Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
TUCKER
She’s not fucking okay, but I have to get back inside to my family. Nothing about letting her walk away sits right with me.
After returning to the house, I see that everything is cleaned up and the family is getting ready to leave.
Good. I can go check on Duchess.
“She okay?” Harper asks with a concerned frown.
“I think so,” I reply. Honestly, I don’t know, but I don’t want my pregnant sister to worry about anything.
After my siblings all leave, it’s just my father and I on the front porch.
“I like her,” he says simply.
“Who?”
Dad laughs and claps me on the shoulder. “Don’t bullshit me. You like her too. Your little vet intern. I see the way you look at her.”
I’m sure I look like a lovesick puppy. Because that’s exactly how I feel.
“There’s nothing—”
“Yeah, okay.” He laughs and strides down the steps to his truck. “Keep lying to yourself, son.”
He winks at me, climbs in his vehicle, and drives away.
Two seconds later, my phone pings with a text from Xander.
Xander: Is everyone still there? I don’t want to message the group text when they’re driving.
Me: They just left. Give it fifteen or so. It really was a great game. Good job.
Xander: I do my best. That’s why they pay me the big bucks.
I snort, and before I can respond, the bubbles are dancing again.
Xander: Who’s the new girl again? I could hardly hear you. She’s hot. Is she single?
I love my brother. He’s a good guy. He doesn’t even sleep around with all of the puck bunnies that hang around the team. He’s not an asshole in any way.
But I want to kick his ass for even thinking about Darby in any sort of way.
As I stand here on the porch, I realize that I can smell smoke from the campfire out back, and I want to go sit with her, to make sure she’s okay. So, I quickly send him a response.
Me: She’s none of your fucking business.
Xander sends a laughing emoji, and I shove my phone in my pocket and wander around the house and past the side of the cabin to where Darby’s sitting by the roaring fire.
Without a word, I sit in the chair next to hers, and we silently watch the flames for a long minute.
She changed into sweatpants and my old T-shirt that she borrowed the other night, and it makes me feel good to know that she pulled it on.
“You’re never getting it back,” she says, surprising me.
“What?”
“The shirt. I like it. It’s mine now. Although, you might have to borrow it now and then to make it smell like you again.”
I shift so I’m facing her. “You like the way I smell, Duchess?”
“Yeah.” She doesn’t bother to try to deny it, and that’s sexy as fuck. “I do like it. You calm me, for reasons I don’t fully understand. I guess this fire is where I get vulnerable, and you should know in advance that I don’t usually do vulnerable.”
“Okay. Got it.” Without overthinking it, I reach over and take her hand, link my fingers with hers, and give them a little squeeze. “What happens at the fire, stays at the fire.”
Her lips quirk, and it makes me relax just a bit. She has marks on her cheeks from where the tears ran, and I want to pull her into my lap, wipe the tear tracks away, and soothe her.
But for now, I hold her hand and give her time.
“I don’t know why I got emotional.” Her voice is so soft, I have to strain to hear her over the crackle of the fire. “You’d think after all these years, I wouldn’t freak out anymore.”
She takes a deep breath and looks up at the stars, then turns her face to look at me.
“I had a shit childhood. I mean, bad, Tucker. The CliffsNotes version is, my dad killed my mom when I was a week away from turning ten. He abused the fuck out of all five of us our entire lives because he could, and he got away with it. Holden raised us. He loved us. He’s still who I want when things go sideways. ”
I swallow hard and manage to stay still. I want to tug her to me and hold her tight, but that’s not what she needs. Not yet.
“So when I see a father like yours, sometimes it makes my heart hurt, and I can’t help but wonder, what would that have been like? To have a dad who doesn’t get off on making you hurt. Who doesn’t make it his life’s ambition to terrorize you?”
“Fuck, baby.”
“I’m really fine. Most of the time, I’m fine. Your family is . . . phenomenal. Really. There isn’t one bad vibe in that house, and I’m happy you have that.”
“Duchess—”
“Don’t get me wrong, I have it too. Holden and Millie, my sisters, their men, we have fun and laugh and love each other the way you do with your family.
We’re close. But there’s always that leftover hurt that lives just under the surface.
We’re all aware of it. We all feel it, and sometimes we even acknowledge it.
Shit, I had lunch with Charlie today, and it was brought up in conversation, as if it’s just a normal part of life.
Because for us, it is. Maybe that’s why I was a little raw tonight, I don’t know.
I do know that some asshole pulled my baby sister’s hair, after she said no, and now I have to go to prison for murder because he doesn’t get to live after that. ”
I feel my eyebrow climb, and she glances my way, lifts her shoulder.
“Dad tortured her by hurting her hair. Always. Until just before he died.”
“Christ.” I rub my free hand over my face, feeling so fucking helpless, wondering what the asshole did to Darby. I want to burn her childhood to the motherfucking ground. “I’ll help with the jerkoff that can’t take no for an answer.”
Her lips twitch. “I think you would.”
“I don’t say things I don’t mean.”
She sobers and takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry that I upset you. It really wasn’t anything that your family did. It’s all me.”
“Do you want to tell me any more, or do you want to table this for now?”
She bites her lip, a line forms between her eyebrows, and then she shakes her head. “No. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Okay.”
I let go of her hand long enough to reach down and grab the frame of the chair and pull her closer to me.
She gasps a little but doesn’t pull away, and when she’s close enough that our shoulders touch, I take her hand once more, kiss the back of it, and rest it on my thigh as I turn back to the fire.
“That’s it?” she asks softly. “Just okay?”
“Did you want me to argue? That seems to be your thing, so if you need that from me right now, I’ll see what I can do.”
She snorts and leans her head on my shoulder, snuggling against me.
“I do not argue.”
“Sure you don’t.”
“I don’t.”
I kiss the top of her head and breathe in her lavender shampoo. “You’re proving my point right now, Duchess.”
“You’re annoying.”
She doesn’t pull her hand away, and she rubs her cheek over my upper biceps, and everything in me calms. I want to fucking destroy anything that hurt her in the past, but for right now, I’ll sit and stare into this fire with the woman I can’t stay away from.
“Yeah, I’m annoying.”
She’s quiet for a moment and then lets out a soft sigh. “I kind of like it.”
The air smells like burned flesh and dirt.
“Let’s get the next group,” Easton says as he takes his hat off, rubs the sweat from his brow, and then replaces the hat.
He and I are manning the branding pen. Scott and our men are rounding up cows, bringing them to us, then taking the ones we’re finished with back out to pasture.
Darby and Dad are taking care of vaccinations next door, and I’ve hardly been able to take my eyes off her.
She’s so fucking natural with the animals. Gentle but competent. She approaches them with a confidence that not everyone has. I love that she’s not afraid of them, and after she gives the calves a shot, she soothes them with a rub on the head.
Duchess is in a green T-shirt, jeans, and boots, just like the rest of us, with her hair in a ponytail, threaded through the back of a ballcap. She’s dirty, but fuck if she isn’t the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.
“If you don’t pay attention, you’ll brand yourself, you idiot,” Easton says, shaking his head. “For fuck’s sake get her in bed already so you can get your head back in the game.”
“Don’t make me hurt you.”
Easton snorts. My brother is former military and a cop for Silver Springs. He works out hard, keeps his body in peak shape, and in a fight, he’d possibly beat me.
Maybe.
But I’m still the big brother, and I’ll threaten him all day long. I’m not a slouch myself.
“You have the hots for her.”
“So?”
Easton blinks in surprise when I don’t deny it.
“Who the fuck are you, and what have you done with my brother?”
“Why wouldn’t I like her? Look at her. Actually, don’t look at her.”
Easton snorts at that.
“Do you think you’ll ask her out in this century?”
I don’t bother answering him as I stick the branding iron back in the fire and wait for the new group to be brought in.
“You’re not answering me.”
“It’s nothing for you to worry about.”
A group of calves comes through the gate, and we get back to work. It’s a long fucking day. Dirty, heavy work, and when it’s over, we’re all exhausted.
Thankfully, my sisters are waiting with food for everyone at the house. So, we all wash up and meet back at my place, and I’m surprised to see Holden and his wife have joined us too.
“I meant to get out here earlier,” Holden says as he holds his hand out to shake. “We had a new rescue horse get a bad case of colic, and I’ve been tending to her all afternoon. I’m sorry we didn’t come out and help.”
“It’s really okay,” I tell him. “Thanks for coming out at all. Is the horse okay now?”
“Yeah, we got her calmed down. I’ll check her when we go home.” His eyes, the exact same shade of glacier blue as his sister’s, scan the back patio and lands on Darby.
She showered, and now she’s in a clean white T-shirt and jeans. Her hair is down and freshly washed, and she’s laughing at something Scott just said.
Her gaze finds mine and she doesn’t lose her smile.
Fuck, that’s pretty.
Then she notices her brother, and she comes running over to give him a hug.
“You came!”