Tricks (Take It Off #6)(47)
Author: Cambria Hebert

Guilty that I hadn’t felt that way for Max. Guilty that my first thought when I learned Max was gone was that I lost my friend. Shouldn’t I have felt more? Watching Tucker succumb to his wound last night scared me to my bones. The unrelenting fear of him dying still left my stomach achy and weak.

Unknowingly, I told Tucker I liked him better.

It was true.

And for that I would never forgive myself.

Slight movement on the bed caught my eye, and I sat up, pushing forward. Tucker blinked, his eyes opening slowly as he stared around the room.

“You’re at the hospital, Tucker. You were shot.”

He turned his head, spearing me with those endless dark eyes. “Hey,” he rasped, his voice slightly hoarse. He smiled and it tilted my universe.

“Should I get the nurse?”

“You know what they say is the best medicine for healing a wounded man?” he asked.

“What?” I replied, knowing that whatever he asked for I would make sure he got.

“Human contact.”

That was not what I was expecting to hear.

“Come here,” he coerced, pulling his hand from beneath the cover and extending it to me.

I couldn’t deny a man who almost died for me. I pushed out of the torturous chair and stepped to the side of the bed. He slid over, grimacing a little when he moved. I bit my lip, thinking I needed to call the nurse.

“I’m fine.” He promised and held out his arm.

As carefully as I could, I slid onto the bed, stretching out alongside him, my cramped, sore muscles giving a great sigh of relief. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer so the only place to rest my cheek was on his chest.

“You’re cold,” he murmured against my hair.

“I put the blanket they gave me over you.”

I felt his lips move in my hair and my eyes fluttered closed. “Is this okay?” I asked, not wanting to hurt him.

“Perfect,” he whispered.

“Thank you,” I said, twisting my fingers in the side of his hospital gown. “For protecting me. I wish I’d done a better job at protecting you.”

His breathing was even and deep, making me think he’d once again slipped into sleep. A few long moments passed as his heat seeped into my chilled skin and my cheek pillowed itself against his chest.

“Taking a bullet was easy,” he said. “You have the hard job.”

I didn’t understand what he meant. Maybe he was confused from all the meds. “My job isn’t hard.”

“Darlin’,” he drawled sleepily, “I can guarantee you that being the keeper of my heart is most definitely not going to be easy.”

My breath caught. My entire body went numb. Did he just tell me I had his heart?

I pushed up to stare down at his face.

His eyes were closed and a light snore rose from his mouth. He was asleep. I lowered myself back against him, careful not to bump any of the wires and tubes.

He probably wouldn’t remember what he said.

But me… I was never going to forget.

29

Tucker

Underlying tension.

It simmered beneath the surface like a bubbling pot threatening to boil over at any given moment.

For almost two weeks, I was able to ignore it. We were both able to pretend it wasn’t there. But as the wound in my side healed and the sharp ache throbbing in my chest after Max’s memorial service became just a little more bearable, the tension was a lot harder to ignore.

I was still in New York City, first because the doctors told me not to travel while my wound was still fresh and then because the FBI kindly asked me to stay while they built a solid case against Wallace and his band of criminals.

Charlotte stayed with me until I was released from the hospital. She never left my side, even when I tried to order her away. She insisted that I stay at her apartment, and I didn’t argue because honestly, I wanted to be there. Charlie and I went through something together, something most people never do.

We were also both grieving over my brother, grieving over the person we both loved and lost. The memorial service was held here in the city, and the cathedral was so packed people had to stand. I wished Max could see the amount of people that came out to honor his short life. My parents stayed for several days, my mother cried a lot, and my father constantly shook his head.

Charlotte went back to work and my mother hovered in the apartment, constantly checking my wound like it was going to somehow open up and swallow me whole. But I didn’t complain. Making sure her only living son wasn’t going anywhere was part of her healing process. I knew this had been a shock to them. No one ever expected Max to be the one to go so young. If anything, my family always prepared themselves for my untimely death. Considering my old profession, it hadn’t been farfetched.

But as the days crawled by, my mother began to realize that I wasn’t going to die and my father finally convinced her to go back home.

The apartment was quiet during the day, and I spent a lot of time looking through Max’s things, remembering my brother and regretting all the time we lost.

I hoped wherever he was, he knew how much he meant to me.

Nathan and Honor flew in for the service. Actually, they flew in when I told them I was in the hospital and they stayed until after the service. It was good to see them again. They had become my family, and I realized that nothing in life would ever be as important as that.

I was finally ready to stop pushing so many people away. I was ready to take on those relationships, to embrace them, because life was too short to have regrets.

Nathan knew how I felt the minute he saw Charlotte and me together. I never told him and he never came out and asked. But he knew. Right before he and Honor flew back to North Carolina, he came to the apartment and without my asking, he gave me some advice.

“Tuck,” he said, “don’t beat yourself up too bad about the way you feel. Max wouldn’t want that. If anything, he’d want you to be the one to take care of her.”

“That’s the thing,” I told him. “I don’t feel the way I do out of obligation. I feel it because it’s real.”

Nathan smiled. “You know the PI firm sure could use a lawyer on staff to keep you and me on the up and up.”

The suggestion settled inside me; it brought me a feeling of peace. Having Charlotte with me all the time just felt right.

Right before he left that day, he gave me a very manly hug. “Love is never a mistake, my brother. Don’t let who she was with in the past keep you apart in the future,” he said into my ear. “See ya at home.”