Page 84 of The Long Game

“Tucker. What’s wrong?” I stand up from my desk immediately.

“They got it wrong. I told you before that she and I aren’t together. I swear to God, Lex, I never laid a finger on her like that,” He says in a rush.

“Wow… just slow down,” I say as I stand from my chair. “Who got what wrong? What’s happening.”

“Have you been watching the news?”

“Yes,” I say as I motion to the weather channel on the T.V.

“No, have you been watching the trash they call news on the sports channel?”

“Of course not. I’ve been following the storm for the last two days, nonstop.”

Tucker takes a couple large strides into my office and grabs the remote off of my desk. He points the remote to the T.V. and changes the station to the sports channel.

One of the anchor contributors is on the screen, with a picture of Tucker and the same woman Tucker was caught with after midnight leaving a restaurant opening over a year ago.

“This picture was taken two days later. This isn’t even a recent picture. I was still playing for Seattle when that pap got this picture. I can’t believe this shit is newsworthy.”

I hear the anchor’s voice. “Tucker Evans was caught again with Mallory Stahl. Could they be trying to keep their affair a secret? It’s hard to imagine the NFL’s hottest player finally settling down, but maybe this running back is tired of running… from love.”

Tucker turns to the T.V. after studying my face as I listen to the corniest news story ever delivered… and horribly written, too.

“It’s a fucking load of shit,” he says as he turns the channel back to the weather, where it was before he stormed in.

“Tucker…”

“Lexi, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t let this shit keep happening. They’re on a damn witch hunt now to determine that I’m a closet monogamist... it’s the craziest thing I’ve ever fucking heard.”

He runs his hands through his hair as he tosses the remote on the chair across from him.

“Tucker…” I try again as I take another step towards him and place a hand on his shoulder.

“Lexi, please…” he says as he feels my touch and pulls an arm around my waist, pulling me into his brick wall of a body and sinking his face into the crook of my neck. “…I need the world to know I belong to you. Because, goddamn it, I do. And I have since I was seventeen years old. I didn’t realize how long I’ve been yours but now I do. I’ll do anything you ask, just don’t ask me to walk away…not again. I’ll retire…I’ll live in Chicago full-time…I’ll…”

“Tucker stop!” I reach up and grab his jaw with both hands and wait until he calms himself and looks down at me. “I believed you when you told me you weren’t dating her back then, and I believe you now. I’ve been an idiot and I’ve accused you of a lot of things, but I never believed you’d lie to me.”

“I wouldn’t. I’d never lie to you, Lexi.”

“I know.” I nod.

He exhales as though he had been holding it since he left Green Bay. Guilt rises up in me. It’s my fault Tucker drove mach speed to get here to me to make sure I didn’t believe what the gossip mill was spewing about him now.

I push up on my tiptoes and he takes my advance. He pulls me in even tighter as his perfectly full lips blanket over mine.

He stops our kiss before things get out of hand.

“I was so consumed with getting here – getting to you, that I took off before Luca got the pack n’ play and all of their things out of the SUV. I have to go back.” He sighs.

“Ok.”

“Can I come over tonight? After I drop off everything at Luca’s?”

“Yes.” I smile up at him.

His signature Tucker smile beams and I swear my knees literally shake as they go weak.

“Meteorologists believe this could be one of the worst storms the Chicago area has seen in almost a hundred years. State and County officials are stressing that everyone who can, should stay off the roads as driving conditions could become extreme hazardous,” the news anchor says on the weather channel.

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