Already Gone

by Kristen Proby

  She runs through the bedroom and toward her room, leaving us grinning after her.

  “So, I guess first up is swimming,” I say with a laugh.

  “How can you resist that?” he agrees. “And the last one in’s a rotten egg, so let’s go.”

  The weekend flew by in a flurry of activity. We ate, relaxed, laughed, and swam. It’s been wonderful. I don’t want it to end.

  “How is it Sunday evening already?” The night is quiet around us. We’re sitting out on the master balcony on plush furniture, with chips and queso as a snack because I got hungry. “Time sure flies when you’re being lazy.”

  “We haven’t been lazy,” Tucker protests with a full mouth. “We’ve been swimming and recording awful songs in your studio for two days.”

  “There’s that,” I agree with a grin. Chloe loved the studio, and we spent all morning today laying down tracks. “With some voice lessons, she might—”

  “Still be tone deaf,” Tucker finishes for me. “She’s my daughter, and I think she’s the most brilliant child on the planet, but even I can admit that she has no future in singing.”

  I’m laughing, holding my sides. “She’s not that bad.”

  Tucker pops another chip into his mouth and stares at me. “Really?”

  “Okay, she’s pretty bad. But she’s great with the guitar.”

  “That I’ll agree with,” he says. “She practices all the time.”

  “It shows. We barely left the house since you arrived.” That’s an understatement. We’ve only been to the grocery store three miles up the road to stock up on more food. “We didn’t go to the Opry, or any of the amazing restaurants, or anything.”

  “We didn’t mind.”

  “Chloe seems to enjoy it here.” God, I’m nervous. Why am I so damn nervous? Oh, yeah, because my very happiness might depend on how this conversation goes. No pressure or anything.

  “She loves it,” he agrees, scraping the last of the queso out of the bowl. “She might have grown gills this weekend, with as much as she was in the pool.”

  “She loves to swim.” I look out over the pool area in question and take a deep breath. “Do you think this is somewhere you might be able to see yourself living?”

  I bite my lip and watch as a frown forms between Tucker’s eyes. He sets the bowl down, swallows the food in his mouth, and licks his lips.

  “I mean, not right away, of course. I know it takes time, and maybe I’m jumping the gun a bit.”

  “No.”

  I blink rapidly. “No?”

  He clears his throat and shakes his head. “I couldn’t live here.”

  “Couldn’t, or wouldn’t?”

  “Both. We can’t move to Nashville, Scar. My job, Chloe’s school, our family is in New Hope.”

  “Right.” I nod, still blinking, but now trying to keep tears at bay. “Of course. Besides, we’ve never really said this thing between us is going anywhere.”

  “Stop talking,” he says with frustration. “I’m not telling you that we aren’t going to be together, or that I’m not thinking about the long-term with you. Do you think I throw the L word around to everyone?”

  “No, I—”

  “But it’s not as easy as Chloe and I just packing up the house and relocating. It’s not that simple.”

  “I understand that.” I nervously pluck at a loose thread on my chair. “I do. It’s just…I’m based out of here. I have dozens of people who rely on me, and my career isn’t something I can just pick up and move.”

  “I understand that, too, and I would never ask you to give it up.”

  “So, it’s impossible,” I whisper. “I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

  “Hey, the Scarlett I know isn’t this dramatic.”

  I stare at him in horror. “Are you fucking kidding me? We basically just decided that our relationship won’t work, and you’re calling me dramatic?”

  “Who said our relationship won’t work? I didn’t say that.”

  “Oh, for the love of Moses.” I stand and walk into my bedroom. “I’m done discussing this.”

  “You brought it up.”

  “And I’m dropping it,” I reply coldly. “Because the alternative to you moving here is us being fuck-buddies on the rare occasion I get to New Hope, and I’m not going to insult either of us by insinuating that that’s what you meant.”

  “Now you’re just pissing me off.”

  “Thanks for catching up to the conversation at hand.” I plant my hands on my hips and frown at him. “And thanks for being so willing to compromise. It’s the foundation of a functional relationship, after all.”

  “Scar, everything Chloe and I know is in South Carolina. She’s in school there, with friends and a whole community that loves her.”

  “Nashville has schools,” I inform him. “And it’s not like I’m suggesting we never go back to New Hope again. I know I don’t get home often—”

  “Or ever.”

  “I’ll buy a private plane for God’s sake, and we can fly over any time.”

  “I don’t have a solution,” he says, holding his hands out to his sides. “I know that I don’t want to lose you. And I also know that Nashville isn’t the answer for me.”

  “So, I’m the only one who should bend here because I’m not a mother, and I have money.” I nod, feeling hurt all the way to my soul. “I guess it’s good to know now what your expectations are.”

  “I don’t have any fucking expectations,” he growls.

  “Well, I do. I expect you to consider the whole picture and come into a conversation with an open mind.”

  “I’m not the only one unwilling to bend. You just said your life is here and you can’t pick up and move. Why aren’t you compromising, Scarlett?”

  “There is nothing productive about this conversation.”

  “Agreed.”

  I’m breathing hard with anger and disappointment. Sadness. Frustration. “The other guest suite is down the hall.”

  “You’re kicking me out because you didn’t get the answer you wanted?”

  “I’m kicking you out because I’m mad at you.”

  Tucker shakes his head and blows out a breath. “I guess you’ll know where to find me then.”

  He turns on his heel and stalks out the door, closing it firmly behind him.

  I’ve ruined everything. I just had to share my home with Tucker and Chloe. I wanted them to see where I live.

  I wanted them to just shift right into place, into my life, without any hiccups.

  “I’m an idiot,” I mutter and turn to the bathroom. I need a hot shower, and I need to let go of some of this angry energy.

  17

  ~ Tucker ~

  “Damn it.” I grab the pillow and flip to my side. When I can’t get comfortable, I flop onto my back and stare up at the ceiling.

  I’ve been tossing and turning for nearly three hours. It’s well after midnight, and I should’ve spent the night making love to Scarlett, but here I am, brooding over our fight.

  Normally, I’d be quick to concede because I don’t like to fight, and I sure as hell don’t want the woman I’m in love with mad at me, but I don’t feel like I’m wrong in this situation. Scarlett wants me to bend, but she isn’t willing to give me the same courtesy. And, okay, maybe I was a little harsh and quick to shut her down, but we’ve only been together for a short time. She left me once already, and who’s to say she won’t do it again? And how awful would it be for that to happen after I’ve shifted around my entire life to accommodate hers?

  It would be fucking horrible.

  I’ve given her my heart, but that doesn’t mean I fully trust her with it.

  But what’s the alternative? Living a life without Scarlett? That’s not something I want to even consider. Over the last several weeks, she’s grown to mean so much to me. Our childhood friendship compounded into a love that I never thought I could feel for another human being. Aside from Chloe, of course.

  If you
love her that much, then why are you in this big-ass bed alone?

  As much as I don’t want to crawl back to her with my tail between my legs, I’m also not willing to leave things the way they are. We’ve come too far to let one little argument ruin what we’ve built.

  I fling the covers off and stand up. I pull on a pair of sweats and open the door only to crash into a soft, warm body.

  My hands reach out, and I grab her arms, slowing my momentum in an attempt to keep us from falling over. “Scarlett? Sorry, baby, I didn’t mean to plow you over.”

  “That’s okay,” she says softly. “Where were you going in such a hurry?”

  I drag my fingers through my hair. “I was coming to you.”

  “You were?” She sounds hopeful, and I hate that I can’t see her expression.

  I pull Scarlett into my room and flick on the bedside lamp, illuminating her beautiful face. Her eyes are glossy, and her cheeks are red, and I’ll be damned if that doesn’t make me feel like even more of an ass.

  “Have you been crying?”

  She shrugs and pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t like fighting with you. When you walked away, everything felt so final and…” Her words trail off, and she shakes her head as though she doesn’t know what else to say.

  “Damn, sweetheart, you could bring a man to his knees.” I pull her into my arms and press my lips to the side of her head. “Scarlett, we are going to fight. There are going to be times when we need to take a step back and catch our breath, but we will never be over. I love you, and there’s no way in hell I will let an argument like that come between us.”

  “I was coming for you.”

  “Huh?” I say, pushing a chunk of hair behind her ear.

  “That’s why I was standing outside your door. I couldn’t take it anymore. After having you in my bed for the last few nights, I couldn’t stand being in there alone. It just felt wrong, and I didn’t know where we stood, and I hated that. I love you, Tuck, and I’m sorry I bombarded you with all of that.”

  “Don’t be sorry. You said what was on your mind, and that’s something I’ve always loved about you. You’re honest to a fault, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And I’m sorry, too.”

  “So, where do we go from here?”

  I lay back on the bed and pull her down beside me. She curls into my side and rests her head on my chest. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to give this up. When I tell you I love you, I mean it. You’re in my heart, and I have no plans of that changing. Ever.”

  “I feel the same way. But how are we going to make this work? If neither of us is willing to compromise, how do we move forward?”

  “We make a choice to stay together,” I say, skimming my fingers up and down her arm. “We make a choice to work it out. That doesn’t mean we have to have all the answers right now. As our relationship grows, those things will become clearer. But for now, I think we simply make the choice to stick it out.”

  Scarlett props her chin on my chest so she can look at me. “You’re right. We’ve known each other forever, but our romantic relationship is still new. Why push it?”

  “Exactly. Right now, I can’t commit to uprooting my life, and I know that your career will take you away from me, so we’ll work on things one day and one situation at a time.”

  “Okay,” she says, sounding pleased. “But one of these days, we’ll have to revisit the topic, because we can’t live like that forever.”

  “When that time comes, we’ll sit down and have an adult conversation about how to move our relationship forward. Until then, we keep enjoying each other and let things progress naturally.”

  Her eyes twinkle. “And we keep having sex. Because the sex is great.”

  In less than a second, I have Scarlett pinned beneath me. “Of course, there will be sex. We might suck at compromising, but we’re really good at sex.”

  “You mean more to me than that,” she whispers, pulling her hands down my back.

  “I know.” I kiss her softly—once, twice, and a third time. “I hated being in this room without you tonight.”

  “Me, too. My bed was cold, and it felt empty. It was awful.”

  “Let’s never do that again, okay? From now on, we work our shit out before it gets that far.”

  “Deal.”

  “And while we’re on the subject of beds, I want you in mine.”

  “I am in yours.” Scarlett rubs her soft body against mine. “Well, technically, it’s my bed, but I gave it to you for the night.”

  “What I meant is that I want you in my bed for the remainder of your time in New Hope.”

  Scarlett blinks, her lips forming the perfect little O. “I just assumed that I’d stay with my dad until it was time to leave.”

  “And you can, if that’s what you want to do, but I’d really like you with me. You said that Rick was cleared, and he’s been by himself all weekend and has done fine.”

  Finally, Scarlett smiles. “You’re right. And I’ll still be super close in case he needs me.”

  “So, you’ll stay with me?”

  Scarlett pushes her fingers into my hair, palms the back of my head, and pulls me to her. “Yes, I’ll stay with you.”

  “Can I please have a dog for my birthday?” Chloe curls her hands under her chin and begs me with her big, brown eyes. “Please, please, please.”

  “Chloe, you know we can’t have a dog.”

  “But I’ll have all summer to work on potty-training, and I’ll teach it to learn different commands. I promise I’ll take care of it all by myself.”

  “That’s not why I’m saying no. We just don’t have time. Maybe one of these days, but not right now.”

  Chloe gives me the stink-eye and sulks out of the room.

  “When is Chloe’s birthday?” Scarlett says, walking into the living room from the kitchen.

  “In two weeks.”

  “I had no idea! Why didn’t you tell me her birthday is coming up?”

  “We’ve been so busy, and I never thought about it.”

  Scarlett rubs her hands together and gets a twinkle in her eye. “So, what are we getting her?”

  “We?” I pull her onto my lap and press my lips to her ear. “I like the sound of that. And we are getting her a dog,” I whisper.

  “What?” Scarlett pulls back, a giant grin on her face. “But you just said—”

  “I know what I said,” I say, pressing a finger to my lips so she’ll keep quiet. Chloe has been asking for a dog for years, but the timing has never been right. I think we’re finally ready to make the commitment now that she’s old enough to take on the responsibility. “It’s going to be a surprise. The local shelter has some puppies that will be ready for their forever home by the time her birthday rolls around.”

  “Are you going to give it to her at her birthday party?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it yet.”

  “What’re you doing for her party? What’s the theme?”

  “Theme?” I shake my head. “There is no theme. My parents, Dean, and Scooter will come over for a BBQ. Rick usually finds his way over, too. And you…I’m hoping you’ll be here this year.”

  Scarlett nods and wraps her arms around my neck. “Of course, I’ll be here. I don’t have to go back for another month. But, Tucker, come on, she’s turning twelve. You have to throw her a party.”

  “No, I don’t. Chloe has never really had a big birthday party with friends.”

  Scarlett looks appalled. “That’s all the more reason to throw her one now.”

  “I don’t know.” I scratch my head and think about it. “I’m a little short on time. Maybe next year.”

  “There’s plenty of time! Let me plan it.”

  “I can’t ask you to do that.”

  “You’re not asking, I’m offering. I love Chloe, and I would love nothing more than to throw her a party she won’t forget. Plus, I have mad party-planning skills.”

  How
do I tell Scarlett no? She looks so darn excited, and it makes me happy that she wants to do this for Chloe. “Fine, but we have to agree on a price limit.”

  “There is no price limit.”

  “Scarlett, I’m not loaded.”

  “You’re not, but I am. And before you even say it, you are not paying for a penny of this party. Consider it my gift to her,” she says, ending her rant with a heated kiss to my lips.

  Whatever rebuttal I was building up in my head dissipates when she slides her tongue into my mouth.

  “Okay, this is really starting to get old,” Chloe says.

  Scarlett’s cheeks turn a deep pink as she slides off my lap.

  Chloe just shakes her head and walks out of the room.

  “I’m going to get started on the planning,” Scarlett whispers.

  I barely see her for the next three days. She’s on the phone, traveling from venue to venue, all the while keeping things very tight-lipped. When she said she was a mad party planner, she wasn’t joking.

  Finally, at the end of the week, after a long shift at work, Scarlett pulls me into the bedroom and hands me a file folder.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s all the information on Chloe’s party. Everything is detailed down to the napkins.”

  “Napkins? She isn’t getting married, Scarlett.”

  Scarlett rolls her eyes. “Don’t worry, they’re paper napkins. But they’re super cute and match the rose gold color scheme perfectly. Go ahead, open it, let me know what you think.”

  I take a breath and open the file folder as I sit on the edge of the bed. Scarlett paces the length of my room as my eyes scan the pages, reading about everything from invitations, to a catered meal full of every kid’s favorite foods, to party favors, and of course, napkins. She even hired a DJ. After reading every last word, I set the folder aside and pull Scarlett between my legs.

  With my hands cupped to the back of her thighs, I look up at her. “You rented out the local water complex.”

  “I know!” Scarlett squeals, dancing a little jig. “Chloe and everyone in her class will have three hours of private access to the pool, all three water slides, and the splash pad. And do you know what’s even better than having a pool party?”