Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Tucker
I wake to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, a slow smile spreading across my lips as I wipe the sleep from my eyes.
After I fucked Gabby good and hard last night, we both collapsed shortly after, smores all but forgotten.
I barely got the fire out before I dropped into bed beside her and slept like the fucking dead.
It’s been years since I slept this solid, but I’m not surprised. Gabby has always been my peace—my center.
Now that I know how fucking wrong I was about what I saw all those years ago on prom night, I’m eager to rebuild a solid foundation with her that’ll stand the test of time. Never again will I put myself in a position to lose her.
I toss aside the covers to go in search of the woman I’ve never stopped loving. For starters, I owe her an apology. I’ll spend every day for the rest of our lives making up for the poor choices I made back then and proving that she’s the only woman I’ve ever loved—the only woman I ever will love.
“Hope you saved some coffee for me—”
There’s half a pot of coffee left on the warmer and a freshly rinsed mug in the sink, but no Gabby.
I hear a scream, followed by a string of curses. I rush out the door in my birthday suit, pulling on a pair of shoes in a quick hop.
“Gabby?” I call out, panic filling my chest. No way in hell I’m going to let anything—man or beast—take her from me when I just got her back. “Gabby, where are you?”
“Over here,” she calls, her tone filled with defeat.
My gaze snags on a body just on the other side of the cabin building site, and I sprint to her. She’s wearing a pair of leggings and a loose shirt of mine that’s torn at the shoulder. What the actual fuck?
“Are you hurt?”
“Only my pride,” she grumbles, sitting up. There’s a twig wedged in her messy bun, but she doesn’t seem fazed by it. “Where’re your pants?”
“I heard you scream. I just ran. What the hell happened?” I ask, scanning the area for signs of an intruder, ready to hunt down anyone who dared to threaten my woman. I don’t give a fuck if I’m naked or not.
“That damn fox happened.”
“What?”
“He had the audacity to trespass on your land with my phone still in his mouth. Like did the damn thing get stuck in his teeth or what?”
“You’re making this up.”
“I wish I was.” She drops her face into her hands and groans. “I need that phone back.”
“Why?”
“Why do I need my phone?” she asks, looking at me as though it’s the stupidest question I could ask. And in some ways, it is. I’d feel lost without my own. But for some reason, Gabby’s desperation to get her phone back bugs me.
“You have some boyfriend back in Omaha or something?”
“Yes, Tucker,” she says flatly, giving me an equally flat look.
“That’s why I want my phone back so badly.
I want to tell my boyfriend that I got railed on the side of Bertha by my childhood best friend who was secretly wielding the Hammer of Thor in his pants.
He’ll be just thrilled knowing you’ve ruined me for all other men. ”
“When I said you were mine, Gabriella, I fucking meant it.” My cock starts to warm to life, despite the chilly temperatures. The fucker is ready to stake another claim should it be necessary.
“Did you have your morning coffee? I left you some,” she says, pushing to her feet.
She brushes the dirt from her ass with both hands, that twig in her hair nearly poking me in the bicep when she bends.
“And if you must know, I need that phone because it has all my information about my new job in California stored on it.”
“California?”
I hear the crunch of gravel before I register the van heading up my driveway.
“I’ve got a gig as a rafting guide on the Kern River. But I have to report by Tuesday. Without my phone, I don’t have a boarding pass for my flight, an address for my job, or anything I actually need to get where I’m going. And before you ask, no I don’t have a laptop. I hate those things.”
But all I hear is California and Tuesday. As in three days from now.
“You might want to put on some pants,” she says, nodding at the shuttle van.
“I get the sense that Fred’s not exactly the conservative type, but let me at least get the man a cup of coffee before you traumatize him with your massive cock.
Even when it’s cold out, that weapon of mass destruction could poke an eye out. ”
“That’s it then?”
“What’s it then?”
“You’re going to California?”
“That’s what I just said.”
I run my hand through my hair, caging my frustration inside my chest so I don’t let out a loud, frustrated groan that’ll startle Fred.
Fuck, Fred.
“I’ll get your bag,” I tell Gabby, jogging back to the RV holding my cock, certain Fred is giving me a strange look.
Inside the RV, I slip on the pair of sweatpants that hung around Gabby’s knees last night as I fucked her senseless. Did it mean so damn little to her that she’s going to board a plane to California without a second thought about what happens to us?
“Here,” I say, tossing the waterproof bag at her.
“That’s it?”
“You don’t want to keep Fred waiting.”
For a moment, I think she’s going to call me out or argue.
Maybe run at me and pound my chest with her fists until I push her up against the van and kiss her breathless.
But instead, she quietly shakes her head before climbing into the passenger seat of the shuttle van, leaving without so much as a goodbye.
I pretend not to give two fucks about that van disappearing down my driveway, taking away the only woman I’ve ever loved. But inside, I’m fucking torn apart. I barely survived losing Gabby the first time. I can do it again.
Maybe.
Maybe not.