“Why is that?” she huffs.
“Because,” I manage with a wink, “I’m gonna focus on the fact you called me hot.”
And if you’re wondering if she stormed off after that one, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that yes, yes she did.
When I get back to the table, Tuck is chewing on his appetizer and trying not to laugh, but the fact his cheeks are bright red tells me he is loving the surprise dinner and a show part of his night.
“Wow, you certainly have made quite an impression here in Sweetkiss Creek…or is it Sweetkiss ‘Crick’?”
Grabbing my silverware, I stab at my salad and shove a forkful in my mouth. I’m not ashamed to eat my feelings.
“It’s a fluke, Tuck. An anomaly.” I poke at my steak. “And it’s only that woman. She’s a handful. I’d compare her to a wet bee, but she’s more like the whole hornet’s nest.”
“She seems sassy, but…” He whistles, keeping it low and sing-songy. “She’s pretty.”
A tiny arrow hits my heart when Tuck says this. I have noticed she’s beautiful, but it shouldn’t matter considering how insane she makes me. Yet when Tuck makes the comment, I feel a stab of something.
“Guess what I won?” Tuck interrupts my internal debate to pull a small envelope out of his pocket and slide it across the table toward me.
Opening the envelope, I pull out a flimsy baseball card and grin as I reminisce. As kids we both collected baseball cards—of course we had to do the same thing. It was what we did, what we still do. We have always had to one-up the other, so my childhood memories of the highs and lows of card collecting with Tuck in the house are still in technicolor for me. It was always war, in the way boys who are brothers can war. It was its own kind of ruthless.
“You know what that one is, right?” Tuck sits back in his chair, smiling like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.
Inspecting it a little closer, it hits me. “It’s a ‘55 Bowman Mickey Mantle.” My jaw hits the table. “This was the card I wanted when we were little! Where did you get it from?”
Tuck’s preenish grin tells me I’ve given him the reaction he so desperately needed. “I found out about a contest at a comic book store, of all places, last time I was in Virginia. There’s a cool store right when you cross the border, and I always stop there because Laney likes the Buffy comic books…but I digress. Long story short, I entered and my name was pulled. Ta da!”
Only Tuck would win something this epic. Epic to us, but not to anyone else really…unless they were baseball card collectors, that is. “That card is worth, like fifty thousand dollars or something, isn’t it?”
Tuck nods his head, jubilant. “It is.”
Am I insane with jealousy? A little bit. And Tuck knows. “I can tell you like it, like you want it as bad as you used to want my car.”
“I ended up with my own car, don’t forget,” I tap the table, punctuating my sentence. “I actually bought mine and didn’t have to go to bank mom and dad.”
“Semantics.” Tuck laughs, grabbing the card from the table and sliding it back into its envelope. “You know, if we were to make a small wager, I may be willing to let this go.”
“A small wager? That card is worth a lot of money.” I shovel another load of salad in my mouth as I shake my head. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“It’s not like I paid for it; I won it.” The envelope is back on the table, Tuck’s fingers dancing across it. “And toying with your emotions is fun. If you win this card, you complete your collection.”
This man is a sadist, but he’s right. “That collection was put away a long time ago.” I slam back into my chair, crossing my arms in front of me. “I put my toys away when I left home, Tuck.”
“This is not a toy, it’s an investment. In you.” He leans forward, putting his elbows on the table. “Come on. You know you want to do it. I bet you…”
“No.” I then resort to the most mature thing I can think of. I place my hands over my ears. “No, no, no. Do not dare me. Do not double-dog dare me…don’t dare me to do anything, at all anymore, ever.”
“But it’s such a gooooood daaaaare.” He’s almost pleading with me. This is why I love him. And hate him. And love to hate him…I guess it’s why I hate to love him, too.
Is the competition so strong between us that this moment is a hard one for me to walk away from? Yes.
“Tuck, when we do this, things get crazy. It goes a few steps beyond sibling rivalry, and into a territory of chaos if we aren’t careful. Which is why I’m saying no.”
Tuck sighs, putting the card back into his pocket one final time. “You are so boring now that you’re a cop.”
“Boring gets to eat dessert.”
Rolling his eyes, Tuck pushes his chair back and stands. “Fine, I’m going to the restroom. I need a moment to understand why you’d say no.”
