Page 45 of Reckless With You
Oh, good. This wasn’t awkward at all.
“You’re here. Good. Want to come into the kitchen for a minute?” Devin asked, throwing his thumb over his shoulder. “Got a question for you, Tucker.”
“Yep, we’re here. And we brought potato salad.”
I held up the dish I had grabbed on the way out and tried to smile.
“I made it myself. I promise it isn’t store-bought this time.”
“I told you that you didn’t need to bring anything,” Erin said.
She grinned but took the dish from me. “I mean, I already made everything for the sides. Especially since it’s winter and we’re not actually going to barbecue.”
“I will have you know that I can go out there shirtless in jeans right now, woman.” Devin slapped her on the ass, and she glared over her shoulder at him. I rolled my eyes, laughing.
And then Tucker stepped all the way into the house, right up to my side. And the room got quiet again. Good. This wasn’t going to be awkward at all. Why was I doing this again? Oh, yeah, I didn’t actually have a good reason.
“I’m just going to get this out of the way. You hurt her, I’ll kick your ass. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I promised her I would stop getting in the way of her dates a long time ago. That’s why I never filleted Tobey like I wanted to.”
“Devin,” I growled.
“What? Dimitri’s not here. Therefore, I am the eldest, and therefore, I can do this.”
“I’m here, too,” Caleb growled, taking a sip of his beer. “And I really want to see what happens. This is going to be fun, isn’t it?” He gave me a weird look that I couldn’t really decipher, and I winced.
“Let’s just forget it. We’re here to eat and have fun. Tucker’s been to tons of these things. Nothing’s different.”
“Sure. Whatever you say.” Devin stormed off, and I had no idea if he was angry at me, Tucker, or someone else.
“I’m going to go follow him,” Tucker said quickly.
“You don’t have to,” I whispered.
“Yeah, I do. You can come with if you want, Caleb.”
“I think I will,” Caleb said, tipping his beer in Zoey’s direction. She flipped him off. Well, tonight was going to be interesting.
“So, how did that go?” Erin asked, wincing.
“About as bad as it could.”
“No, it could have been worse,” Zoey said. “Tobey could have shown up.” She smiled as she said it, and I knew she was trying to make things a bit more normal, and I was grateful for it.
Because Tobey had been a big part of all of our lives, and he wasn’t here now. I didn’t know what that meant. But Tuckerwashere. And I was fine. Everything would be fine.
Dinner actually went reasonably well, everybody pretty much ignoring the massive elephant in the room. Whether the elephant was Tucker and me, or Tobey and me, I didn’t know. Maybe it was a herd of elephants, all quietly stampeding around.
By the time we finished dinner and everybody was cleaning up, I found myself alone at the sink with Caleb. “I know you’re lying, baby girl. But I get it. Just don’t get hurt. And don’t hurt him.”
My eyes widened, and I looked over at him.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, my pulse racing.
“I’ve always been able to tell when you’re lying. Mostly to get out of little things when we were younger. Devin and Dimitri weren’t as good as that. But I was more of a hell-raiser than you were. So, I understand. I figure you need some time where nobody’s making you feel bad about Tobey, and that’s okay. Don’t fuck each other over when you’re trying to figure out what you want, though. All right?”
I nodded, swallowing hard as I kept my eyes on my dishes. I didn’t want to hurt Tucker. He was so strong and good at hiding things that sometimes I forgot that he’d been hurt as a kid. I should end this now. Only I didn’t know how.
I shouldn’t have opened my mouth at all with the girls and Jace. I should have told everyone that I was fine. But I had tried that before, and it hadn’t worked.