Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SCARLETT
“ S o, what did you think of the property?” I ask Chloe as we drive back to town. I pull into Charlie’s Diner and put the car in park.
“It’s so pretty. And it’s out of town, but not too far from town, you know?”
“That’s what I thought, too.” We climb out of the car and walk inside. Once we’re seated in a booth, I pull my iPad out of my handbag and bring it to life. “I have more things to show you.”
“Awesome.” We pause to place our orders—two burgers, fries, and chocolate shakes thank you very much—and then we lean over the table, looking at the screen of my iPad. “Are these house plans?”
“Yep. I have a couple that are my favorites, but I want your opinion.”
“Cool.” I walk her through each one like we’re walking through them in real life. “So, the laundry is downstairs?” she asks with a frown. “But the bedrooms are upstairs. That’s a pain in the butt. We have that now, and the laundry is heavy.”
“You have a really good point,” I reply, considering it and not admitting that I haven’t done my own laundry in a decade. But no one wants to carry heavy baskets of laundry up stairs. The waitress sets our shakes in front of us. “So, we need a laundry room on the same floor as the bedrooms.”
“That would be easiest,” she agrees. “Wow, your house is going to be awesome . I’m so excited you decided to move here.”
“Thanks. And can I tell you a secret?”
“Duh.” She grins and spoons some chocolate shake into her mouth.
“I’m hoping this won’t be just my house. My goal is for you and your dad to live there with me.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, but you can’t tell your dad because it’s a surprise.”
“I won’t tell him. Oh my God, this is so amazing. Can I decorate my room?”
“Of course, you can. And you can help me decorate the rest of the house, too.”
“So cool,” she says again just as her phone pings with a text. “That’s Dad. Where are you? You’ve been gone a long time. Geez, he’s been so grouchy lately.”
I frown and sip my shake. “Really?”
“Like, beyond grouchy,” she confirms and types out something to her dad. “And he’s mopey. Like I am when something makes me sad.”
Well, damn. I guess in my haste to form a plan to get him back, I didn’t consider that, in the meantime, Tucker would be heartbroken.
I’m a total bitch. That should have been the first thing on my mind.
“I’m sorry he’s been hard to live with. That’s my fault.”
Our meals are delivered, and Chloe digs into her fries. “Did you guys break up or something?”
“Yeah.” I sigh and fiddle with a fry, suddenly no longer hungry. “I’m a horrible person.”
“No, you’re not. You’re planning on building homes for your entire family, not to mention for a kid who isn’t even your kid. You’re just excited, and you have tunnel vision. That’s what Dad calls it when I do that.”
“Your dad’s pretty smart.”
“Yeah, he’s just been on my last nerve this week.”
She licks some ketchup off her finger.
“Chlo, whether or not I’m able to clean this mess up, and your dad and I get back together again, I want you to know that I love you very much. And I’ll always be your friend, no matter what.”
“I know.” God, is it this easy for kids? “We’re cool, Scar. But if you and Dad do get back together and get married, I could call you Mom. You know…maybe someday.”
I blink at the sudden onslaught of emotion caught in my chest.
“I mean, sure. If you want to.”
She smiles happily. “Awesome. You’ve been so good for Dad. He smiles so much more since you’ve been home, and he laughs a lot. He didn’t always do that. I think he was just stressed out because I’m a handful.”
I bark out a laugh and sip my shake. “I don’t think you’re a handful.”
“Oh, I am.” She nods wisely. “And he has a pretty important job. People here really respect him.”
“I know.”
And I was pushing to tear him away from all of this.
I’m a selfish person.
“But you make him happy. And you’re nice to me, not just because you have to be to impress my dad, but because you like me.”
“I like you very much.”
“I like you, too.” She smiles as her phone pings again. “Geez, Dad, calm down.”
“Maybe we should get you home.”
“Yeah, you’d think I’d been abducted by a serial killer. He’s so lame.”
I laugh again. She was just singing his praises, and now he’s lame. I guess that’s how it goes when you’re a kid.
I ask for a box for all of our uneaten food, pay the tab, and we set off for home. When I pull into the driveway, I see Dad on the porch.
“Hey, Chloe,” he says when we step out of the car. He looks at me with a grim nod. “Why don’t you come hang out with me for a while so Scarlett can go chat with your dad?”
“Cool,” Chloe says.
“Go share some of that food with Rick,” I say with a smile. “But save some fries for me.”
“Okay,” she says as she hurries up to the house and they disappear inside. I walk over to Tuck’s and knock on the door.
“Where’s Chloe?” he asks when he opens the door.
“She’s with my dad, eating my lunch.”
He nods. “Okay, just send her over when she’s done.”
“Hey, Tuck, I’d like to chat with you, if that’s okay.”
“ Now she wants to chat,” he mutters as he steps back, letting me inside. “It’s about damn time because I’ve had half of the town filling me in on what you’re doing, and I’m at a complete loss.”
I frown. “Damn small towns.”
He just watches me with hurt eyes, and I know without a doubt that I have to fix this. Right now.
“So, I came up with a plan.” I have to pace his living room. I can’t stand still. “After we spoke last week, I was just so sad, so heartsick. Because I don’t want to be without you, Tuck. I just love you and Chloe so much, I figured there has to be a way to work it out. And then Dad’s house started crumbling around me, and I was like…you need a new house.”
“Rick’s house is crumbling?”
“Let me get this out.”
Tucker holds up his hands in surrender, and I keep going.
“So, I thought, what if I build a house here in New Hope? Because I love it here so much, and I didn’t know how much I missed it until I was back again. And if I build a house, I could build Dad a guest house on the property. And if I’m gonna do all that, I might as well build Lexi and Jason a house, too.”
“That’s a lot of houses.”
I give him the stink-eye, and he stops talking, but the corners of his lips turn up, which is encouraging.
“I couldn’t just march over here and say, ‘ never mind everything I said the other day. I’ll move home, and we’ll be together.’ ”
“Why? That actually sounds really good. I would’ve liked that a lot.”
“Because they’re just words, Tuck. I’ve made you too many promises that I had to break. Words don’t mean anything. Actions do. So, I decided to build the house, and show you that I’m serious about planting roots in New Hope. I know we’ll still have to work out how touring works, and all of the other craziness that is my career, but I can be based out of South Carolina. There’s no rule that says I have to live in Nashville if I’m a country star.”
“You do realize that the house can take up to two years to be built?” he says. “So, were you going to just wait around for two years to fill me in on your plan?”
“I hadn’t gotten that far yet,” I confess and bite my lip. “I mean, probably not, because I really miss you and I think about you every second of every day, but I had to have something in place to prove to you that I’m willing to do my part to bend to make this work. I can compromise. I love you, Tuck. I don’t want to just throw that away.”
Finally, finally, he sweeps me up in his arms and kisses me like his life depends on it. And for the first time in weeks, the knot in my belly loosens.
“I’ve been a wreck,” he confesses when he comes up for air. “I almost beat the shit out of Dawson because I thought he took you out on a date.”
“What? No, I’m not dating him. He’s going to build the houses.”
“I know that now. It was just making me crazy that you were planning to move here but not be in my life. How was I supposed to see you all the time and not touch you? Not love you?”
“So, my plan had holes.”
“A few, yeah.”
“Chloe knows,” I confess with a smile.
“My own daughter was in on the plan?”
“Only as of about an hour ago,” I reply. “And she’s kind of excited at the thought of decorating her own room. If you forgive me, that is.”
“I thought the kissing thing kind of implied that I forgave you.”
I cup his face in my hands. “I love you, Tucker Andrews.”
“I love you, even though you make me crazy. Being married to you won’t be boring.”
I freeze. “ Married ?”
“Oh, babe. If you think I’m not putting a rock on that finger, you’re the crazy one. You’re mine, from now until the end of time. And, frankly, I don’t give two fucks if we live in New Hope or Nashville, as long as we’re together.”
“We might be living in both places from time to time.”
“We’ll figure it out,” he says, his mouth hovering over mine. “It’s all about compromise, you know?”