by Leslie North
“Listen.” He put a hand on her shoulder. Woah—she was burning up. He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, where he found that the fever was even worse. Avery blinked up at him, hardly seeming to register what he was doing. “Why don’t you get back into bed? I’ll handle the chores.”
“I’ll help you.” Shanna’s voice came from the hallway, where she’d already pulled on her boots and hat. “I’m ready to go. Are you sick, Mom?”
“I’m—” Avery felt her own forehead. A flare of resistance came into her eyes, but left just as quickly. “I think so.” She coughed again, the sound so pathetic it made Tucker’s chest ache. “I’m going back to bed.”
“Good. You need help?” Tucker steadied her with a hand on her elbow.
Avery shook him off. “I’m okay. I’m fine.”
She trailed out of the kitchen, and he and Shanna headed outside to do the chores. Tucker couldn’t stop thinking about Avery. Had she made it upstairs? Tucker cursed himself for being so unbalanced by all that had happened—he should have gone with her, made sure, and that she had water. He’d have to check when they got back in. They made their way to the barn, where Shanna couldn’t resist giving him the rundown.
“My mom has big plans for this place,” she told him while they fed the animals. “She’s going to keep the bigger animals in the barn, but she’s going to do a lot of mobile stuff, too. Like house calls.”
That had been a specialty of Doc’s. They chatted about the old doctor while they fed the animals and cleaned out the stalls. Shanna even helped him shovel the paths. Then the two of them headed back inside.
“You want to see something else?” Shanna’s eyebrows raised, gleam in her eyes. “Come look at this.”
Tucker followed her to the front of the house, where a separate doorway led to another section of the first floor. Shanna pushed open the door. “See? Her new office.”
He stepped inside the old office space that Doc had rarely used.
It was a mess. Equipment and papers covered every available surface, and boxes full of things she clearly hadn’t gotten around to unpacking. The whole place needed work. Ancient wood paneling covered the walls. The space itself was big enough for a veterinarian to use, but not like this.
“It’s going to be great,” Shanna said from behind him. “Mom was hoping it would be in better condition when we moved in, but she’ll get around to it.”
“Has she ever—has she ever had anybody to help with this kind of thing? Was your dad ever in the picture?”
Shanna shrugged, then stepped around him to usher them both out of the office. “My mom doesn’t talk about him much. He’s never been in our lives. I think—” She screwed up her nose. “I think she met someone when she was in college.” Her gaze drifted away from his. “I’ve never met him.”
“Wow, all right.” He felt like he was standing uncomfortably close to a precipice, and losing balance fast.
“I’m going to make a sandwich.” Shanna was halfway down the hall before she thought to say anything else. “Want one?”
“I’m going to go check on your mom. I’ll be back in a minute, okay?”
He fought back his jealousy while he made his way up the stairs. Tucker had no standing to be jealous of the mystery man Avery had been with in college, but the silver lining was that College Man had left her. That gave him a chance to make right whatever had gone wrong between them. Even if they didn’t get back together, he could clear the air. He just had to clear the fog from his own brain first. Another horrifying thought broke through—what if he already had a girlfriend?
Those thoughts were chased from his mind by the sight of Avery in her bed, peeking out at him from under the covers.
“You all right?”
“No,” she croaked, and coughed some more.
Tucker took a chance and went into the bedroom. He crouched down by the bed without touching it. “It sounds like you might have the flu. But you don’t have to worry. I’ll handle things here.”
“No, you won’t.”
Avery tried weakly to get out of the bed, but he put his hand on her shoulder and eased her back down. “Rest. Everything’s going fine. We’ve got the chores done, and I can get dinner on the table.”
Avery was already closing her eyes, which made him worry about her even more. “Fine.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
Tucker thought about her relentlessly through the afternoon and evening. He thought about her as he and Shanna played games and joked about Animorphs. He thought about her while he discovered, to his shock, that he liked the domesticity of being in the house with Avery and Shanna. He thought about her while he read one of the Animorphs books with Shanna before bed, and while he closed the door gently behind him.
Avery was still burning up.
He fetched her some Tylenol from the first-aid kit in the guest bathroom. From the feel of it, Avery’s fever was high enough to be concerning, but not an emergency. She turned over after the Tylenol and fell immediately back to sleep. But someone should stay and make sure she was all right. Tucker pulled up a chair by the bed. He’d dozed in plenty of uncomfortable situations before—not that he could remember the details, only the feeling—but eventually the hard chair started to bother his back. He sat up against the headboard of Avery’s bed, being careful not to touch her. And then sleep carried him away.
He woke to a sound.
A gasp.
Tucker wrenched his eyes open to find Shanna staring at him, a tray in her hands. And then he felt the weight of a woman in his arms—Avery, snoozing against his chest. Her fever had broken in the night.
What should he say? All the words he’d ever known flew right out of his brain.
“Are you going to be moving in?” Shanna blurted out.
At that moment, Avery stirred in his arms. She pushed herself away from him, her mouth open in horror.
“Shanna, can you give us a minute?” Her voice was hoarse. “Just a minute, honey.”
Shanna crept forward and put the tray at the foot of the bed. “Sure, Mom,” she squeaked. Then she was gone, the door banging against the frame.
Tucker couldn’t think of anything to do, anything that would make this less awkward, so he picked up a slice of bacon and ate it. It was perfectly crispy. Avery threw herself out of bed and ran a hand over her hair, staring at him.
“Tucker, what—what happened? Why are you in here?”
She looked better than she had the previous day, and relief took some of the weight from his shoulders.
“You were pretty sick last night. I tried to sit up in the chair to make sure the medicine was working, but eventually it bothered my back. I thought I’d just sit on the bed. I know.” He held his hands up in the air. “It probably wasn’t the smartest choice. But I needed to know you’d be okay.”
Avery glanced at the door. “Did we have sex?”
“Would it be a problem if we did? We’re both single.” He grimaced. “We are both single, aren’t we?”
Avery lifted her chin. “I don’t know, since I don’t keep tabs on you. I’m single. You? It’s anyone’s guess.”
She wouldn’t meet his eyes. Very suspicious. It was a good a sign as any that Avery was lying. If he’d had a girlfriend, she’d have told him before she put him up in the guest bedroom. In a place like Benton Ridge, everybody knew everybody. No matter how recently she’d arrived, she’d have heard the town gossip long before he showed up on her doorstep.
Avery turned away and began digging through her dresser drawers. Tucker took the hint. Five minutes later, they both met again on the landing.
“After you.” He let her pass him with a flourish, a wild excitement running rampant through his chest. The morning could have gone better. But it also could have gone worse.
They met Shanna in the kitchen. The girl bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.
“Hey, Mom.” Her voice was bright and clear, brimming with excitement. “The l
andline is working again.”
“That’s good news.” Tucker pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’d better go try to make a call. I’ll let you know if the cell service is back, too.”
It was. His text to Cade had gone through, but Cade hadn’t texted him back. His brother answered on the first ring.
“Where you been, Tucker? I was glad to get your text. We were worried sick. We got the cows back into the barn, but you were nowhere to be found, and we couldn’t get very far from the house to search for you.” A note of regret tinged his brother’s voice. “I’m sorry, Tuck. We tried looking. But where are you?”
He looked out of the window of Doc’s old farmhouse. Snow covered the hills and pastures as far as he could see. The ridge hid the Wells Ranch from him. “Well, I’m across the road. At Avery’s. She bought Doc’s old place and took over the business.”
A stunned silence took over the line.
“She let you in?”
Tucker’s stomach sank. A small part of him had thought it might not have been so bad between them after high school. But the shock in Cade’s voice said otherwise.
“Yeah. Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ll be home soon. She’s not feeling too well, so I’m helping out around here.”
“Wow. Wow, Tuck. I really didn’t think—”
“Gotta go,” he said loudly, and then tromped back down to the kitchen. Avery sat at the table, her head tipped back and eyes closed. His heart softened and ached—for the sight of her sick and for whatever it was that had split them up. “Hey.”
She opened her eyes and looked at him. “I heard you talking. Is cell service back?”
“Yeah.” Tucker took the seat next to her. “You feeling all right?” Avery’s skin was flushed again. She coughed a low, rumbling cough.
“I’m tired.” Avery made a face. “I guess I might have to rest for more than one day.”
He took a deep breath, the need to talk to her filling him with a strange pressure. “Where’s Shanna?”
“Outside, playing.”
Tucker looked Avery in the eye. Don’t say anything. Just let her recover.
She looked back at him.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it,” he burst out. “About our breakup. There must have been some misunderstanding.”
Avery held up a hand. “No, Tucker. I’m tired, I don’t feel well, and I’m not going to rehash it again.”
“I’m sorry.” He rubbed both hands over his face. “I made a mistake all those years ago. I should have stayed with you.”
“Well, I went to college anyway.” She shrugged, her hands playing with the fringe on the woven placemat. “I was better off without you.”
Ouch. “I’m sure I never stopped loving you.” He got the words out around a bruise-like pain in his heart, like they were breaking up all over again. “I’m sure of it.”
Avery stood, looking down at him with a stone-cold set to her lips. “You had a funny way of showing it.” She left the kitchen without looking back.
6
Avery had no idea what to do.
For one thing, the refreshed feeling she’d woken up with was already gone—the headache creeping back in and the cough coming and going. She crawled back into her bed upstairs. And, of course, she could smell Tucker on the pillow. She pressed her face into the cloth and took a big inhale. He’d always smelled so good to her, and now he was all over the sheets. Only she was too tired to get up and change them.
Part of her wanted to march downstairs and tell him the truth: that Shanna was his.
Another part of her wanted to march downstairs and tell him to get out of her house.
But she just pulled the covers up and tried to breathe.
Avery’s cell rang on the bedside table and she picked it up without looking at it. “Hello?”
“Hi, honey. I’ve been trying to call.” Her mother, Annie. “You socked in out at your house, too?” Avery’s parents lived in a little house near Benton Ridge’s downtown area. Her mom had worked in the bookstore there for years, and now in her retirement she spent her time making the rounds to the yoga studio and the coffee shop pretty much every day. “The city’s got the sidewalks around here clear, but I haven’t braved it yet. Too risky on the ice.”
“Hi, Mom.” Avery curled up on her side. “Yeah, we’re pretty well stuck here until the snow lets up.”
Her mom must’ve heard something in her voice. “Is that all?”
She didn’t have to tell anyone that Tucker was staying, but keeping one secret all these years had drained her energy for that sort of thing. Just tell her, she thought. Who cares? “We actually have a guest with us. Tucker Wells showed up just as the storm was hitting. He fell off his horse.” Avery gave her mom a quick rundown of the situation. She was greeted with silence.
“Mom? Are you still there?”
“You should send him packing. Tell him to get on out of there.”
“We’ll see what happens.” She shifted under the covers. “Are you and Dad okay? I’m also probably down with the flu.” The urge to cough got stronger with every word.
“Oh, no. Do you need us to come out? We can see how the car does on the roads.”
“No, I’ll be okay. We’ll all be okay. I’ll call you later, Mom.”
Her mom was still talking when she hung up the phone. Better to interrupt her than hack up a lung over the line, anyway.
When Avery’s cough settled, she let herself fall back against the pillows. She should send Tucker back home. For her heart’s sake, she shouldn’t have let him in the house at all. But what was done was done. And…though she’d never admit it to her mother, she liked having him around. She liked it more than she expected. Right now, she could hear him moving around in the kitchen. No doubt he’d find something to cook.
But it wasn’t just the food. It was the company. He’d taken care of her last night, and knowing that someone was downstairs with Shanna…
It was good.
And anyway, she couldn’t send him off on his horse with a concussion. Not in good conscience. No matter what had happened between them all those years ago.
Avery dozed on and off through the morning and the afternoon. She felt good enough to shower. “More snow,” she said to nobody, looking out of the bathroom window. It was coming down again.
The three of them ate a subdued dinner together. Tucker had thrown together some chicken soup earlier in the day, and Avery didn’t know how much she needed it until she swallowed the first spoonful. It seemed to revitalize her a little more with every salty, savory bite. Shanna and Tucker did the dishes afterward while she rested at the table. Not long after, Shanna said she wanted to go to bed.
Avery didn’t question it until they were tucked up together beneath the sheets. Shanna pulled out one of the Animorphs books she’d checked out from the school library and put it solemnly in Avery’s hands.
“Wait. It’s still early. Are you sure you want to go to bed?”
Shanna nodded furiously. “I do. Should I make you both breakfast tomorrow morning?” Avery’s daughter bit her lip.
Heat flashed across Avery’s cheeks. She cleared her throat and primly pulled the book into position. “All right. Let’s read.” Avery read one of the chapters, hardly seeing the words even as she said them. As soon as she finished, Shanna wriggled down into the bed and squeezed her eyes shut tight.
“You’re funny.” Avery kissed her on the temple. “I love you. I’ll see you in the morning.”
When she straightened up from tucking Shanna in, she caught a glimpse of Tucker in the hallway, a wistful look on his face.
Avery flicked off the light in Shanna’s room. No way she wanted to know what that look was about. But out in the hall, she found herself drawn to him.
“Are you coming down?” He kept his voice soft.
“Yeah.” She followed him toward the stairs. “I’ve been in bed all day. I need to stretch my legs.” And look at you. She wiped that thought fro
m her mind as quickly as it came.
They settled in the living room, snow coming down in thick sheets outside. Tucker said nothing, but he still wore the same expression.
Avery decided to wait him out.
It didn’t last.
“What’s on your mind, Tuck?”
His green eyes locked on hers from where he sat in the overstuffed recliner. For a second, she was back in high school, looking at those eyes from across their English class, her stomach doing the same exhilarated leap at the sight of him. That’s not how things are anymore, she thought, but in a way…weren’t they?
“I was thinking I could have had thousands of nights like this if I hadn’t taken the job.” Tucker leaned forward, his flannel shirt stretching over his biceps. “If I hadn’t run away.”
Guilt washed over her, heightening that exhilarating feeling and turning it into something sharp and painful. She didn’t have to tell Tucker that he was the father, but with him sitting right here, so close to her…
“There’s something I have to say.” Avery sat up straight, Tucker’s eyes following the movement. The secret she’d been keeping for all those years burst onto the tip of her tongue, and finally, finally, she could let it out. “Shanna—she’s yours.” No, that was wrong, wrong in a way she couldn’t articulate. It wasn’t accurate enough. “You’re her father.”
Tucker stared at her, face blank. The silence expanded until it felt like it would push the walls of the house down.
“What?” he whispered.
“I found out I was pregnant right before you left.” The relief in Avery’s veins was chased down by a new turmoil. This was the hard part—she’d always known it would be, if she ever told Tucker the truth. It wasn’t just getting the facts out. It was dealing with the fallout, too.
His face went red, and Tucker stood slowly from his seat, then paced to the front window. He covered his mouth with one hand. Avery thought she might be sick. He turned around and met her eyes, searching her face like he was looking for the real truth.
“You knew, and you didn’t tell me?” A tight undercurrent of anger sharpened his voice.
