Page 67 of Just One of the Groomsmen
Tucker wiggled the worm in front of her face. “You’re good to go.” After releasing her baited hook, he turned to ready his pole, so Addie cast and then sat in one of the two mounted chairs.
A minute or so later, he cast and parked himself next to her.
Every time something moved in the water, she tensed and gripped her armrest, and when she noticed Tucker’s amused grin, she spun her chair and nudged his knee with her foot. “Jackass.”
“Scaredy-cat.”
Addie resolved to stop reacting to anything that happened on the surface of the water. Outwardly anyway. Unless, you know, she actually saw eyes and nostrils pop up.
The problem was, way too many things out here glittered in the moonlight. While she usually loved lightning bugs, she kept seeing them as glowing gator eyes, and she swore some creature had surged through the water to eat those eyes.
Probably just a fish.And since they were snacking on bugs, that explained why they weren’t taking the bait she left in the water while Tucker kept reeling and recasting.
So she wouldn’t go thinking too much about what might be hiding underneath the surface of the lake, she searched for something to talk about. Something neutral that might also distract her from her confusing thoughts involving the annoyingly sexy guy at her side.
“How are things going with Lottie’s daughter and her divorce? Did you get out of that yet? Or are you too scared of Lottie—which makesyouthe scaredy-cat.”
Tucker ran his thumb over the handle of his fishing pole and it made that intriguing line in his forearm pop out. “Her daughter brought by the papers the other day. Maribel’s enough older than us that I didn’t remember her, but she’s ridiculously nice. I was all set to simply check the box to get Lottie off my back, but Maribel’s husband’s lawyer had put a ton of these confusing wordy provisions in so she wouldn’t know just how much she was signing away. If Lottie hadn’t stepped in, she probably would’ve signed it. We worked out a rate, and I added enough addendums to make the guy’s head spin. Still waiting to see what he comes back with.”
Well, that certainly didn’t help her forget her ever-growing attraction. “That’s nice of you.”
“Don’t go spreading that around, or between you and your grandmother, I’ll never get a moment’s peace.”
She grinned. “No promises.”
He secured his pole in one of the circular holes on the side of the boat and moved to get something out of his box of fishing gear.
On his way back, he stopped midstride and shifted closer to the edge of the boat. “Did you see that?” he asked, pointing at the surface of the water.
She reluctantly stood and peered into the rippling darkness. “What is it?”
“A gator, I think. A big one.”
She wrapped one hand around Tucker’s biceps, afraid to look but more afraid to not know where it was coming from if it turned aggressive. “Where?”
“Right…” He jabbed her in the side as he yelled, “There!” and she jumped, and he cackled like crazy.
Addie shoved him. “You jerk!”
He caught himself on his palm, the boat wobbling with the movement. “Watch it. If I fall in, you’ll have to come save me.”
“No way, dude. You’d be on your own.”
“You’d leave me to fight off the gator myself?”
“No reason for both of us to die becauseyouinsisted on coming out here in the middle of the night.”
“Cold.”
“Yep, that’s me.”
“No, that’s just what you want people to think.” He took hold of her hand and ran his thumb over her knuckles, and corresponding zips fired up her arm and twisted through her core. “But you’re a softie, Addison Murphy.”
“Say somethin’ like that again, and I’m gonna push you in for reals.”
It came out too breathy to effectively scare him. Not that she thought many of her threats scared him anyway.
His low laugh danced across her nerve endings. “Wouldn’t you miss me too much?”
