Batter of Wits (Green Valley Chronicles #22) - Smartypants Romance Page 0,83

to keep this in the dark for much longer, no matter how much you've convinced yourself that it's for the best. It’ll eat you alive, if it hasn’t already, and don’t even try to tell me differently."

I hated being a twin sometimes. It wasn’t like we were psychic, but sometimes, moments like this, I wished he didn’t know me so well.

“I like Tucker,” Grady continued. “But I don’t like that he’s not owning this.”

Instead of answering, I rubbed my lips together. It felt disrespectful to complain to Grady about Tucker, when I’d never said anything to him about how this was starting to bother me.

Because at first, it didn’t bother me. It made sense. But each day it went on, it felt a little bit more like we were doing something wrong.

“Thank you for your silence,” my brother said. “I’ll take that as tacit agreement, and you know how much it thrills me to be right about things.”

I rolled my eyes. “I just don’t feel like arguing about this when Dad is ten feet away.”

Shaking his head, Grady took his plate and got up out of his seat. He dropped a kiss on the top of my head as he left the kitchen.

Instead of following him, I stayed at the table and pulled out my cell.

On the screen on my phone was a picture of me and Tucker that he'd snapped a few days earlier. Like I'd imagined us before our relationship was based in any sort of reality, we were sitting on the small deck behind his house, watching the sun set beyond the tall pine trees. His legs bracketed me on each side and my back was leaning up against his chest.

"This is the kind of light that photographers have dreams about," I told him.

"Well, we better take one then." He picked up my phone from beside us and flipped the screen to the camera. "Do you want to do the honors?"

I shook my head. "Your arms are longer."

Then he wrapped one of those arms across my chest to hold me tight to him, and it was so warm and strong, that I turned my nose toward his bicep with a small smile on my lips and my eyes closed. His handsome face was staring straight at the camera when he hit the button to take the picture.

We looked happy, and in love.

It was the kind of picture that I wanted poster size above my bed, spotlights aimed at it so that every detail would be visible to the naked eye.

My relationship with him deserved better than to be sitting in the dark, built on a foundation of secrets, but as I stared at our picture, I couldn't figure out how to bring it into the light without hurting the people around us.

How did I tell him that I wanted him to risk upsetting the feelings of the people in his life for me? I didn’t want to upset people. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.

But I didn’t want to hurt either.

Shifting our relationship into the light would come. I believed that.

I swiped my thumb over his face and smiled. I could tell him about this crazy family curse, and if nothing else, that one secret wouldn't be hanging over us. Because the one thing I knew was that my heart was safe with Tucker Haywood.

Chapter 24

Tucker

“No hands where a bathing suit covers, and no tongue."

"Now, you know there's no way we can guarantee that unless we're tying people up." Maxine eyed me over her coffee.

"We'll have levels. Five bucks for a hug, ten bucks for a peck on the cheek, twenty bucks for a peck on the lips, and if either one of us feels uncomfortable, we ring the bell and their tickets get entered in a raffle for a grand prize, that way they don't feel slighted. Robert is donating a large screen TV for that."

"Hmm."

"It's the only way we'll agree."

Calmly, she took a sip. "We? You speaking for her now?"

"You're the one who paired us together. Did you expect us not to talk about it?"

The words stuck uncomfortably in my throat, especially when those iron-gray eyes gleamed dangerously. It wasn't a lie. Wasn't even skirting the edge of a lie about me and Grace, but it felt like one. It felt like I was downgrading this wonderful, perfect thing into a cheap cardboard box.

"Twenty dollars for a peck on the lips," she muttered. "Lord, it's ridiculous, isn't it? But every dirty old man and dirty