by Holly Jaymes
“I doubt it will be the same.”
“It won’t,” he said, as he rubbed his hands up and down my back. “I never thought I’d be annoyed that football was taking me away from something.”
I looked at him as his words made my chest fill with emotion. It wasn’t a declaration of love, but the idea that our time together was elevated above football was close. For a moment, I thought about how my mother wanted me to move back to Los Angeles and get a corporate job. Would I do that to be with him? Maybe. The idea that I even considered it was proof that I was madly in love with this man.
If I told my mother I was coming back for a man, she’d probably tell me to stay put. Especially if that man was Tucker. But he wasn’t the man everyone thought he was. That I knew for sure. Even so, I had to consider that part of what made us so special was that we had our secret lives together. Once we were back in our real worlds, things could change. He’d be back in his usual environment, too busy in his life to think about me or Eden Lake. Until his brother’s wedding, he hadn’t been home for a long time. He had no reason to either, until the wedding and Mason’s training. Would I be enough to keep him coming back once he was in his usual world?
Not wanting to think on it, I kissed him. “You made me hungry. Want dinner?”
We cooked together. As we ate, I wondered if I should tell him about how the ladies at my retreat had seen the pictures that I’d taken of him posing for me. They’d even seen the one I’d taken secretly the morning I’d found him naked stretching on my deck.
I decided there was no reason to. It might upset or worry him, for no reason. They were all artists who understood that the pictures were of an artistic nature and only for me in my work.
Instead, I just focused on the here and now. Right here, right now, I had Tucker McLean all to myself.
Chapter 19: Betrayed
Tucker
It was just after the Fourth of July, which I spent participating in city events with my brother and Willa, and in the evening, I watched fireworks over the lake at Emma’s. I had a week to go before returning to training camp.
I loved football. I wanted to continue to get paid to play it. But I hated the idea of not seeing Emma every day. It was a cloying in my gut that had me trying to figure out ways to keep her near me. The only solution was to marry her and even that wouldn’t work unless she agreed to move to L.A. with me. Eden Lake was just far enough away from L.A. that I couldn’t live there and still do my job.
Wait? I stopped mid-sip of my coffee on my condo’s balcony as I realized I’d just thought about marrying Emma. I’d never thought about marrying before. But as I thought about my life, what I wanted more than anything was to play football by day and have Emma in my arms at night.
Today was a rest day, which meant I didn’t have to train with Mason. I’d left Emma’s house in the wee hours of the morning and slept in some. After my coffee, I’d think about taking a hike and research more on buying the resort and possibly the warehouse near the train tracks.
What I wasn’t going to do was check my phone for emails, texts or voicemails from my agent. I knew from the notification that I had few, but I believed that a rest for my body included a rest for my emotional wellbeing.
I was putting my coffee cup in the sink when there was a knock, actually it was more like a pounding, on the door.
I checked the peephole and saw a very annoyed Mason on the other side.
“Mason?” I said, concerned as he scowled at me.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I jerked away. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I tossed back.
He pushed his way in, shutting the door behind him. “All you had to do was not drink, not fuck, and not get your ass all over social media.”
Did he know about me and Emma? So what if he did? He was my brother. Surely, he wanted me to be happy.
I lifted my hands to the side. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He looked at me like I’d grown a third eye. “If you responded to your agent, you would.”
“It’s my day off.” I studied him, wondering what had made him so mad. “What’s going on, Mason?”
“You really don’t know?”
“I really don’t know.”
His jaw clenched as he pulled out his phone. “This is on TMZ.”
I looked at his screen and my stomach dropped. There I was, in all my naked glory by the lake at Emma’s place. There were two pictures, one I remember from the night she had me pose. The other, I didn’t remember taking, but I recognized her deck. Because it looked like the morning time, it had to be the night I stayed before the cabin clean up.
“What the fuck,” I said, confused as hell.
“That’s my question. What is this?”
I looked at him. “What are they saying it is?”
“What does it matter? It’s you naked outside. As rustic as Pine Rest is, it’s not a nudist camp.”
I remembered having the start of an erection during the posed picture and I checked again to make sure that wasn’t in the shot.
“It’s art,” I said, by way of explanation as my brain tried to grapple with what had happened. Had Emma betrayed me?
“Art?” Mason’s brow arched.
I closed my eyes for a moment - for the first time since coming to Eden Lake, I wanted to consume copious amounts of alcohol. Instead, I opened my eyes and went to the kitchen and got a bottle of water.
“Tucker!” Mason snarled at me.
“Just give me a fucking minute,” I growled back. I drank the water and then set my hands on the counter as I tried to rein in the whirlwind of feelings.
“Did Emma take these?” Mason’s voice was less angry, but still tight.
“Yes.”
“So, you were fucking her?”
I closed my eyes. “It’s not like that.” My heart stalled in my chest that I was in love with a woman who may have just ruined my career.
He laughed derisively. “Right, you were fucking her even though—”
I whirled on him. “It’s not like that. She and I have been in a relationship.”
“Sex more than once with the same woman doesn’t constitute a relationship, Tucker.”
I stared at him, the pain at Emma’s betrayal now mixed with my brother’s inability to think I was capable of having a regular relationship.
“I’m in love with her.” I pushed past him, although I didn’t have any clue where I was going or what I was going to do.
“Tucker!”
“I’m not talking to you about this, Mason. Not if you’re going to be an asshole.” I dug the heels of my hands into my eye sockets. “Jesus, what the fuck has she done?”
When he didn’t say anything, I turned toward him.
“If you’re in love, why is she selling your picture to TMZ?”
God, I swore I could feel my heart ripping in my chest. “I said I was in love with her…clearly, she doesn’t feel the same.” Of course, she didn’t. She was the woman who didn’t trust or respect me. How rich that she accused me of cheating on her, and then she did this.
He sighed. “If that’s true—”
“If? What the fuck Mason? You don’t think I’m capable of love?”
He closed his eyes in what looked like guilt. “Yes. I know you are capable of love. I’m sorry this has happened, but it’s fucked up, Tucker.”
“I know.”
“The Emma I know wouldn’t do this. What happened? Did you fight and she got mad…although I still don’t see her as the retaliatory type.”
“You said TMZ bought the photos? Then she did it for money,” I thought out loud.
“That doesn’t sound like her.”
“She wants to start a studio-gallery thing. I guess she figured the barista job wouldn’t allow her to save enough. She saw an opportunity and took it. Me, like a fucking idiot, fell for it.”
He shook his head. “I still don’t—”
“Rig
ht, she’s the saint and I’m the asshole. Meanwhile, she’s sitting on a pile of money and I may not have a job and probably will lose the endorsement Lauren showed to me the other day.”
Mason ran his hands through his hair and sat on my couch. “Maybe it doesn’t matter why—”
“Maybe not to you.”
“What I mean is - what we need to focus on - is how to fix this. These are clearly not like other pictures. If you were posing for art—”
“I was in the first one,” I said.
“What about this other one.”
“I don’t know about that one. She must have taken it in secret. Clearly, she’s not as clean cut as you give her credit for.” Of course, I was the idiot that ten minutes ago thought about marrying her.
My phone rang and I knew it had to be Lauren. I went to get it.
“Lauren,” I said when I answered.
“What the hell, Tucker?”
“I know. Mason is here, we’re…”
“Why are there even pictures?”
I explained the first one, and admitted I didn’t know about the second. Like the other women who’d gotten dick pics while I was off-guard, Emma had done the same.
“You’re not supposed to be with women. You agreed,” she snapped at me.
“This was different…I thought it was different. I love her. Fuck.”
She was quiet for a moment, which I hoped meant that she was thinking of a solution and not getting ready to drop me.
“We could work with this,” she finally said.
“Enlighten me.” I poked the speaker phone option. “You’re on speaker; Mason can hear too.”
“Well, Tucker McLean finally found the woman of his dreams. He fell in love and she betrayed him for money. The public loves you and will sympathize. Especially since you helped her by buying a painting and pushing the Instagram post she had of you with it.”
My stomach roiled at the idea of making her out to be a gold-digging bitch, and yet, the scenario wasn’t just a slant, it was true.
“You trusted her to turn your form into art, and she sold you out,” Lauren finished her thought.
I looked at Mason. His expression mirrored my feelings. Like he wasn’t comfortable with it and yet, knowing it had to be done. Knowing it had to be true.
“She’ll be run out of town, probably,” he said.
“She deserves it. You don’t fuck with a home-town hero,” Lauren’s voice came over the phone.
“What about Coach? The team? Have they contacted you?” I wondered if I needed to go through my messages to see if they’d reached out to me.
“I contacted them, told them this wasn’t what it seemed. Thankfully, I wasn’t lying. I did tell them you’d come back now and meet with them. That you were ready to start camp and earn your job back.”
“He is ready,” Mason said. “I think he’s stronger than ever. Physically, anyway.”
“Well, get your emotional health in order too, Tuck. You can’t afford to fuck this up. Not now,” Lauren said.
“I’ll be there this evening,” I said.
“Call me when you get home. I’ll meet you then. They’ll want to see you. We can go over together,” she said and hung up.
For a moment, Mason and I just stood looking at each other.
“I’m sorry, man.” Mason shook his head. “I hate that this has happened to you, but it’s not sitting right about how she’s going to portray Emma. She’s made a home here. People respect her.”
While a part of me understood that, as I realized she’d sold my dream so she could have hers, I found myself not caring what happened.
“Then she shouldn’t have betrayed me.” I stalked to my bedroom to pack my bag.
“Will you call me after you meet with Lauren?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey.” He came over to me and patted my shoulder. “Lauren’s right. These pictures can be explained, so don’t do anything crazy when you get back, okay? I don’t want you feeling like you’ve lost, because you haven’t. It’s a setback. Like getting sacked. Just get up and throw again. Okay.”
I nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
He hugged me. “I love you no matter what.”
“You too, man.”
I got into my SUV with every intention of driving home, but as I hit the main highway, instead of heading west to Los Angeles, I turned east, heading out to Pine Rest Resort. I wasn’t going to leave without telling Emma just how fucked up I thought she was. I just hoped I could hold on to the anger, because the pain was nearly unbearable.
I wouldn’t let her see that. No way could she know just how badly she’d hurt me. And it wasn’t the loss of my career that really tortured me. It was the loss of the dream of true love. I thought I’d have what Mason had with Willa. Or Josh with Allie. What an idiot I was.
Chapter 20: Ruined
Emma
The day was turning out to be a nice one. The shade of the trees over my deck kept it from being too hot. I could hear activities in other areas of the lake, but my little hidden away spot was quiet except for the occasional boat that would speed by, often towing a water skier.
I’d slept in a bit since Tucker didn’t leave until four or so in the morning. God how I wish he’d stay, but I was settled with knowing that once he was free from his rules, he’d bring me into the open.
I was enjoying my coffee as I got ready to spend my day working on the painting of Tucker posed like the Artemision Bronze.
A loud bang echoed from the house to my deck. I frowned and turned back, wondering what it was. When it came again, I realized someone was at my door.
I stood and went to answer it. “Tucker?”
His dark eyes glared at me. The muscles in his face and neck were pulled tight. He was pissed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Do you really hate me that much?” he seethed.
“What? No!” What was going on?
“So, your pretending to like me was just so you could get a money shot? When you saw how well that Instagram post with me and your picture did, did you think, hey, if I got a naked picture of Tucker, I could get rich?”
“No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I stepped back, not so much in fear as in confusion. My emotions were making it hard to follow what he was saying or think of how to respond.
“This!” He shoved his phone at me. I glanced at him and then studied the phone screen. My heart sank when I saw the pictures of him. This couldn’t be good.
“Where did you get those—”
“Oh please. Knock off the innocent act. These are your pictures. The only place they could have come from is you. And this one!” He pointed to the photo I secretly took of him one morning. “You took this without my knowing and then sold it.”
He looked at me with such pain and disdain.
“Tucker, I didn’t sell these—”
“Then how did they get them?” he bellowed.
“I…I…don’t know. Maybe I was hacked…I don’t know. Please you have to believe me, I wouldn’t do that.”
“Why not? You don’t respect or trust me.”
“That’s not true.” I wanted to move to him. To touch him. To will him to believe me.
“Along with art class did you take drama, because you acting like you gave a shit about me sure fooled me.”
“Tucker, no…I do like you.” I wanted to tell him I loved him, but I was sure he wouldn’t believe me. At this point, he’d see it as some sort of ploy. “Is this going to hurt your job?”
He laughed derisively. “Quite possibly. I have to go now to meet with my agent to figure out how to convince my team that this isn’t me breaking the fucking rules.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you did this. I can’t believe I fell…” he trailed off.
With one last scathing glare, he turned to leave.
“Tucker, please. You have to believe me. I don’t know anything about this.”
“I don’t believe you,�
� he said as he walked through the door. Then he stopped and turned to look at me. “You’ve traded my dream for yours. I hope the studio gallery thing you start with your money will have been worth it.” He stalked off toward his SUV.
My legs felt wobbly as I leaned against the door frame, wishing I could find the right words to make him listen and believe me. What happened? How did those pictures get out?
It came to me that during the retreat, my friends had seen the pictures. Had one of them taken them? I closed my eyes as I thought about Ashley’s words about making a fortune off them. God, is that what she did? Did she or someone else steal the pictures from me and then sell them?
It made me sick to think that Tucker was going to lose his job over this. It wasn’t like the pictures were lewd. They were beauty and art. Of course, not everyone would see it like that, but anyone who didn’t look at these photos and not be in awe of the wonders of Tucker’s strong body was probably a perv.
I made it back to my living room and sank onto the couch. What should I do? I had no idea how to make this right. I considered trying to find out who was posting the pictures and tell them they were posting stolen photos, but the damage was done. Plus, they’d have all sorts of questions for me, and chances were, I’d make things worse.
I tried to call him, wanting to know from him how I could make it right, but my phone was blocked. Just like that, I was out of his life.
Heart sick, I trudged through my day, doing nothing, but praying that Tucker’s bosses saw what I’d seen when I took the photos.
The next day, I woke with a fear about the fallout. Despite his wild ways and reputation, Tucker was well liked in Eden Lake. He was a child of Eden Lake, and I wasn’t. Would they know the pictures came from me?
I grabbed my tablet, searching for the photos online. I scanned the pictures and the article, but there was no mention of me or of whoever leaked them. I breathed a sigh of relief and then felt guilty that I was in the clear for this while Tucker was about to fight for his job.
