Page 36 of Colby (Tucker’s Pride #5)

“I’m sorry.” He sat down on one of the many benches that were along the seafront. Watching the water coming in and out, he told Emma what he was doing. “It’s got to be better than what you’re seeing. Where are you anyway?”

She told him. “So as you might well know, I’m looking at a highway that goes to my next store, and I’m sitting in my truck.

At least it has air conditioning. It’s supposed to be really warm today.

” He told her that he was sorry again. “I want to have dinner tonight at home. I want something to grill out. I should have said something to Parker about grilling out. She might have put me in an entire picnic area in my rig so that I could enjoy it.”

“That sounds like something she’d do.” They talked about Parker and her incredible magic. “I know that she fixed our houses so that no one can enter with having ill will in their heart. I had to ask someone what that meant, and I love that she did that.”

Colby sat on the bench for the next two and a half hours talking to Emma.

They laughed and talked about the house.

Then she told him about her own mom. She’d died of cancer when she’d only been twenty-eight, and Emma was only two and had been left to be raised by her dad. Then he’d died after meeting Charlotte.

He’d forgotten that Charlotte wasn’t her real mother but the daughter of her father. The two of them were closer than mother and daughter, and he loved them both. Grief could bring even the worst people together, and he was glad that they’d found one another to hold onto in their moments of need.

“Well, they’re here now and not soon enough for me. I thought that I’d just bother you a bit, and we’ve been talking the entire time. I’m sorry.” He told her that he was glad that he could help her. “But you didn’t get to get your boat today. I know you were looking forward to that.”

“What? Are you kidding? Getting to talk to you all afternoon could have been my entire day and not just a couple of hours. I love talking to you. Sometimes I miss you so much that this really helps when I’m down and out.

” She asked him if he got that way often.

“Not too often. Especially now that you’re a part of my life.

You make me happy, and all I need to do is think about you, and I get in a better mood than I was before. I love you so very much.”

“And I love you so much, too.” She said that she needed to make sure these guys got her fixed up well, and she needed to get going after that. “I love talking to you, but I can’t do it when I’m driving. It’s too much of a distraction.

“It is for me too when I’m on the boat.” They talked a bit more, then he got up and started for the docks again.

He wanted to get the boat today to have it started on to be upgraded, but now he was distracted.

All he wanted to do was go home and wait for Emma to come back.

She said she’d be late coming home, and he knew that he’d wait up for her.

Not that his trip to buy a boat was ruined, far from it.

He’d got to spend some time with the love of his life while she was stranded.

And it had been fun too for him. Talking about anything and everything under the sun together.

He thought that they could do that more often, but only when they weren’t doing their jobs.

It could be dangerous for both of them. She could have an accident, and he could fall off the boat or cause harm to one of his crew members or the clients.

Going back to the place that he purchased the first one from, Colby ordered his boat and then talked about the upgrades. All he really needed done was the crew sleeping area to have bunk beds put in on either side of the walls and extra seating around the fishing dock.

Colby arrived home about an hour later than he had expected to.

Dinner was going to be late again but he didn’t mind.

The two of them had been eating around eight o’clock for the past couple of weeks.

Then they’d head up to bed around midnight.

It was late getting to bed for the two of them, but they didn’t care.

His grandda had told him that he was young yet and could afford to not sleep a full night.

But he also cautioned not to do it too often, as it would make them very ill.

What he actually said was that it would make them old before their time.

Getting the grill ready for dinner, when Emma told him that she was in town, the two of them met out on the deck to have dinner out there.

Along with the steaks, they were having a green salad and a baked potato.

The warm bread was from Jack’s place that he had left over, and they were going to make good use of it, sopping up the juices from the steaks.

“When are you going to your grandparents again? If it’s on my days off, I’d love to go with you.

” He said that he was supposed to go tomorrow so that he could take his grandda to the dentist. “Well, that would be all right if I miss that. But the next time you go over to work, I want to go too. It’ll be nice to see them again. ”

“It’s my turn to mow the lawn. He had a service do it, but that boy went off to college.

I think he’s avoiding grandda. He had to get a little shitty with him about being paid while not working.

” That was a funny story, and he told her about it just like his grandda did to him.

“Neither the boy nor his dad ever said a word to him again. I thought that I’d laugh my butt off. ”

“He is a good man, your grandda. And I love your grannie. She’s funny in a slick sort of way.

Like, there are times when I don’t know if she’s insulting someone or giving them a compliment.

I don’t know that the person she’s talking to knows either.

” He said that Grannie could and would peel the skin right off your hide if she thought that you needed it.

“I know. I heard her fussing with Denver the other day. She never raised her voice, nor did she curse once, but I thought that he was going to cry; he was so upset. I feel like that sometimes when I disappoint my grannie. She never says much, but I know that I have, and it hurts me to my heart. I hate that feeling.”

“Once when I was little, Grannie caught me in a lie. I don’t remember what it was about, I just remember that I had lied to her about something, and she knew it.

When confronted with the evidence that I was lying, I stood there with my chin held high and waited for her to spank me.

She would do that, too, spank us when we needed it.

Anyway, she told me that she was disappointed in me for lying and that I shouldn’t do that again because it hurt her heart.

I cried for a solid three days over that.

She was disappointed in me first of all, but because it had been her that I’d lied to her, that hurt too.

I remember what it was now. I’d taken cookies from the countertop where she’d been cooling them.

They were going to be Christmas gifts for some of the neighborhood families, and I’d messed up her counting.

I never take anything from their home unless I ask from then on.

And especially not any cookies anymore.”

“I want to spank our children when they need it. I’ve seen too many kids who need their asses whipped when they talk back to their parents, and I don’t think it’s something like abuse.

It’s abuse to me if you don’t make sure your kids know right from wrong.

” He agreed with her. “All right. When can we have these kids? I want to be having your baby soon.”

“How about tonight we create one?” She raced him to the bedroom, nearly falling down the first stairs that she went up. Colby was laughing so hard that he nearly fell himself. “Be careful, love. You don’t want to break anything tonight.”