by Ali Vali
“You woke me up on my day off to tell me jokes? And I don’t find your girlfriend remotely funny.”
“The feelings on that might be mutual, but we don’t have time for that now. Are you ready?” Syd only grunted and repeated all the information back to her. “See what you can find out and call me.”
“Does this count as overtime?”
“Bill me whatever you want, but find something.” She hung up and turned back to the sheriff.
“Go get some sleep, Tucker, and I’ll come by later with an update.” Carl placed his hand on her shoulder. “And I’m real sorry about Jim Bob. That boy was bigger than life, and certainly one of a kind. We’re going to miss him around here and all the stuff he did for us.”
“Don’t worry. The annual fishing tournament will go on as usual.”
“All that money you’ve raised for us came in handy tonight. Those airboats are the bomb, as the kids say.”
“I think now they’re referred to as sick, but my lingo might be as antiquated as yours, and yeah, they were. Nice shopping, Sheriff.”
She shook his hand and told him to call no matter the time. The end of all the excitement had left her tired, and she was ready to head back. There was a deputy at the gate when she drove by, and he told her there were a couple more guys around the house. The sheriff wanted to be sure they were okay until they found out what this was all about.
“Willow,” she said softly at the front door. The house was quiet, and she hoped Willow had gone to bed. Burying Monique should’ve been the only sucky thing about yesterday, not all this shit. She kicked her pants and shirt off and put her pajamas back on before heading to bed. Finding Willow standing in the door with the fussy Grady made her feel more settled than anything in her life had, and she was too tired to figure out the reason.
“Is your rocking game off?” The baby didn’t calm down when Willow handed him over, but he did rub his eyes and rest his head against her shoulder. “What’s wrong, little buddy?”
“He falls asleep until I try to put him in the crib, and then he acts like it’s made of nails.”
Poor Willow looked beat. “Let’s try something.” She walked to the bed and lay back with Grady across her chest. That made him stop crying.
“I think that’s unsafe. What if you roll over on him?”
“Come over here and make sure I stay in one spot. If you’re right next to me, I can’t roll over.”
“I’d say this was some ploy to get me into your bed, but I’m too tired to care.”
Willow joined her and scooted over until she was pressed against her. It wasn’t exactly what she had in mind as the ending to her night, but maybe they both needed a little comfort. That was one of her last thoughts as Willow’s head moved to her shoulder and her hand landed on her thigh. The stillness made Grady relax as well, and she figured this was okay for tonight. “We can’t ever admit this to my mom, okay?”
Willow laughed softly and let out a breath against her neck. “Why?”
“She’s a firm believer in children sleeping in their own beds, so this can’t become a habit, but there have to be exceptions to every rule. Right?”
“Right, I think that’s the rule about exceptions to rules.”
It seemed like five minutes later when Willow was pulled out of sleep by a buzzing noise, but she was too comfortable to open her eyes to figure out what would make it stop. Finally, she had no choice but to open one eye as a compromise, and she smiled when she was confronted by Tucker’s profile and Grady was still slumped against her in a deep sleep. Grady’s facial features were relaxed, as were Tucker’s, and it was cute they both had the same expression, complete with a slight smile.
“Keep dreaming good things.” The buzzing had started again and she wanted to kill whatever it was before it woke her bed buddies. It was Tucker’s phone, and the sight of Syd’s name made her want to pinch Tucker as hard as she could manage for being the clichéd idiot who hired the ridiculously beautiful assistant.
“Hello,” she whispered into the phone after Tucker grumbled when she moved. Thank God Grady had inherited Tucker’s ability to sleep through anything.
“Tucker?”
How in the shit did women like Syd perfect that throaty purr kind of voice? It wasn’t normal, just like having breasts and an ass like Syd’s wasn’t fair to the other ninety-nine percent of the female population in the whole universe. “It’s Willow. Tucker’s still sleeping.”
“Can you wake her?” Syd always sounded like the words you moron should be inferred after every sentence she uttered. This morning was no exception.
Being condescended to by a sexy voice didn’t make it better. “No, it was a long night, so it’s me or nothing.”
“Can you have her call me? I found the information she wanted, at least part of it. I’m sure she’ll want to hear this as soon as possible, so keep that in mind.”
“I was here too, and I’d like to know what this is about.” She waited, hoping not to have to talk to Tucker about her pit viper with the surly attitude.
“The five guys in jail do work for AAA Investigations, and the firm is owned by Jonathan Mann’s brother-in-law, who was one of the guys taken in. Safe to say that’s who hired them.”
“That bastard. He better thank God everything ended okay, but the baby was in the house. One of those idiots could’ve panicked and hurt him.” The anger that overtook her made Tucker tighten her hold on her thigh, and her breathing changed. She was definitely awake. “Thank you, and please send that to Tucker’s email. I’m sure she’ll want to share it with the sheriff.” The news had made her tense, and not even Tucker and Grady’s proximity was making it better.
“Okay, but let me know if you need anything else,” Syd said, then hung up.
“You’re not going to believe this,” she said to Tucker, whose eyes were now open.
“Probably not, but take a breath and relax. No matter what, we’re going to spend our weekend fishing and taking it easy. No one and their stupid bullshit is going to take that away from us.”
She relaxed against Tucker, but they couldn’t do this. If they became intimate again and it didn’t work out, this would become worse than a prison sentence. “Those guys probably work for Mann. His brother-in-law is the owner of AAA Investigations, and he’s one of the guys who was arrested.”
“Then the cursing is justified, but we have plenty of time to deal with it. I’ve learned that in business when you try to force the issue it backfires on you. How spectacular that blowback is depends on how much you’ve pissed off the person you’re trying to intimidate or screw, and this time he’s going to wish he hadn’t tried either with me.” Tucker spoke softly as she ran her hand up and down her back.
“That applies to life as well. Don’t you think?” She had to give herself a pep talk to move away from the six feet of temptation that looked even sexier holding a baby. “Do you still want to fish?”
“I do, but I’ll take it easy on you and we’ll stay close to shore. We’ll save the blue water for next time.” Tucker got up slowly and placed Grady in the middle of the bed. “Let’s have breakfast first. The fish aren’t going anywhere.”
They stared at each other for a moment, and it’d be oh-so easy to give in, to surrender, but all these feelings of wanting to touch and be touched by Tucker had to be stemming from Monique’s death and funeral. She was needy, and she was strong enough to fight it. “Let me get dressed, and I’ll help with whatever needs to be done.” She didn’t miss the flash of disappointment in Tucker’s eyes before she nodded and turned toward her own bathroom.
Spending a day trapped on a boat with Tucker probably wasn’t wise, but every emotion was in the air, and the only thing she knew for certain was that with Tucker she felt safe. Right now, maybe that was enough.
In the shower, she thought of Syd, and the shorts that had gotten Tucker to stare like a horndog in heat, and lessons had to be taught. “Two can play at that.” The electric blue bikini t
op with the short jean shorts should get her noticed and show Tucker there was more than one woman around who could make her stare.
Coffee and cinnamon rolls were on the counter when she reached the kitchen, but there was no Tucker. Grady’s room was empty as well, so she stepped outside, and the young man in the yard pointed toward the dock. “Thank you.” She went back inside to pack up the food and wandered slowly to the boat.
She stopped and stared. The boat was massive. The only experience she had with boats was the ones she had to take offshore at times, but none of those were this sleek and powerful looking. She walked the length of it and laughed at the name. It screamed Tucker and Jim Bob. She could just about imagine the good times they’d had on this thing through the years.
“Hey, you ready?” Tucker stood holding Grady and gazed at her with her mouth slightly open. It gave her a hungry wolf expression, and Willow smiled at the reaction.
“Cinnamon roll?” She held up the plastic container.
“I was…was about to…um…” Tucker shook her head as if trying to get her brain to reboot. “I was about to come get those. And you.”
“Did you have coffee?”
“There’s some aboard. The pot in the kitchen was for you, if you couldn’t wait.” Tucker held her hand out to steady her as she stepped down, then didn’t let go. “Did you need anything from the house?”
“Nope, I’m all set. I’m sure you have everything I’ll need.” She was tugging Tucker’s leash a little, but there was no reason she couldn’t have fun as well as relax. Friends joked like that, right?
“Uh, yeah, sure. You want to hold Grady while I get us underway?”
She came close to laughing when Tucker turned and tripped over her feet, but she held it in as the two guys cast off the lines but stayed on the dock. Tucker appeared at home on the flybridge as she guided them expertly to the middle of the canal and got them going. Since Tucker was going slowly, she went inside and fed Grady.
The boat was ridiculous, and the kitchen was nicer than the one in her house. “Talk about hitting the jackpot, kiddo. You’re going to have an amazingly fun life with your new dada, and I bet your father is loving this as well. How about some pumpkin mango?”
Grady sat on the counter and ate, trying to pull all the tricks he had with Tucker the night before, but she had more practice getting that spoon around those grabby hands and into his mouth. They finished, and she put the tiny lifejacket on him before heading out. She sat on the cushions along the stern and Grady clapped his hands as the wind hit his face.
It took less than an hour before they stopped, and the quiet returned when the rumble of the engine shut off. “I can still see the marsh.” She shaded her eyes with her hand and glanced up at Tucker on the flybridge.
“Today we’ll concentrate on redfish and speckled trout. They’re both fun to catch and good to eat.”
“What’s with the name of the boat? We have a baby who doesn’t need to be corrupted before he’s one.” She put more sunscreen on Grady before placing him in the playpen Tucker had set up under an umbrella.
“Our grandfather was old-school and didn’t like calling these babies rods.” Tucker handed over a brand-new fancy looking rod with a bow on it. “He called them poles, and that’s where the name came from.”
“Thank you, but you’re going to have to show me how to use this. I’ve never been fishing in my life.”
“Just this once I’ll bait your hook and toss it out there, but then you’re on your own.”
“If you want me to come with you, you’ll be baiting all the hooks in my future, so live with it.”
Tucker cast her line a few times after putting a large shrimp on the hook, then handed the rod back over and stood behind her to show her the best technique. The enjoyable lesson was cut short when the damn bobber sank, and the rod bent to the point she thought it would snap, but Tucker never moved away and talked her through with encouraging words and she pulled in her first large fish.
“It’s huge,” she said as Tucker got it on board to Grady’s exuberant baby talk.
“It sure is, and hopefully now you’ve caught the fever. Next time we hunt for big tuna and test your fishing prowess.”
They caught a couple more fish with Tucker standing behind her to make sure her technique was okay before Tucker moved them to an unmanned rig not far offshore. In an hour they had enough speckled trout to have to freeze some, and Tucker helped her up to the flybridge for the trip back home, where they shared the bench seat, her head against Tucker. The fun had helped her relax, and she looked forward to the next time.
“Thanks for bringing me.” She turned her head and rested her chin on Tucker’s shoulder.
Tucker smiled at her as Grady beat his little hands against the wheel. “I’m glad you came.”
The same two guys were waiting at the dock and took charge of the boat with a promise to clean their catch. Willow had a feeling the guys, along with Tucker, were watching her walk away, but it was only Tucker’s eyes on her that mattered.
Tucker’s gaze on her ass had been constant all day, along with the water and the fishing, and it made her realize how much she’d missed Tucker. Their time together months ago had been brief, but it certainly had been memorable. It had felt like the beginning of something good, until it had all blown apart.
Tucker showed off some more of her cooking skills with a great fish fry and another salad. They worked together to bathe Grady and get him ready for bed. Tonight, he fell asleep with Tucker rocking and singing to him, and he didn’t move except to stretch when Tucker put him down. Willow watched for a bit, then went out on the deck with a glass of wine. It didn’t take long for her emotions to implode, and she didn’t know why. But she let the tears fall.
She cried harder when Tucker stood behind her and held her. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me. Maybe I’m finally cracking up.”
Tucker bent, picked her up, and carried her inside into her room. The blankets were turned down, but tonight there’d be no Grady. “Lie down.”
“Tucker—”
“I just want to talk to you. This isn’t about getting to see you naked again.”
The way Tucker teased her and didn’t seem to want anything from her was both comforting and disappointing. That she even thought that made it official—she was completely nuts. If she kept vacillating between wanting Tucker and putting space between them, she was going to give the poor woman whiplash. “Would it be okay if I changed first? I think I want a shower before I mess up your sheets.” Tucker’s smile widened and Willow felt her ears grow hot.
“You can mess up my sheets whenever you like.”
“Stop it—you know what I mean. Will you wait up for me?”
“Need a lift to your room?”
She shook her head even though being in Tucker’s arms had been the best she’d felt since Monique’s death. “I’ll find my way back, don’t worry.”
“Good, I’ll be waiting.”
Willow rushed through her shower and dug out her nightgown instead of the shorts and T-shirt she’d worn the night before when the night had gone to hell. There was only a lamp lit with a dim bulb when she got back, and Tucker was reclined against the headboard like some kind of God.
“Come over here and let’s have a talk.” Tucker patted the spot next to her and held the blanket up. “Are you doing okay?” She nodded as she slid in next to Tucker and pulled the too short nightgown down. “You know, if there’s something I can do for you, just ask. Whatever our siblings had in mind here, I think it shouldn’t be a punishment. I think today proved that.”
“So, you never knew about Monique and Grady?” It wasn’t the greatest thing to open with, but in a nutshell that’s what had bugged her more than anything. That she might’ve been the butt of some private joke between Tucker and Jim Bob really upset her, and that upset had manifested itself in her batshit crazy drop dead response. She needed to know the truth before she could move forward.
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“Willow, I grieve my brother every day, but the fact that he kept Grady and your sister from me is something that’ll always upset me. You can’t believe that I’ve been lying about that.” Tucker stared at her and laughed at what she assumed was her lack of a poker face. “Or maybe you can.”
“It’s—” She didn’t know how to finish that without sounding like a judgmental bitch, which of course in this instance she was.
“It’s why you got mad at me, right? You already hated Jim Bob, and you figured we were related and totally alike.” Tucker didn’t sound upset. “The thing I’m saddest about is that I didn’t know Monique longer than I did.” Tucker took a deep breath before she went on. “Well, that and my brother not trusting me with something so important to him.”
“I’m sorry, Tucker.” Those two words were easy to say, but this time it would take more than that. She’d have to back the words up with action. “I freaked out on you because I thought you knew who I was. That I slept with you on our first date was something I thought you shared with Jim Bob as a joke. I assumed you were playing some kind of twisted game.”
“Really? I know you might not believe me, but I’m nothing like that.”
She turned and put her hands on Tucker’s chest. “I know that, and deep down I knew it then, but I’d been mad at Jim Bob for so long that finding out you were related rattled me. My biggest mistake was not coming to you with this sooner. Whatever happens and wherever we land, I don’t want to be your enemy.”
“How about my codefendant?”
“I don’t understand.” It felt so good to have everything in the open, and Willow could see just how absurd her behavior had been. She was lucky Tucker was open to second chances. But codefendant?
Chapter Seventeen
“Who exactly does this baby belong to?” Ivy’s hands shook from the want of one small vodka, but the morning was too important not to attempt sobriety. Bubba had been terrified when he’d received the legal roadmap Mann and Earl planned to take to overcome Tucker’s reluctance to play ball.
