Chapter 14
TUCKER
WE HAVE two paddocks next to the main stables, one for our horses and one for the boarded horses. Lifting the wheelbarrow full of mixed hay slices in front of me, I push it around the perimeter of the paddock for our horses from one tray to the next to drop them in.
My mind has been on last night’s kiss the entire day. I’ve even caught myself smiling a few times, and I had to erase it from my face before my dad or brothers see it.
When I left the pub last night after dinner, I was pissed because I let the whole damn town know I’m interested in Nora. What they don’t know is that it’s more than just an interest; I think about her every day no matter how hard I try to distract myself with other things.
I’m not sure what’s worse, the whole damn town knowing, or my sisters. Kinley’s going to give me shit no matter what, that’s just who she is. It’s playful, and she would never try to make me angry, but she knows to the nth degree just how far she can push me.
Marley, on the other hand, doesn’t have the backbone Kinley does.
After she was attacked and raped at her senior prom years ago, she doesn’t do people if she can avoid it, and she’s much more reserved.
If I give her a stern enough look, she’ll back off.
But it’s a delicate balance, I don’t want to hurt her feelings.
Another thing that pisses me off is that the rumor mill has already apprised Nora of my past. Now she’s going to wonder if I’m just after a piece of ass, but what she doesn’t know is that when I look at her, she’s so much more than that.
The million-dollar question is, am I going to do anything about it. After last night, I’m afraid I’ve gone past the point of no return. After I got home from dinner, all I could think about was what if even one of those guys goes back to the pub after her shift?
Just the thought made me want to fucking kill them.
When I went back into town and waited for her to get off work, I had no intention of doing any of the things I did.
The plan was just to make sure she was safe and drive her home.
But when I was standing in front of her and she smiled at me, all I could think about was spending as much time with her as I could.
No matter how loud my leg screamed the whole time.
Once my lips touched hers, there was no going back. I want more of her. All of her. I had to keep enough space between us so she wouldn’t feel how fucking hard my dick was, but when her peaked nipples brushed across my chest, I almost lost my load in my pants. Like a goddamn teenager.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise, it’s been over a year since I’ve touched a woman. I’ve went out of my way to avoid women and attachments, but something about Nora makes me forget about all the reasons why.
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” Mason’s ornery voice pulls me out of my thoughts.
Glancing at him, I turn my back and go back to tossing slices of hay into trays. “About how good it would feel to wipe that shit-eating grin off your face.” I avoid looking at him, hoping he’ll leave me alone, but I doubt it will be that easy.
He throws his arms over the top rail of the fence and sets his chin on his forearm. “I’m not a hundred percent certain, but I think you were just staring off into space… smiling. But that can’t be right because you never smile.”
“My stomach hurts, it was just gas.” Maybe taking a page out of my sister’s baby book that says babies only smile because they have gas will work.
“Naah, I know that look, it’s the same look I get during the day that makes me go up to the house and pull my wife into a room that locks. You were thinking about Nora.”
“Was not.”
“Was too.”
Fuck, he’s like a fucking dog with a bone. Stopping what I’m doing, I turn on him. “It’s none of your fucking business what I was thinking about. Don’t you have something to do somewhere else?”
“I’m done for the day, were you so far off in wonderland that you didn’t realize it’s almost dinnertime?”
“I know what fucking time it is.” I don’t really, he’s right, I wasn’t paying attention.
Pulling my leather gloves off, one finger at a time, I toss each one into the empty wheelbarrow and walk past him to the stables.
“Aw, come on, I’m just fuckin’ with ya. It’s okay to like someone, Tuck.
And, you might not believe me, but I like that something in this world can still make you smile.
” He’s hot on my heels and pissing me off.
I love my brother, but his tendency to sometimes act like he’s twelve rubs me the wrong way.
Walking to the grooming stall, I toss my hat onto a shelf full of powders, creams and scrubs. “I like lots of people, so drop it.” Lie. I give him my back and turn the faucet on over the big tub to wash my hands and arms.
He’s quiet behind me for a minute, and as I’m splashing water on my face and neck, I’m hoping he’s left, but no such luck.
He takes a deep breath and lets it out. “She’s not going to think less of you because of your leg.”
Grabbing one of the hand towels from the shelf, I contain my anger as I dry my arms and head.
I sure as fuck am not going to talk about what I can’t do for her because of my leg.
It’s none of his business that I know I’m only half a man, and that’s not good enough for her. She deserves so much more.
When I charged across the pub and grabbed that guy, I wasn’t thinking of who was watching, I wasn’t thinking of much except that someone was touching her and it wasn’t welcome. I couldn’t let that happen.
Somewhere in a deep, twisted part of myself, I don’t want anyone touching her. It makes me a big fucking hypocrite.
Would I have done it different if I had known everyone would see right through me?
No.
Tossing the towel over the bar to dry, I roll my head from one shoulder to the other, stretching the muscles that are bunching tighter with each passing second. Just as I’m about to turn and lay into Mason, I hear Dad’s booming, gravelly voice in the walkway.
“I’ll call Breanna and see if she can come out this week.”
Gray’s growl travels down the walkway after Dad’s voice. “I hate to lose her, she’s been a good damn horse.”
“I know, son, but if she’s in pain, there ain’t no sense in dragging it out.”
“Yeah, I know.”
They appear around the corner and look between Mason and me. Dad’s eyes narrow as they roam over my face and look at my squared shoulders. He hooks his hand over Gray’s shoulder without looking away from me. “You boys go on up to dinner, we’ll be there in a minute.”
My dad might be in his sixties, but he’s still in good shape. My brothers and I got our tall, broad frames from him. He may have been a single dad to all us kids, but he’s been a damn good one.
As Gray and Mason leave the stables, I lean against the tub and hook the heels of my palms on the edge at my sides. Dad leans his shoulder against the door frame.
“You okay, son?”
“I’m fine. Mason’s just being his pushy self.”
“Pushy about what?” He crosses his arms over his chest and settles in.
I know that look, he wants to talk, and he’s not going to take no for an answer.
It’s rare for him to push us into a conversation; he always waits for us to figure it out or come to him on our own. It’s also rare that we tell our dad no.
Sucking in a deep breath and letting it out, I turn my head to look out the window. “He wanted to talk about last night, and I didn’t.”
His head tilts. “The girl?”
Clenching my jaw, I look at the wall across the way. “I swear to fucking God. Which one filled you in?” My question is in regard to my sisters and their talking about me behind my back, but Dad shocks the shit out of me with his answer.
“Opal heard from Marcy at the diner, and she called me this morning.”
Opal is our retired housekeeper who came to live with us after our mom died, she was with us for almost twenty years.
She was a sort of stand-in grandmotherly type while we were growing up.
She moved in with her daughter almost five years ago.
Apparently, she and Dad are still close enough for her to call and confirm rumors.
That means the whole goddamn town is talking.
My head swivels in his direction, and he’s trying to suppress the smile that’s making his lips twitch.
He chuckles as he looks at my angry stare. “What’d you expect, son? Not much happens at Stony’s that don’t make the rounds the next day, and when the war veteran who usually ignores the world takes up for a pretty girl, it’s gonna spread like wildfire.”
There’s not much I can say, but if my jaw clenches any tighter, my molars are going to grind to dust. I’m not sure what I’m more pissed about, the feeling of being under a microscope or the concern about what rumor is going to get back to Nora.
And when they do, will she be angry that I’ve made her a topic of conversation for the whole fucking town?
He watches me for a moment before he hooks his thumbs in his pockets. “You can’t hide out forever, son.”
Cutting my eyes back to the window, I let the silence hang heavy between us for long moments before I respond. “I’m not fit for another person.”
His face twists in anger, and I can feel his eyes boring into me. “Who fucking says?”
The deep-set harshness in his voice surprises me, and my eyes cut back to him. “I’m only half the person I used to be, Dad, you know that.”
He takes a step toward me and lifts his finger to point at my face.
“I don’t want to hear that self-depreciating bullshit again.
You hear me? You’re the same person you’ve always been, and this wound,” he lowers his hand and points at my leg, “is still fresh; you haven’t completely healed yet.
” He pauses and lowers his hand to hook his thumb in his pocket again.
“And anyway, shouldn’t the girl be the one to decide if you’re fit for her? Does she get a say?”
Has he been talking to the damn therapist?