Page 128 of Old Acquaintances

I scooted to the edge of the bed, and he stepped backward as if I was dangerous. “Tucker, it’s just sex. It was just sex that first time and it’sjust sexnow.” I point to his hand. “You clearly want this.”

“No.” He ran fingers through his hair. “I don’t wantjust sexwith you. Ella, you -” He stopped. “We’re operating on different systems here and if I want to salvage anything that I have with you then we have to stop. Now.”

I stepped off the bed.

He backed toward the door.

I searched his face to understand what he meant by that. Different systems? We were both adults operating onwant. I didn’t mistake the way he touched me, the way his body reacted. I said, “Nothing has to change between us. It didn’t for the last four years.”

I saw his eyes dip to my chest.

I peeled my shirt off and held it in one hand, dangling to the ground. “I know you want me, Eli…you canhaveme.”

He moved his gaze from my breasts to my face, his hand grappling for the door. “I don’t want you like this.”

After the door shut behind him, I looked back at the chips and candy on the bedspread. There was an indention where our bodies had just been. A dip in the pillow from his body.

A silent, separate breakfast the next morning was the last time I saw Tucker for seven years.

Chapter Thirty

Today

It would have been easier to seduce him if I hadn’t been told to wear a wetsuit.

“The water’s cold,” Serena explains. “You’ll get hypothermia.”

“Isn’t Florida supposed to always be warm?” I ask, putting my arms in the rubber sleeves. “I thought that was the whole point of being here in Winter.”

I stand in the sunshine of the patio, smelling the gasoline from the boat, listening to the motor bubble in the water. Wyatt and Ritchie sit in the back with Tucker at the center console, two of them having a drink, one responsibly swirling a bottle of kombucha. Tucker’s head falls back in a laugh. He adjusts his sleeveless shirt. His lean arm muscles grow when he scratches his head.

Serena finishes braiding my hair, so it doesn’t get wild in the water and asks, “So, how’s operation Make-Tucker-Fall-in-Love-With-You going?” Her eyes notice my attention.

I zip up my suit. “At this rate, I’ll probably have to get my arm chewed off by a shark in order to get so much as a pity-fuck.”

She laughs. “At least you look cute in a wetsuit.”

“I look like a seal.” I spread my arms out.

“I’m sorry but you have to wear it. I don’t need you shivering and complaining. Tucker will be mad that he has to save your lifeagain, and he’ll book a flight back to Georgia before you can say,I love you.”

“This is stupid, isn’t it?”

“What part of what thing that’s happening is stupid?” She throws me a look and picks up a snorkel and goggles. “Is it stupid for you to be in love with him? Is it stupid for you to be staring at him with puppy dog eyes?Oris it stupid for you to not just tell him?”

I hold up the snorkel. “This came with the house?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you sanitize it?”

“I used this all-natural -”

“No.” I walk into the kitchen and open the cabinets under the sink to find a disinfectant spray.

Serena follows, arguing, “Ella you can’t just spray Lysol where you’re going to put your mouth.”

“Watch me.” I spray the snorkel and leave it in the empty sink.

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