“Is Tuck there?”
I flash the phone in his direction, giving her the perfect view of his silhouette as he focuses on the road.
“Hi, Mrs. Williams.”
“Tuck,” she gasps. “What’s that on your neck?”
My heart drops out my butthole, and then I pull the phone from his face as fast as possible.
“Turf burn,” I lie.
“Well, that looks just awful. Tell him if it burns to get some cream for it. Dad could call something in for him.”
Tuck starts to chuckle, but then my elbow lands in his ribs. I do not need a lecture right now about giving a guy hickies, and the star player, at that.
“Well, in just a few days we’ll be there with you, Blue.”
I can practically hear the tears welling up in her voice. I’ve never been away from my mom this long and hope I can hold my shit together while she’s here.
“Okay, we have everything planned out, and you have the hotel booked.”
“Tuck, we can’t wait to meet you.” I center the phone in front of his face, avoiding his hicky patch. “You know Blue’s never been in love before. Can’t wait to meet the guy who captured her heart.”
I glare at her, not allowing her to talk to Tuck any longer.
“Holy hell, Mom, want to tell him about the time I shit my pants in kindergarten too?”
“Oh, Blue, you are too sensitive. I’ll let you kids get on with your day. Love you.” I kiss the screen. “Oh, and your dad is missing you something fierce.”
“I miss you guys, too.” I send one final wave her way. “Bye, Mom.”
Tuck rests his hand on my leg and begins rubbing it up and down while I flop my head down on his shoulder.
“You and your mom seem like quite the characters together.”
“Yeah, you’ll see soon enough, Tuck. We are like a hot circus on ’roids when we are together, and you can usually find my dad sitting back in the corner sipping on a longneck.”
I don’t have to look up at his face to tell he’s worried about meeting my dad, because I can feel his whole body tense with just the mention of him. I’ve reassured him over and over again that my dad would never want to fix him.
“Tuck, he won’t want to fix you, and do you know why?”
He pulls the truck to a stop at a stoplight and looks down at me.
I place my lips on his and talk into them. “You don’t need to be fixed. You’re perfect.”
“I’ll never believe it no matter how many times you tell me.”
“Well, fuck you then. The light is green, and I’m hungry.” I bite down on his bottom lip. “And I’m always right, never forget that.”
“I hope you are, Blue.”
His voice is deflated, and I know as much as I battle with the attack, he battles being with me and letting me all the way in.
“So, practice that bad?” I ask, changing the subject.
“The guys got a kick out of the marks you left on me.” He looks down at me with a cute little smile on his face. “I’m pretty sure they’re all still in shock I have a girl.”
“Well, they shouldn’t be. I’m pretty into you, and you’ve pissed all over me.”
We don’t have long to talk before Sophie and Lane are waving to us in the parking lot of the diner. It will be nice grabbing a quick meal with all of us together, since it seems we’ve all been locked in our rooms screwing the shit out of each other.
“I call Blue tonight, Tuck,” Sophie hollers out.
“For dinner, but tonight she’s mine,” he growls back.
I grab for Sophie’s forearm and whip her around to face the street. “Look, Sophie, look.”
My voice is excited, but laced with confusion.
“What?” She looks into the sun and tries to shade her eyes.
“It’s Stephie.”
“Where?”
“That blue car right there. I think she’s with Ethan.”
As soon as Sophie focuses, the car takes off down the road.
“Mmmm. I don’t think that was her.”
“It was,” I insist. “Tuck, where’s Ethan these days?”
He shrugs like he couldn’t care less about it.
“He’s been at practice. Just staying pretty quiet since Stephie ditched him,” Lane adds.
“It was so her.” I lock my arm in Sophie’s. “I’d love to see her bloated and knocked up.”
“You’re so going to hell, Blue.”
I laugh. “It’ll be worth it.”
I tug Sophie to the corner table, hoping for some privacy, finally ready to open up to her about the letter that’s been haunting me.
“Sophie.”
Her eyes are glued to the screen of her phone, clearly enchanted by something.
“Sophie, listen, I have to tell you something, and it’s really important.”
Her head flies up. “Oh my god, you’re pregnant.”
“Jesus, no, I’m not knocked up, but listen…”
Before I’m able to finish my sentence, she’s sucked right back into the vortex of social media on her phone.
Tuck squeezes in next to me and our moment is over, but his comforting hands pull me into a hug, and the thought of that stupid-ass letter vanishes quickly. Lane follows suit shortly, with three teammates soon after him. It wouldn’t be dinner without a crew.
“What were you trying to tell me, Blue?” Sophie sets her phone down and nuzzles into Lane.
I wave her off. “It was nothing, really.”
As quickly as I dismiss her, she does the same to me, not prying for answers.
“So, Tuck, I hear you get to meet the parents this weekend.” Sophie stares him down.
He only nods, but Sophie doesn’t take it as any sort of clue.
“Are you nervous? I mean with Blue being an only child and perfection from head to toe, I bet her dad is a fierce poppa bear.”
Everyone at the table erupts into laughter, and it’s such a low blow to Tuck’s confidence I want to kill Sophie. I understand she doesn’t comprehend the whole situation, but she needs to back off.
“Actually, he’s dying to meet Tuck. He said he’s ready for me to be someone else’s problem.” I place a light kiss on Tuck’s cheek and squeeze his hands, but I see it in his eyes that he’s slipping away from me.
I give his hand an extra hard squeeze since that’s the only reassurance I have to offer.
Chapter 27
Tuck managed to make love to me last night until I almost passed out, doing all sorts of dirty things to me, and then he was gone before I woke up. It’s game day, and I understand that’s part of it, but he made it clear he wasn’t going to be joining my parents and me for breakfast. He also skipped out on picking them up at the airport last night with some excuse of a team meeting running late. Funny thing is Lane wasn’t at that late meeting; I texted Sophie and asked.
He’s putting up a barrier, and I have the sinking suspicion he won’t even give my dad a chance, and that thought pisses me off. I’m already late to breakfast and have my cheer bag scattered all over Tuck’s room. It’s probably a good thing he’s not here, because I’d be forced to karate chop him in the nuts for slowly morphing back into his guarded asshole persona.
I scramble to stuff everything back into my school-colored duffle bag, not giving two fucks what’s wrinkled or not. The pad of my finger glides across the sharp edge of paper, slicing it open. I pull it up quickly to my lips to catch the drops of blood and dull the stinging throb.
“Fuck.” My voice echoes in the quiet room.
Out of curiosity, I pull the paper from my bag and freeze in horror. It’s the same writing and same message, only this time there’s a photo of me taped to it. The rush of bile racing up my throat is not a threat, but rather a promise. I race to the bathroom and let it out in the toilet, dropping the note in the bowl with it. My stomach cramps as the convulsions don’t let up, and all my air is lost between gut wrenching gags.
“Blue.”
I barely hear a voice and know it’s my mind playing a trick on me. I need to get out of this house and be with someone. The harder I fight to turn off the retches, the faster and harder they come out.