Chapter Seven
Tucker
I watched from under my eyelids as she made her escape. Damned if she didn’t look like sex on two legs in that little red bikini. I couldn’t blame every other guy there for staring at her, but I did. We’d never been a couple, and I had no right to her. But it had taken every last ounce of will power I had not to lay her neighbor out flat, and I wondered how hard it would be to convince her to move, just so I didn’t have worry about him anymore.
She’d never been vain; it was one of the things about her that made her so desirable to men. But from the moment I’d held her in my arms while she sobbed, both of us wondering why it hurt so much to lose someone in death who had abandoned us already in life; from that moment on, she’d been at the back of my mind, every minute of every day.
That I wanted her seemed logical. That she and Olivia were family was beyond question. But until I’d seen that guy, Sam, moving on her, it hadn’t occurred to me that her mourning might be over. I stood and looked around for Olivia and Libby, who were still on the far side of the pool. Libby saw me watching and waved, gesturing me to join her, and I scooped up the towels and pool toys and carried them over to the table that Shaunte and her husband had saved for us. I was re-introduced to Shaunte, whom I’d met at the funeral, and Dale, a mountainous man who was almost as big around as he was tall.
Olivia started begging for shave-ice, and Dale and I stood in line at the snow shack for treats for everyone while Shaunte blackmailed good behavior out of Olivia and her own four kids by promising them shave-ice only if they could manage to not fight or talk back before we returned. Olivia wisely climbed into her mother’s lap and watched out over the pool like a little lifeguard, ignoring the other children completely, as they poked and pinched each other, trying to push each other into breaking their silence and lose their treat.
“So, how long you and Libby been dating?” Dale asked as we stood in the mile-long line. The sweat coursing down my neck from the sun, doubled.
“We’re just friends, actually,” I replied. “I’m Olivia’s godfather. I’ve been friends with both Olivia and her ex since we were kids.”
“Were they high school sweethearts?” He sounded astounded.
“No, they met at a party I threw in college. From that night on, they were together, until they got married a year later.”
“Damn. Shaunte and Libby were friends from back in the day, but I’d never really met her until Shaunte and I helped her move into her place. I think I saw you in a truck that day.”
“Yes, I had court, but I helped as much as I could. I guess that means you met my brothers, Danny and Jackson.”
“Oh! No wonder. Shoulda known, y’all look like each other.” I laughed and nodded. “So, you’re just here for Olivia, then?” I glanced at him, and scoffed at the wide grin that split his face.
“So, what do you do, Dale?” Impossibly, his grin widened, and when he laughed, his whole body shook with it.
“All right, I’ll let it go. But the body language you were giving off when Sam was saying ‘hi’ to our girl was pretty dang unmistakable. So, if you were hoping for the element of surprise, you best change your tack.” I sighed and rubbed my palm over my face.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He laughed out again, and clapped me on the back. It was impossible not to like him, even when he was yanking my chain. We inched forward in the line until we were finally able to drop almost fifty bucks on ice and sugar syrup. I arched my eyebrows at Dale, who smiled and shrugged.
“Hey, you were the first to cave. Those green eyes got you good, man.” It was my turn to laugh. He was right. Her mother was under my skin, but Olivia had my heart from the moment she was born. Nothing between her parents had changed the fact that she was the first baby girl I’d ever encountered in my life. All my preprogrammed settings, the things I’d been taught about protecting the weak and caring for women, taught by old horse men and cow pokes, and learned from watching my father and mother, had risen to the surface when I held Olivia.
I stood with my hands and arms full of paper shave-ice bowls, the cold bleeding through them and prickling along my arms until I was ready to drop them. Dale handed them to his children, one at a time, but only after they thanked me. I shot Libby a look of anguish as frostbite settled into my forearms and she smirked at me and winked. The innocently sexy gesture hit me full force, and I stared for a moment, stunned.
Dale took the second-to-last little glacier off my hands and I took Olivia’s over to her. She threw soft, pudgy, five-year-old arms around my neck and thanked me for her treat as though I’d bought her the whole stand, and told her she could replace broccoli with shave ice at every meal.
I let her sit in my lap as she ate, grimacing with each spoonful of sticky, sugary ice that fell down my thigh instead of going in her mouth. Libby watched us, her face unreadable. I had a sudden jolt of worry. Libby was more than just an attractive woman. She was everything a man could want in a lover, a partner, and a friend. That she was still single was obviously only because she’d been staying away from that part of her life. I certainly wouldn’t want leftover men in her life if she belonged to me. The thought of losing her and Olivia jarred me to my core. Libby tilted her head and questioned me with her eyes, but I shot her a half-smile and looked away.
“You ready to get in the water and rinse off, O?” I asked as she dumped the melted remnants into her mouth, spilling half of it over her chin and down our legs. Libby giggled and carefully lifted her daughter off my lap, doing her best to hold her at arms’ length until she reached the shallow water of the kiddie pool and set her down in the warm water.
I walked to the deep end of the big pool and slid into the water, rinsing myself clean before joining them in the shallows. I sat on the wide steps next to Libby and bumped her with my hip, and she splashed me and shoved me away. I jostled her and pretended to drown her, until she stiffened in my arms. I glanced up to see O, watching us with a bemused look on her face. I set Libby upright and she put a few more inches between us, and my stomach sank a little.
“Hey, O, want me to drown you next?” I teased, sliding off the stairs and chasing her on my knees, so the water was up to my neck. She swam and tried to run in the water until I reached her, then she pretended to give up, only to shove my head under water when I had her in my arms. I surfaced and tickled her, until she held my face in her hands and looked straight into my eyes.
“Uncle Tuck, I want to play with my mom, now. You should relax in the hot tub.” I carried her to her mother, feeling a little stung that they’d both rejected me, minutes apart. I told Dale I was heading to the hot tub, and he joined me, sending tidal waves across the pool, as he ran through the water scattering his kids, who were floating on body boards, playing a game of keep away.
I sat in the jetted hot tub, letting the water pound away at the stress spots on my back, eyes closed. We’d tried talking when we first got in, but the combination of heat and water jets had dulled the conversation, and I was half asleep, when a sudden change in the water level told me Dale had left. I was utterly alone, and when a hand slid over my thigh and gave it a squeeze, well above the hemline of my trunks, I started and slipped off the stone seat, swallowing almost as much water as suddenly (and painfully) flooded my nose.
“Oh, Tucker, I’m so sorry. I was just playing, oh, God, I’m such a jerk,” Libby laughed as she helped me back upright.
“You sound real torn up about it,” I said. She giggled again.
“I really am sorry, but if you’d seen how funny you looked...”
“Well, now I know who not to take out on the water with me, laughing at a drowning man.” I yanked her into my lap, still blinking the sting out of my eyes, and grabbed her thigh the same way she’d grabbed mine. I aimed a little high, and mirrored the look of shock on her face as my hand slid against the fabric between her legs. I froze, staring up at her and trying to find words for an apology that I knew I wouldn’t mean.
She swallowed and her bottom lip tucked between her teeth as she stared down at me, her eyes tight with fear, even as she reached down and pushed my hand tighter against the apex of her legs. My fingers connected with that softest warmest part of her, hotter even than the water around us.
“I only came over to tell you that I appreciated how you are with Olivia. I wasn’t trying to, um….” I pulled her down to me and kissed her softly.
“I’m just about all out of control, so I’m going to put you down now, ‘cause we’re in a very public place, and I don’t know if I can stop, if we decide we really want to start something. But Libby, I want to start something, and I don’t think I can take ‘no’ for an answer after you’ve shown me you want it, too.”
She didn’t answer and I slid my hand down the impossibly soft skin of her inner thigh as I put some space between us. I blew out a breath and laughed shakily.
“As for O, I love the crud out of that girl. I don’t need a ‘thank you’ for hanging out with her, or helping you with stuff, or anything. I like being here.” She tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear and pulled her knees up under her chin.
“I like you here, too. Sorry for making things weird again.” I knew she was asking for an out, to pretend she didn’t want the same release I did. I’d spent months giving her an out. I’d left them alone and it had felt like a black hole in the center of my chest, sucking the light out of everything. I wasn’t going back there by choice.
“Well, O seems to have had enough of me, but she’s got a real soft touch with rejection.” I chuckled.
“Kids are funny that way. They just tell you the truth, the way they see things. When you left, she climbed up in my lap and told me she was going to stay with Shaunte and the kids for a little bit, and I should come talk to you.”
“God almighty. She’s something, isn’t she?” I didn’t tell Libby I’d been sent to the hot tub, but made a mental note that O could have whatever she wanted, the next time she asked.
“She sure is,” Libby sighed, pushing her hair back, the way she did when she was tired. “I have to get her in the bath and to bed. You sticking around?” she asked so causally, I almost missed the color in her cheeks, and the way she avoided my eyes.
“Actually, I think I will. I’ve been meaning to look at your, you know, graphic design portfolio. See if there’s anything I can think of to help with marketing. You know, adulting, but more fun.” She smiled her thanks and let me take her hand to help her out of the water.
Olivia fought the decision to return home, until I reminded her that I had brought soda, and Kennedy might be missing her. At the puppy’s name, her eyes lit up and she begged her mom to carry her, “because her legs couldn’t get there fast enough”. I offered to do the carrying, and O promptly scrambled out of my arms and up to my shoulders, monkey-quick, while I gaped at Libby.
We said our goodbyes to Shaunte and Dale, and headed back to the house, Libby chatting away about her business ideas, and me trying not to get caught looking around the complex, wondering which townhouse was Sam’s, and what other men might be watching my girls.