Authors: Leigh Jackson
By the time I pull into his driveway, which is literally just a couple of minutes away from my house, we have resumed our conversation back to much lighter topics. I park in his driveway and notice a truck parked in front of me.
“Chase’s,” he answers my silent question, motioning with his chin who the truck belonged to. It comes as no surprise to me that his roommate is Chase. I jump out of the Bronco and follow him inside.
The inside of his house shocks me. In my mind, I had conjured up an image of the ultimate bachelor pad: posters of half-naked women, neon beer signs, empty pizza boxes and beer cans, and an unidentifiable odor. However, I am pleasantly surprised. Their house is tidy and has a very homey smell. The furniture is reasonably new and neutral in color, and the coffee table is free of discarded food wrappers. The only artwork that hangs on the walls is a collection of hand-drawn prints that vary in subject matter. One is of an antique truck, one is of a beautiful young woman, and one is of an old hound dog. I instinctively know that Tuck drew them. Sure enough, when I voice my question, he confirms my thoughts.
“Yeah, I drew all three of them. The truck was my grandfather’s. One of my first memories is of riding around with him. The woman is my mother, and the dog was my favorite dog growing up.”
“They’re really good, Tuck. You’re very talented.” I step forward to give them a closer inspection. “Your mother was beautiful. I can see a lot of you in her.” He gives me a quick hug as he moves down the hall to change. I take a seat on the couch as I wait for him to get ready.
Within minutes, he’s walking back toward me wearing jeans and a gray tshirt that stretches across his chest in a way that makes me lick my lips. His dark hair is still damp from what has to have been the shortest shower of all time. He looks entirely too hot to be real. Dammit, I sure am glad that we decided to be best friends.
As we continue on our journey to my grandparent’s house, I brief him on what to expect from my grandparents.
“I’ve never brought a guy home, so don’t be surprised if you get the Spanish Inquisition from both of them.”
Tuck seems to be shocked by this revelation. “You’ve never brought a guy home? How? Why?”
I shrug my shoulders as I attempt to explain myself. “I’ve never been in a real relationship with a guy. Sure, I’ve had friends who were guys, and I’ve had hook-ups. But I’ve never been a close enough friend with a guy to want to bring them home, even if our relationship was purely platonic. And of course I’m not going to tell my grandparents that I prefer just to have one night stands. I can’t have the impending heart attack on my conscience.” I look over at Tuck to see how he is handling that little nugget of information. Most guys have a problem knowing that a girl they have slept with has slept with numerous other guys, especially if they were just one night stands. Tuck seems to be fine with all the information that I’ve sprung on him. “I know we aren’t in that type of a relationship; we’re just friends. I’m positive that we’re going to have to explain that to Gramps and Gran that we’re purely friends at least a hundred times. Don’t worry though, my grandparents are awesome. I have no doubt that you’ll love them.”
Tuck reaches over and tugs on my hair. “I’m sure they are pretty kickass grandparents, just like their granddaughter.”
I laugh at his rationale, and within minutes we are pulling into my grandparents’ driveway. My grandparents’ house is set on about fifty acres, and it looks like the quintessential Southern home. It’s a white clapboard home with deep porches and green shutters. Gran has always been known for her green thumb, and her yard could have been featured on the cover of
Southern Living
.
“Wow,” Tuck breathes out. “This is beautiful. I feel like I just came home.”
My heart swells at his words. Gran is going to love him.
I park my Bronco and we climb out. I glance at the house and notice that Gramps and Gran are standing on the bottom step with a dumbfounded expression on both of their faces. Tuck looks at me and grins.
“I think you were right about them being surprised to see a guy.” I nod my head and swallow down the nervousness that has unexpectedly erupted.
“Kori, my baby!” Gran shrieks in her typical greeting. I cringe at all the ammunition Tuck is being inadvertently given to ridicule me with at a later date. I shoot him a warning look and see a grin tugging at his lips. Gran wraps me into a hug and kisses my cheek. “Who’s your friend? Your grandpa led me to believe that you were bringing Avery or Chelsea, but this is a pleasant surprise.”
“Gran, this is my friend Tuck.” I place an extra emphasis on the word friend so that they will take the hint and not embarrass me. “Tuck, these are my grandparents, Ed and Julie O’Malley.”
Tuck is the perfect Southern gentleman. He wraps his arms around my gran and kisses her cheek. He’s such a charmer. “Pleased to meet you, Mrs. O’Malley.” He then sticks out his hand to shake my gramps’ hand. “Good to meet you too, sir. Kori has told me a lot about you both.”
My grandma shoots me a death glare that has been known to reduce lesser mortals to quaking fools. “Really? She hasn’t told us anything about you. Now why is that, Kori? And please, call us Gran and Gramps. All of Kori’s friends do.”
“Gran, Tuck is a new friend. I haven’t had a chance to tell you about him. We met last night, and he just happened to be driving by this morning when I was having problems with the Bronco. He gave me a ride and stayed to help me. Then he came here with me. Now you’re all caught up on my relationship with Tuck.”
“What kind of trouble were you having, Monkey?” Gramps interjects. I sigh contentedly. I knew that would effectively sidetrack Gran away from the Tuck interrogation.
***
“Your grandparents are great,” Tuck informs me as we are driving back to my house after dinner. “I can’t believe all the old vehicles Gramps has. It’s sexy as hell that you helped him restore most of them.”
I roll my eyes at him. Dinner at my grandparents’ was a success. Gran and Gramps immediately fell in love with Tuck, which I had known they would do. It helped that Tuck took a big interest in all the restored cars and trucks that my grandpa had in his barn. They spent a good hour out there looking under hoods and talking specifications. Gramps floored Tuck when he took him to the back of the barn to show him my old Indian motorcycle. Tuck’s eyes twinkled when he looked at the motorcycle then at me. He mouthed the word
sexy
and I flipped him off.
Gran appreciated having another mouth to feed. Tuck showed the proper amount of appreciation for Gran’s cooking, and that was all that it took for her to completely cross over to his side. I knew it was just a matter of time before she would be trying to marry us off. I nipped that in the bud before she ran with the idea. Her shoulders slumped in disappointment, but her eyes had a naughty look to them. I shuddered to think what scheme she was cooking up to get us together.
“Yeah, they’re great,” I agree with him.
“Your grandma said something to me that was odd. She told me that it would be hard for you to open up but I didn’t need to lose faith in you. That this was the happiest she had seen you in six years. I know I haven’t known you for very long, but you seem pretty happy to me. What’s she talking about?”
My breath catches in my chest. Why did Gran do this to me? She knows that I don’t talk about this shit with anybody, and I definitely don’t like people knowing this about me.
“Tuck, I’m sorry, but I don’t talk about my past. Maybe one day I’ll tell you, but I really like having you as a friend right now. I know that as soon as I tell you everything, you won’t want anything to do with me. So please just drop it for now. Please.”
He looks over at me with his beautiful eyes and nods his head. He grabs my hand and threads his fingers with mine. “I’ll wait, Kori. But I’m not going anywhere.” And with that, a tiny fissure cracks my inner wall. I know in that moment that Tuck will be either my ruination or my healing. I don’t know which scares me more.
7
Tuck
I slam my phone down in frustration after I read Chase’s text. We had made plans to watch the game on the big screen at the local sports bar, but he just bailed on me. Some bullshit excuse about having a study group. In other words, he found a girl he wanted to nail. I hate that he flaked out on me, and now I have to either stay home or go by myself. I grin to myself as I make a quick decision to invite Kori. I’m not certain if she’s a football fan or not, but she is so damn cool to hang out with that I just can’t resist her.
I quickly shoot her a text and am thrilled when she replies back that she’ll go. I promise to pick her up in thirty minutes at her house. Since I’m taking an incredibly sexy woman to a bar to watch a game, I figure I had better change out of the workout clothes that I’m currently wearing. I quickly slip into my usual faded jeans and tshirt. I pull my boots on and run my fingers through my hair. There’s no point in trying to fix it; it always seems to do whatever the hell it wants.
I pull up in front of Kori’s house, and she comes running out of the door to meet me. I swallow at the sight she presents as she jogs to my truck. She has on a pair of worn jeans that have holes in the legs and a snug tank top. The tank top hugs her breasts as they jiggle with each step she takes. I groan out loud as I come to the realization that I have just sentenced myself to an evening of looking at her. I know we fucked at her house last week, but I’m not certain if that is going to become a regular occurrence or not. I would certainly love for it to be, but I’m not going to push Kori if she isn’t on the same page as I am.
She climbs into my truck and brushes her lips lightly across my cheek in greeting. That is one thing that I love about our relationship - we aren’t afraid to touch each other. I’m just not certain how much I am allowed to touch her without her wanting to break my hand.
We make small talk as I drive to the bar. I discover that Kori is an avid sports fan, and I make a mental note to rub that in Chase’s face. I truly don’t think a more perfect woman exists in all of God’s creation.
I park the truck and walk into the bar. I’m a couple steps behind Kori as we stroll across the parking lot, and my eyes are instantly drawn to her ass. I feel my dick twitch as I realize that her jeans have a hole right below her ass. I can see the curve of her cheek through the frayed strings. I automatically reposition myself in my jeans and promise myself that I will make sure that Kori stays sitting down all night. I would hate to have to kick some other pervert’s ass; the only pervert who is allowed to look at Kori is me.
Kori and I find a table with a good view and settle in for the game. The bar is packed with sports fans anxious to watch a good game, and it takes a few minutes for us to get service. We order a basket of wings and nachos and a pitcher of beer. We click our glasses together as we give a mock toast.
“To Chase, the ultimate douchebag.”
“To Chase,” Kori repeats.
It’s the second quarter when Kori decides that all the beer she has swilled back needs to be released. As she’s gone to the bathroom, I’m startled by a guy sitting in her seat.
“Kori O’Malley, huh? Nice.”
I narrow my eyes and look at him. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
He jerks his head toward the bathroom. “I fucked her. She’s good.”
“You have three seconds to get your ass out of that chair before I kick your ass. One. Two.”
My new friend holds his hands up in defeat. “Look man, I didn’t mean any offense. Kori fucks. That’s all. She’s always been upfront about it. I figured you knew. Are you two dating?”
I didn’t have to explain myself to this prick, but I find myself doing it anyway. “We’re friends.”
He shakes his head in confusion. “Kori doesn’t do friends. She claims she doesn’t do them. What’s different about you? You don’t do relationships either, so maybe that’s what it is.”
I shrug my shoulders. “Maybe it’s the fact that I’m not a fucking douche who goes up to complete strangers and talks about girls I’ve slept with. That’s just my guess though.”
He looks embarrassed as he processes my words. Just then, Kori returns from the bathroom. Her body stiffens when she sees me sitting talking to this idiot.
“Ethan,” she mutters in greeting.
He nods his head at her and stands to leave. It’s only when he leaves that I realize my hands are clenched into fists. Unfortunately, Kori notices it as well.
“What did he say?” she demands.
“Nothing,” I lie. I don’t want to hurt her feelings. I know that she hooked up before, just like me. I don’t care about that. That’s not saying that I want to have the guys that she slept with shoved in my face, but I definitely don’t judge her for how she has lived her life. I’m not a hypocrite.
“Liar,” she snaps out. “He told you that we fucked, didn’t he?”
I nod my head to confirm her suspicions. “I don’t care, Kori. We’ve already discussed this. Remember, I’m not exactly a saint either.”
“But you’re a guy. That makes you a player. It makes me a slut.”
I pierce her with a stare. “That’s just semantics, Kori. Quit worrying about this. I swear to you that I do not care. I couldn’t care less if you had slept with the entire campus. And I certainly don’t care what other people think of me. So don’t let them bother you either.” And with that, I lean over and brush a kiss against her lips.
“Fine,” she huffs out.
“Anyway,” I add, “they’re just jealous because the most beautiful woman at State is sitting with me. You’re my friend, and they envy the fact that I can claim that.” I wink at her as I playfully stake my claim. If I’m being honest with myself, the thought of Kori being with another guy ever again fills me with rage. I don’t care about the past guys, but I’ll be damned if I let one more guy put his hands on her. She’s mine, she just doesn’t know it yet. I’m shocked that I just admitted it to myself, but now that I realize how I’m beginning to feel about Kori, I suddenly long for her to feel the same way.