Page 38 of An Engagement for Erica

“I expected no differently. I’m just glad Dad didn’t have anything else lined up right then. I’m sure he had appointments that were canceled, but there are emergencies all the time that cause that to happen and this was one of them.”

“Is Tucker’s grandfather okay?”

“I’m not sure okay is the word I’d use, but he’s alive and hanging on. It’s going to be touch and go for a few days and then a long road of recovery. I feel horrible for Tucker to have to deal with this on top of everything else.”

“Sometimes life just drops the cart of lemons on your front door.”

“There isn’t enough sugar to turn this into anything positive,” she said.

“I didn’t say that,” Harmony said. “Just that this is one of those times where you just have to figure out a way to remove them to get out the door.”

“That is how I felt all day when I stayed to work.”

Erica struggled to stay focused for her interviews after Tucker had left, but she had, then she left and drove to New Haven.

There wasn’t even a thought in her brain that she shouldn’t be there for Tucker.

“Was Tucker surprised to see you there?” Harmony asked. “I mean this goes beyond you thinking he’s a slice of bacon.”

She smiled. Not even a forced one.

“He was, but then I don’t think so either. He thanked me for coming, gave me a hug. I feel so bad for him. His grandfather was more like a father to him. And though Tucker is running the company now, his grandfather is still around.”

“So he has to figure out a way to balance them both,” Harmony said. “But he has you.”

“Yeah,” she said. “He does.”

It wasn’t just the hug from Tucker that had her heart knocking hard in her chest.

But when she reached her hand over to hold his as they sat in his grandfather’s room. She was only allowed in because of her father, she knew.

“I’m assuming you talked to Dad at some point?” Harmony asked.

“Yes. He’d texted me when the surgery was done to just say he’d been able to do it. I told him I’d be there soon and he said he’d wait, to let him know when I arrived.”

“So he met Tucker,” Harmony said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“He did. But I’m not thinking anything of it.”

“Dad knows what is going on,” Harmony said. “He heard Daisy and me picking on you about it.”

“I know he did,” she said. “He didn’t say anything to me about it.”

“Dad isn’t that way,” Harmony said. “But don’t be surprised if he doesn’t reach out to find out more.”

She laughed. “We are talking about Dad here. I know he’s changed a lot over the past few years. He’s more open with us and almost fun to be around. But he’s never been one to get into our business.”

Harmony lifted an eyebrow. “That was before you scared him.”

Her shoulders dropped. “I’m fine now,” she said. “Am I ever going to live this down?”

“No,” her sister said. “There is nothing to live down. Maybe if you weren’t so stressed and running on fumes you still would have gotten those migraines.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I like to think that the medication to adjust my hormones is working.”

“It’s birth control,” Harmony said. “You can say it without someone thinking you’re loose.”

“No one would think I was loose,” she said. There was a tiny part of her that wanted to share with her sister how Tucker had said he was hoping she’d be turning left over right.

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