Page 53 of Waiting for Redemption

“Your brown eyes. Like melted chocolate and caramel.”

Or honey, but I’ll keep that between us.

“Good.” She lets go of my face and I immediately miss her touch.

“Don’t youeverscare me like that again.” The anger in her voice is accompanied by tears welling in her eyes and all I want to do is kiss her forehead and tell her how sorry I am—for everything.

“You’re a lot of things, Tank Landry, but a quitter is not one of them. You better figure your shit out and realize that there are people who are counting on you being around.” Unable to fight the need to have her in my arms, I pull her to me, looking at Tucker with reassurance when I answer.

“I will.”

Ruby swipes a fallen tear away angrily, her voice shifting into humored annoyance.

“I hate closing the bar with Marco, he still doesn’t know how to make a gimlet and it’s literally the easiest drink in the world to learn.” We both choke out a laugh as we stand there for another moment.

“Why don’t we sit down for a minute?” Tucker encourages, leading us all to the kitchen table.

He walks ahead of us and as Ruby pulls away, I can see so much emotion on her face. So many things she wants to say—or yell—and I intend to listen to every single one of them.

“Would you guys mind not telling anyone else about this?” I see Ruby and Tucker give each other a concerned glance.

“Listen, brother. I understand this is a lot to process, but you can’t just keep all of this bottled up and act like it never happened,” Tucker says first.

“Yeah, I’m with Tucker. You need to talk to someone who really knows how to help you,” Ruby adds.

“Just, not yet. Okay? I know I have a lot of shit to figure out, but I’m not ready to talk about it with other people. I can’t handle having this conversation with all of our friends. You guys knowing is enough for right now. Okay?” I ask, hoping they’ll respect my request.

“Well, I won’t tell anyone else. You have my word. But Max knowssomethingis up,” Tucker says simply.

“Shit. How?” I ask, running a hand through my hair.

“We kind of figured it out together when you didn’t show up to work today,” he says, making me scoff because of course they did.

“Anybody else?” I ask, looking between the two of them.

“No. Nobody else.” Ruby shakes her head. “I told the girls I was going to run out for coffee as soon as your text came through. I didn’t want to worry anyone in case… in case I was wrong,” she says sadly, looking down at her lap. My fingers twitch to reach out and squeeze her hand, to try and comfort the painIcaused.

“Thanks. I appreciate you both keeping this to yourself. And…” I swallow hard past the lump in my throat. “And for showing up for me.” My voice betrays me, breaking as I let myself be vulnerable to the fact that someone actually cares about what happens to me. More than one someone, apparently.

“I’ll always show up for you, Tank. Just please don’t make me show up likethisagain, okay?” Ruby says, squeezing my forearm. Tucker watches as it happens, and lifts a brow at me in return.

“I won’t. I promise.” And that’s a promise I intend to keep. No matter what I have to do to make it happen.

“Okay, well, I better get going. I have coffee to pick up now.” She laughs, squeezing my arms one more time before standing from the table.

“Yeah, I can walk you out,” I offer, standing from the table. When we reach the door, I open it, and Ruby steps outside, quickly turning around to face me.

“Tank, you didn’t… I mean, last night I–” She looks up at me with her eyes full of tears, swallowing hard as she squares her shoulders back. “My life will always be so much better with you in it, Tank. I just wanted you to know that. No matter what.” She reaches up and kisses my cheek before rushing off to her car. I close the door and return to the table where Tucker is typing on his phone. I hear theswooshof a sent text message and he locks his phone before looking up at me.

“So,” he says expectantly.

“So…” I clear my throat, sitting back as I run my hands over my face.

“A lot has happened here today. We’re getting a safety crisis plan set up for you immediately andso muchother shit that you’re probably going to despise me for, but it’s for your own good. But putting all of that aside,for now,can we just go ahead and talk about what the fuck is going on between you and Ruby?”

“Really Tuck?That’sthe first course of action you want to take? Figuring out what’s happening in my love life?”

“Love life?So thereissomething going on there?” he asks in his annoying, overly amused tone.

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