2. Tucker
Chapter 2
Tucker
Walking into the Watering Hole, I found Mac seated at the bar with his head in his hands. It struck me as odd that he’d texted in the middle of his shift, saying he needed a drink and asking if I’d keep him company.
Suddenly, panic pierced my chest. Oh God, I hoped he wasn’t getting cold feet. The wedding was in eight days.
And I was the absolute last person who should be convincing anyone to get married if they were on the fence.
If only I’d been able to talk myself out of it when the doubts had piled up.
But I could see why I’d be his first call, seeing as I was his best man.
I slid onto the barstool beside him, clapping a hand on his back. “How you hanging in there, bud?”
Forearms dropping to the bar top, Mac turned to face me, his brown eyes unfocused. “Been better.”
“I can see that. What are we doing at the bar at four in the afternoon when you should be at work?”
He nodded in a daze. “Chief told me to go home.”
“Okay . . . How about you tell me why. ”
Dragging a hand down his face, he confessed, “I delivered a baby today.”
Yup, that’d do it. That first one was always a shock to the system.
“When the call came in through dispatch, I thought the dad was just panicking. Figured we’d get to where they were pulled over and maybe offer an escort to the hospital. Nope. The mom was laid out on the backseat with her legs spread wide open, and that kid was coming .”
His full-body shudder had me chuckling. “Yeah, that happens a lot more than you think when the hospital’s an hour away. Sometimes, it’s a case of folks waiting too long, but other times, that baby wants out in a hurry, and nothing’s gonna stop it.”
“Definitely not as traumatizing when they teach you how on the dummy during EMT training.”
“No. No, it’s not,” I agreed. “Everyone come out on the other side healthy?”
Mac nodded. “Little boy. They named him Owen.”
“Solid name for a country boy,” I mused. “You gonna recover?”
His chest expanded as he sucked in a lungful of air before letting it out slowly. “Gonna need a minute. Might crash in the back office of the showroom tonight. Not sure I can come face-to-face with that”—he made a circular motion with his hand—“area for a solid twenty-four hours. And if I go home, odds are I won’t be able to avoid it.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Did you just make me an accessory in keeping secrets from Aspen?”
His fiancée wasn’t my biggest fan. Not that I could blame her. I was the guy who’d broken her best friend’s heart. Even though she now knew the truth of what happened back then, her loyalty would always be to Bex. As it should be .
Nose wrinkling, Mac thought over the implications of what he was asking. “Probably not the best idea. We don’t need a repeat of the tree-lighting incident in the middle of our wedding.”
The first Christmas Aspen brought Mac home to Rust Canyon, I’d made the mistake of approaching them and asking about Bex. Right in the middle of Main Street, with the whole town watching, Aspen let me have it. She’d been near feral—screaming in my face, shoving at my chest—so when she reared back to slap me, Mac was forced to haul her away to calm down.
The following morning at the coffee shop, I ran into Mac and offered him my apologies for ruining their evening. I could tell he was uncomfortable, not wanting to be seen talking to me for fear of word getting back to Aspen and him incurring a similar type of wrath from his girlfriend. Eventually, he’d let me buy him breakfast, and we had a brief chat.
By the end of the week, he was seeking me out as the town’s family physician to secure a physical so he could begin training to become a firefighter. Not wanting to create a rift in his relationship, I felt the need to lay all my cards on the table and told him the whole sordid tale of what had happened between me and Bex all those years ago, so he could decide if perhaps it was better to obtain that physical elsewhere. Or, at the very least, secure it with my junior partner, Felicity.
Only a handful of people on this earth knew what went down back then, and Mac was now one of them. Hell, to this day, my own parents still didn’t, and I doubted I would ever tell them. My older sister, Evie, was firmly in my corner, but she was family. Mac didn’t owe me any kind of loyalty or compassion, having just met me, so it came as a shock when he absorbed my story and said he wasn’t sure he would’ve done much differently if placed in my shoes .
That day had been the start of our friendship. Now, here we were, a little over two years later, and I was set to be his best man.
But there was only one problem with accepting that honor.
Almost as if he could read my mind, Mac said, “Bex gets in today.”
That was the problem. Bex was Aspen’s maid of honor.
This had disaster written all over it. Bex hadn’t set foot in Rust Canyon since the day I was forced to end our relationship. She’d gone to great lengths to never set eyes on me again. And to this day, not a soul in town would tell me anything about her. Except Mac. He wasn’t bound by the same rules, being an adopted member of this community.
Taking a pull from my beer, I swallowed before heaving a heavy sigh. “Yeah, I know.”
The change in subject seemed to perk him up a bit, and he turned on his barstool to face me. “So, what’s the plan?”
“What do you mean, what’s the plan? Aren’t you the one who told me she’s with someone else now?” Under my breath, I huffed out, “Not that it matters. She wouldn’t give me the time of day, even if she were single.”
“Oh, come on. You’re seriously going to give up? After all this time spent pining after her?”
Years of frustration rose to the surface, and I threw my arms up. “What other choice do I have?”
Mac stared at me expectantly, like the answer to my question should be obvious. When I didn’t come to the same conclusion on my own, he shouted, “Tell her the truth!”
My eyes darted around the bar. In this town, even the walls had ears, and my companion was known for drawing attention with his expressive personality.
“Why bother?” I shrugged .
“What’s the alternative? You live the rest of your life tortured over a mistake that, technically , you didn’t even make?”
The crushing weight of regret settled over my chest. Since my ex-wife’s deception came to light five years ago, I’d spent every waking moment wishing I could go back and change how I reacted. My mistake had been being too trusting, taking her word at face value. But in the moment, I’d panicked, and no matter how hard I wished it were possible, I couldn’t take any of it back. Decisions made at twenty years old had altered the course of not only my life but Bex’s.
Resting my forearms on the bar top, I shook my head in defeat. “She’s happy now. What kind of selfish man comes in out of left field to dredge up the past and secretly hope that it’s enough for her to magically fall into my arms again?”
“The better man,” he declared with confidence. “I’ve known guys like him my whole life. The kind that are willing to step on others if it means getting ahead. Trust me when I tell you he’s a giant asshole. He might think he’s got the ‘charming lawyer’ smile on lock, but I noticed the lip curl he couldn’t hide when Aspen gushed about how proud she was of me for pursuing my career as a firefighter during our meetups in Chicago. Like he was disgusted that I’d throw away a life like his, craving power and willing to obtain it by any means necessary.”
The man was like a dog with a bone, so I was forced to hammer the point home. “That’s who she chose.”
Mac scoffed. “Aspen doesn’t think she even loves him.”
It didn’t matter how hard I tried to extinguish it; the tiniest flicker of hope lit up inside my chest.
Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I asked, “Why would she think that? ”
My buddy lifted his tumbler of whiskey, taking a sip. “I don’t have the specifics. All I know is that Aspen is getting the vibe that it’s easier for Bex to be in a relationship with someone at work than to try to find someone she’s more compatible with.”
At the idea that she was unhappy and settling, I let out a groan. “Way to twist the knife.”
Unapologetic, he shrugged. “I’ll do whatever it takes to spur you into action. If what you’ve told me is true and there’s no one else for you but Bex, then you need to shoot your shot.”
“It’s not that easy. I can’t just snap my fingers and erase the pain I’ve caused. She doesn’t even come home to see her mother, for Christ’s sake.” I pressed a finger hard into my chest. “Me. I did that. No one else.”
“With a shove by a manipulative bitch,” he muttered.
“Yeah, well.” I let out a deep exhale. “Guess it’s a good thing it was all a farce. I thank God every day that I don’t have any permanent ties to that woman. But it doesn’t change anything. I made choices, turned a blind eye to glaringly obvious red flags, and it ruined multiple lives. If I do what you’re suggesting—try to win Bex back—I’m no better than Brooke, breaking up a relationship. Doesn’t matter if the guy is a Grade-A prick. I won’t do it.”
“Fine.” Mac pushed out his lower lip in an exaggerated pout. “I only hope you don’t come to regret sitting on your hands and doing nothing.”
My lips twisted as I said wryly, “Just add it to the list. It’s a mile long already.”
Pushing off his stool, he clapped me on the back. “All right, I’m headed home. See you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I’ll be there.” I tried to sound enthusiastic about the lead-up to his wedding, but it was hard to do that when you were headed to the gallows.
Bex was not going to be happy to see me.
I tossed and turned all night. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop my mind from replaying the memory of the last time I’d spoken to Bex on repeat.
It was the absolute worst day of my life.
When she called me that night, I almost didn’t pick up the phone. I knew deep down in my gut the reason why. That somehow, she’d found out what I’d done and would demand answers I wasn’t ready to give. Because the minute I did, our future together would be officially dead.
But I was a coward. So, I accepted the call because I couldn’t bear the thought of looking her in the eye and watching as the devastation played out across her face when I told her why I’d postponed coming home for Christmas.
Then, I said the words that ripped both of our hearts out of our chests in a single breath.
“I’m married.”
Her cries of disbelief would haunt me to my dying day. She’d begged me to tell her I was lying, that after all the promises I’d made, I wouldn’t choose someone else.
God, I would have given anything to take away her pain, but the reality was that I was the cause.
Not that I knew it then, but I’d been played for a fool. Brooke had been right to laugh with her friends about how stupid I was. I should have known better. But where I came from, no one would dare think to pull the kind of trick she did. So it hadn’t even occurred to me to request proof before doubling down and asking her to marry me on the spot.
To think I’d still be married to that conniving woman if I hadn’t overheard her bragging about her lies one day and filed for divorce the next.
I didn’t give a shit that she hired the best lawyer my money could buy and demanded a majority of our marital assets. I was happy to give her whatever the hell she wanted so that I never had to see her face again.
And then I left Baltimore behind and came home. Started over in the town that raised me. My sister had arrived back in Rust Canyon the year before, fresh off her own divorce—though hers left her heartbroken—and we’d leaned on each other as we tried to ignore the gossip whispered around us.
Without Evie, I don’t know where I’d be today. And she felt the same about me.
I could have used her support this coming week, but she’d reconnected with her husband a few years back, and he played professional hockey in Indianapolis. Early May meant Jenner’s team was in the playoffs, and I couldn’t ask her to come down here with their three toddlers by herself because I needed my big sissy to hold my hand. I was a thirty-one-year-old man, for crying out loud.
This situation weighed on me more heavily than I expected. Probably because I thought I’d never see Bex again. Honestly, I was surprised she’d agreed to not only come home for this wedding but to stand opposite me, the maid of honor to my best man.
That tiny spark of hope in my chest grew the tiniest fraction.
Maybe moving on with someone new had brought her peace. I wasn’t na?ve enough to believe she might ever forgive me, but perhaps we could work our way to a place of amicability. With our closest friends marrying each other, this wouldn’t be the last time we were in the same room together.
And who knows? If there ever came a time when she wasn’t attached, I might be able to feel comfortable coming clean about the events that led to our relationship’s demise, and we could work through our issues.
Jeez. Now I sound as optimistic as Mac, thinking that spilling my guts will be enough to have her jumping right back into my arms as if nothing ever happened.
Truth of the matter was that Bex was the one. She always would be. I refused to move on because no one could ever take her place in my heart. If that meant I spent the rest of my days on this earth alone, so be it. Seemed like a fitting punishment for how badly I’d fucked up.
My alarm sounded, and I groaned, dragging a hand down my face.
Even if I was exhausted out of my mind, running on fumes, the silver lining was that today, I’d get to lay eyes on the love of my life for the first time in over a decade.
“You want help with that?” I hopped down from my truck parked behind the Sullivans’ barn to find Mac arranging large pieces of firewood to create a teepee-type structure for tonight’s bonfire.
He waved me off with a wink. “Nah, it’s probably better if I do it since I’m a professional.”
I cocked my head. “Professional what? Isn’t it your job to put out the fires, not start them? ”
He stopped dead in his tracks, his face falling as that sank in. “Well, shit. You’re right.” Then he shook it off, his chipper mood returning as he grabbed more wood. “Doesn’t matter.”
It took effort not to laugh. Until two years ago, Mac was a verified city boy. He didn’t have decades of experience living in the country like the rest of us. Weekend bonfires were a common occurrence growing up out here; I could throw one together in my sleep. But this was his party, and I wasn’t about to put a damper on it if he wanted to build his own bonfire. Though, I would keep an eye on him, just in case.
Crunching gravel sounded, signaling the arrival of another vehicle.
Mac was hard at work and tossed over his shoulder. “That’s Aspen with the food supplies. Think you can give her a hand?”
Did I love the idea of being alone with Aspen? Not particularly. But I’d come here early to offer my help, and clearly, Mac didn’t think he needed any, so the bride became the recipient by default.
When the vehicle stopped on the far side of the barn, I hastened my steps, knowing that the quickest path to reach her was by walking through it. Expecting a flash of her fiery red hair, I sucked in a sharp breath when the woman standing at the opposite door had flowing chestnut locks instead. Though they were barely visible around the boxes blocking her vision.
Bex.
Like a shock to the system, my heart was revived at her presence.
I was frozen to the spot, afraid to move, afraid to breathe.
That was, until the heel of her boot caught on a loose coil of rope on the ground because she couldn’t see where she was stepping, and she stumbled forward. The boxes flew into the air as she tried to catch her fall.
My body jolted forward, feet moving on instinct before my brain caught up. But I was too late .
A sharp cry rang out, echoing off the high ceilings of the barn, when she hit the hard concrete floor of the aisle. She’d landed with her hands outstretched, the right one having connected first, taking the brunt of the fall. I had a strong suspicion that her wrist was broken when Bex immediately cradled it against her chest, tears flowing down her cheeks as she rocked, breathing through the pain.
Crouching beside her, I alerted her to my presence by commanding softly, “Let me take a look.”