Page 16 of Words I Couldn't Say
THAT ONE KISS—THAT ONEnight—changed it all. For the rest of the summer, we weren’t just inseparable. We wereinseparable. If you were looking for Tucker, you’d find him with me. And vice versa. Sure, we’d been that way before, but now, not only would you find us together, you’d find us touching. Whether it was innocent hand-holding, thighs touching, or Tucker pressing me up against the side of the movie theater with his tongue shoved down my throat and his hands toying with the button on my jeans, you’d find us. Previous playful banter shifted into teasing of a different kind. Everything had changed, and it was perfect.
Our post–high school plans were suddenly all the more exciting. Tucker’s father owned a construction business, and while he had spent his summers working with his dad, taking the business over wasn’t in his future. He wanted to be a journalist nearly as badly as I wanted to be an actress. I couldn’t wait for us to be in California, pursuing our dreams in the most perfect way—together.
With Tucker, I spent my last summer in Ohio learning the ins and outs of pure pleasure. For weeks, we explored each other with a fervor my dad, if he’d had any clue about, would kill my new boyfriend and probably lock me away in a convent forever. Still, we hadn’t gone all the way, and the more he touched me, the more I wanted him. I hadn’t been ready before, and he hadn’t pushed.
Eventually, however, I couldn’t take the waiting any longer. Those aching loins were on fire for him, and before we left for college, I wanted to be with him in the most intimate way, in our most special place.
There was a small forest behind our houses, and not too deep into the woods was a tree house our dads had built when we were kids. In our younger years, that’s where we’d spent our time playing board games or cops and robbers, or when he was feeling kind, Tucker would play the Flynn Ryder to my Rapunzel. The completely platonic kind, but I should’ve known that no girl could resist his charms or boyishly handsome smile forever.
As we got older, we studied there or used the treehouse as an escape—usually from our younger siblings. While I was eight when my first brother was born, Tucker’s was five years younger than we were, and the older he got, the more he wanted to hang around.
So, once our blindfolds had come off and we’d realized what we meant to each other, the tree house had become our hiding spot (even though our parents knew exactly where we were) and, more importantly, our making out spot. And I’d decided that, if we were both going to be leaving for college and had no idea when we’d even be back in Cincinnati, it would be the perfect—most special—spot to fully give myself to him. As soon as I’d decided, I’d no longer wanted to wait.
Fortunately, I didn’t think he was going to make me.
After spending nearly an hour kissing on the old couch we’d commandeered for the tree house, my body was on fire. This was it. We’d been dancing around the idea of sex for what felt like ages, and now, lying there with my jeans unbuttoned, my shirt completely off, and the cool summer breeze acting as a perfect contrast to Tucker’s heated lips kissing my skin, I knew it in the very bottom of my heart. I was ready. I wanted this. I wanted him. And I wanted him now.
My hips rose to meet his bulging erection, pleasure shooting through me at the friction our bodies created. A soft moan escaped my lips. His fingers, which had been trailing along my stomach, traveled up my torso, where he pushed my bra aside and lowered his head to worship my already puckered nipple. It tightened the moment his lips sucked, his tongue expertly licking until I was writhing beneath him. My hands grasped his ass, holding him closer to me until I was grinding against him in a hurried frenzy.
“Tucker,” I breathed, my voice raspy and filled with unmistakable desire. “I want—”
My words halted when he lifted his head and our gazes locked. His eyes searched mine, and when he smiled, revealing a perfectly round dimple, I knew he was aware of what I was saying even if I hadn’t gotten the words out.
His hand brushed the hair out of my face. “You’re sure?” he asked, to which I only nodded. “Ava, I need you to say it out loud. To know you’re ready for this.”
Swallowing hard, I brought my hand to the back of his neck while continuing to stare into the depths of those mesmerizing baby blues. “I’m ready. I’m sure. I love you, Tucker. Now, love me, too.”
“Idolove you, Little Bird,” he whispered.
My heart fluttered at his lifelong endearment.
“I’llalwayslove you,” he emphasized.
After a quick kiss, he rose from our makeshift bed. My heart beat wildly as he retrieved his jeans to get protection. Just as he was setting his wallet down, his phone buzzed, threatening to ruin our moment. But, instead, Tucker ignored it, and the vibrating ceased but then immediately started again. Casting me a look of regret, he hastily picked his phone up to see who the offender was.
“Twelve missed calls. What the hell?” he said more to himself than to me. He pressed the phone to his ear, once again giving me a rueful smile. Seconds later, all the blood drained from his face. He closed the phone with an eerie calm then hurled it across the room.
I jumped at the crash then watched as he raced across the room, quickly dressing. Dread seeped into me, deep down into my bones. Something was very wrong, and I had no idea what had happened.
“Tucker, what’s going on?” I asked, rising from the bed and following his suit by putting my shirt back on and situating my jeans.
“We have to go.” It was terse. A muscle in his jaw twitched as he forced those words out.
Gone was the playful, sexy man who had been on the verge of making love to me. Without another word, he took my hand and led me down the ladder. I could barely keep up as he ran out of the woods and to his house, where my parents were already waiting on the back deck for us.
The dread spread throughout my body when I took in their grim expressions. My mom, with gentle ease, took me from Tucker while Dad placed his arm around Tucker’s shoulders and led him towards the house, away from me.
I was still in the dark, but I knew, in that instant, our lives were about to change forever.
I wish I’d been wrong.
Because the moment the police officer stepped outside and asked if he was the son of Kevin and Julia Manning, the first domino was struck.
