Page 50 of An Engagement for Erica

“Grandpa,” Tucker said calmly. “She’s only trying to help. You need to work on your left arm. They know what they are doing.”

“That’s right,” TC said. “The more I use it, the better. Sorry if I’m dropping food. I’ll pay someone to come clean it up.”

Erica grinned over the comment. She liked that TC had some spunk.

“I’m here with Erica,” he said. “Do you want her to see you eating like that?”

“No,” TC said. “Let me finish up with my right hand and get this mess cleaned up. I need to be looking my best to see your fiancée.”

She rolled her eyes. Guess that meant it was one confusing fact he was holding onto.

Tucker had told her he’d tried to say he wasn’t engaged and TC got annoyed with him to stop trying to hide it from him. That he wasn’t anything like Tucker’s father and wouldn’t put on a show.

She didn’t know why that just popped back into her head and should have asked for a better explanation.

She would today if it came up.

“Fine,” Tucker said. “Erica and I will go get a coffee and return in about ten minutes.”

“Thank you,” the nurse said. “We’ll get him fed and taken care of by then.”

Tucker walked out of the room to where she’d been standing against the wall.

“How much of that did you hear?”

“Everything,” she said quietly. But she was grinning. “I like his moxie.”

“That’s a word for it,” he said, putting his hand on her lower back and moving her toward the elevator. “Pain in the ass might be better, but you know, it is what it is.”

“I understand now why you want to do this,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said. “I can’t lose him. Or I don’t want him to give up. If he has something to work towards, he will. He’s always been that way.”

“He doesn’t sound like someone that wants to give up to me,” she said when they stepped into the elevator. The fact TC was trying to use a hand that wasn’t working because Tucker’s grandfather knew the more he used it the stronger it’d get was very telling to her of his determination.

“No,” he said. “Most times he doesn’t. And this is something I don’t want to risk either.”

“Has he given up on things in the past?” she asked.

They got to the cafeteria. She wanted another coffee but knew one was her limit still. No use rocking the boat.

She grabbed a bottle of juice, while he filled up a cup with coffee. Then he grabbed a scone, and they did look good so she did the same.

He paid for their food but hadn’t answered her question.

When they sat, he said. “He gave up on my father.”

She knew this was going to be a touchy subject. “You might need to explain that some if you want.”

“I don’t really blame my grandfather now, looking back. But when I was younger I didn’t understand why my grandfather didn’t put his foot down with my father’s behavior. Not in the business or his personal life.”

“It’s hard for a parent to have an adult child follow directions,” she said.

She knew that. So did her siblings.

Theo might have been the one who tried the most, but he finally gave up too.

But none of them were out soiling the family name either.

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