by B. J Daniels
“I didn’t think it was still a secret,” Cal said and picked up his beer. Clearly he was nervous and upset.
Jayce groaned and shook his head. “Tucker just got back.”
Like that made a difference. “Okay,” Tucker said, feeling like a fool. They all knew about Madeline. “So you all saw her. You all knew she was why I was staying behind that day. Why didn’t you say something?”
Cal looked to Jayce, who was taking a drink of his beer.
“We all figured she was why you skipped town when you did,” Cal said. “Ya knock her up?”
Jayce swore and put down his beer a little too hard on the table.
“Hey, we used to be best friends,” Cal pointed out. “I can’t ask him that?” he said to Jayce.
Tucker could feel the tension around the table. He felt as if he’d been left out of a private joke. “What’s going on? Jayce?”
Another look went around the table. Lonny chuckled and took a long draw on his beer. He appeared to be enjoying this.
Tucker swore. “Tell me what the hell is going on.”
Jayce glanced away for a moment. “Look, we knew you hadn’t ever...so we—”
It was all he could do not to smack himself in the forehead. “You set me up?” He couldn’t believe this.
“We’d heard about Madeline and figured...” Cal shrugged. “You were our friend. We were just trying to help you out.”
“Thanks a lot.” Tucker rubbed a hand over his face before picking up his beer and draining half of it. “How did you hear about her?”
Jayce looked to Lonny. “Didn’t you say you knew someone who’d met her?”
“It was almost twenty years ago,” Lonny said. “I can’t remember. I thought Cal suggested her.”
“No, I thought you said you got the name from your cousin,” Jayce said to Lonny.
“Rip?” Tucker thought this couldn’t get any worse. “It would have been nice if you’d given me a heads-up.”
Cal picked at the label on his bottle of beer. “We figured you’d be embarrassed. What we didn’t expect was that you’d fall for her. We wanted to warn you but then we’d have to admit what we did. So what happened to her?”
“She died in the creek next to the ranch nineteen years ago,” he said.
All three men stared at him, openmouthed.
“The skeleton that was found? That was her?” Cal said. He huffed out a humorless laugh. “I heard she liked to swim naked. You think she was naked?”
Jayce swore. “Damn it, Cal. Could you be any more inappropriate?”
“We didn’t all become uptight lawyers,” Cal said and took a drink of his beer.
“I’m sorry, Tuck.” Jayce shook his head. “We had no idea.”
“But right by your house,” Lonny said. “If that’s why you left like you did, why did it take them so long to find her bones?”
Tucker finished his beer and got to his feet.
“Come on, don’t go away mad,” Lonny said, looking much happier than he’d been earlier when he’d come into the bar.
“I’m not mad,” Tucker said.
Jayce got up and walked him to the door. “I don’t know what to say. When you pulled away from all of us and someone said they saw you and her together...”
“You should have told me.”
“I wanted to, but I was afraid it would ruin our friendship. As it was, I guess it did. When you came to me, asking if I would buy some of your stuff...”
“She was a con woman, Jayce. She turned me every way but loose and ultimately made me believe that it was my fault that she died that night.”
“I had no idea. I just thought she was...you know, easy. I should never have gone along with it that day. I’ve regretted it for years.”
“It’s all water under the bridge, so to speak,” Tucker said. “Thanks for the beer.” He pushed open the door, just needing fresh air. All these years he’d believed he and Madeline had been fated as well as a secret lovers. He let out a bark of a laugh as he started toward his pickup. Could he have been any more a fool?
He’d only had one beer, but he decided a walk would do him good. He needed to clear his head. Everything he’d believed nineteen years ago had been wrong. Being young was one thing, but being trusting and blind...
The town was so quiet. He used to joke that Gilt Edge sidewalks rolled up at eight o’clock every night. It wasn’t far past eight and the streets were deserted. Right now, though, he couldn’t get over what he’d learned. It had been a setup. His friends just helping the virgin among them.
He felt his face heat, and yet, at the same time, he couldn’t be angry with them. He knew their hearts had been in the right place. It was their heads he wanted to slam together.
If Rip had told them about Madeline... It surprised him that Lonny would be the one who had heard about her. That didn’t seem likely, but who knew how his friends had come up with Madeline. He was the fool who’d fallen for the woman, who apparently anyone could have had for the right price.
As he walked, he thought about what Kate had said last night at the restaurant as they were leaving. “Maybe she did love you.” He’d known she’d said it to take the edge off some of the other things she’d said after dinner. But at the time, he’d thought maybe it was true.
He scoffed at that now. With Madeline it was just one lie after another. As a car pulled up next to him and slowed, he didn’t look over, figuring it was probably Jayce or Cal or maybe even Lonny, wanting to rub more salt into the wound.
“Tucker!”
He stopped and turned to see Kate behind the wheel of her pearl-white SUV. She had the passenger-side window down and was leaning toward him.
“I need to walk,” he said, not up to talking any more about Madeline tonight.
“Mind if I walk with you?”
He counted to ten. “I’m not really up for talking.”
“Fine with me.” She pulled over and parked. When she got out he saw that she was dressed as she’d been earlier. She seemed like a woman who changed clothes at least a couple of times a day. Maybe not. He wondered if she’d had as bad a day as he had.
She fell in beside him as they continued down the empty main street. A few cars passed in the darkness, but no one stopped. After a couple of blocks of not a word out of her, he pointed to a park just off the street.
The grass was damp already as they walked through it. He headed for the swings, remembering being a kid in this town and playing late into the night, so long that his father would have to drive around and find him and chastise him all the way home for worrying his mother.
He sat down on the first swing. Kate took the one next to him and pushed off with her feet as she began to swing back and forth. She smiled as she went higher and higher.
He pulled his swing back out of the way so he could watch her. Her smile broadened each time she managed to pump to a great elevation. He heard a giggle escape her, her head falling back, her long hair like a dark cloak behind her.
He couldn’t help but smile, too, as he watched her lose herself in the simplest of childhood pleasures.
“My friends set me up with Madeline,” he said when Kate returned to the present and, having quit pumping, slowed.
“What?” She dragged her feet to come to an abrupt stop to stare at him.
“They wanted to get me laid. Apparently I was the only virgin of our little group.” It was hard to admit, but the darkness and the park helped. He breathed in the cold night air. “They didn’t expect me to fall for her.”
He was glad that Kate said nothing for a few minutes. She was sitting on the swing, making designs in the dust at her feet with the toe of her boot, when she said, “I didn’t tell you what happened in the café. The waitress wants to meet with me. It seems she has information about the Dunn family.”
Whe
n he said nothing, she looked over at him. “I called her. She knew Madeline. She’ll tell me everything she knows as long as I’m willing to pay for the information and not use her name if I write about this.”
“You’re going to write about this?”
She shrugged.
He stood, letting go of the swing. “Do what you want, but I’m done. I don’t want to know any more about Madeline or any of it.”
“You don’t want to go with me to meet the woman?” Kate asked as she caught up with him.
“No.” He kept walking.
She grabbed his arm and spun him around to face her. “What do you want, then, Tucker Cahill? If not revenge, justice, closure? Tell me.”
His gaze locked with hers in the starlight canopy over their heads. Her eyes widened as if she saw what he was feeling. “What I want?” He grabbed her shoulders and dragged her to him. He could see that she’d thought he was going to kiss her.
Instead, he pushed her long hair aside and pressed his lips to a warm, sweet spot just below her ear, then began to work his way down her slim throat.
“If you’re trying to change my mind about going north to meet this woman tomorrow...”
He continued down slowly, planting kisses with small licks of his tongue. He deftly slipped loose the top button of her blouse with his fingers to trace the swell of her breasts above the lacy bra.
She shivered, but she didn’t try to stop him. Was she waiting to see how far he would go? The idea intrigued him. If she wanted to see who blinked first, she was about to end up naked and—
“Tucker.” Her voice sounded choked with emotion. When she stopped his hand from releasing the second button on her blouse, he felt her trembling.
His own heart was pounding. He knew exactly what he wanted. His lips and tongue on her warm smooth skin. His face buried in the generous swell of her breasts. The hard pink nub of her nipple in his mouth. Just the thought of what he wanted to do to her drove him insane.
She pulled back and cast her gaze down as she rebuttoned her blouse. “I’m going north in the morning with or without you.”
As if he hadn’t known that. He said as much.
“Whatever this was...” She waved her hand through the air. She sounded as shaken as he felt. “You can’t use your...charm to change my mind.”
“That wasn’t my charm,” he said, aware of the ache low in his belly. “Anyway, I thought you could tell the difference between a man trying to seduce you and one who is trying to manipulate you.”
She raised her gaze. Their eyes locked. “You think there is a difference?”
“Damn straight.”
He saw her shiver before she said, “We might have to investigate that at some point.”
“Promise?” he asked, only half teasing.
She tried to look away but he caught her chin and kept her gaze on his.
“There is a whole lot I want to investigate when it comes to you,” he said. “I was only getting started a few minutes ago. Being around you—”
“I thought Madeline made you gun-shy?”
He let go of her chin. He knew she’d only brought up Madeline as a way of keeping him at arm’s length. Apparently she was more afraid of whatever this was between them than even he was. Because of Madeline? Or had some man done a number on her?
“I’m still a man, Kate. Never doubt that.” He turned and started down the street, the growing, aching need almost painful.
“I know you say you’re done with all this, but don’t you want to know the truth?” she asked when she caught up to him.
“I already know the truth.” He slowed some, making it easier for her to keep up, hoping she’d just drop this but knowing she wouldn’t.
“I’m meeting her at some rest area between here and Clawson Creek.”
He shook his head as he looked over at her. “You can’t be serious.”
“Five hundred dollars’ worth of serious.”
Tucker sighed. “You’re just throwing your money away.”
“Probably.” She walked without looking at him. “But I will find Madeline’s accomplice. If you don’t care about justice—”
He let out an oath. “I’ll go.” He’d stopped walking so abruptly that she had to turn to look back at him.
“You’re sure?”
“I can’t let you go alone to some rest area in the middle of nowhere to meet some...more than likely flake who will just take your money, if not your life.”
“Well, when you put it like that, I’m glad you’ve changed your mind and want to go with me.” She smiled at him and got a sad smile from him. He could tell that she felt at least a little guilty for dragging him back into this.
He didn’t know why he’d put up a fight against going with her. Had he really thought he could just walk away? As if he could walk away from this woman and not regret it.
Still, he cursed himself for getting in deeper with her. He didn’t give a damn about Madeline or her accomplice. But Kate...
“I should get back to my hotel,” she said. “I’ll pick you up in the morning. Nine?”
“I’m walking you back to your car.” She mugged a face at him and started to argue, but he quickly cut her off. “My pickup’s back that way.”
“Well, in that case...”
They walked a few yards. He could tell something was bothering her even before she came to a stop and turned in front of him to confront him.
“Tucker, I feel as if I’ve forced you to go with me tomorrow.”
He let out a laugh. “You’re good, Kate. But I’m a big boy. I don’t do anything I don’t want to.” Their gazes held for a moment before she turned and started walking again. “And we’ve already established what I want.”
She swallowed and continued to walk.
Tucker fell in beside her, the night feeling too intimate as they moved through the quiet town. This woman would be the death of him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
KATE WAS STILL trembling inside after what had happened in the park. The man evoked feelings in her...needs in her. She’d stopped him, knowing exactly where he’d had been headed. And right there in the park!
Worse, she’d wanted it. Why else had she conned him into going with her in the morning? She was furious with herself. Why had she told him about her meeting with Tammy Holden, anyway? Hadn’t she known that he wouldn’t let her go alone? Of course she had. Wasn’t that why she’d told him, because she wanted him to go with her?
She shook her head. She’d always prided herself on her independence. She certainly didn’t need Tucker to go with her tomorrow. But this had nothing to do with independence or that kind of need. This was a whole different matter and one that terrified her.
Going out with men like Peter had always been...safe. With those kinds of men there was no chance of losing her heart—let alone losing her mind. With Tucker, she feared it would mean total surrender—mind, body and soul.
The worst part was that now, back in her hotel room, she ached for Tucker’s touch again, afraid no other man would evoke such need in her. The realization made her even more angry with herself. Kate pulled out her phone, telling herself she would call him and tell him she was going alone.
The thought of hearing his voice...
Pocketing her phone without making the call, she told herself she’d just get up earlier and go without him. Putting that matter behind her, she got ready for bed. Once between the cool silken sheets, though, she knew the oblivion of sleep eluded her.
She kept feeling his warm fingers slowly unbuttoning her blouse. Only, when she closed her eyes, this time she didn’t stop him. He both frightened and captivated her; she could admit it lying here alone in the dark. She desperately wanted to see not just how far he would go, but where she would let him take her.
* * *
TUCKER WAS STILL too worked up to sleep. He stopped by the Stagecoach Saloon. He hadn’t seen much of his family since he’d been back. He found Darby behind the bar. A country song played on the sound system, and he could smell burgers grilling in the back.
“Those burgers for that table over there?” he asked his brother, motioning to a table of six by the window. He could see that the place had been busy not long before this but it was late enough that most everyone had called it a night.
Darby grinned. “Go back to the kitchen and ask Billie Dee to throw another burger on for you. Just tell her what you’d like with it. How is it that you haven’t met our authentic Texas cook?” his brother asked. “I guess it’s because we haven’t hardly seen you since you’ve been back.” He quickly held up his hand. “No judgment. Honestly.”
Tucker chuckled. “You sound like Flint.” But he said it good-naturedly. “It’s been kind of crazy since I returned.”
“I would imagine it’s an adjustment. Go order your burger and say hello to Billie Dee, then come back. What can I get you to drink?”
“Just a cola.” As he approached the kitchen, he heard singing. He recognized the song as an old gospel hymn he’d heard when he spent some time down South. He waited until she finished. But before he could speak, she started in on another song. “Excuse me,” he said, hating to interrupt her.
She spun around and her face instantly lit up. “Bless your heart. You must be Tucker.” She hurriedly wiped her hands on her apron and rushed to give him a hug. He blinked in surprise and then had to smile. “I’ve heard so much about you. I was starting to think you were a figment of everyone’s imagination. I’m so glad you’re not.” She pulled back to survey him. “You are just as handsome as Lillie said you were.” She let out a wolf whistle and rushed back to the burgers on the grill.
“I’d love a burger, if it isn’t too much trouble.”
“Ah, honey, nothing is too much trouble for a Cahill.” She opened the refrigerator, took out a patty and slapped it on the grill. “I’ll holler when it’s ready. What would you like with it?”
He told her to surprise him and Billie Dee laughed. She went back to her singing and Tucker returned to the bar smiling.
