by Heaton, Lisa
As he left that day, it wasn’t the money that was on his mind. It was Hailey. She had been the one who helped him with his paperwork that first day. Just now, she had flirted with him again, just as she did most every time he went into the bank, not exactly open, embarrassing flirting, but it was flirting. Little things she did and said, and the way she giggled at the things he said, he knew. Oddly enough, she wasn’t at all a girl he would normally be attracted to. She was sophisticated, kind of like Chelsea in L.A. sophisticated, totally out of his league. As a matter of fact, she was one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen, different beautiful than Chelsea, but absolutely beautiful. He hated that he even found himself comparing her to Chelsea, but that was about his only point of reference in most areas. That was something he needed to work on, to branch out and remember that Chelsea wasn’t the center of the universe.
He missed Chelsea, but something felt right about stepping out of her life and he felt an unusual sense of relief that he hadn’t known almost ever. Since that night that he heard God’s promise, he had known nothing but longing and waiting. It felt good to be free of it, and he was certainly free. The night he left her place and drove out to the house site, he felt God release him. Or if it wasn’t exactly a release, it was at least a newfound peace that settled upon him. Wasn’t that likely a release?
Tuck sat for a minute more in his truck pondering, trying to work up the nerve to do what he had considered when he first walked into the bank. Deciding he had nothing to lose, he opened the truck door and headed back toward the bank.
Hailey saw Tuck come back in and at the sight of him grinned. He was bigger than life. Every time he came into the bank, she found herself acting like a silly teenager. He was one of the most – no, the most handsome man she had ever seen walk through the doors of the bank. Broad and tall, tan and rugged, he could have been an actor on a western. Why she considered that, she didn’t know, other than her dad used to watch westerns all the time. Tuck was like a real cowboy, maybe even a little bow-legged in the way he walked – or maybe he sauntered.
Her mind was filled with such crazy thoughts of him when he walked up to her desk, surprising her enough that she stammered when she spoke. “Dddid you forget something?” Nervously, she giggled.
“Yeah, I forgot to ask you. Are you seeing anyone?”
Stunned, she asked, “You mean like dating anyone?”
“Yes, are you dating anyone?”
Smiling, feeling a bit light-headed, she shook her head. “No.”
“Would you like to?” He chuckled, adding, “I mean go out on a date, to dinner or something?”
“I would like that.”
She turned just enough to look at Melanie, the girl who sat two desks over. Melanie’s eyes were like saucers, which made Hailey giggle again.
“Are you free this Friday night?” As soon as he said it, he remembered he would have the girls. “Wait, I mean Saturday night.”
“Sure.”
Taking out a business card, she wrote her cell number on the back. “Call me and we’ll decide on a time.”
He smiled. That wasn’t as hard as he expected. It wasn’t lost on him that he had never really asked a girl out. This was technically his first. With Lindsey, instead of a first date, they got married. Allison asked him out the first time and each subsequent time after. With Chelsea…he decided not to add her in the mix. This was his first; that was the main point.
“Okay, then. I’ll call you.”
“Great.”
Hailey tried to maintain her calm, but she was far from it. She waited long enough for him to get through the front door before squealing loudly.
Saturday morning, Tuck made his world famous pancakes, and the girls ate like teenage boys. “Doesn’t your mama ever make you pancakes?”
“Not anymore,” Lucy said.
“Well, I’ll make them anytime you want them.” Winking, he added, “As long as it’s on a Saturday. I can only add the secret ingredient on Saturday.”
“Sara Beth won’t eat them at home.”
Turning to Sara Beth, he asked, “Mine are the best, huh?”
With her mouth full, she only nodded. She was the prettiest little thing with her milk mustache and sticky lips.
“You know, I think I need to come kiss the sticky off of you.” With that, he went over and kissed all over her face.
She giggled and screamed and pushed him away with sticky fingers. “Stop ow I’ww pee.”
Tuck stopped and pulled a chair up to sit closer to her. “I think maybe you better take a break and go pee then.”
When Sara Beth climbed down from her chair, she stopped and slid her arms around Tuck. “I wove you, Daddy.”
“I love you, sweet baby.” For another minute he held her tightly to him until she broke free and ran for the bathroom.
Tuck looked at Lucy. He could hardly read her expression. It was a cross between surprise and sadness. So he asked, “Does that bother you?”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“She doesn’t have a daddy. I guess to her…”
“I’m not jealous, if that’s what you mean. It makes me sad. She only calls you that here or sometimes when we are alone there. It’s like she knows it’s not real or okay.” Lucy closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know. She just doesn’t do it in front of anyone else.”
Tuck knew who “anyone else” was.
“I can’t tell her not to call me that.”
“I know.” Lucy stood and moved away from the table. “I wish you would just come back.” With that, she left the kitchen.
A knot formed in Tuck’s stomach. In the past weeks, Lucy hadn’t mentioned anything like that. She seemed okay, but obviously she wasn’t. Chelsea wasn’t. He could see it by the look in her eyes when they left her, and he knew exactly what she was feeling once she was left alone with no kids in the house. It was sad and depressing and way too quiet. That was exactly what he experienced when he was at home alone. Only Sara Beth seemed okay. As long as he took her with him when he picked Lucy up, she was okay.
Sara Beth climbed into Tuck’s lap and asked, “Can I sweep hewe tonight?”
He was picking Hailey up that night for dinner, so he knew that wouldn’t work. “No, not tonight.”
“Why?”
She was dragging her plate of pancakes across the table to continue eating.
“I have somewhere to go tonight.”
“Can I go?”
“No, not this time.”
He hadn’t mentioned to anyone that he was going out with Hailey and didn’t plan to.
Un-phased, she asked, “Okay. Can I wide my Wowwipop?”
“Sure, just as soon as you’re finished eating.”
The remainder of the morning, Tuck thought about that conversation. He felt a little bad that he was hiding the fact that he was going out that evening, almost as if he were doing something wrong, which he wasn’t. Moving on with his life involved taking steps like that. Having dinner with Hailey was a really big step. Not that he felt she was the one. That wasn’t likely, but it was a baby step toward starting a new life. Actually, he was pretty excited about it.
He talked with Hailey on Friday when he was on the way to pick up the girls. It was his first opportunity to tell her about them. She knew he had Lucy since that had come up when he took out the loan, but the addition of Sara Beth was new and a bit difficult to explain. Indeed, they were a most unusual family. Speaking over the phone, he didn’t try to explain much of the situation but knew it would come up eventually.
Originally, Tuck had planned to take the girls to Chelsea’s early enough to go back home and change, but it worked out that he wouldn’t have enough time. So he showered and got ready for his date and then headed out. When they got to Chelsea’s, as he always did, he walked them up to the door.
; Having just been running on the treadmill, Chelsea was a sweaty mess when Tuck and the girls arrived. For whatever reason, she felt embarrassed that he caught her looking that way. Used to, she would have never even thought twice about it. Maybe it was because he was so dressed up, wearing Wranglers and a nice button down shirt. The sight of him obviously dressed to go out caused this odd little flutter in the pit of her stomach.
When he stepped through the doorway and grinned at her, she said, “Well, look at you.”
“And look at you.” He laughed.
She laughed, too. It was the first time the drop-off procedure didn’t feel quite so uncomfortable.
“I’m a mess.”
“You’re never a mess.”
As soon as he stepped in and saw the pink flush of her cheeks, his heart began to race and he felt this warm feeling deep inside like he was standing next to a campfire. He had come to conclude, she would always do that to him.
“Want to come in?” She was hoping her invitation would prompt him to tell her where he was off to.
“No, I better run. I’ll see you in the morning, though.”
Wondering, she asked, “In the morning?”
“Church.”
“Of course.”
She felt foolish, but the fact that he was dressed up to go out was all that dominated her thoughts. He looked as if he was going on a date. Surely he wasn’t going on a date!
With no explanation at all he left her standing in the doorway. Already Sara Beth was telling her about widing Wowwipop and the campfire and playing horsey around the house. All Chelsea could do was sit and listen. She noticed how Lucy disappeared, but that was not too uncommon recently. As often as Chelsea had asked what was going on, Lucy had said nothing was the matter, but Chelsea sensed something was. There seemed to be an undercurrent of unhappiness that Lucy was not at all willing to discuss. As long as they had known each other, they had been open and honest with one another. Now, Chelsea felt a sense of distance between them that was bothering her more and more every day. She missed their closeness but didn’t know how to reach her anymore. Always with her head in a book, game, or TV, the gulf was widening.
Until that point, Tuck hadn’t felt so nervous, but after he knocked on Hailey’s door, panic set in. What in the world was he doing? He didn’t know how to date.
Hailey swung the door open wide, grinning so much her face hurt. Ever since Tuck came back into the bank that day, she had been looking forward to this night. It was all they discussed at work. She reluctantly agreed to give updates via text over the course of the evening. If at all possible, she would, but only if she had a moment alone, but she would never be one of those women who sat at the table and texted. Who would when sitting across from a man like Tuck?
Although she was normally attracted to the jock type, she found Tuck to be not only attractive, but incredibly kind. When she helped him through the loan process, she had become fascinated with him. He had this slow, shy smile that made her feel happy. That was a silly thought, but it was true. She felt happy when he was around, something she had not felt in quite some time.
At dinner, conversation came easily for them both. Tuck learned that Hailey had been divorced for nearly two years, and they had no children together. Her ex was a sales manager of something or another in Tulsa, but Tuck missed the specifics when he peeked at his phone. As Hailey spoke, he had gotten a text from Lucy – actually, it was a photo of her and Sara Beth dressed up in Chelsea’s clothes, not her ordinary, everyday clothes, but her nice L.A. clothes. He had to grin.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even looked.”
He held his phone up for Hailey, saying, “These are my girls.”
“Designer girls, I see.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
He looked back at the photo, wishing he were there with them. In his mind, he could hear the thud of Sara Beth’s boots as she clopped across the hardwood. Even with a cocktail dress on, she wore boots. That was his girl all right.
“Tell me about them.”
By the look on Tuck’s face, he was having a hard time being away. Maybe talking about them would help. She didn’t mind. As a matter of fact, she loved kids. That was what ended her marriage. She wanted kids and her husband didn’t. It became such a source of contention, he finally walked away. There at the end, she was willing to drop the issue, but by then, he had already distanced himself enough that counseling didn’t help; nothing did. He just walked out one night. Soon after, however, he was in a serious relationship, leading her to believe that was really the issue all along. Had that have happened a year earlier, she would have been devastated, but after the last months of fighting, she had become rather cold toward him. Somewhere along the way, she just shut down.
“The oldest is Lucy. She’s eleven, going on forty. She’s like this little lady in a girl’s body.” Those were Chelsea’s words all those years ago to describe her.
“She’s crazy smart and talented like her mom.” Why did he say that?
“The little one is Sara Beth, the cutest little cowgirl you’ve ever seen. She’s more like me, loves to ride and tend to sheep.” He paused and sighed, admitting, “She not mine biologically, but she’s like mine.”
Another reminder. Those were often Lucy’s words when describing Chelsea. She was like her mom. He was like Sara Beth’s dad. He felt suddenly sad.
“We’re kind of an uncommon family.”
Sensing his shift in mood, she asked, “How’s that?”
Hailey felt disappointed; things had started off so well. This was not a man who was ready to be in any relationship beyond his family. It was pretty obvious.
Tuck grinned. “If I tell you the story you’ll get up and walk right out that door.”
She propped both elbows on the table and rested her chin in her hands, waiting for the story. “No way. I don’t even have a car.”
This slight upshift in his mood gave her a glimmer of hope. His grin affected her deeply, making her want to believe there was a chance.
“Chelsea and I have been great friends since we were kids. We dated in high school. Once I went off to college…” Tuck paused and was about to say he started seeing someone else, but that wasn’t at all true. “I messed things up with her. I um, I got a girl pregnant. Lucy’s mom.”
He waited to see her reaction, and when she didn’t seem to react to that, he went on. “After what happened, Chelsea went off to UCLA, and when she came home, for whatever reason, she and Lucy hit it off. Lucy’s mom was never a part of her life, so I guess Lucy was kind of starving for that relationship. Before you know it, they were like mother and daughter, so Chelsea adopted Lucy.”
Hearing their story condensed down to one paragraph certainly didn’t convey the sweetness of their relationship, so he added, “Chelsea is an incredible mom to her. I’m grateful for it.”
“I think ‘uncommon family’ is an understatement.”
Smiling, he admitted, “Yeah, I s’pose you’re right.”
“Sara Beth, she’s Chelsea’s daughter?”
“Yes. Chelsea and John’s. John died year before last. So now, I’m kind of Sara Beth’s stand in dad.”
“That’s pretty much the story I’ve heard.” Hailey left off the part where she had heard that Tuck and Chelsea were this epic love story and how most of the town was still rooting for them.
“You’ve heard, huh?”
“It’s a small town. I work with a lady who goes to your church. Women talk.” She smiled at the embarrassment on his face. “Plus, Chelsea was married to John Keller. Like I don’t know who he is – was. He was older than Chelsea, right?”
“Much older.” Tuck added, “And a really great guy.”
“You know what I think?”
“What?”
“I think you are a really great guy too. Maybe a weird kind of f
amily man, but a great guy.”
Relieved to have shared his odd story, Tuck found he was more relaxed with Hailey than he had anticipated. At the bank, she had seemed a bit nervous around him, but tonight, she was much more at ease. As a matter of fact, she was downright fun. She didn’t take herself as seriously as he had imagined with the way she looked. She really knew how to laugh at herself. Her casual response to his and Chelsea’s intermingling of children was a great relief. If things continued on the way they were, he would definitely ask her out again.
Chapter 13
Sara Beth was napping on the sofa, a rare occurrence anymore, while Chelsea made a few phone calls. Recently, she had a stirring within to get outside of herself and her life. In the past few months since life had taken such a turn with Tuck, she had done little but miss him and regret the way things ended. Though he had never mentioned it to her or to the girls, she knew he was seeing someone. You couldn’t live in a town their size and not hear things. Actually, she heard it from several people, the first being her mom. It seemed working in a church office made her the conduit through whom much information flowed. Unless it was public knowledge, her mom never passed along anything juicy, but when the subject of Tuck and the girl from the bank came up, Gail never even made it home before calling Chelsea.
Chelsea wanted to be the bigger woman and be happy for him, and in a way, she was, but deep down, she felt hurt, which was selfish and ridiculous. She was just as in love with John as when they married five years before. What did she expect from Tuck, to hang around and play pretend family? That’s what he once said he felt that they were doing.
One night when he dropped off the girls, a conversation began that they both regretted afterwards. All Chelsea said was that the girls were upset that he wasn’t around at night. She hadn’t meant to try to make him feel guilty. If anything, she wanted him to know how much he was missed. They all missed him. When she said it, though, he blurted out that sometimes life wouldn’t turn out as Chelsea wanted, as if to say the world didn’t revolve around her. It hurt her feelings when he suggested that. Her only response was that she was sorry if that was how he felt. Clearly he felt badly about how abrupt he was with her. He apologized and tried to explain that he just couldn’t go on playing fake family. That term hurt her even more. It never felt fake to her. They truly were her family, Tuck included.