by Barbara Gee
“How safe are you when you’re at the office? And at home?” Virgil asked.
“We’ve hired some real good security guys who go where I go. Except for here, of course. But believe me, there’s no way I could have been followed out here.”
“So you’ve got people waitin’ for him to come for you in Charlotte, and you’ve got law enforcement with undercover guys workin’ the woods of Kentucky,” Virgil summarized. “I certainly do hope you get some bites soon.”
“And we’re still working North Carolina hard, too,” Tucker assured him. “If we can confiscate all of his assets in our state, his revenue is completely gone, and then I know without a doubt he’ll come after me.”
“And that’s supposed to make us feel better?” Maddy shuddered, her nightmare seeming way too real once again.
“I’ll be protected.”
“And we’ll be worried sick,” Libby said. “You’d better keep in touch, Tuck. Every day, so we know you’re okay.”
“How much longer do you think this will go on, Tucker?” Kay wondered. “It’s not good for you to be under this kind of threat for an extended period of time. It’s too stressful.”
“This is what I do, Kay, I take down bad guys. Every agent assumes some personal risk on cases like this, but we’re good at what we do. We’re trained to be careful, and we watch each others’ backs. I firmly believe that we finally have the upper hand in this case, and we’ll work it until Jimmy Callahan is put away, however long it takes. It might be a week, it might be months. But we’ll get him.”
Tuck looked around the table at the four worried faces staring back at him. His zeal for the case suddenly took a back seat to his realization that these were the four people he cared about most in the world, and vice versa. He could reassure them until he was blue in the face, and still they would worry, just as he would if the roles were reversed.
“I’m sorry to put you all through this,” he said sincerely. “Just know I’ll do my best to get it over with as quickly as possible, with no one else getting hurt. None of the good guys, anyway.”
Virgil stood up and moved behind Tuck, putting his hands on his shoulders.
“I know you’re the man for the job, son, and you’ll be in our hearts and prayers while you’re gone. Now if you can spare the time, I’d like to move into my office for a family meeting. There’s something I want to discuss with you and your sister and I’ve got a bunch of paperwork in there we need to go through.” He smiled over at Maddy. “You’re welcome to sit in, my girl. You’re practically one of the family now.”
Maddy shook her head. “Thanks, Virgil, but I’ll just hang out in the library, if someone will be so kind as to push me over there. There are a couple of books I’ve been eyeing, but Libby has kept me too busy to read.”
“And you’ve loved every minute,” Libby stated, taking hold of the wheelchair.
“Let me put these leftovers away quick,” Kay said, “and then we can leave the rest of the cleanup for later. We need to have this meeting before everyone gets away on us.”
Chapter 22
It took a while, but Maddy was finally able to get engrossed in her book. When she became aware of the others coming back into the room, she checked the time on her new phone and saw that their meeting had taken almost two hours. She was relieved to see them smiling, as she’d been afraid Virgil’s “family meeting” was about something not so good.
Tucker stopped at the box containing the bed trapeze, which was propped up against the wall near the middle stairway.
“I’m going to get this thing set up. You want to come help, Maddy?”
She held up her casted right arm. “If you think I would be useful, sure.”
“You can keep me company, at least.”
“That I can do.”
“Good luck with that thing,” Libby said, leaving them and walking with Kay toward the dining table. “I’ll help you clean up, Aunt Kay, and then I think I’ll head out to the stables. Maybe take another ride or something.”
Kay chuckled. “Missing the horses already?”
“You know it,” Libby said, grinning.
Tucker walked over to Maddy and took hold of her chair. “I’ll get you in the elevator first, then come back for the box.”
Once upstairs, Tucker ripped open the box and handed her the assembly instructions. “You can supervise,” he said with a smile.
As it turned out, Tucker didn’t need supervision. He unpacked all the parts, along with the accompanying clamps, bolts and screws, then knelt down on the carpet and surveyed everything. After a couple of minutes he selected a few parts and started putting the stand together, quickly and efficiently, not asking once for her to read the instructions to him.
Maddy watched him, fascinated and a little frustrated. It didn’t seem quite fair that he was so gifted.
“Is there anything you’re not good at, Tucker?”
“Are you ever going to call me Tuck?” he asked, squinting at two metal bars he had clamped together, making sure they were in alignment.
Maddy raised her brows at his unexpected question. “Oh, well, I guess I haven’t really thought about it. Do you want me to?”
He looked over and flashed a smile. “My friends do. And I’ve been calling you Maddy for most of the week.”
“Okay,” she said with a grin. “So, Tuck, is there anything you’re not good at?”
He nodded, the smile staying in place. “Yeah, several things, but I’m not sure I want you to know about them. A man should never expose his weaknesses.”
She chuckled. “That just makes me want to know more.”
“Figures.”
“Come on, tell me one thing.”
He efficiently bolted a bar onto heavy looking supports. Maddy looked at the picture on the instructions and deduced that those supports would slide under the head end of the bed, supporting the trapeze without requiring that it be clamped to the bed itself.
“Just one thing? Or will you try to get more out of me once I give up the first one?”
“Let’s go with two. If you give me two, I won’t try for a third. I promise.”
“Will you reciprocate?”
“I’ll even go first,” Maddy said readily. “So the first thing is, I’m terrible at obeying speed limits. I’m one ticket away from either having my license suspended, or having to take an all day defensive driving class.”
“Seriously, Maddy? You’re admitting that to a law enforcement officer, you know.”
“You don’t give speeding tickets, though. Your turn.”
“Okay, I’m a terrible cook. I can put something like this together no problem, but following a recipe is beyond me.”
Maddy laughed. “I’m guessing the problem is that you don’t follow the recipe. Just like you don’t follow instructions for assembling shower chairs and bed trapezes. Only you don’t have a sixth sense about food like you do assembling things, so the results leave something to be desired.”
He grinned. “You might be on to something there,” he admitted.
“Soooo, my second thing,” Maddy mused. “Hmm. I’ll go with singing. And don’t ask for a demonstration. Trust me, you’ll regret it.”
He chuckled. “So I’m guessing you didn’t let Libby drag you up on stage during her karaoke phase?”
“She did once. I was booed off and she was mortified.”
“I don’t believe that,” Tucker said. “You’re too cute to be booed, even if you can’t sing.”
“It happened, ask Libby.”
Tuck stood and lifted up the hanging trapeze portion to fasten onto the horizontal bar that would reach over the bed.
“Your turn,” Maddy prompted, enjoying the sight of him raising his muscular arms and exposing a strip of toned, tanned stomach below the hem of his shirt. “What’s the second thing you’re bad at? Give me a deep, dark, secret.”
“You want something embarrassing, is that it?”
“I can’t imagine you eve
r being embarrassed,” Maddy replied. “You’re always too much in control to be put in an embarrassing situation.”
“You think so, huh? Well, what would you say if I told you I’m a really, really terrible kisser?” he asked, giving her a wicked smile.
Maddy stared at him for a long moment, shocked that he was actually flirting with her. Then her lips curved into a smile that was partly shy, and partly as wicked as his own. “Well, since I’m not inclined to believe you, I’d say you have to prove it,” she said boldly.
He raised a brow. “Oh yeah? And what if I’m telling the truth? Would you be honest about it?”
“You mean give you negative feedback?” Maddy shrugged. “I don’t know if I’d have the nerve to do that. But, um, if it’s any comfort, I don’t have a lot to compare it to.” Her cheeks got warm at that admission, then even hotter as he deliberately put his tools down and stalked over to her chair.
“That’s hard to believe, Maddy.” He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. “I don’t think there’s a red blooded man alive who could look at you and not want to kiss you. Do you turn them all down?”
“Um, I’m just really picky. I don’t date much,” she said a little breathlessly. Her heart skipped when his gaze dropped to her mouth, his eyes twinkling.
“So, since you’re basically begging for me to kiss you, in spite of the very good reasons I gave you the other night for not doing it, I take it I passed your picky test?”
“Aced it,” she replied, smiling up at him.
“In that case,” he murmured, leaning down and putting his hands on the armrests of the wheelchair. His mouth was mere inches from hers when they heard Kay and Libby laughing and talking as they came down the hall.
Tuck groaned softly, then straightened up and smoothed a hand over her hair before picking up his screwdriver again.
“How’s it going in here?” Kay asked from the doorway. “Oh my gracious, Tucker, that’s quite a piece of equipment. It looks very sturdy.”
“Has to be, since Maddy’s such a tank,” he said, winking at Maddy as he evaded Libby’s jabbing elbow.
“I thought you were going for a ride, Libby,” Maddy said.
“Cal wasn’t working, so I decided to wait until tomorrow morning,” Libby replied, not caring that everyone knew she was more interested in seeing the big cowboy than in riding.
Maddy watched as Tuck finished the trapeze, with much unneeded advice from Libby and Kay. It was soon ready to slide under the bed. The three of them pulled the big bed away from the wall, slid the trapeze into place, then slid the bed back into position.
Tuck tugged on the trapeze, pleased to see it stayed in place.
“Push Maddy over here, Lib. Let’s get the height adjusted.”
Once in position by the bed, Maddy followed Tuck’s instructions and held her left hand up above her head until he got the trapeze placed where he wanted it, and the chain holding the triangular handle adjusted to the right length.
“Ok, let’s do a practice run. Libby, watch how I lift her. As she pulls up, slide one arm under her thighs and one under her knees, and lift.” Tuck nodded at Maddy. “Go ahead and grab hold of the trapeze, and lift on three.”
He counted it out and Maddy pulled herself up as well as she could with only one arm, while Tuck lifted. She gave a delighted laugh when she found herself instantly up on the bed, with what felt like minimal effort. They reversed the procedure and she was safely back in the chair.
“Okay, let me try,” Libby said eagerly. “On three, Maddy.”
It wasn’t quite as effortless as when Tuck helped, but it was definitely successful and would only get better as they got more used to it.
“Let me give it a go,” Kay said. “Just in case Libby has a hot date some night and isn’t here to put you to bed.”
After another successful transfer, Maddy was back in the chair to stay.
“That thing works great, Tuck. Thanks,” she said gratefully. “This is much better than having Cal come in.”
“That’s debatable” Libby declared. “Walking him in and out every day would have given me a chance to spend some quality time with him.”
Kay clucked at the young woman she considered a daughter. “Something tells me you’ll find a way of getting that quality time, Libby my dear. But be careful with him, he’s not used to your citified ways. If you’re too aggressive you might scare him off.”
“I appreciate the advice,” Libby said sincerely. “I promise I’ll let him make all the moves. Hopefully he’ll ask me out next weekend. I haven’t gone this long between dates in forever. It’s been almost six weeks!”
“It’s good for you,” Tuck stated. “You need to be pickier about whom you chose to date.” He flashed a smile at Maddy, making her blush, as intended.
“Oh my gosh, you want picky, Miss Maddy here is the queen of picky,” Libby announced, confirming what Maddy had already told him.
“Nothing wrong with that,” Kay stated.
“No, there isn’t, but I’m a much more social person. I love going out and meeting new people. And I enjoy dating, even if they aren’t all ‘Mr. Right’ material.”
“To each his own,” Tuck told her, stuffing discarded packing materials back into the now empty box. “I’ll take this to the dumpster out back, then I’m going to hole up in the office again for a while. Let me know when it’s time for dinner.”
Maddy sighed as Libby pushed her to the elevator. She was so disappointed and frustrated to have lost her moment with Tuck. She had been so close, so very close, to fulfilling her long held fantasy of kissing him, and she feared she had just lost out on her best and only chance.
Tuck probably already regretted letting their playful banter end in an almost kiss. Maddy had surprised herself with her bold suggestion that he prove his kissing ability, or the lack thereof—which of course she didn’t believe for a second. She knew her boldness had come because this was their last day together, and if sharing a kiss made things a little weird between them now, it didn’t really matter because they would be separated for the foreseeable future anyway.
That was probably why Tuck had flirted with her, too, because he was leaving and it felt safe to push the boundaries a little bit. The question was, would he follow through on the kiss if given another opportunity?
The possibility had her keyed up the rest of the day. She longed for Tuck to come out of the office and seek her out, maybe ask if she wanted to go for a ride in the Gator, or ride along into town for an errand of some kind. But he didn’t come out until dinnertime, and even then he was distracted, obviously having a hard time putting work out of his head in order to participate in ‘family time.’
He did, however, allow his sister to talk him into a nighttime ride in Maddy’s special Gator. He carried Maddy out and got her settled in the back seat.
“I’ll drive,” Libby said, but Tuck snatched the keys from her eager fingers.
“I don’t think so, Lib. You’re a maniac.”
“Learned it from you.”
“Lies, little sister.”
Maddy grinned as she listened to their teasing. She hoped they knew how fortunate they were to have a sibling to tease and love. Maddy had had foster brothers and sisters, but she’d never been close to any of them. She was moved too often to form bonds. Even as a young girl she had known she was only a commodity, a way for her foster families to earn some extra money. When one family got tired of having her, she was shuffled on to the next, and the next.
And then, at the age of fifteen, she had been placed in the home of Denton and Julia Johansen. In their sixties, they were far older than any foster parents she’d ever had. They were also filled with much more love and acceptance. Maddy had been fortunate enough to stay with them for the next three years, until she went to college. Julia had since died of lung cancer, and Denton had remarried and moved to Florida. Although he and Maddy didn’t see each other any more, and only communicated with an annual Christmas c
ard, Maddy would always be filled with gratitude to Denton and his late wife for providing her with the only stable home she’d ever known.
Tuck drove the Gator to a huge butte a couple miles from the ranch house. “Remember when we climbed this thing with Dad?”
“Which time? We climbed this thing every time we visited the ranch.”
“All of them, I guess,” Tuck said. “We always had a picnic at the top.”
Libby reached back and patted the brace on Maddy’s left leg. “If our girl here wasn’t laid up I’d suggest we race to the top.”
“It’s too dark. You’d break your own leg,” Tuck teased.
He started the Gator again and drove them back toward the house, meandering along a creek for a while as the girls marveled at the beauty of the moonlight reflecting in the water, before speeding on a straight line to the house, both girls hanging on and laughing, exhilarated by the speed and the fresh cool wind whipping through their hair.
The ride had finally plucked Tuck’s mind from the dark morass of the Callahan case, and they played a couple of spirited rounds of Euchre before deciding it was time to get ready for bed. Maddy’s new shower chair was calling her name, and she and Libby did a repeat of the evening before, with the exception being, sadly, that she didn’t need Tuck to lift her into bed.
Libby said goodnight and left, and Maddy propped herself on a pillow against the headboard, wondering whether Tuck would come to say goodbye. She had heard him tell Kay he had to leave before breakfast, which meant if he didn’t stop by her room, she wouldn’t see him at all.
That simply wasn’t an option, Maddy decided. She reached over and retrieved her phone from the bedside table, intending to text him and ask him to come up. She might even beg, if necessary. They were going to be far away from each other for a long time, depending on how elusive Jimmy Callahan proved to be, and Maddy needed to see him one more time.
