Page 15 of Here's to Yesterday

“Full Measures?” Tucker questions as he places a new coffee cup in front of me. “Anygood?”

I hold up my finger to signify “one second” and finish reading a beautiful scene taking place at the hockey rink. Because you don’t interrupt a reader.Ever.

Sighing over how heartbreakingly beautiful these two are together, I finally set my book back down, a little sad I had to stop reading but also wanting to talk to Tucker a littlemore.

“I didn’t know people still did that,” Tuckercomments.

I purse my lips and tilt my head because I’m confused by what he’s saying. “Dowhat?”

“Read actual books. You hardly ever see it anymore. Everyone is so techfocused.”

“I know. It hurts my heart. Nothing beats the smell of a new paperbackbook.”

“Agreed,” he says, taking a sip of his coffee. He motions his head toward the book. “I didn’t know you were a reader. Is itgood?”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” I tell him. “Thanks to Rae, I’m an avid reader. It’s one of the few things we have incommon.”

“You’re best friends and you don’t like the same things? Hudson has mentioned a few times how alike you twoare.”

“Books and music—two extremely important things—are about it. She likes raunchy comedies and sappy romances while I like indie flicks and anything to do with superheroes. I dig clothes, and she’s a bit fashion-challenged. I like cats, and she’s more of a dog person. We’re mostly opposite from one another, but it works forus.”

“Huh,” he says, still sounding a bit perplexed by it. “Well, that’s good, Iguess.”

“Do you like romance?” I ask, waving my book so he knows what I’m talkingabout.

Tucker shakes his head. “Not books, but I have an appreciation for romance in general, being a musician andall.”

“Fair enough. To answer your other question, yes, it’s good. Damn good, actually. I think Josh Walker might be my new mainsqueeze.”

“What’s itabout?”

I frown. “A military brat who has her world blown apart and falls in love with a stud hockeyplayer.”

“Typical everyday life then, huh?Gotcha.”

“Something like that,” I mumble, because I wanted that. Or at least something similar. I push those thoughts away. “Anyway, what are you doing out and about? You always come here? Or here stalking meagain?”

He shoots me a look for teasing him. “Lunch break at the shop. I don’t usually leave, but I needed a pick-me-up today. So, Perk itis.”

“You guys staying busy overthere?”

“Definitely. Hudson’s still in his honeymoon phase with Rae, so it’s all sunshine and shit around the shop. She stopped in to pick him up forlunch.”

“It’s good to see her happy. She deservesit.”

“Theydeserve it. They work well together. I could tell they were meant to be from the minute she stepped foot inside Jacked Up. Match made in heaven, those two. It’s almostsickening.”

“And here I was sure I was the only one who thought that. Sickening, butcute.”

Suddenly, Tucker leans across the table, and I automatically lean in toward him, no questions asked.Odd.

He drops his voice to a barely audible whisper. “You’ll never get me to admit it out loud ever again, but itiscute.”

I laugh because that wasn’t at all what I wasexpecting.

“I’m telling everyone you saidthat.”

“And I’ll deny it until the end of time,” he says, leaning back in his chair and giving me an almost wickedsmile.

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