Page 23 of Colby (Tucker’s Pride #5)

He hated to drop her off at her mom’s home.

He’d been wanting to sleep with her for weeks now.

But he knew he was right in doing things this way.

If they made love tonight, neither of them would be getting up early enough to get to their appointments, nor would they be fit to work the day after, with being sore.

He knew for a fact that they’d be sore, too.

It was something that his brothers had complained about after spending the night with their mates.

He wasn’t going to allow himself to be not just sore while working, but too tired to function throughout the day, too.

He thought he was a good deal smarter than his brothers in that respect. At least he hoped so.

“It should only take me about an hour to pack my clothing up. Then a couple of more to get the rest of the things out of the condo. There isn’t that much there I’m going to be bringing over to our home, but—don’t you just love the sound of that?

Our home. Anyway, I will need to have it cleaned up so it can be rented again.

Did I tell you that Taylor owns all the condos in that area?

” Emma told him that she’d known that but had forgotten.

“What will your mom say about you moving out so soon? I’m betting that she’ll be lonely again. ”

“I think that she’ll be happy for us. She’s enjoying her time alone in the house now that she has a job that she can go to.

Also, she wants to get herself a dog, someone that she can talk to while I’m gone.

” He asked if it was going to be a puppy so that it could get used to him while it’s still little.

“Oh. I never thought of that. I’ll tell her about you being a big bad cat and him being a little doggie.

That way, it can be like you said, it’ll get used to you being around. ”

When he dropped her off, he went to the condo to pack up his things.

There really wasn’t all that much, and he didn’t even fill a box with his clothing.

Putting his toothbrush in another box with his toiletries, he was finished but for the three pieces of furniture that were still there.

He was going to donate it all to some charity and be done with it.

Since they had the money, they were starting over with all new things at their house.

Getting into bed, he had to calm himself down several times before he could get his body to relax enough to welcome sleep.

He was mentally revved up but physically exhausted.

He was kind of looking forward to being on the boat so he could rest a bit.

Tomorrow, he was just a crew hand while his buddy ran the trip.

He was both excited and disappointed in that going on.

He wanted it all to himself but knew that if he wanted to expand fully, he couldn’t run two or three boats without help.

He did wonder just as he was drifting off if he’d be able to have more than just the three that he was counting on to run the sea for fishmen.

Tomorrow would tell if he could leave someone in charge of the other boat while he was working too.

It would be great to know if he could do it and sit back too, without trying to take over.

That part made him very nervous about the trips, but he had all the confidence in the world in his partner.

Well, not all the confidence, but most of it.

He was very nervous about letting the reins go.

~*~

It took Emma most of the morning to get her things done.

She’d been standing in line for nearly thirty minutes when she was told that she couldn’t get her rig registered here, that she had to go to the bursar’s office to get it done.

Standing in line for another twenty minutes had her in a crappy mood, but she kept telling herself that she was getting things done that needed to be done, and she didn’t have anything more to worry about after this. Not until next year at least.

Stretching her neck muscles, she was glad that her shoulders were better today. She’d been told that her grandma wouldn’t have the aches and pains of someone her age, and Emma thought that she was getting them all. But she did feel better today, and that was something she’d been hoping for.

Not that she’d admit to anyone that she was happy that they’d not spent the night together last night, but she was happier about it than she thought she might be.

With her having to get up early this morning, she was able to get going quickly without having to want to stay in bed with Colby.

When the two of them came together, she was going to make sure that she had all night and into the next day with him.

She was so in love with the man that it boggled her mind that it had even happened.

She didn’t want him to be around at first. But his kindness and calmness won her over.

He’d never pushed her into anything, but was a calming force for her, and she loved him for that.

She’d had a feeling that he was only out for one thing, and that was sex with her, but he’d proven himself to be a gentleman by waiting until she was ready for him.

And boy oh boy was she ready for him to take her.

But things about their busy life kept getting in the way.

Tonight, she had plans for his body. She was going to strip him down and make sure he knew what it was like to have a naked woman in his bed. Laughing, she wondered what he would think when she was naked in his bed. She didn’t think she was all that much to look at.

Her breasts were too small, and her hips flared kind of widely from the waist down.

She knew that she had strong legs; it helped that she was forever loading and unloading her trailer every day and hooking up and unhooking at the docks.

She kept herself in pretty good shape, but it was her body that disappointed her as a whole.

She hoped that he was so needy that he’d not notice.

But of course he would, simply because it would be hard to hide a body when it was downed in nothing but a layer of skin.

Laughing to herself, she thought about what she’d seen in the mirror when she’d taken a shower this morning.

There were all kinds of small and large bruises on her body from moving things around at the new house that she’d not realized that she had.

Especially the one that was on her shoulder.

She must have banged it good on something to make the dollar-sized bruise there on the top of her arm.

Deciding that she needed to start running again, she thought about doing it on the beach.

Her mom had a nice beachfront property that was long and wide.

Wondering if she could convince Colby to run with her, she thought that he was in good enough shape as it was from working on the trips that he was on.

She didn’t know how it worked, but she had to figure that he was getting a lot of exercise on the boat, which kept him in good shape.

By the time she was on her only run today, she was ready for a nap.

She’d slept well last night and the night before, so she didn’t understand why she was so exhausted.

Then there was the fact that she’d been getting up earlier, too.

Stretching her muscles to make sure she didn’t get any sorer, she drove to the shop to get unloaded so that she could go back home and finish up packing.

Since most of her things were in the rig, as she’d been living full-time in it for the last five years, she didn’t have much in the way of clothing or other things at her mom’s house that she thought that she’d need at the new house.

Excitement always made her smile at the thought of moving into the bigger home.

She’d never thought that she’d want to live in a five-bedroom home as she’d had so little space in the rig.

But the fact that she was looking forward to having so much room made her think that she could get used to it quickly.

Plus, there was room at the new house where she could park her rig, and it wouldn’t be an eyesore out in the open like it was at her mom’s home.

There were a lot of perks like that she was looking forward to.

Another thing was the pool. She’d never had a pool before and was looking forward to having a nice swim after a long day in the truck.

The ocean was fairly close to them, but the thought of all that sand and people made her think that she’d be using their pool more than the beach.

She also liked the fact that there was room on the property for a garden.

She’d never been one to garden at all. Not even to have a flower bed.

But there was something so appealing about having fresh things to bring in from a little garden that was making her excited to have it.

She knew that she’d not have a lot of time to devote to something larger than a few things, but she was definitely going to grow some things so that she could go out and pick something when she wanted it.

The house already had a few fruit trees on the property, so there was that.

But she wanted some carrots to grow as well as a few tomatoes.

On her way back after getting her back load, she was making good time and thought that she’d be finished up before one.

That made it so that she could take her things to the house and get them put away before Colby got there, and she thought that they’d have dinner at the house on their first night staying there.