How far away are you going to park?” Craig asked.
“I was looking for a spot,” she said as she pulled over to park in front of the last truck. “What do you want me to do?”
