Chapter Thirty
Old Joe leaned over the bar. “Your boyfriend is here.”
Abby glanced up and watched the sexiest man she knew walk into the bar. Just like that, her heart took off, and she just took the time to watch him. He strode through the bar with the confidence of a man who was in charge. A man who knew where he was going and what he wanted.
A man who was used to being in the public eye and didn’t give a crap. Which, was something Abby was still getting used to. Or at least trying to get used to. But America sure as hell loved the Simons and there was always one of them in the news.
She thought back to the piece that had just run on the TV a few minutes ago, and she was relieved because it looked like, at least for the time being, it was going to be Jack’s turn.
Tucker had changed and was in jeans and leather.
“That’s a good look for you,” she said, voice a little husky when he bent over the bar and kissed her.
A few wolf whistles erupted around them, but she didn’t care and neither did Tucker. He kissed her for so long that her insides turned to mush, and if they weren’t in the middle of The Black Dog, she would have had him naked and inside. That’s how intense her need was for this man.
“Guys,” Mick said roughly. “This is a public bar. Can you save that shit for later?”
Tucker slowly let her go and nodded to her brother. “You have her stuff?”
Wait. What?
She glanced at her brother, but Mick was handing over a large bag. Her bag. Her travel bag.
“Where did you get that?”
“I dropped it off last night,” Tucker said.
“Okay,” Abby replied, not understanding.
“You have her shifts covered?”
“What’s going on?” she asked. But Mick was edging her out.
“Here’s your jacket,” he said, giving her a quick kiss before turning back to Tucker. “I’ve got it covered.”
“Good.”
“No,” Abby said. “This isn’t good. I don’t like surprises. What the hell is going on?”
“Come on, Miss Mathews.”
“Where are we going?”
“I guess you’ll find out when we get there.” Tucker nodded to Mick. “Thanks for everything.”
“You just take care of my sister.”
“I plan on it.”
“Mick?” she asked, taking a step toward the door.
“Just go, Abigail. Be happy.”
Something in the tone of his voice brought her up, and she slipped out of Tucker’s grasp, running back to her brother and hugging him fiercely. “I love you,” she whispered.
“Ditto.”
She turned around, and Tucker grabbed her hand, leading her outside, her bag thrown over his shoulder.
It reminded her of another time. That first time she’d gone away with him. And she let the warmth of those memories wash over her. They kept her company all the way to the airport where she finally found out their destination.
Florida.
Tucker was being way too mysterious, but she loved this side of him and didn’t press the matter even though she was dying to know what all the secrecy was about. Her first thought was that they were visiting his parents, but then she was pretty sure they were still in Europe.
At one point, she opened her mouth to ask a question, and he pressed his lips to hers, kissing her senseless.
“That’s sneaky,” she said, out of breath.
“I know.”
“This is killing me.”
He grinned. “I know that too.” And then he held her hand until they landed in Miami where a car was waiting for them.
“Not much longer,” Tucker said as they settled in the back. “We’re headed toward the Keys.”
“That’s not a lot of information, Mr. Simon.”
“I know.”
She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, deciding to just go with it and enjoy the fact that they were together.
Abby must have dozed off because Tucker shook her, and she came awake with a start.
“Hey,” he said in her ear, dropping a kiss on her nose. “We’re here.”
It was late afternoon and the sun was low in the sky. Abby stretched and glanced out the window, but all she saw were overgrown trees.
“Where are we?”
Tucker tugged on her hand and after instructing the driver to wait, he opened the car door and waited for her to join him.
Something was up. Something big. She could see it in his eyes.
“Abby,” he said quietly.
Tucker bent down and kissed her so sweetly, his mouth so gentle and so giving, that like the emotional baby she’d been lately, tears immediately sprang to her eyes.
“Hey,” he said pulling away. “Don’t cry.”
Something about the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes pulled at all sorts of stuff inside her.
“I can’t help it. What’s going on, Tucker?”
They were leaning against the car, and she had no idea what the driver was thinking, but at the moment, she didn’t care. She could have been standing there buck naked with a basket of bananas on her head, and she wouldn’t have cared.
Something important was about to happen. She could feel it.
“I love you. You know this.”
She nodded, but didn’t speak.
“I want us to be together.”
Again she nodded, though she frowned. They were sharing an apartment. They lived together.
“This here,” he motioned in the air around him. “This place is called Blackheath. It’s kind of infamous around this area you know, considering the house was built by a pirate.”
“A pirate?”
He grinned, and that flash of the young boy he must have been made her want to hug and kiss him silly.
“Yeah. A pirate.”
“I still don’t understand.”
His hand slid to hers once more, and he pulled her away from the car, leading her a few feet away. And then he turned her around. And Abby’s mouth fell open.
Several hundred feet away stood an old antebellum mansion, though from her first quick glance, it looked in need of some serious love and attention.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, the artist in her visualizing what it was. What it could be.
“Come on.”
Tucker led her down an overgrown path that led to the house, and when they got closer, she saw that the windows were all broken and missing, the paint was peeling and the general condition was much worse than she’d originally thought.
“It’s amazing, Tucker.” She turned to him. “But I don’t understand what we’re doing here.”
“I grew up in Florida, and no matter where I am, it will always be home. I only moved to New York to…”
Her heart turned over.
“I moved to New York to get away from the memories, and for the most part, it worked. I think for a while there, I needed to get away. Needed to put some distance between myself and everything that Florida represented to me. But…”
He glanced away, and for the first time, a bit of fear took hold.
“But?” Abby prodded, suddenly desperate to know where all of this was going.
“It’s time for me to come back.” He gestured toward the house. “I bought Blackheath last year. Just before I met you. It was a spur of the moment thing, and I didn’t tell anyone because I was pretty sure my family would have thought I’d gone off the deep end.” He chuckled. “Hell, for the longest time, I thought I’d gone off the deep end. But then I met you, and things got better.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and gazed into her eyes so intently that Abby felt as if he could see into her soul.
“The thing of it is, I didn’t know until recently that I bought this place for a reason. This is my future, Abigail, and I guess I’m hoping that…”
His hands crept up to either side of her face, and he cradled her, his eyes never wavering. “I’m hoping that you’ll consider sharing this future with me.”
“What are…you…what do you mean exactly?”
Oh God. Think Abby. Think.
“I love you Abigail Mathews, and I want to grow old with you. I want to watch you paint. I want to watch you sleep. I want to watch your belly grow large with our kids. I want a family. I want a dog. Hell, I’d even consider a cat, because I know you like the one in the office. For you, I’d do anything.” He shrugged. “That’s all I got. I want you, and I think that this could be our home.”
Abby’s heart was so close to busting wide open, it was crazy. She was so full of love for this man that someone could have chopped one of her limbs off and she wouldn’t have known.
She was so crazy in love with Tucker that to actually hear those words—words that told her that he was in the exact same place that she was—well, it was pretty overwhelming.
She leaned into him, suddenly weak in the knees and feeling like an idiot because of it.
“Abby,” Tucker whispered, holding her close. “Say something. Will you move here with me? I know it might be hard to move away from your brothers. From your family, but I promise we’d see them. Can this be our place?”
She got her shit together and sniffling, looked up at him and nodded. “Well then, Mr. Simon. I guess I’m going to need a hell of a lot more than the bag we brought.”
The grin that spread across Tucker’s face was priceless, and he bent low to kiss her. “About that bag.”
“Hmm?” she murmured content to stay this way forever.
“We’ve got to head back to the airport.”
She whipped her head up. “Why?”
“This was just a pit stop. Our real trip is only beginning. We never made it to Costa Rica and uh, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been dreaming of five days of sun, beach, no one else around and more sex than I can handle.”
“Five days,” she said with giggle, thinking that her bag was way too small for that long of a getaway. “What the hell is in my bag?”
“I threw some stuff in.”
“Stuff.”
He nodded, leading her back toward the car. “Shampoo, a dress. You know that little black one with the slit that makes me crazy. Maybe a bathing suit.”
“That’s it?”
“We’re going to be alone, lady, and last I heard, tan lines aren’t in.”
“What are we going to do for five days?” she said lightly, as she slid inside the car, her eyes behind him on the house that would one day be her home.
“I was thinking the trifecta.”
“That sounds impressive.”
“It is. Sand. Sun. Sex.” Tucker scooped her into his arms and held her as the car sped away from Blackheath, heading back to the airport. “It’s called the S trifecta.”
‘You just made that up.”
“Do you care?”
“No.”
He nipped her ear. “You in?”
“Totally.”
“Then when we’re bored of the S trifecta—“
“Ha! Like that will happen.”
“Let me rephrase. When we get a moment.” His mouth was on her throat. “You know some downtime.”
“When you need to rest.”
“Yeah. When I need to recharge my batteries we’ll start planning a future.”
Abby settled back against his chest. “That sounds perfect.”
“Yeah,” Tucker murmured. “It does.”
The End