Page 57 of Part of Forever
“Crap.” He sits up. “I’m so sorry. I promise my intentions are pure. We weren’t, we aren’t…” I grab his free hand to let him know that I’m here with him.
“It doesn’t matter, Tucker, I think the two of you should come home,” I hear Erin say. “You haven’t been drinking, right?”
“No, Erin.” He sounds like a little kid who just got in trouble for stealing cookies.
“I’ll see you in a couple hours,” she says before ending the call, and Tucker sets his phone on the bed in front of him.
“I’m so sorry, Rosie. This is all my fault, I’m so sorry.”
My chest feels heavy—this was supposed to be our night, just us for once. And even though I didn’t know about it until we got here, I wanted this for us.
“Hey.” I crawl closer to him, putting my hand on his face so he has to look at me. “It was a perfect few hours.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.” I give him a quick kiss before jumping out of bed and pulling on my dress over my pajamas.
I help him grab the few things we brought and make sure—again—that the fire is completely out, before we walk out and he locks the door behind us.
The wind has picked up and I’m shaking by the time we get into his truck, so I climb into the middle seat and sit as close as I can to him until the heat kicks on. I’ve got my head on his shoulder and our hands in my lap.
“It’s all going to be okay,” I repeat several times, both to assure him, and also myself.
“Why would she do this?” he asks when we are out of the canyon. I know who he’s talking about.
“Um,” I say. “I’m guessing she’s going to be mad at me forever for not telling her about the tumor.”
“That’s dumb,” he says. “I mean, I guess I get that she’s mad, but… you’re fine, so it’s not that big of a deal.”
I don’t deserve his forgiveness. Grace has every right to be mad at me; I didn’t tell her the truth for months, even after telling Tucker. That wasn’t fair to her, and I just kept putting it off until it was too late.
“So, this is sort of my fault that our night was ruined,” I say glumly.
“No, Rosie, it’s not your fault. She didn’t have to do this to get back at you.”
“Yeah, I’m still sorry.”
“No, don’t be.” He presses a quick kiss into my hair. “Like you said, it was a perfect few hours together.”
“Yeah.” I let out a quiet sigh and enjoy the last couple of hours I have alone with him, since I don’t know what awaits us at home.
23
“It’s going to be okay.”I’m still attempting to reassure both of us as we pull off the freeway and into our neighborhood. We were both pretty quiet the whole way home, which made the drive feel even longer. Tucker seems nervous, like he only planned for a night away, and didn’t actually think it all the way through. Not that I did either, even though I didn’t know where we were going. Now it seems like it probably wasn’t his best idea, even though I’m grateful for the alone time.
I don’t actually know what will happen when we get home. Mom might forgive me because of the whole tumor thing, but I really don’t want her to say anything in front of Tucker.
“I hope so.” His knuckles are white on the steering wheel. I wish I could kiss him again, get him to relax. My body goes warm, thinking about the kiss that got interrupted. I want to kiss him like that again. But there isn’t time when we pull into the driveway.
It’s way past midnight, but all the lights are on at Tucker’s house. I’m already exhausted and not ready to have a shouting match with Mom, which is bound to happen. My body feels like it’s going to collapse and my mind won’t stop running. He smashes his lips against mine before we climb out of the truck; it’surgent and messy, like we both know we don’t have enough time. Because it feels like there isn’t enough time. I want to linger, but he pulls away too soon.
“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper again, and I take his hand as we walk up to the front door. “Ready?”
“Not really, no. You’d think this would be a little less scary since my mom isn’t here to see this, but your mom kind of freaks me out.”
I let out a small, nervous laugh. “Me too, honestly.”
He squeezes my hand three times and then opens the door. Mom and Erin are talking softly on the couch. Nathan is asleep on the floor and Grace is curled up on her dad’s oversized chair, scrolling on her phone.
