“That’s a huge part of it. Plus Kassi is freakin’ awesome. She’s fun, and I can relate to her easily. I moved in with her after high school, spent all my time home from college there, and then continued my stay after I got mydegree.”
“How’d you end up at Perk almost every day last spring,then?”
“I only had a couple classes, so I commuted from Kassi’s.” Ishrug.
He studies me as I meander around the living room, eyeballing the scattered slips of paper filled with scribbled words, and random sheets of guitar tabs that I missed at firstglance.
“How much do your parents hate you living withher?”
“A lot,” I tell him. “My mother bugs me about it. My father doesn’t pay any attention, but that’s nothingnew.”
“He really ignores you? How is thatpossible?”
Hearing that he’s honestly perplexed by this, I throw a shy grin his way and pick up a pile of what are obviously song lyrics. Tucker doesn’t object so I flip through them, barely scanning their pages as I continue ourconversation.
“He’s always ignored me. But it makes me feel somewhat better that he ignores my mother too. In fact, he ignores anything that isn’t his young secretary or his job. It’s always been the norm forme.”
Tucker frowns at that. “That’s so…sad.”
I nod. “And you? How’s your relationship with yourparents?”
When he doesn’t answer, I glance up at him. He’s watching his feet, appearing uncomfortable and unsure. Just as I’m about to tell him he doesn’t have to answer, hedoes.
“It’snot.”
Now it’s my turn to be confused. “That’s not what Tanner says. He says you’re the golden child. That your parents talk about you all the time. He’s always been jealous of you forthat.”
Tucker snorts loudly. “Figures he would say that. Why’d you ask if Tanner already told you allthat?”
“I always had a feeling that something was off about hisassessment.”
Pushing off the wall, he walks over and grabs the set of the notes out of my hands, tucking them back into the manila folder they were resting on and hiding them from my pryingeyes.
“Hey! I was looking at those,” Iargue.
“You were getting dangerously close to my secret masterpiece,” he says teasingly.Maybe.
“How come you don’t sing originals atMic’s?”
After placing the folder on the lone bookcase in the room, Tucker turns to me. “Because I’m not ready to share them with the worldyet.”
I don’t push him for more, although I want to. I could tell by flipping through the pages that I was holding a couple significant songs in myhands.
“Wanna watch TV?” I ask. “Is Gaigehome?”
“He’s working his pizza delivery job tonight, so we’ve got the place to ourselves,” Tucker says heading into the kitchen. “You pick something out, and I’ll grab thesnacks.”
Before I can start over-analyzing his words and what they could mean (because ifwe’ve got the place to ourselvesdoesn’t make you sweat, nothing will), I settle onto the couch and flip on the guide, attempting to find a good movie to watch. When I come up short, I get up to check inside the small entertainmentcenter.
I gasp as I open up the cabinet, quickly slamming it shut.He watches thisjunk?
“Don’t be slamming my cabinets!” Tucker calls with alaugh.
Getting up, I follow his voice into the tiny kitchen, leveling him with a glare. “You watch thatshit?”
He quirks his eyebrow at me. “Whatshit?”
I walk over and grab my plastic cup—because the dude probably doesn’t have actual glasses—of wine, a bag of chips, and head toward the living room, expecting him to follow me. Hedoes.