Page 22 of Never Say Never

His ocean-blue eyes meet mine and he fixes me with a calm, steady gaze. “I want you to come with me.”

Something in the way he says it knocks the wind out of me. My response is barely audible. “Why?”

He exhales a deep breath, then looks down at the book in his lap before returning his gaze to me. “Because they like you. They’ll talk to you and ignore me. I need that tonight.”

“Your parents like you too, Tuck.”

“Daisy,” he says with a sigh, “With the road trip coming up and the end of the season, I’m too anxious to deal with my dad tonight.” My chest aches at the hurt in his voice. “When you’re around, it’s just… easier.”

Tucker is normally stoic. He shies away from emotion or opening himself up, so this admission is important. “Okay. I’m going to go get dressed,” I nod my head in the direction of my bedroom. “I won’t be long.”

I watch the tension in his shoulders release, and I know I’ve made the right decision. I close my bedroom door behind me and sit down on the edge of my bed, taking a moment to gather my thoughts. This is the opposite of what I promised myself. I had vowed to keep a safe distance from Tucker, but this just feels different.

He needs me.

I quickly change into a vintage skirt, tank top, and a light sweater that falls off one shoulder and twist my hair into a messy bun at the nape of my neck, then join Tucker back in the living room. He’s on the couch where I left him, still flipping through my travel book.

“Do you ever think about traveling?” I ask. The Collins’ vacationed often when Tuck was growing up, but as far as I knowhe hasn’t gone anywhere on his own, beyond the occasional golf or fishing trip with the boys.

He flips a page of the book before responding. “I remember being envious of you when you went on that trip after graduation.”

“You were? I didn’t know that,” I say as I sit down next to him, his knee an inch from mine. My stomach climbs into my chest as I breathe in his woodsy scent, remembering what happened the last time I was on a couch this close to him. It has been ages since that day— Tucker was just a boy with a slender frame and no facial hair— but something about this moment brings me straight back.

“There’s a lot you don’t know.” He flips another page, looking lost in thought, and I wonder what he means. Before I have the chance to ask him, he turns to look at me.

“I want to be the guy you have fun with until you leave,” he says, looking at me with sudden intensity.

Pardon me?

“What?” I must be losing my mind, because there is no way Tucker just said what I think he said.

“You heard me, Daisy.”

“No, I don’t think I did,” I stammer. “I couldn’t have heard you right.”

His already dark eyes turn three shades darker. “You heard me just fine. You want to have fun before you go. You have needs and so do I. Neither of us are looking for a relationship, so it makes perfect sense,” he says. “We care about each other. We can have safe, consensual sex with no strings and neither one of us gets hurt.”

“You must be out of your mind.”

“Not really.”

He actually thinks this is a good idea. “What are you always saying? I’m like a sister to you, right? You really think I’m theright person to be having sex with? Have you thought about our parents? They would lose their ever-loving minds.”

“They never have to find out,” he says. “And it’s not like we’re related. We grew up together, yes. As friends. So, we wouldn’t be doing anything wrong.”

Technically, he’s right, but he knows as well as I do that we were raised like siblings. The two of us have always been seen and treated as family.

He raises a brow as if he doesn’t understand why I’m hesitating. My heart thuds in my chest and I am hyper-aware of the place where our knees are still touching. Are we really having this conversation? I feel like I’m in a fever dream.

“Why do you need me for sex?” I ask in an incredulous tone. “You have every girl in Reed Point wanting a turn with you.”

He cocks his head instead of responding to my question. “I want you to think about it, Daisy. It’s not such a bad idea. I’m a better option than some guy you just met. You know me; you don’t know anything about that other dude.”

“He left.”

Tucker’s eyes narrow. “What do you mean, he left?”

“Will. The guy you saw me with at the dock party. He was only here on business. I knew he was leaving from the start.” Which made him the perfect guy to enjoy for a little while. “And no, I didn’t, before you ask. I couldn’t bring myself to sleep with him. It didn’t feel right.”

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