Page 55 of Reckless With You

I don’t know why that was a little disappointing to hear, but I’d already known that. “Because of what happened with your parents?”

“Maybe. Yeah. I don’t want the whole commitment thing and making a new family. It made a lot more sense when I was younger, and I put that label on myself. Now, I guess it’s habit for me. I like my life. I like the family I’ve made. I like my friends. I don’t need anything more.”

I didn’t have time to delve into that or think about exactly what he meant because I looked behind him, and my eyes went wide. I swallowed hard, and Tucker frowned, turning around so he could see what I was looking at.

“Ah, well, we knew he liked the place.”

Erin and Devin waved from their table. Erin smiled widely, while my brother only smiled a little. He didn’t look too angry, though. He looked resigned. And maybe a little…hopeful?

My stomach clenched, and I suddenly wasn’t hungry for dinner anymore.

“I guess this is a fake date again,” Tucker said, disappointment in his tone. It seemed we weren’t very good at this thing.

“Yeah. Sorry about that.”

He scooted over in the booth, put his arm around my shoulder, and then kissed my temple. “It’s fine. We’ll just do what we were. Nothing needs to change.”

I looked up at him then and nodded, trying to smile. “Yeah. Nothing needs to change.”

But I had a feeling everything was going to shift. And I really wasn’t good at change.

We finished our dinner, Devin and Erin giving us space and not coming over to say hi. They were on a date as well, so I didn’t feel too bad about that. They wanted space for themselves, considering they worked far too hard and rarely had time for each other beyond stolen moments. I had a feeling that Devin didn’t really know what to do about Tucker and me, just like we didn’t know what to do about him, so we gave each other space. But it wasn’t a real date anyway. It was a fake one.

And why did I hate that so much?

“Okay, that was one fake date on the table,” Tucker said as we headed down the path to his house. I was dropping him off, but I wanted to walk him to his door. After all, I had been the one to pick him up. I might as well continue the weird night.

“Yeah. Sorry about that. I really just wanted us to be two friends at dinner.”

He frowned, turning in front of me to cup my face. “We were two friends at dinner. No matter what labels we put on each other or this thing we’re doing, regardless of what happens next, we were two friends then, and we’re two friends now. That’s not going to change, Amelia. I hope you get that.”

There was such intensity in his gaze and in his words that I froze, my mouth going dry.

“I don’t want it to change,” I whispered. “I like what we are.”

But the thing was, we’d already changed things. We were different than the people we’d been before I made this arrangement. And before Tucker started coming over to make sure I was okay. Everything was different. And while I didn’t particularly like change, I kind of liked this. I wanted more of it. And that scared me.

Before I could think about that more, though, before I could run away or try to forget all of it, Tucker was looking into my eyes, and I could hardly breathe.

“I think you owe me a payment,” he said, his voice a low growl.

“Oh, I guess I do,” I whispered, my voice breathy. My thighs clenched, and my stomach turned, but I looked up at him, and I couldn’t help but want more.

And when his lips were on mine, his hands still on my face, I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him closer.

He groaned into my mouth, tasting a little like beer, a bit of sweetness from the meal, and a whole lot like Tucker.

He kissed me, and I wanted more.

For someone who made mistake after mistake, that should worry me.

But with Tucker’s heat next to me, his mouth on mine, I really couldn’t care less.

Chapter 12

Tucker

I knewI should move away.