The One Place (5 page)

He just looked me up and down, bit his lip and answered, “We’ll see.”

Before I could say anything else, he laid money on the bar, turned and walked out. A minute later, I could hear a motorcycle start up out front.

I turned back to Ruthie and questioned her behavior. “Well, you sure clammed up. What the hell, Ruthie? You got me in to this.”

Ruthie shook her head and came out of her fog to say, “I can’t believe it. Wow. I thought it, but now I know it.”

What in the hell was she talking about? It was like she was talking to herself. “What’s the matter with you? What are you talking about?”

She shook her head and said, “Nothing. It’s nothing.”

“It doesn’t seem like nothing. What is it?”

“Just Tuck. He hasn’t been out like that. Well, he just doesn’t come out a lot, okay?”

Obviously I wasn’t going to get more out of her then so I just dropped it.

“Fine. Come on, you wanted to have fun tonight, right? That’s the whole point of you dragging my ass out here, shorts and all. So, let’s have fun.”

She snapped back into herself and cried excitedly, “Right! Let’s do it!”

And do it, we did. I tried to learn a little more about her and Bobby, but he was a negative topic so we moved on pretty quickly. I’d just have to keep my eyes open in the future. The rest of the night was uneventful and fun, and I at least didn’t see anyone else staring at my ass. Tuck didn’t know what he was talking about.

Oh, I did do one performance with Ruthie on top of the bar. But it was “Jessie’s Girl”. That’s totally acceptable.

Chapter 10

I didn’t see Tuck for the next week. I tried not to notice that I missed seeing him. Unfortunately, I did notice. Crap, that was not good.

I had been tired the first morning into work after my night out with Ruthie (at least my avoidance of heavy drinking left me just tired, with no hangover), and decided I definitely needed to go back to my boring ways, at least for a few days. So, that’s what I had done. I went about my days as usual, working without much extra curricular activity, working all three shifts and then going home and relaxing. I even took a bath two out of three nights to make up for missing it the night Ruthie showed. The days following I managed to be even more boring if possible, working all three shifts and pouring myself into bed after taking a quick shower each night.

At some point I was going to have to shop a little. Maybe I would do that tonight. I didn’t need to go crazy, but a few extra clothes wouldn’t be a bad thing. Especially since the seasons would change eventually and it would start to get colder. At least I was making steady money now. It wasn’t a fortune, but I was working so many hours that it was better than what a lot of people were probably surviving on.

********

The next day, finally, after a week of wondering, Tuck came in while I was working the lunch shift and sat in my section.

Unable to completely mask my feelings, I went over to his table and said, “Well, well, well. Look who’s here. Haven’t seen you in a while Tuck. You get discouraged after I turned you down at the Lizard?” My tone was snarky even to my ears.

Tuck looked up and pointed out exactly what I had been trying to cover up with antagonism. “I guess you noticed I was gone. Seems like maybe you missed me, Babe.”

Reacting a little too strongly for someone who didn’t care at all I snapped, “I didn’t miss you! I would have hardly noticed you being gone if my days hadn’t been so pleasant in your absence!”

Tuck just smiled warmly and murmured, “Well, I missed you, Talie.”

Huh? That threw me off and felt so good at the same time that I struggled to find the words for a comeback to that. Before I could get my vocal cords to work again Tuck’s phone rang.

He pulled it out of his pocket, answered, and started talking. “Yeah? Alright. I just got back about an hour ago, so I have to run by my house first and then I’ll be over. Right. No problem, Jace.”

He ended the call and placed his phone back in his pocket. He looked up at me and I could swear he looked disappointed. “Sorry, Talie, I gotta go. Gotta go help Jace get a that’s calf in distress. I’ll come by tomorrow, we’ll catch up then.”

“A calf in distress?”

“Yeah, Jace’s got a place just up the road from me. He’s got a herd full’a young calves and sometimes they get themselves into trouble. Gotta help ‘em get outta it.” With that he scooted and got up from the booth, leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead.

What in the hell was going on? Before I could ask or even think about asking, he walked out leaving chin lifts and finger flicks in his wake like he usually did.

********

Tuck didn’t come into the diner the next day. Or the day after that. On the third day of no Tuck, after he had specifically mentioned coming back in to see me, I had to ask Ruthie.

As we were closing up after the dinner shift I went up to her and asked straight out. “Where’s Tuck?”

She was confused, and to be fair, she should have been. My question didn’t make any sense. She started to shake her head that she didn’t know what I meant so I rephrased. “I mean he didn’t come in here for a week and then he comes back in only to get a phone call from Jace and leave. Then he says he’ll see me the next day when he leaves and he didn’t come. And he hasn’t come for the two days after that. So, I’m asking, what’s going on? Do you know?”

Ruthie smiled, clearly enjoying my slip in the carefully crafted facade that I presented most of the time and answered me. “Ok. Well, the week he was gone, he was outta town. He goes out of town every so often. Has been for the past four years or so. Then, way I hear it, he came in here first thing when he got back. Jace called because he needed help with a calf and when you got a problem and you need help, you call Tuck. Just the way it is around Joplin. As for the last three days, I heard he’s been workin’ pretty much ‘round the clock. The Locks called him ‘cause their roof is leakin’ and we’re supposed to be gettin’ a storm in a couple’a days. Personally, I think they got some nerve callin’ on him like everyone else, but Tuck never cared. He just goes when they call, just like he does for everybody else.”

Okay. Well, I felt better. He obviously wasn’t avoiding me. And Jesus, it seemed like Anabelle was right to get disgusted with me when I called Tuck lazy.

“Why don’t you think the Locks should call on him for help like everyone else does?”

A look of panic crossed her face when she realized she mentioned something that she apparently wasn’t supposed to. So she lowered her voice to a whisper and murmured, “Because their son is the reason his sister left.”

That hit me like a slap to the face. Annabelle had mentioned his sister leaving but I hadn’t heard any more about it.

“What do you mean he’s the reason she left?”

Ruthie looked both ways before answering, like she was looking for the bus that would surely be coming to run her over for talking about this. “She loved him, but Tuck didn’t trust him. They got in a big fight about it one day and that night they were gone. Took off in the middle of the night together and nobody’s heard from them since.”

Wow. Yet, another person isolated from their family by life’s cruel twists. Like Jenny and me.

As I turned from Ruthie and finished wiping down all of the tables my thoughts wandered. I wondered if Jenny’s family was out there looking for her or how mine was dealing with my supposed death after being out of touch for so long. I was sure it was hard on both families. I knew Jenny had cut off contact with her family too, and beyond that, never even talked about them to me. I guess she wanted them as far from her life with Andrew as she could get them, and that included not even talking about them. I felt bad that our lives had come to that. And that Jenny’s had ended that way. But, I was also sure that Jenny and I had both done what we’d done to protect them.

********

The next morning on my way to work, I finally saw Tuck. He was working out on the playground again, but with red athletic shorts this time.

God, I had almost forgotten how beautiful he was after going awhile without seeing him. Almost.

He spotted me looking at him, or what was probably more like gawking at him, and dropped from the bar to come running over.

When he got close I could see the sweat glistening on his chest and had a flash of an image of me licking it off. Jesus, down girl.

He stopped in front of me, cutting off my path to the diner, and spoke. “Hey Talie. Sorry, I didn’t get to come back to see you a few days ago, but a couple things came up.”

Waving him off like I hadn’t thought about it at all-
yeah, right
- I responded. “Oh, no problem. We were really busy so it was no big deal. You gotta do what you gotta do.”

You gotta do what you gotta do? I was a spaz. It was official. I should just quit while I was behind because I definitely wasn’t ahead after that statement.

Tuck’s face lit up in a bright smile as he said, “Ok, then. As long as you weren’t lookin’ for me and thinkin’ I stood you up. I’ll probably be in later today. I’ll see ya then.” Then he winked, turned and took off running just like he had the first time I’d seen him working out on the playground. God, that wink. Yum.

********

I hadn’t planned to work the dinner shift today. I figured I’d work breakfast and lunch and give myself a break for once and not work dinner. But, here I was. After what Tuck said that morning, I found myself here, working, waiting for him to come in. Like a chump.

I needed to get myself in check. He didn’t like me or anything. He liked to mess with me and found me amusing at best. Just as I was thinking this and muttering to myself, he walked in.

God, he looked gorgeous. He was wearing jeans as always, motorcycle boots, and a wine colored thermal shirt with the half-strip of buttons at the top. What was that called? Oh yeah, a henley. He was also carrying a motorcycle helmet in his hand and was headed for my section.

He sat down at one of my tables and picked up his menu. I purposely took my time going over to his table. I didn’t want it to look like I was waiting for him.

Wait. Stop right there. When did I become this girl? I was not this girl. I was going to go over there and just be myself. He either liked that or he didn’t and I wasn’t the type of girl to care if he did or not.

I walked over to his table, threw him a smile and asked, “Hey there Tuck, what can I get you?”

Probably a little thrown off by my welcoming nature he muttered, “Uh, hey there Talie. I’ll just take a bacon cheeseburger deluxe, no pickles or tomato, medium, with some fries.”

“You got it. Something to drink?”

That got me a smile. “Yeah, I’ll take a Coke.”

I fluttered my eyelashes and fanned my face, “Ah, a man after my own heart.”

I turned and headed to put in his order, but I thought I might have heard him say “You have no idea” under his breath.

********

I dropped Tuck’s food off at his table noting, “No pickles or tomato. I promise.”

“Thanks, Natalie.”

Natalie? Hmm. He never called me Natalie. Sometimes Talie, mostly Babe. He seemed nervous about something. He kept staring at me so I ended it.

“Can I get you anything else?”

“No, um, this is great.”

“Great.” I started to turn and walk away thinking this was the weirdest conversation we had ever had when he reached out and took hold of my forearm.

“Actually, Talie, I was wonderin’ if you would wanna take the day off from work tomorrow and do somethin’ else.”

“Oh, well. I’m already taking the breakfast shift off to go to Zumba with Ruthie. She twisted my arm into that one earlier today. What’d you have in mind?”

“Well, I’ve gotta go around to a few different spots helpin’ people with stuff I promised I’d help ‘em with, but I thought maybe you’d wanna go with me.”

Getting scared, I started shaking my head and started to say, “I’m not sure, Tuck. I guess-” when I was cut off by getting bumped out of the way by a blond girl.

She finished shimmying by me and slid into the booth right beside Tuck. “Hey, Tucker! Mind if I join you? I’m starving! Plus, I know I’m gonna need the sustenance if I hang out with you the rest of the night!”

Ugh! Gross. I looked back at Tuck to see his eyes come to me even though he was speaking to her. “Jillian, you know that only happened one time and it ain’t happenin’ again, so just cut it out. By the way, this is Natalie. She’s the one you shoved outta the way to get in here.”

Acting as though she just realized someone else was there, Jillian turned to me and took me in. “
This
is the Natalie that everybody keeps talkin’ about? I figured there’d be somethin’ special about her, the way people were talkin’.”

She looked right into my eyes and finished, “Guess I was wrong.”

Bitch
. Tuck started to speak, what I assumed would be on my behalf, but I cut him off. I didn’t take shit from
anybody
. Not anymore. I knew exactly what would fire her up the most so I went for it.

“Hm. Special? Probably not. I have been told I have quite a nice ass a number of times though.” I flicked my eyes at Tuck so she would catch my meaning and kept right on going.

Sliding into the other side of the booth as I talked, I said, “Actually, you just interrupted. Tuck and I were just talking about how we’re going to spend the day together tomorrow. He comes in here to see me almost every day but we want some more
quality
time together. Isn’t that right, Tuck?”

Tuck burst out laughing and I smiled. When his chuckles died down he looked directly at me and murmured, “That’s actually pretty accurate.” He turned his eyes to Jillian and concluded, “That is what we were discussin’ when you came over.”

She shot him a look that said she was expecting some support from him and he lifted both of his hands in defense. “Hey, don’t look at me, Jill. You came in here, knowin’ exactly what you were doin’. Always feedin’ girls shit, hopin’ to get your way and most’a the time gettin’ it because they don’t stand up to you. Looks like you met your match, honey. She took your shit and fed it right back to you. Get over it.”

She huffed, jumped up and ran out of the diner, leaving me and Tuck alone together once again.

He smirked at me and said, “I think I might’a underestimated you a little bit.”

I quirked a brow at him.

He smiled full out and explained, “I like it.” The he popped a french fry in his mouth, picked up the ketchup bottle, squirted a blob of it on his plate, dipped a fry and held it out to me.

“I guess word gets around in this town, huh?”

He smiled and answered, “It does about you.”

Great. I got up and started to walk away when he called after me. “What time’s Zumba over tomorrow? I’ll pick you up at your apartment after.”

I thought about it and then gave in. What the hell. “I’ll be ready at Eleven.”

“I’ll be there.”