Page 58 of Just One of the Groomsmen
Addie glanced at the heavens for strength and then turned her attention to David. With Tucker mere feet away, she kept opening her mouth, then feeling self-conscious. She grabbed David by the elbow and walked a few yards away, giving them at least a semblance of privacy.
“I do have plans tonight. I also think that you and I… Maybe we’d be better off just tryin’ to be friends.”
After a couple of seconds of silence, he slowly nodded. “That’d probably be for the best. I’m so busy with my new practice and helping out with my niece…”
“Who I coach, which only adds more complications.”
“Right. And I hesitated to tell you before, but I only recently ended a long-term relationship.”
She wasn’t sure why he was telling her now, but since she wanted their…whatever this was…to keep going amicably, she went with it. “Oh. That must’ve been hard.”
“Yeah. Amazing girl. Beautiful, too. She was always dragging me to these fancy restaurants and clubs. I complained about having to get all dressed up, but secretly I loved it, because she always made it fun.”
Addie couldn’t help taking that as how she paled in comparison, both as a date and as a female.
It stabbed that insecurity about not being girlie enough she liked to pretend she didn’t have. Ironic considering how angry she was at Tucker for treating her like a girl. “She sounds lovely.”
“She was. We just clicked, you know?”
Oh shit, he was getting choked up, and everything in her screamedabort, abort.
“Thanks for being so cool,” he said.
Then he shocked her by pulling her in for a hug, and she could feel Tucker closing in. All she needed was for him to hear that she was consoling the guy over losing his beautiful ex-girlfriend.
After deciding this wasn’t a shoulder-punch-type sitch, she hesitantly patted him on the back. “Once you are ready to date again, drop a hint in front of Lottie, and she’ll have the single ladies in town lining up.”
He laughed. “Funny enough, she’s the one who nudged me toward you.”
Yeah. Downright hilarious.
The joke was on him. Or her.
Or maybe both of them.
“I’ll catch you later, Addison.” One last smile and then he turned and walked away, and she didn’t know how to feel. The hint of sorrow came more from losing the possibility of a relationship than anything.
Relief rose up, along with the worry over how her mom and grandmother would take the news.
The skin on the back of her neck prickled as she sensed Tucker come up behind her. “Let me guess, he wants you to come over after you’re done at the bar.”
Her emotions flipped in an instant, screeching toward offense and anger. “None of your business,” she said, whirling on her heel and heading for the bar.
How dare he come back to town to judge who she dated and how? To act like she needed to be taken care of when she’d taken care of herself—not to mention helped out with her family—for years.
Tucker reached over her to pull open the door to the bar, his firm chest bumping her back, and her irritation morphed to desire, which caused another wave of irritation.
She strode over to the group of guys and plopped down on an open stool, sweeping the pieces of hair that’d fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear and directing her question to no one in particular. “Is this part of my natural habitat?”
“Hell yeah,” Shep said, raising a beer, and Easton and Ford echoed their agreement.
“Perfect. I was worried about adaptin’ and survivin’, so it’s a relief that on the football field and in the bar, I can be me.” She coated her words in sarcasm. “As long as my overbearing big brother behind me approves it, that is.”
Tucker placed his hand on her upper back, his thumb going to the base of her neck, and a shock of awareness zipped down her spine.
“Real funny, Murph.” Her muscles tensed. Most of the guys called her “Murph” on a regular basis, including Tucker. Hell, half the town still did.
But there was something different in the way Tucker had thrown it at her just now. Shehatedit and the way it threw up a wall between them.
