Page 33 of Absolutely Pucked
He swallowed thickly, then said, “Four months.”
“That is, like,sospecific.”
Nodding, he glanced down and then cupped his hand around Nugget’s back paws and let her nestle into his very large hand. The large hand that could cup one whole ass cheek. Not that I was thinking about that again.
It was obvious Killian wasn’t going to spill his secrets, so I had to take what I was going to get from him. “Rules though, okay? One, you eventually have to tell Tucker you’re here and why. Two, no more fuckery. You cannot hurt him any worse than you already have.”
Killian nodded, looking miserable. “But what if telling him everything would hurt him? Like you said.”
I bit my lip, then said, “What if you told me everything? Then I could tell you if it’s a bad idea.”
He looked torn, but eventually, he nodded, letting Nugget go when she squirmed out of his arms and went to rub herself all over the bare kitchen floor. “Three?”
“Hmm. Oh. Uh…don’t let the guys see you here. They will literally murder me, and while I do want to help you, I value my life and my family. I’ll have to make my own amends with Tucker over this, but I’d rather get you on your feet first.”
He was silent for a beat, then looked up at me. “Why?”
I knew what he was asking, but I decided to play the fool. “Why what?”
“Why help me? Knowing what you know—knowing the kind of person I am. Well…was. Why bother?”
“Because I believe in more than one chance. I believe people can get better and be better—and I’m good at being able to tell when someone is lying to me.”
“You believe me?” He sounded almost afraid to ask the question.
I let him stew for a beat in anxiety, and then I nodded. “Yeah. I believe you. So don’t fuck this up, and prove me wrong, okay?”
His breath came out in a heavy tremble. “Thank you, Ford.” He stood up, but before he could walk off, I caught his arm, letting go when he gasped at the touch of my skin against his.
My fingers burned with need to do it again, so I curled them against my palm. “One more thing.”
“Okay,” he said softly.
I met his gaze, then cleared my throat. “Do people really call you Ian? It’s such a shitty nickname for Killian.”
He looked stunned, then rolled his eyes and left the room without giving me an answer.
Looking over at Nugget, I sighed. “It was a fair question. It’s a fucking terrible nickname.”
CHAPTER
TEN
KILLIAN
Staringup at the ceiling in the guest room, I couldn’t help but wonder who had slept in this bed. Had Tucker? His new…I didn’t know what he was. The man I’d glimpsed with the messy hair and shy smile. Boyfriend, maybe?
It felt weird living on the periphery of my brother’s life and not having the courage to step all the way into his line of sight. It felt weird he’d created this whole entire existence and I wasn’t part of it.
The deal was, we were twins. We were meant to be two halves of a whole—as cheesy as that sounded. Before things went to shit, before our parents got weird and he got resentful and hate set in, we had been. It was ridiculous, but it was true. I always knew when he was hurt, or scared, or even happy.
Every feeling we had seemed to be infectious.
And I’d wondered, from time to time, if that was why my parents started pitting us against each other. Maybe they were more comfortable with us being rivalsthan being each other’s support. I wish I’d seen it earlier. Tucker had started resenting me young, but maybe we could have fixed it.
Maybe it could have been different.
God, maybe?—
