“Can’t trap a man who agrees.”
I shook my head. “Oh yeah, you can.”
“Sylvie –”
I cut him off to ask, “Did you tell her you love her?”
I watched his jaw get hard before he forced out his, “No.”
“Not ever?”
He drew in breath then admitted, “Found other words that implied it but didn’t say it.”
“Then you didn’t lie.”
“She didn’t hold me at gunpoint at the altar,” Creed pointed out.
“Babe,” my hand slid down to the side of his neck and curled around, “you’re Creed. You’ve always been Creed. She fell in love with you and did it hard, so even drifting after losing me, my guess is, you were Creed with her too. And the Tucker Creed I know would never knock up a woman and not do right by her. My guess again, she knew that and played on it. People do shit when they love someone. It wasn’t cool but it was understandable. That said, you gotta let that go. You both played your part in that doomed marriage. If you let it go, maybe she can let it go too. You’d be doing her a favor and I think if you two worked that shit out, your kids would feel that ease between you and it would work out for them too.”
Creed stared down at me and asked, “Jesus, baby, when’d you get so f**kin’ smart?”
I grinned up at him. “See, when I was six, I met this worldly eleven year old who was wise and took care of me and taught me everything he knew.”
As I spoke, I watched Creed’s eyes flash, his face harden with intensity and I felt his body tense against mine.
When I was done talking, he said softly, “Fuckin’ love you, Sylvie.”
I kept grinning. “Fuckin’ love you too, Tucker Creed.”
Then I lifted my head, touched my mouth to his and only moved back an inch before I said quietly, “Thank you for giving me a great birthday.”
I watched his face get soft and I fell back to the pillows just in time for his hand to come up, his finger touched my new (totally beautiful) pendant then it slid under it and twisted the chain gently before he replied, “You’re welcome, beautiful.”
My grin got bigger but it didn’t last long.
This was because Creed dropped his head and kissed me.
Therefore, my birthday started great (notwithstanding the shitty dream) because of Creed.
And it ended great too.
Because of Creed.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Come Back to Me
A hot summer night in Kentucky, sixteen years earlier, Sylvie is eighteen…
I sat on the pier in the moonlight, staring at the water.
I couldn’t find Creed.
I’d spent hours at the pier the day before, waiting, waiting forever. The Snickers were ruined. My skin was burned.
Creed didn’t show.
I went to his house. He wasn’t there. His truck wasn’t there.