I guess I had been pretty bad off.
“The sheriff took Jenny into custody, but we explained that we thought she was having some kind of psychotic break, so they took her to the psychiatric hospital up in Nashville.”
Tears filled my eyes and I could feel the sting in my nose from trying to keep them from falling.
“We don’t know anything other than that yet.”
I needed a minute alone, so I choked out a hoarse request. “You think y’all could go call and see if you can find out anything?”
They both answered at once with a “Sure, Tuck.” and “You got it, Hotman.”
I closed my eyes as they left the room, just to try to compose myself, and fell asleep. A-fucking-gain. Apparently, getting shot makes you tired.
********
I hadn’t even opened my eyes this time, and everything already felt right with the world.
I could feel Talie’s warm body curled into me, her thigh thrown over mine just like she did when we slept in our own bed at night.
I could smell the light flowery scent of her body spray mixed with the great smell that was naturally her, and I could feel the silky softness of her hair against my jaw, throat, and chest.
The skin of her thigh was warm and soft below the hem of her shorts, and I moved my fingers to run back and forth along it, enjoying and savoring the feel of my skin gliding directly over any part of her.
Stirring confusedly out of her sleep and lifting her head, Talie reacted to the motion of my fingers and shivered.
“Hey Babe.”
Her head fell heavily back to my chest, she took a deep breath, and a sob escaped her throat as she whispered a very breathy, very meaningful, “Tuck.”
As she continued to cry into my chest, I stroked her hair, placed a kiss to the top of her head, and semi-repeated, “Babe.”
I could tell she needed to cry it out, to release all of the pent up emotion that had been eating at her, just like I had done in the barn that day. So I let her.
We stayed like that for several minutes before her tears subsided and her breathing returned to a normal soft whoosh.
Her next words came out in barely a whisper, but I managed to hear every one of them.
“Do you think we were meant to be together? All of the coincidences...it just seems like something put us together on purpose.”
My answering tone was much louder and much more confident. “I gotta tell you, Babe. Meant to be according to some higher power or not, it’s meant to be to me. You were the girl I had been waiting for. You were The One. And you still fuckin’ are.”
She lifted her head, looked me in the eye, and bit her lip as a tear escaped the bottom lid of her eye. “But look at all of the hurt I’ve brought you and Jenny. Maybe she was supposed to kill me. Then you would be together, but I wouldn’t be in the middle. Maybe...I’ve already played my role for you.”
“First of all, you think if she shot you, me and her wouldn’t have problems?”
She took that in as I kept making my point. “And second, your role with me won’t be played out until we’re old and dead with a whole bunch’a kids and grandkids left behind.”
“But you were almost not old but still very dead because of me.”
“Did you shoot me?”
She looked surprised by my question even though it seemed like the obvious one to me.
Meekly, she murmured, “Well, no. But-”
“Would you have pushed me outta the way and taken the bullet if you could’a?”
I didn’t even give her a chance to answer because I knew the answer and so did she. She wouldn’t have fucking hesitated to take that bullet for me if she’d known it was coming.
“Listen, Babe. I’ll make this simple for you so that there’s no confusion. If you try to take off, I’ll just chase you down. If you try to push me away, I’ll pull you back. I’ll do whatever the fuck I gotta do to keep you close to me for as long as I fuckin’ can. Not ever lettin’ you go.”
As I saw my statement soak into her mind I added one more declaration for good measure. “Not ever.”
She rolled her eyes and breathed a deep sigh before talking. “Alright. I get it. I actually got it after the first ‘Not ever’.”
Christ. Laying in a hospital bed, pouring out my feelings because she was genuinely upset five seconds ago, and she busts my balls in return.
I decided to ignore it and try to get a pulse on her condition instead. “How are you feelin’?”
She breathed a heavy sigh, and it was all too clear that I had ruined any glimmer of a good mood. “I’m fine, Tuck. I’m worried about you. And Jenny.”
Yeah, I was worried about Jenny too. God, thinking about my beautiful sister not only going through such awful things but actually doing awful things to so many people made my heart twist and my stomach churn.
I could only hope that she would get help where she was now and that they would find out where things had gone so wrong for her.
“Listen, Babe. At least she’s better than we thought she was yesterday. She’s not dead, and she’s getting help. We’ll deal with the rest as it comes, and we’ll be there for her as much as she’ll let us.”
She tucked her face to my chest and nodded, a small sniffle making it to my ears.
“I asked Kayla and Ruthie to try to find out some more information about how she’s doin’, but as soon as I’m outta here, get the all clear, and you feel up to it, we’ll go see her.”
“I don’t want to upset her.”
“Talie. She didn’t mean any of that shit that came out of her mouth. She’s sufferin’ and she took it out on you. Once they get everything figured out with her, she’ll be happy to see you.”
God, I hoped that was true. I hoped that there actually was something to figure out, and she wasn’t just crazy forever. And I really hoped that she would grant Talie the acceptance that she so desperately wanted.
Either way, it wouldn’t do any good to let Talie know that I was worried about it, so I kept up my confident facade.
“Now snuggle with me, Babe. Relax and just let me hold you for now. After that whole ordeal, I kind of need it.”
She snuggled into me deeper, kissed my chest, and murmured, “Me too.”
Chapter 15
Closure
Finally, I was going home. After a week in this place, I was absolutely losing my shit.
I wanted to be home with Talie. I wanted to see my horses and be out on my land.
And I definitely wanted to make love to my fiance. I’d only gotten two chances since I officially put the ring on her finger and that was way too few times for the amount of days it had been.
While I wasn’t sure how Talie would react, I also had plans for later today. I knew that if she didn’t want to go with me, I would completely understand and respect it.
But it was something I just felt like I had to do, so as she came walking into my room with a smile on her face, I contemplated what the best way to tell her would be. Unrealistically, I hoped I’d be able to talk to her about it without taking the pretty smile off of her face.
I got myself psyched up to talk to her by reminding myself that I wasn’t a woman so I needed to cut it out with the pansy bullshit.
And then Kayla came walking in right behind her. Great. This mission officially just got a whole lot harder.
It looked like the best way to go would be to just get it out of the way.
“Talie, I gotta talk to you about somethin’, Babe.”
I shot Kayla a stern look in the hopes that she would read my meaning.
And that meaning was to keep her mouth shut.
Talie sat down on the edge of the bed, gave me a serious look, and then, making her voice deeper than normal, muttered, “Listenin’ Babe.”
Jesus, she was mocking me.
“Talie, this is serious, and I don’t want to upset you.”
Talie nodded, her playfulness already a fleeting memory, but the peanut gallery
was never silent.
“Just spit it out. Holy moly, you’re taking longer than a woman to get to the point.”
Kayla was annoying, but she also had a point. I was usually much more direct.
“I want to go to Drew’s funeral.”
Talie was silent, but by the fucking painful look marring her usually beautiful features, it looked like I might have just torn her heart out.
Meanwhile, Kayla filled the silence.
“Shit, Hotman. I maybe should have let you work up to that one like you were.”
Talie stood up from my bed and turned away from me, and my heart felt like it was cracking into a thousand jagged pieces.
God, I really hated hurting her.
“Babe. It’s not what you think.” That was the first thing that came to mind when I was trying to figure out a way to comfort her, but I realized I had no clue what she was thinking. “Or actually, I don’t know what you’re thinkin’.”
I still got no verbal reaction from her, but she at least turned back toward me to look me in the eyes as I spoke.
“The whole town is gonna end up boycottin’ this funeral. That’s just their way. And I get it. Shit, do I get it. But Drew’s dead. He ain’t even really gonna be there, just his body in a box. This funeral is more for his parents who are good people, and absolute scum of the earth asshole or not, Drew was their son. He was young, and they’re buryin’ him today.”
Bobby’s parents lived out of town, or I would have been going to his funeral too. Crazy.
Her eyes looked moist and she bit her bottom lip as I continued, “I completely understand if you don’t wanna go. I would never ask you to after everything he did to you. I just feel like I need to be there.”
Talie started to shake her head, but I didn’t know what that meant.
“Babe?”
“I’m going too.”
My face must have registered some pretty transparent qualities of shock, but I seriously had not been expecting that to come out of her mouth. The combination of what I knew her feelings must be for him and the look on her face, gave no indication that that’s what she was going to come out and say.
“You are absolutely right. I haven’t met them, but they sound like really nice people and they definitely don’t deserve to be alone for something that’s going to be so difficult for them.”
Kayla and I both watched her closely as she closed her eyes, pulled in a deep gulp of air and finished with some thoughts that made her willingness make even more sense.
“Plus, I think maybe Jenny would want us to go. They have some really awful history, but she loved him once. And she may not have been mentally stable when she was rambling everything to us, but it’s obvious she still feels something or mourns the loss of the person he used to be. So, I’m going.”
My Talie. Always thinking about someone else above herself.
I reached out and grabbed her hand just as Kayla murmured, “Well if you’re going, I’m going. And I’m sure Jace and Ruthie will want to go too. I’ll go call them.”
As Kayla jumped up and walked out of the room, I rubbed the back of Talie’s hand with my thumb. She was looking down at the bed, so with my other hand I reached out and used my forefinger to lift her chin.
“You don’t have to do this Talie.”
She shook her head slightly and sucked both of her lips inside of her mouth before whispering, “Yes, I do. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think it’ll be a really good thing. It’s a hard decision, and I know it won’t be easy to be there at all. But I also think, in the long run, it might do me good. That it might serve as closure. A way for me to finally let everything go about him. To finally not feel what I felt, knowing he was still out there, and to move on- to my life with you.”
Grabbing her hips and pulling her close to me, I looked in her eyes, moved my hands to her face, and ran my thumbs right underneath both sets of her bottom lashes. I could still see her bruises a little even though they were a faded greenish-yellow and she had tried to cover them up with makeup. The thought of how she got those burned me up every time I saw them, but I worked hard to completely suppress it. When she knew I was noticing them, it made her feel bad. For some crazy reason.
“I want that for you. I’ve been wantin’ to see your pretty blue eyes free of the cloudiness for a long time now, and I hope that goin’ to this this afternoon will give you the closure you need to make that happen.”
Actually, I wanted that for her desperately.
I made sure the next words I whispered were both heartfelt and full of meaning.
“I love you.”
Leaning forward, I was all ready to kiss her, but instead she closed the gap between us and took control, pressing her lips to mine. Her lips were soft and plush and moved over mine with a gentleness that brought goosebumps to my skin.
My tongue snaked out and glided over the seam of her lips, not to ask for entrance, but to savor the taste. She wasn’t big on lipgloss, so her lips just tasted like her. And they were fucking delicious.
My hands moved down to her hips and fingered the skin at the hem of her shirt before skimming up her sides gently, as to be mindful of her healing ribs. When I got to the top of her ribs my thumbs skimmed the underside of her breasts and a breathy, almost anguished sounding, moan escaped her lips.
I groaned a gravely, rough breath into her mouth in response as I twirled the end of my tongue slowly around hers. I was dying. God, I missed being inside of her.
Right in line with my thoughts, I was hard as a rock and so fucking ready to take her right here. However, being that we were in the hospital and I was a patient, pulling back would have been the smart move.
But I just couldn’t, and if her actions and the erotic moans coming out of her mouth were any indication, it seemed like she couldn’t either.
Moving my hands further up, I palmed her breasts and swiped her nipples with my thumbs.
Completely forgetting where we were, she kept her lips attached to mine but maneuvered her body skillfully so that she could straddle my lap.
I was still hooked up to the heart monitor and could hear a faint whisper of it beeping wildly in the background. I was so involved that even my hearing was tunneled to be specifically attuned to only Talie. Her heartbeat, her breathing, her moans.
And I guess that’s why we didn’t notice the nurse come running in the room.
“Um, excuse me!” Based on the volume and exasperated tone of her voice, I would guess she had tried to get our attention several times before we actually heard her.
Talie seemed embarrassed and went to pull back immediately, but my horniness well outweighed any inkling of chagrin that I may have felt. Thus, my hands shot to the back of her head and held it in place until I could get in a few more touches of our tongues before I pulled back.
When I finally did give into having consideration for the nurse, it didn’t go far. My hands grabbed her hips and kept her anchored there, straddling me. It was probably for the best anyway because she was covering the substantial evidence of my arousal by sitting on my lap.
The nurse was shocked by my boldness and shook her head as she spoke. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that you’re going home today, but Dr. Williams said you still need to limit physical activity.”
We all knew what she meant by limiting physical activity, but there was a fat chance in hell that I wasn’t going to sink myself inside of my woman tonight. She could be on top. That would lessen my exertion and be easier on her ribs. Furthermore, she was hot as hell when she rode me.
Perfect. Decision made.
I shot Talie a look that said I was going to be inside of her tonight, period. But my words told a different story, a story that was complete bullshit, and were directed at the nurse. “No problem.”
Talie rolled her eyes, and the nurse huffed before turning and leaving the room muttering, “I’ll be back with your discharge papers.”
When the nurse was definitely out of
earshot, Talie turned back to me and whispered, “You’re bad, Tucker Cody.”
“Not bad, Babe. I’m fucking horny. And you’re fucking hot. You do the math.”
She smirked at me. “I’m pretty good at math. And when I do the calculations I come up with One Annoyed Nurse as the answer.”
“Damn straight.”
********
Walking up to the gravesite, I could feel Talie’s fingernails digging into my bicep.
We were moving slowly, thanks to our combined injuries, and the hospital had taken a good deal of time to get my discharge papers straightened out and taken care of.
I’m pretty sure it was the disgruntled nurse’s personal revenge.
It was worth it.
Anyway, thanks to our many delays, we had just gotten our shit together, and it was only in enough time to come to the gravesite, meaning we missed the other services.
Considering the circumstances, it may have been better this way anyway. Seeing Drew lowered into the ground was closure if I’d ever seen it, and we could pay our respects to the Locks without having to sit around and pretend like we cared about the bastard headed six feet under.
As the Locks came into view, Talie’s grip got even tighter. I hadn’t thought that would be possible, but it would seem now that she intended to leave a permanent imprint of her fingernails in my arm.
I wanted to ask her if she was okay, but she would fucking hate it. So I held my tongue.
Kayla had taken off with Ruthie and Jace to do God knows what and told us they would meet us here.
Since the only people I could see were Drew’s parents, it was clear we had beat them here.
When we got to the gravesite, Talie and I walked around to the opposite side, and I took over from there.
After leaning down and placing a soft kiss on Adrianna Lock’s cheek, I murmured, “We’re sorry for your loss, Adrianna.” Turning my head and giving a nod, I added, “Gary.”
Talie reached right out with her hand, placed it on Adrianna’s arm and whispered, “I’m so sorry that you have to go through this.”
The One Girl Page 13
