Page 48 of Just One of the Groomsmen
Now he needed something else.
“We spend your next day off fishing.” He waited for the inevitable slamming of fishing, and how she’d say that she needed more action—better not think too much about that last part.“I get to pick the spot.”
She wrinkled her nose.
“What? Are you scared?” he asked, knowing that’d have her agreeing in no time.
“No. My team’s winning this game tonight; you can bet your ass on that.”
Both her mother and grandmothertsked over her swearing.
He had her right where he wanted her, so he confidently extended his hand, pushing her closer to the edge. “Do we have a bet?”
A beat of hesitation, and then she grabbed his hand and gave it one firm shake. He wanted to pull her to him and throw her off a bit, but her grandma was still standing there next to her, giving him an odd look that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
The woman was probably planning some kind of heist, and then he’d be smack-dab in the middle of a drawn-out legal trial on her behalf, since clearly he was never getting out of being her lawyer.
Mrs. Murphy called them to the table for dinner, and Tucker reluctantly dropped Addie’s hand.
They passed around the platters of food, and when he covered his mashed “potatoes” in gravy, Addie reached over and tipped the back end of the gravy boat higher, making more spill out onto the pureed cauliflower.
“Trust me,” she whispered. Then she doused everything on her plate in gravy.
While the rest of her family was distracted with eating, he asked if she’d heard anything from Lexi.
Her face dropped, and he wished he hadn’t brought it up—from now on, he’d ask Shep instead. “I tried calling. She didn’t answer, so I texted her a picture of the tulle-wrapped beam of the gazebo, along with the yardage, and still nothing.”
He’d just shoved a big bite of the cauliflower masquerading as potatoes in his mouth when Lucia asked, “Tucker, do you happen to know any nice single girls? I trying to set Addie up on a date.”
As hard as he worked to convince himself to swallow the faux potatoes, his tongue had other ideas, and his reactionary inhale at her question made them hit the back of his throat.
He covered his cough the best he could and then washed down the food with water. “You wanna set Addie up with a girl?”
Pink had crept into Addie’s face, and she shook her head, her eyes rolling to the heavens as if she needed help from above. “Nonna, I told you that I’m not into girls.”
“You won’t know till you try, and this makes perfect sense. You played softball and soccer. And you would have played football in high school if they let you.”
Addie’s fork clattered against her plate. “It takes more than liking sports to decide you also want to date girls.”
“I thought she was dating the dentist,” Tucker said, and that corresponding bite in his gut that happened whenever he thought about her with the guy dug in its teeth.
“She’s fixin’ to mess that up before it’s even started,” Mrs. Murphy said.
“Gee, thanks, Mom.”
“It’s only been two dates. One at Mulberry & Main, and one at his house, and Lottie said you left pretty early.”
“Oh my gosh, you get gossip about your own daughter from Lottie?”
Mrs. Murphy threw up her hands. “You never tell me what’s going on. I have to resort to crumbs from someone else.”
Addie dropped her head in her hands.
Admittedly, he wanted a straight answer about the dentist. Not that he wasn’t open to hearing more about her going out with another girl, but only in the imaginary-scenario-type way.
Reality was a different story, and he found that when he thought of it that way, he didn’t want her with anyone else. But he didn’t know if thinking of her with him was realistic, either.
Especially right now, with his life such a big question mark.
