by Dale Mayer
“Me too,” said Molly with a laugh, “especially now that I’ve got a baby.” She put a hand on her tummy, marveling. “I never wanted to raise a child in the city.”
“It’s time to make the changes you want going forward. Now you’re married to Rodney, and you are starting a family,” she said. “Honestly you’re one of the luckiest people I know.”
At that, Molly looked at her, smiled, and said, “You’re right. I need to reassess how different my life is right now. For a couple years after Tucker’s accident, I didn’t know if he would live or die.”
“Was it that bad?” Addie asked.
“It was that bad,” Molly said softly. “And worse was, he wouldn’t let me come to him. He wouldn’t let me help or even be there for him.”
“He probably didn’t want you to see him like that because you would worry, and he couldn’t do anything to make you feel better as he needed to focus on his own healing.”
“That was part of it, for sure,” Molly said, “but he’s also been very independent and doesn’t know how to accept help,” she said. “It’s not hard to see how I also come by my own stubbornness, honestly.”
Addie burst out laughing. “I think we all have that problem.”
“I guess you’ve got your family problems, don’t you?”
“You could say that,” she said, shaking her head. “My sister’s a piece of work.”
“Well, hopefully at this point, the dog trauma is over and done with, and you can get on with a life separate from your sister.”
“I hope so,” she said with a smile.
“You’ll enjoy the weekend here for sure,” she said. “Now I will too. All the stress is over, and I can just relax—instead of being worried about tomorrow,” she said in a teasing voice.
“Exactly.”
At that, both Rodney’s and Tucker’s phones rang. Molly looked at the two men and frowned. Rodney held up his hand and said, “Let me just answer it,” he said. “I won’t be long.”
Molly turned to Addie and said, “The men, when they get into work, it’s really hard for them to shut off.”
“I get you,” Addie said, “but, with all the stuff that’s been going on right now, it’s probably a good idea for them to answer these calls.”
“I suppose so,” Molly said.
Addie watched Tucker’s grim face as he nodded at something said to him on the phone. When he put it away, he turned toward her. “The guy escaped from the hospital.”
She looked at him and said, “Rural?”
“Apparently they had two guards on him, but the one guard found the other guard slumped over an ER hospital bed, and Rural’s gone missing.”
“How’s that even possible?” Addie cried out.
“A serious car accident, involving several vehicles, came into the emergency area, while they were still there. Rural took advantage of the chaos and multiple people moving around, diverting attention from him, giving him a chance to escape.”
“Do we know where he’s going?”
“Not for sure. He was muttering about me and the dog.”
“Great,” she said. “It’s a good thing you’re not going back to that first hotel.”
“It’s a good thing we’re not going back to your place,” he reminded her.
She winced at that. “That’s not exactly what I want to hear either. Does he know who I am?”
“I don’t know if he has your name, but it’s possible he tracked us to and from your place,” he said. “We’ll have to keep you safe until this guy’s recaptured.”
“Fine,” she said. “We’re staying here anyway, in Saint Pete’s Beach, for the weekend, right?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “The good thing is, we have a fun party to attend tomorrow in Tampa.”
“I can just imagine the explanations required,” she said, laughing. “The guests will be a little confused.”
At her side, Molly groaned. “I didn’t even think about that.”
“Just make one email-blast announcement,” Tucker said, “telling everybody there’s been a change of plans—in that you already got married—and tomorrow you’re celebrating the wedding.”
“That works,” she said. “I honestly don’t care anymore.” She gave a one-arm shrug. “Now that it’s over, I’m okay with whatever.”
Her husband just grinned at her. “See? It wasn’t that big a deal.”
“It’s supposed to be a big deal.”
“To us,” he said, “but it doesn’t need to be a big deal to anybody else. It doesn’t need to be some big showcase. It doesn’t need to be a big parade. It should be exactly what it was. We tied the knot because that’s what we wanted to do.”
She’s smiled. “You’re really not upset about the pregnancy?”
“Of course not,” he said. “How can I be upset? I was partly responsible for it.”
“Sure,” she said, “but you know life isn’t always that neat and clean.”
“It’s never that neat and tidy,” he said. “That’s not a reason to avoid things.”
“Okay,” she said meekly. “We’ll do this together.” And she hugged her husband, a happy smile on her face.
The rest of the evening flowed with good conversation and lots of wine, although Addie found it a little harder to ease back her anxiety, knowing that the gunman had escaped. They got Bernie and drove back to their hotel, glad that the management allowed dogs. When the three of them finally made it to the hotel room later that night, she found double queen beds, even a doggie bed for Bernie, and she flopped down on the closest queen bed and asked, “Did you get an update yet?”
“I’m just texting the detective now,” he said. He looked at her and asked, “Do you want a shower?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” she said. “Although I was wondering about a trip to the pool.”
“We can do that if you want,” he said. “We might as well make use of the amenities.”
“I always wanted a pool,” she said. “Something I just never managed to make happen.”
“Well, it’s not like you’ve had a whole lot of time to get there.”
“Nope, I haven’t,” she said. She got up, grabbed her bag, and said, “You’ll join me in the pool? And Bernie can come too.”
“Absolutely, the manager said something about a special pet-only pool specifically for dogs,” he said. They both changed, grabbed a towel. As the trio headed together to the pool, she said, “You know what? In a funny way, it was a nice wedding.”
“It was the best,” he said. “Nice and calm and quiet, no nerves.”
“I hadn’t realized how nervous she was.”
“And she’s gotten worse now that she’s pregnant.”
Addie smiled and nodded. “Pregnant women do tend to be a little more neurotic.”
“In this case, I don’t mind,” he said. “Not only do I finally get a great brother-in-law, who I think is the best husband for her, but I also get a niece or a nephew. And that’ll be fun.”
“Are you staying around then?”
“Rodney and I were talking about that earlier,” he said. “He wants to move her out of the city, and she wants to go to a smaller town, where they can raise a family now. He’ll spend some time looking into real estate to find a nice family home.”
“And what about you?”
“Well, that’s one of the things. You know when you reconnect with family, how it’s hard to let go?” he said. “I’m not sure I want to let go of that connection now.”
“I wouldn’t want to, not with the loving family you have,” she said. “Family can be tough, but they’re also one of the best things for us.”
“I hope so,” he said. “It’s the start of my new life.”
At the pool, Tucker found the pet-friendly accommodations and got Bernie situated, already splashing water everywhere. He chuckled at her innocent joy. Addie looked on with a big smile and dropped her towel over one of the chairs and stepped into the cool water. “Something�
�s so magical about being outside in a pool under the open sky. Too bad your sister isn’t here to enjoy this. Do you think they’ve gone to sleep?”
“Probably. My sister was exhausted. She didn’t have any alcohol, being pregnant, but she was still tired, with the baby already taking a lot out of her right now,” he said. “Plus they are newlyweds, so I would imagine they are in bed.”
“Good,” she said. “She’ll feel that much better tomorrow.”
Tucker slipped into the water beside her and stroked out strong in the darkness. Between the water and the lack of light, she couldn’t see any of the injuries that he had already told her about, but she knew that they were there. Following his lead, she dove into the water, coming up on the other side, and struck out strongly for the far wall.
After she did ten lengths, she curled back up on the step in the shallow end and just stared, her face up to the sky, enjoying the stars.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he murmured.
“It so is,” she said. “In the morning we should go down to the beach. Bernie will love that.”
“We will, unless you want to go tonight,” he asked.
“No,” she said, “Bernie seems fine in her pool, and I can see the ocean from here. The waves are magical, and the beach reaches as far as the eye can see. Plus I don’t want to leave here right now. It is just so lovely in this pool. It’s really quiet,” she said. “I expected it to be much busier here at the hotel.”
“Maybe not this late in the evening. Tomorrow in Tampa will be a lot busier,” he said. “All of Molly’s friends and others will arrive at the reception there because Molly lived in Tampa for a long time. Molly and Rodney will probably end up there.”
“It won’t matter where, as long as she has her privacy and some land,” she said. “They’ll work it out. They have lots of decisions to make, and that’s okay too.”
“Very true,” he said, “as do I.”
“True.” She nodded.
Tucker checked out Bernie, finding her resting peacefully now in the water of the little kiddie pool, her head laying on the soft edge. “What about you?” he asked, leaning back beside her, not touching, just quiet beside her.
“What about me?” She twisted slightly so she could face him.
“Are you staying in Miami?”
“No,” she said, “not anymore. Not after this latest mess with my family. I don’t want to be geographically close to them. I want to get out of town. Go to a place that’s a whole lot less city.”
“Sounds like you want what Molly wants.”
“To a certain extent. I’m not sure I’m ready to start a family though.” She smiled. “What about you?”
“She and I always talked about having an acre apiece on the same block where we could walk back and forth to visit each other. When it’s just the two of us, you plan things like that, in the hopes that, maybe, one day, it will come true.”
“I think you have to make things like that come true,” she said, “and this is an opportunity for you to do that.”
“Maybe,” he said, “it’s a matter of finding the right place.”
“Well, with Rodney being in property development,” she said, “that shouldn’t be all that hard. You’ll have to look for two properties close to each other.”
“Maybe.” He smiled at her. “It’s been a strange couple days, hasn’t it?”
“So strange,” she murmured, “but a lot of good came out of it.”
“Like?”
“Well, your sister for one,” she said. “I hardly know her, and yet I feel like I know the whole family.”
He burst out laughing. “It’s like that sometimes.”
“In this case definitely,” she said with a bright smile. “I don’t think I’ve clicked with as many people as quickly ever in my life before. And it shows me a different type of sister.”
“Rodney’s a good person, and so is my sister,” he said, “although she looked a little ditzy and lost it today.”
“And she’s allowed,” she said, chuckling. “It was her wedding day, and she was pregnant and hadn’t told her fiancé.”
“That still blows me away.”
“She was big enough already that she didn’t fit in her wedding dress,” she said. “I wonder if she’s checked to see if she’s carrying twins or not.”
“Now that would be a handful,” he said, and he started to laugh. “But it couldn’t happen to nicer people.”
Addie loved that about him. He was open, honest, and definitely one of those keeper kinds of guys. She smiled at him. “So does that mean you’ll stay local?”
“Thinking about it,” he said, “a whole lot more reasons now to stay local.” He reached out a hand and gently stroked her wet cheek. “It’d be nice if we could stay in touch, could stay close,” he said.
Her smile was gentle. “I was thinking the same thing,” she said. “Whatever has been happening here between us has happened so fast that I wasn’t exactly sure where we stood.”
“I’m not sure where we stand either,” he admitted. “But, having the serious injuries I’ve dealt with makes you realize waiting for tomorrow is no good—because sometimes the tomorrows don’t come.”
“It’s a hard lesson, isn’t it?” she said. “Sometimes it makes me feel like I’m being greedy because I want everything now.”
“I don’t think it’s that so much. I appreciate the fact that some days just don’t go the way that you expect them to go, and you want them to be a whole lot easier, yet life has other plans,” he said. “Losing our parents when we were young wasn’t easy either. We’ve had to adjust to so much that I think, unlike my sister, I wanted all of it now too.”
“Meaning all, as in marriage and a career and a family?”
“You know something? I think that would probably be a really good idea,” he said, chuckling. “But the marriage or family is a little too early.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Depends if you have a partner tucked away somewhere that I don’t know about.”
“Nope, no partner tucked away somewhere,” he said. “But, if you’d like to sign up for the position, just let me know.”
She looked at him slyly, and then she grinned. “Is there a job application and an interview process for this?”
“Well, I wasn’t thinking about it before,” he said. “However, that interview process could be fun.”
He slid his arms around her waist and stepped in between her legs as she sat on the top step in the pool. She wrapped her arms around his neck, as he lowered his head and gently kissed her. Their lips were cool from the nighttime swim, but the fire inside was anything but that. She gasped, as he finally raised his head.
“You are lethal,” she muttered, trying to regain her breath.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think I need another taste.” And he lowered his head again, pulling her tightly against him. Ever mindful that they were out in public, she tried hard to restrain herself but couldn’t. He lifted his head, then slanted his lips back down again and again. She shivered in his arms; he tightened his grip and whispered, “I don’t want to push you.”
“I’m not sure either of us is pushing, given the heat between us,” she murmured against his lips. “But we’re definitely not in the right place.”
He pulled himself back and looked around, as if suddenly realizing where they were. “Right,” he said. “Not a pool in our backyard,” he murmured. He lifted his thumb and gently stroked her bottom lip. She nibbled on the end of his fingertip and then pulled it into her mouth, where she could suck it.
Immediately his eyes darkened, and she could feel the response from his body. She pulled back, scrambled to her feet, grabbed her towel, and said, “Meet you and Bernie back up at the room.” And, laughing, she ran ahead of him to their room.
Inside she headed for the shower but left the bathroom door open, stripped down, placing her soaking wet bathing suit in the sink. She stepped under the hot water an
d gave a little shriek when warm hands handed her a bar of soap. She looked over her shoulder to find him standing completely nude behind her. His eyes dark, his face questioning, she smiled, turned around, hooked her arms around his neck, pulled him down, and kissed him hard. “I think you’d do a better job with the soap than I would.”
“I’ll do my best,” he whispered.
And immediately he moved the bar gently but surely around her body from the underside of her chin right to her toes. She gasped in delight, shivering with passion as he moved upward again. He slowly stroked his hand up the inside of her calf to her thigh, stopping at the nest of curls. As he slipped his fingers between the plump lips, gently entering her, she moaned, separated her legs, giving him more access, and now leaned against the wall. “I don’t think this will work,” she gasped.
“Oh, absolutely it’ll work,” he growled in a husky voice, as he lifted her waist high and pinned her against the wall. She rested at the perfect place. She wrapped her legs around his hips, and he slowly, ever-so-slowly entered her. She shuddered in reaction, twisting at the overwhelming fullness.
He whispered, “Are you okay?”
She gasped and nodded. “I’m fine,” she said, “but dear God.”
“I know. Me too.” He lifted his hips and plunged, withdrew, then plunged again and again, the water splashing all around them. Yet his arm held her firm, while his other hand was pressed securely to the shower wall.
Pinned against the back of the shower, she felt completely imprisoned and yet so close to a freedom that she’d never experienced before. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to move, but her rhythm wasn’t in synch with his, making it worse, until finally she relaxed against the wall and let him set the pace.
He drove her harder and higher and faster than she thought she could even possibly go. When she flew off the cliff, she collapsed in his arms, a surge of emotions filling her. He plunged deep one more time, grinding his pelvis tight against her, before he slowly lowered them to sit on the side of the bathtub, holding her still in his arms.
“My God,” she whispered. “I thought you said you were injured.”