27. Tyler
TWENTY-SEVEN
TYLER
Into the belly of the shithole, or whatever the phrase is.
I face the building I’ve only been into a handful of times in recent years, and with good reason. The Legion Hall of Paint, West Virginia is a drunkard’s haven. Drinking is generally a waste of time and life, and since Ellie was born, I don’t put myself into places where my time gets wasted.
Dread fills me like wet cement, but just before I take the door handle from Jake, Becca leans in. “Give us a minute?”
Jake salutes and heads inside, shuffling to catch up to Darcy.
Becca loops her arms behind my neck, and my whole body relaxes feeling her against me. She strokes her fingers through the hair above my ears and drags a finger down my jaw. “Nervous?”
Well, I guess I am. I’m not exactly a man about town.
I keep to myself. I’m friendly with people, but I’m no social butterfly.
By contrast, I’m not sure Becca’s ever known a stranger in her entire life.
She’s my complete opposite, and now I’m about to marry her.
It’s more intimidating than I expected. Still, I nod.
This whole check-in is surprising, but very welcome.
“You’re gonna do great. Just follow my lead and let’s have a good time. This is supposed to be the fun part.”
Supposed to be.
The people in our lives are thrilled about this, making everything feel even more wrong and dishonest. We’re lying to people who love us.
And what does it mean that they’re so happy for us? No one was this happy when CJ got pregnant. Was this what it was supposed to feel like? Then again, these are very different circumstances.
I haven’t given Becca enough credit. She owns and runs a farm.
She has a circle of people who love and support her.
She’s not the girl she was when she and CJ were running around making a mess of their lives.
And even at her sloppiest, Becca had it together enough to hold down her trucking job. Couldn’t say the same for CJ.
Becca squishes my cheeks and wiggles my chin in her hand. “Put a smile on these cheeks and pretend for tonight for me, huh?”
I’ve been looking at her face, but I’ve been a thousand miles away. I snap back to the woman in front of me and smirk. “I’ll pretend.”
She rises on her toes and kisses the corner of my mouth, an action that makes my stomach plummet. In a good way. The best way. “There’s that $150,000 smile.”
I laugh and drink her in: bright eyes, broad smile, a glow from within. I’m thinking about sneaking in another one of those test kisses when a voice shouts across the parking lot.
“The happy couple!”
Dusty and his girlfriend, Ronnie, walk our way hand in hand and it’s all getting real. I’m part of the happy couple.
Never been called that before.
Becca leans into my chest and on instinct, I hold her tighter. She shivers, and I remember that she’s not dressed for the weather. I run my hands over her bare shoulders and arms. “Gotta keep you warm. You couldn’t wear something more sensible?”
“Since when have I ever been sensible?” she asks. “And you’re supposed to tell me I look great.”
The truth of what she says hits me hard. Why is my first instinct to give her a hard time? And why about her clothes? She’s almost always well put together.
To this point in my life, I had to see Becca looking this good and know she wasn’t mine to have. I’d mostly trained myself to not even look.
This time, she’s mine. She’s got on this incredible outfit and she’s wearing my ring.
Dusty and Ronnie are almost all the way over to us with Becca’s mom and grandma trailing behind them. I only have a second.
I rake my fingers into Becca’s hair so I can get to her ear and lean down.
“You’re gorgeous, Reba. You’re always gorgeous.”
Then I plant a kiss under her ear.
Goosebumps dot her skin where I still hold her shoulder in one hand and I wish I could pull her somewhere we could be alone. I want to test which kisses make her shiver, make her sigh, make her get all hot and bothered and needy for me.
If she could be needy for me. Who knows how much she’s putting on a show now?
“Easy, this is a family establishment,” Ronnie says as they come to a stop next to us.
Becca giggles and curls tighter into me. “Isn’t he something?”
“So, wait, how long has this been going on?” Dustin says. “It’s incredible, but it almost feels like a prank. How’d you two keep it quiet?” He ruffles Becca’s hair. “Her, of all people.”
Becca sticks her tongue out at him but he tugs her into a hug. “Happy for you, sissy.”
“Thanks,” she says.
Dusty goes for me next, wrapping me in a tight bear hug.
“I’d tell you to be good to her, but I know you will,” he says while we hug.
He grips my biceps while he holds me back and my smile is real but my heart hurts.
All I want is to be good to her.
“I’ll do my best.”
He points in my face and a camera flashes while his mom takes a picture. “You will. I’m counting on you.”
“Let’s see this thing,” Ronnie says, pulling at Becca’s left hand. My breath suspends. Is everyone going to know it’s fake? “Oh, wow, Ty. Didn’t know you had it in you.”
“Didn’t he do good?” Becca preens. “Come on, let’s go show off to everybody else.”
Inside, we’re subject to several toasts and congratulations, and it’s clear how loved Becca is.
I feel a pang of jealousy. The only friendship I’ve maintained in the last few years is with Dusty, and he’s especially forgiving of my random disappearances and refusal to go out.
My dad shows up and begs the question everyone keeps murmuring.
“When did this start? Last I checked, you were being rude to her at the garage.”
I’ve been standing behind or beside Becca with an arm wrapped around her waist all this time, and she leans out. “You know giving shit is a love language from Tyler, Mr. Davis.”
Miss Kristen has materialized from somewhere, and for once, I’m grateful. “I knew when she came to school dropoff wearing his shirt that something was going on,” she says with a hint of mischief. “But Ellie didn’t know Becca when we went for the field trip.”
We’re trying to prove us as a couple. Couples sleep together. Hinting about sex helps sell the story. I fight a blush.
“She usually came over after Ellie went to bed,” I say. “We didn’t want Ellie to know until we were sure.”
A mix of “aww” and “oooh!” comes from our gathered court. Heat prickles my neck and I fight the urge to pull at my collar.
Of course I want sexy things with Becca, but it’s been so long, I’m afraid all the systems have gone haywire.
After I kissed her a few nights ago, I had to race to my room to drop my pants.
Her light grinding and the sheer fact that I was kissing her was enough to have me blowing my load, almost in my pants.
If I get worked up like that here, I could be in for some very embarrassing trouble—and trouble that would make sense to no one else.
If I’m marrying Becca, you could safely assume we’re going at it fairly regularly, and thus I’d be able to handle myself and not boner out at every stiff breeze.
I look around for Jake and Darcy, wanting some break from this intense grilling session, but they’ve been missing for a minute. They weren’t really participating in the discussion anyway, just sipping Coke and whispering to each other. Becca slips out of my grip with a “be right back.”
Great. I’m stuck. She beat me to the punch on bailing on this conversation.
“I hear congratulations are in order,” comes a dry voice behind me. I turn to find Becca’s ex, Stone, summoning me from behind the bar.
Not sure this conversation is going to be much better, but here we go.
“Good luck with that,” he says while he polishes a glass with a bar towel.
I choose to act like he’s actually being nice. “Thank you.”
“Just know she’s more into chicks.”
He acts like I’ve never seen her face-first in somebody’s pussy. He’s trying to get under my skin, and I don’t like what he’s implying. I’m not threatened that Becca is bi. She’s with me.
Well. She’s fake with me. But he doesn’t need to know that.
“I think we’re good,” I say, dismissing him.
Stone lifts a brow. “I thought we were too. You won’t be enough unless you have tits.”
I pat my pecs. “You think these’ll do?”
He chuckles. “Man to man, just watch out.”
I purse my lips and lean over the bar. “Man to man?”
“Hmm?” Stone waits for me to go on.
I put my lips next to his ear. “Stay the fuck out of my business.”
I pat him on the cheek and take off for the bathroom, hoping I’ll run into Becca on my way there and get my security blanket back. I don’t see her before I make it to the men’s room, and when I push the door open, I get the shock of my life.
“Such a good girl taking Daddy like this.”
Sex. Darcy bent over the sink with her skirt flipped up, Jake balls deep in her, pants shoved halfway down his ass and his hand in her hair.
I turn on my heel faster than I ever have in my life, Darcy’s shriek ringing in my ears.
“I thought you locked the door, Jake!”
“You said you wanted to get caught sometime!”
Darcy’s throaty chuckle right before the bathroom door closes the rest of the way makes me lightheaded.
I close my eyes and steady myself against the wall.
I have seen my share of sex, particularly at the parties I frequented in my early twenties.
I was, however, surprised to see it in this bar, and right when all I can think about is Becca.
Her smoker’s rasp fills my ears.
“Alright there, grumpy?” A gentle hand travels up my thigh and my dick throbs. “Looking to consummate this engagement?”
I open my eyes and look down to find Becca looking far too entertained. She flicks her eyes down to my crotch.
“Jake and Darcy are . . .” I point to the bathroom door and gulp down a breath. “Yeah.”
“Damn, with the door unlocked? Look at them, little budding exhibitionists.” She leans against me and I can’t stand any touch right now. “You always were a watcher.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Is the women’s room empty? I gotta take a leak.”
Becca chuckles and crosses her arms. “Is that what they call it these days?”
“I’m not going to jack off in this bar!” I hiss.
She smirks and rubs the skin just above my jeans, thumb stroking the space around my hip bone. “You know I can help. We are engaged, after all.”
There is nothing I’d love more, but I’m not doing that here. “My dad is here. Your mom. Your mamaw!”
She lifts a shoulder. “Doors lock.”
“Is it empty or not?” I demand, gesturing to the women’s room door again.
Her lips curl up, I growl and push past her. A bathroom’s a bathroom, and I can splash cold water on my face in either one. I regain my composure and when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I look myself over and review the facts.
I’m a grown man.
I’m a dad.
I’m getting married to my best friend’s little sister.
And I’ll be damned if I don’t do right by her.
The words she said to Darcy about what she wanted in a marriage come to mind: for them to want me so bad they’ll throw me over their shoulder and need to have me right this second.
This day has been so much to take in, a whirlwind of Becca and shoving down all my doubts. We’re doing this, and it’s not going to succeed if I’m not all-in. It shouldn’t matter if I’m wounded from my last relationship. That was then, this is now.
What I said to my dad is true. It’s time to live a little, to put my happiness first.
I want Becca, and there’s no reason I shouldn’t let myself have her.
Leaving the bathroom, I’ve got laser focus looking for Becca. She’s talking to one of the fucking Dentons from the lumberyard, the family that has been at the top of my shit list since they almost hurt Becca years ago. My hand grips her waist and I lean down to her ear. “Dance with me.”
Becca’s lips curl into a grin. “Okay.”
“You were talking to one of the Dentons?” I ask as we walk.
Her mouth drops open further. “Are you jealous, grumpy?”
“No.” I turn her to face me on the dance floor.
“Carver Denton is harmless. His brothers on the other hand . . . ”
“I fucking remember,” I bite out. “They’re animals.”
“Speaking of,” she says with a smirk. “I thought you didn’t dance.”
My hands swallow her waist as I try to cover every inch of her with me. I need her so close that she becomes a part of me.
Everyone knows she’s mine and it’s time I started claiming her like she is. I spin her once and pull her into me. My hand slips into her hair and I tip her face up. “I do now.”
I bend that last inch and kiss her, pulse racing, stomach dropping, holding my breath because if I breathe, I’ll pant.
Becca’s hands loop behind my neck and she plays with the hair at my nape.
I finally gasp in a breath and Becca hums into my mouth, tongue seeking mine.
Her lips are pliant, her kiss even better than I remember, and I’ve replayed it constantly since it happened.
When we finally part, she giggles. “What’s gotten into you?” She fakes looking around. “You still got that baseball bat to scare off potential suitors?”
I shake my head, and she’s fucking around but I’m serious as the grave. “You’re wearing my ring now. There aren’t going to be potential suitors.”
She sniffs and twists her lips. “Guess somebody’s gotta keep up with their husbandly duties then.”
She’s fucking with me, and she’s about to find out. “I will.”
Her eyes dance and she’s killing me with how fucking stunning she is.
Her lips are pink and swollen and I did that to her.
My stomach is in knots and my hands are starting to sweat.
I’m about to be bold in front of her family and mine, in front of all the wash-ups and degenerates present in this hole.
I need to have her right now.
“I don’t really believe y—” She squeals as I haul her over my shoulder, barring one arm behind her thighs and holding her in place with my other hand.
Jake and Darcy are out on the dance floor now and I turn to talk to Jake. “Pick us up at the garage in an hour.”