Page 143 of An Engagement for Erica

“I plan on it.”

45

GET RIGHT TO IT

The last thing Tucker wanted to do when he returned home after being gone was to stop at Erica’s house and fight again.

But he knew it would happen when she sent him a simple text that she knew their charade had been up for a while.

Nothing more.

Not even how she felt about it.

Which didn’t give him any indication of what was in store for him.

No one liked going into a war zone blind and without weapons.

He rang the bell rather than just walking in like he had been doing.

She opened it immediately.

No smile.

No hug.

Nothing.

“Come in,” she said.

“Hi,” he said. “How are you doing?”

“I’ve been better,” she said. “You?”

Talk about a formal conversation. This was righty tighty again with an extra twist to make it hard to move in the future.

“Tired,” he said. Might as well get right to it. “There is only one way you could have found out about my grandfather knowing and that is through him. Am I right?”

She nodded her head. “He stopped here this morning after he’d been to the plant.”

“Yeah, I heard about that after the fact too.”

As if it wasn’t bad enough that his grandfather had to show up and try to stop people from running their mouths about his personal life by letting the big man in town be present, then TC had to interject himself into his grandson’s personal relationship.

He wasn’t sure if he was more livid or just incredulous that he had no control over anything in his life.

Having no faith in him to do the job was a feeling he’d never experienced, but meddling in his personal life he wouldn’t tolerate.

“And you’re not happy about it. I told him you’d feel that way too,” she said.

“Glad to know someone understands me, but obviously not well enough. You’re pissed off so get it off your chest.”

He moved into the family room after following her back there.

The fake diamond was on the counter and it was hard not to miss that fact with the light reflecting off of it as if it was on a stand for a game show to bid on.

“I want to know why you didn’t tell me that your grandfather knew the engagement was fake. Be honest. Because right now I can only go by facts and the facts are you have been lying to me.”

He couldn’t dispute that. “Let me ask you this. Why was your first reaction to knowing our relationship was out in the open a negative one?”

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