Page 24 of Tucker
Shakingher head, she bites her lip. “Shut up.”
“Youreally know how to pick them.” My eyes water from laughing, and her lips startto twitch up too.
“Ontop of that, he wouldn’t even dance with me. So much for my night of fun.” Shedowns the rest of her drink. “We can go now.”
“Youwant to dance?” I blurt. Where the hell did that come from? She just seems sodisappointed.
Hereyebrows jump up and she smirks at me. “You dance?”
Leaningover, I can feel a little buzz from my drink when I murmur, “Not muchdifference in dancing and fucking. If you’re good at one, you can do the other,and I’ve never had any complaints.”
Hermouth falls open, and I grab her hand, pulling her out to the dance floor. Thesong is fast and upbeat, perfect. Grabbing her hips, I pull her against me andshow her what I can do. She matches my moves, stays in sync with me perfectly.
Herhands wander over my chest before sliding around to squeeze my ass as she givesme a devious little smile, daring me to stop her.
“You’redrunk,” I tell her.
“You’reperceptive.”
Shespins around and presses her ass against me, grinding on my crotch. All logicalthought leaves my head. I don’t care that she’s Dare’s sister or that she’syoung, or that I am betraying someone I love. I don’t care about anything butthe sensation of her sweet little body against mine.
Thesong ends and the band takes a break. She looks up at me with shining eyes, herskin damp and flushed. So damned beautiful. “Where did you learn to dance likethat?” she asks.
“Mymom was a dance teacher. I grew up with it.”
“Shetaught you well.” She beams at me.
Theexpression on her face is full of hope and excitement and it’s like I’ve beendoused with cold water. Where I know she sees potential, it doesn’t exist, andI’m going to disappoint her. “We should go. Grab your stuff, I’m going to stopby the bar.”
Thecops are gone, along with the douche Leah was here with. It’s not too late, butthe crowd has thinned a lot. It must’ve occurred to these people thatcelebrating Thanksgiving with a hangover isn’t a lot of fun. I stop by the barand buy a fifth of bourbon to take home with me. This night definitely requiresmore alcohol.
It’sfreezing outside and Leah stays close to my side as we walk to my truck. Oncewe’re sitting in the parking lot, letting it warm up a bit, I notice theremaining cop car and the tow truck accompanying it.
Mychest vibrates with laughter when I see them hook up the smart car to the truckand raise the front end. “He drives a smart car? They could just pick it up andcarry it. Why bother with a wrecker?”
Leahgiggles, shaking her head. “It does look a little like one of those cars Derekhad when we were little. You’d pull it back and let it go and it’d race aroundthe room.”
Herphone rings and she answers as I drive us home. I can only hear her side of theconversation but she’s obviously talking about her date. “Ayda? Oh god. Don’teven ask. I had to have Tucker come and get me.” She goes on to tell Ayda abouther date night from hell. “For future reference, hipsters are not datingmaterial.” I can hear Ayda’s laugh even though the phone isn’t on speaker.
“We’rehome. I’m gonna go. I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ve already made the pies.”
Theyhang up, and we walk through the lightly falling snow to the house. Onceinside, I grab a glass and pour some more bourbon.
“Oh?We still drinking?” Leah asks.
“No.I’m drinking. You’re cut off. Lightweight.”
“Fine,then I’m controlling the music.” She grabs her phone and activates theBluetooth so it’ll play through the house speakers.
Drainingmy glass and refilling it, I take a seat on the stool by the kitchen counterand watch as she dances around singing to some pop song I’ve never heard. Everynow and then she does something silly that makes me laugh and shake my head,but watching her is a joy.
She’sso carefree and happy. I wish I could be that way, the way I was before Iscrewed everything up. She dances over to me and grabs my glass, taking a sip.When I take it from her hands, she goes for the bottle.
Igrab it and stand, feeling the sudden rush of alcohol steal over me. Shit, I’mdrunk.
She’snot exactly tall and I can easily hold the bottle above my head out of herreach. “Seriously?” she laughs, slurring a little. “You expect me to jump forit?”
“No,I expect you to stop drinking.”
