Page 53

TUCKER

“Y ou look handsome,” Cael said, leaning against the doorframe behind me.

I turned to look at him over my shoulder, buttoning up the sheer dress shirt with a smile on my face. I tugged at the collar, but it just didn’t seem to wanna lay flat against my chest. He wandered over, still in his sweats and stupid fuckboy cropped t-shirt, but with a soft look in his big blue eyes.

“There’s still time for us to be a throuple,” he said quietly as he forced the collar into position with ease. "Clem wouldn’t mind her boyfriend having a boyfriend.”

“I’d mind my boyfriend having a girlfriend.” I rolled my eyes at him as he backed away, and I turned to the mirror. Cael shifted away from me, crossing his arms over his chest and causing his shirt to ride up over his stomach.

“Offer will always be on the table.” He cocked his head to the side, completely unbothered.

“How come you aren’t dressed?” I asked him, turning to grab my belt from the bed. "We have to leave in twenty.”

“It takes me five minutes to put on clothes.” He rubbed his shaved head with a smile. True , I thought and did up my belt buckle with shaky hands. “You alright?” He asked me, his demeanor softening.

“Nervous.” I inhaled a strangled breath and tried to convince my heart to stop beating so fast in my chest.

“About what?” Cael stepped forward again, swatting my hands away to help me with my belt. I hate being babied, but just for the second he was there, everything seemed a little less daunting. “Tonight or in the grander schemes of falling in love?” He smiled at me, and I found the balance I needed to stand on my own two feet again.

“Both,” I said with a tiny huff. “I’ve never actually released a press statement, and my father will be there tonight, they’re one of Harbor’s biggest donors…”

“So we do what we do… well, you do what we always do, get drunk and have fun,” Cael suggested.

“I can’t. I have to do that speech. I’m captain now, I don’t get to enjoy the gala,” I said. “Do you ever wish we could go back to that first year?” I asked him.

“No.” He shook his head. “That year was hell for both of us. Mostly because of me… I would never want to live through that again, no matter how fun some of it might have been.” His gaze met mine over my shoulder in the mirror as I turned around to double-check my outfit. The sheer shirt left nothing to imagination, every muscle was pulled tightly and radiated with uncomfortable tension and anxiety.

Tonight was going to be a shit show.

“Dad wouldn’t have given you the job unless he knew you could handle it, and Josh wouldn’t have given you his heart for the exact same reason. So maybe you need to stop doubting your ability to step up to the plate.” Cael watched me with a curious look on his face. “Maybe you just need to believe in yourself instead of letting the corrupt words of a family that never appreciated your heart turn you rotten.”

I nodded, his words heavy on my chest.

“I wasted a lot of time, Cael,” I said, chewing on the inside of my cheek. “Fighting against people that didn’t deserve it, not pushing back against the people that did. I'm sorry,” I said to him.

“Time can be created,” he sounded so sure of himself. “Hey,” Cael tapped my shoulder, and I looked over at him again. "Do you remember what Mama used to say to us when we fought?” He asked me, and I could hear the pain in his voice. His throat had the tendency to close over when he thought of her even to that day.

“If we can fight that hard against the people we love, imagine what we could do against the rest of the world,” I repeated it with him, and I could hear her voice in the back of my head like a mantra. “I wish she were here.”

“She is,” Cael's voice was soft and sad, and tapped my chest gently before he started to walk away. He was running out of time to get dressed and if we were late Arlo would beat our asses.

“Cael,” I called to him before he left the room, and he poked his head around the door to look at me. “I love you.”

“I know, big boy.” A goofy grin appeared on his face.

“Hey, I know that reference,” I said to him with a smile, and he winked before disappearing again.

I stood in the quiet for a second, pushing my hair back off my face and really making sure that I was ready for tonight before leaving my room. The Nest was quiet, everyone having either left or been on their way out the door. I could hear Cael shuffling around his room and stared at the open door, my heart no longer hurting at the thought of him.

“You ready?” Josh’s voice travelled up the stairs and I turned to see him with a hand shoved in the pocket of the well-fitted black dress pants.

“Holy shit,” I inhaled, my chest rising slowly at the sight of him. His hair was combed back in slick waves that curled around his ears and nape. He was wearing a few rings, but the star of the show was the black dress shirt and all the gold embellishments that made him shine. They balanced out the darkness in his eyes, making them glow a beautiful shade of amber in the dim lighting.

“I look fucking good,” he said, that smug smile I missed so much returning to his handsome face. It had been a rough few weeks dealing with his Mom’s passing, but I’d never admired him more as he took everything in stride.

Silas and he had delivered a late statement on everything that happened, including the untimely death of his mother. The questions circled madly, but they had done an impeccable job of answering what they could without letting the press run them over.

“You look damn good,” I said with a smile, descending the stairs. I reached the bottom, and his eyes trailed over me with a satisfied look on his handsome face. “We’ll be lucky if I don’t puke on this before the night's finished,” I said nervously.

“I puked before I put mine on, like a responsible adult,” he said, stepping forward and brushing his hand against a rogue curl that slipped out and fell against my forehead. “You clean up pretty good, Tuck,” he whispered—a quiet moment just between us before the chaos started.

“I’m a wallflower next to you.” I breathed him in as he stole a reassuring kiss from my lips. His bravery was inspiring, each kiss and every touch a testament to how hard he was working to feel better. “Can’t believe I get to take ‘ the’ Joshua Logan tonight,” I laughed."Most hated man in Habor."

Months ago, that sentence would have been more unbelievable than me saying I was straight. Now, having him standing in front of me, neither of us weighed down by the suffocating pressure of our families, everything felt a little lighter.

“Yeah, yeah.” He laughed gently, ready to get the public show over with. "Do you have your speech?” He asked me.

“It’s on my phone,” I said.

“Do you have your phone?” He laughed, and I patted down my pockets before swearing and darting back upstairs to grab it off the bed. When I returned to the main floor, Cael, Ella, and Arlo were standing with him.

“You ready, Tucker?” Arlo asked, looking more buttoned up than usual in a clean dark suit and dress shirt. Ella matched him in a long black dress, the ring she always wore around her neck and a pretty smile that instantly brought me a little comfort.

“Do I have a choice?” I asked and he shook his head.

“Guess I’m ready then,” I said.

Everyone made their way out to the car, but before we took the stairs, Arlo stopped me.

“You never looked at it, did you?” He asked, and I looked down at him at the bottom of the stairs, confusion all over my face. What the hell was he talking about? “Open the binder, Tucker.”

“We don’t have—” I started, the last thing I wanted to know was read what he thought of me on that page, tonight would be hard enough without knowing.

“It’ll take five minutes, they can wait,” he said. “Go.”

I scratched my neck and shrugged. Who was I to argue against Arlo? He waited, watching me as I turned back to the house. I took the stairs to my room and dug the binder out from the bottom of my duffle bag, cradling it in my hands and opening it to my tab.

Franklin Tucker.

I stared at the picture he had pinned in the folder and laughed, it was my rookie year photo. I still had a skinny face and a hopeful look in my eye. My hair was short, and there was no trace of exhaustion anywhere.

The file was normal, it had all my stats, my best plays scribbled down in bad handwriting, but taped behind the picture was a little faded yellow sticky note dated from that year.

Next captain.

My chest constricted my heart painfully, all the anxiety I had been feeling burned raw at the sight of the simple words. He had known, that season, all those years ago that eventually one day I would be here. How long he had been training me to fill his shoes, and I hadn’t even been aware of it?

I pulled the sticky note out of the folder and rubbed it between my fingers.

He had so much faith in me, and I had never seen it.

I tucked the sticky note into my pants pocket and put the binder away to join the others. The car was still waiting out front of the Nest, and it took us down to the stadium like it always did. The music was loud coming from inside, the parking full as we climbed from the car and straightened ourselves out. Cael excused himself, no doubt to find Clementine, and for the first time since meeting him, I wasn’t desperate for him to return to my side.

Josh bumped my shoulder and swiped his ID on the box to let us in the door. Ella and Arlo’s voices echoed gently around the concrete hallway as the four of us made our way down through to the main entrance of the field. My heart was pounding in my chest and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop the feeling of it trying to run away. We stepped out into the concourse, the concrete sturdy beneath my feet, and I looked down over the party.

Everything looked amazing, twinkling lights and a massive dance floor that framed a large stage and a live band. There were tables of chatting people and waiters rushing around to make sure everyone was happy.My parents would be down there, waiting in the shadows like a pair of vipers. Toxic and ready to destroy every good thing I'd been working to create. My heart was running rampant beneath my chest and my head was dizzy with anxiety.

“Stop looking for them,” Josh whispered from beside me.

“I can’t,” I breathed out and turned around on my heel to take a second before I stepped down onto the field, only to be met with the team. Cael stood, shoulder to shoulder with Arlo, Van and Silas, surrounded by the rest of the team, starters and second string alike. All there like a wall.

“You didn’t think we’d let you do this alone, did you?” Cael's voice was sturdy and comforting as he asked with a smile on his face.

I didn’t know what to say to them. But I felt stronger with them standing in a united front, supporting me without question and under extreme scrutiny. Arlo nodded, pride tucked into the quiet curve of his smile.

“Two steps at a time,” he said, raising his hand to his heart.

Cael stepped forward, looking over at Josh for a split second and letting something unsaid pass between them before he reached out to the suit jacket I was wearing. “You forgot someone,” he said, pinning a small lavender boutonniere to my chest with practiced ease. “And Clementine got one thing wrong in her article, don’t tell her I said that,” he whispered with a smirk as he got it in place. "But there’s never been only one heart of the Hornets, our strength lies in numbers.”

“It’s perfect.” I looked down at the little stalks of delicate purple flowers and smiled, my jaw quivering with raw emotions.

“She would be livid for missing such an insane outpouring of love,” Silas said when I went quiet, trying to collect my emotions and to keep from crying. I cleared my throat and squared my shoulders to fight the grief and gratitude that tangled dangerously in my chest. “And for the record, she would have loved you like you were her own.” He looked over at Josh. “She had a thing for grouchy asshole misfits,” he added, laughing as Arlo shoved him.

“If it’s any consolation, I would have been honored,” Josh said, and I turned my head to look at him. All serious and stoic in his statement, the lights from the stadium backlit the sharp cut of his jaw and the long, harsh swoop of a nose broken more than once. The bright white lights created a halo around him, kissing each plaited curl and making him glow.

I’d never felt a rush of love like the wave that washed over me just admiring him.

“I’m ready,” I said, the words sticking in my throat as I swallowed the fear. Josh looked over at me and nodded, his hand tangling into mine at our sides and the team cheering like a bunch of idiots at the top of their lungs. The music and chattering from the stadium, the anxiety in my chest and the fear in my heart were completely drowned out by their love.