Page 122 of Just One of the Groomsmen
He forced himself to so he wouldn’t turn into one of those pathetic has-beens, the anecdote people told their kids to scare them into sticking with it, or else look at what they might become. Day in and day out, he went through the motions, digging through files and talking to people about their broken boats.
Mere weeks ago, he’d found a newfound love for legal cases, no matter how odd or how small. He’d taken on boat repairs and renovations, and he’d thought he was building something. That he could make life in Uncertainty work, even if it meant shifting his goals and how he’d once envisioned his life.
As Flash dragged Tucker past the gazebo, he automatically glanced inside. But Addie wasn’t up on a ladder risking life and limb in the name of helping her friend’s fiancée with her wedding planning.
She always went above and beyond, putting herself last, which was why he’d tried to force her to put herself first.
And in return, he’d lost her.
It’d been ten days since their awful fight in the houseboat. She didn’t answer his calls. Didn’t answer her door. She’d started locking it, too, so he’d have to go the breaking and entering route, and he’d be lying if he said it hadn’t crossed his mind.
He did happen to have a cop friend, although he wasn’t sure Easton would let him out of anything right now, and no matter how much legal jargon he could spout and spin, B and E wasn’t exactly a gray area.
In desperation, he’d driven to the soccer field and caught the tail end of the last game Addie had coached. As soon as it ended, her team and parents surrounded her, and then she’d managed to give him the slip.
She hadn’t gone to her house, either—he’d swung by to check.
This morning he’d finally received a text, in reply to the one he’d sent asking how things were going in Tuscaloosa.
He told himself not to look at it again. And yet he pulled out his phone anyway, as if the words might’ve changed and would mean something different this time.
Addie:It went great. Gee thanks for not thinking I had a mind of my own and for making sure I followed this possible job lead. Now you don’t have to worry that those few times we had sex didn’t do any good. Feel free to commence with the freedom cartwheels.
To say she was still pissed would be an understatement. If he could take back that stupid “Then what good is it” comment, he would. He’d been frustrated, and everything had been falling apart, and now she wouldn’t even listen to his apologies.
How did it get ugly so fast?
Everything he thought they could avoid because they were friends first didn’t matter in the end. They disagreed; they fought. They…
His lungs collapsed in on themselves.
They broke up.
Tucker walked past the fabric shop, and of course Lottie was standing outside, hands on her hips. You’d think helping her daughter with her divorce would’ve put him in her good graces, but nope.
She sighed, nice and loud, and he experienced that urge to hurry he’d been missing. “Mornin’, Lottie,” he said in the name of not being rude.
“You think another girl will put up with you the way Addison Murphy does? Because I’ll tell you right now that you’ll never do better.” Another huff. “The nerve, coming back to town only to tell her to leave. Who’s going to help rehab my bad knee now?”
Logical answers about seeing Mr. Watkins or how Addie didn’t have to live her life for the people of Uncertainty wouldn’t do him any good, so he simply walked on, and this time he had to tug on Flash instead of the opposite way around.
At first, Tucker thought one of his friends must’ve spilled the beans as some sort of payback. Probably because his head hadn’t been right in over a week.
Apparently what signaled suspicion was the fact that his truckwasn’tparked at Addie’s anymore. The town had accepted they were friends, so once they began avoiding each other, everyone speculated they’d had a falling out.
Maisy, the pregnant woman who ran the bakery shop, didn’t say anything, but the purse of her lips made it clear she was Team Addie. And as he was leaving the coffee shop, someone muttered, “And he claims to be a War Eagle man.”
That was too far, and nearly enough to make Tucker turn back and say something, but again, no use.
Once tongues started wagging about the rift, everyone jumped in to speculate why. Turned out he and Addie weren’t as discreet at the bar and diner as they’d thought. Once those juicy pieces of gossip were added, the whole town realized they’d attempted a romantic relationship, and several blamed Tucker for it being no more.
He didn’t bother defending himself, because unlike the rumor about him being fired from his big-city law firm, this one was true.
He’d screwed it up.
There were a hundred better ways he could’ve handled it.
He’d forgotten how silly the town could be when sides were drawn, and yet it didn’t dim the love he had for it, the slower pace, and the different lifestyle. They protected their own, and he admired them for standing up for Addie without bothering to gather things like all the facts.
