Tucker:

The sound of her sobbing perks my ears up and I have to stop what I’m doing. Like a coyote who can hear the sound of a rabbit in distress from across a field, I can hear Molly’s cries. I can feel them in me, and it makes me feel terrible.

I’m up on a ladder installing hooks in Cheryl’s ceiling. It’s been damn hard work taking out all the old drop tiles and fixing all the wires so they aren’t just draped across the natural ceiling, but I figured out a pretty simple way to reroute them. This construction project has been really good for me. I feel competent again. I feel powerful and intelligent, and if it weren’t for the fact that I was trying to hide this from Molly, I’d probably be working around the clock. It’s an addicting feeling.

“You don’t have anything to worry about, Molly,” I hear Cheryl assure her. “You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.”

I climb down the ladder and peek my head through the doorway. Her face is red and streaked with tears. There are bags under her eyes and she looks so tiny, so fragile, not the confident and unstoppable girl I’m used to seeing. And it makes me feel like shit.

“I’m sick of people saying that to me!” she shouts. “I DO trust everyone. That’s why I’m always in situations like this. I’m so stupid!”

I run to her. I have no other option. I don’t want to do things that make her hurt, even if it’s for her own benefit. Her eyes widen as she sees me, but the anger on her face stays. I go to hug her and she swats me away.

“What the hell is going on here?” she cries.

“Come see,” I assure her. I take her by the hand and she reluctantly follows me into the main room of the studio.

“Your boy’s a genius,” Cheryl says. “Look at this place.”

“Holy crap, it’s amazing” Molly sighs. “You did all this? Why?”

“Because I wanted to show you that I’m working on being the man you deserve. Cheryl needed some help, so I offered to step in. Turns out I really like doing this kind of stuff. I felt terrible hiding it from you, but I was going to surprise you when I was done.”

“Except he’s never going to be done,” Cheryl laughs. “People in town are lining up to hire him as a contractor.”

Molly just hugs me. She’s still crying, but at least I know I can make it better.

“Don’t hide stuff from me,” she says. “I don’t like surprises.”

“Think you can handle one more today?” Cheryl asks her.

She puts her head in her hands.

“I’m going to see a doctor when we get back from our trip. Cheryl helped me get an appointment. If there’s something wrong with me, I need to find out. I want to be around for a long time so I can take care of you for the rest of your life.”

“For real?” she asks, her cute little face smiling up at me.

I nod and plant a kiss on her lips. “Now you better get out of here, or my boss is going to get mad.”

The way she hugs me, her warm body squeezing me tight, it feels like something all-encompassing, it feels so much like home to me. I really do love this girl. And now I feel like I can actually tell her, now that I’m able to contribute to her.

“Hey,” she says, “just so you know, Moss stopped by my place today looking for you.”

“Oh shit, are you ok?”

She nods her head yes, but her eyes tell me otherwise. “I’m gonna get out of here. You get back to work. Have a good day.”

I feel like I should say something, but I’ll save it until we get home. “One more surprise, though,” I say. I reach underneath the tool bench and pull out a big white bag overflowing with black tissue paper. “Wait til you get home to open it.”

She kisses me on the lips. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“I wanted to. I was going to save it for the trip, but I don’t think I can wait.” I know I can’t wait. I wish I was going to be there to see the expression on her face when she opens it. Just thinking about it is making me hard as a rock. Hopefully she feels the same way. “It’s just a little something that reminded me of you.”

She says her goodbyes to Cheryl and I watch her curvy ass as she walks out the door. With so much drama today, I know she’s going to need exactly what’s in that bag tonight. I know by the way my zipper feels like it’s going to rip right out of my jeans that I’m going to need it, too.