across the chest.
“Nice shirt,” Tucker said.
“Thanks. I can’t believe I’m actually meeting you,” she said to me. “And you called me…darlin’. It sounds just as good in real life as it does on the show.”
Tucker’s big palm slid over my knee, fingers tightening slightly. Shit, if he kept touching me, I’d have a real problem when I stood up.
“You’re a fan of the show?” I asked.
“Yeah. My friends and I took a road trip from Seattle to see if we could catch sight of some of the filming in action.”
Amusement flickered in Tucker’s gaze. “Well, I’m afraid you and your friends are out of luck there. They keep the ranch locked down tight while filming.”
She nodded. “Yeah. We figured that out pretty quick. But lucky me, I found my very own Ryker.”
“Did you now…darlin’?” I laid it on thick for her benefit, and the tension in Tucker’s hand told me he didn’t like it one bit.
“What are you doing tonight?” she asked, excitement in her eyes.
“Sorry. I’m spoken for.” I jutted my chin toward the group of cowboys in the opposite corner, one of them my cousin Trent. “There are plenty of the kind of guys you’re looking for right over there. One of them is even a Ryker.” I winked after she followed my gaze and then turned back to me. “Go get ‘em.”
Tucker laughed as she scampered away from us. “You really do sound good when you say that.”
“Say what?”
“Darlin’.”
“Do I?”
“Yeah. I can see why it’s something they like.”
I locked eyes with him, unable to tear my focus from him. “Anyone ever call you darlin’?”
He swallowed, his hand sliding up my thigh. “Not like you say it.”
“It doesn’t suit you. Not comin’ from me.”
“What does?”
“Heartbreaker.”
A brief flicker of hurt flashed across his face until I placed my hand over his under the table. “Sam…I know I hurt you.”
“I don’t want to rehash it all over again.”
Nodding, he looked down at his empty glass as he toyed with the rim with one finger. “You said you were spoken for.”
“What?” I was so absorbed with watching him, in being near him, I had no clue what he was talking about.
“To that girl. Who’s the lucky guy that’s taking you home?”
I had to swallow through a tight throat. “You.”
14
Tucker
The fact that my hands didn’t shake when I unlocked the front door should’ve made me proud. It didn’t. All I could think about was the way Sam had said he was spoken for. I was the one he’d been talking about. I wanted more from him, but there was no way in hell I’d bring that up now.
“This is your place?” He looked around the modest one-bedroom house. There wasn’t much, but it was my home.
“It is. Been here nearly ten years.”
His smile sent a twist of longing through me. “I like it. Honestly, it’s exactly what I would’ve pictured for you.”
“Filled with hand-me-down furniture and a nearly empty fridge? Gee, thanks.”
As he looked around, I knew what he was seeing. A worn leather couch that used to be the color of cognac but was darkened and cracked with age, a rug with a few threadbare patches that was still doing its job, and a coffee table that had seen better days long before it ended up here. But the place was clean, sturdy, and served its purpose.
“No. It’s comfortable.”
“Not a five-star hotel, that’s for sure.”
“It’s also not the trailer where I spent most of my time.” He grinned at me, that sexy bashful smile I loved. “The hotels were few and far between.”
“Were you lonely, on the road all the time?”
He took off his hat and reached past me, hanging it on a hook and closing the distance between us in the process. His eyes never left mine, those piercing blues that were burned into my mind. “Yes.”
I’d forgotten my question and had to blink a few times to clear the fog in my brain. “I guess we all thought you were doing just fine. You stayed away so long.”
“That was what I wanted you to think.”
“Well, you were successful. We all thought you’d left us in the dust.”
He shook his head, dark brows pulling together. “I tried to get rid of you. To leave you behind. Instead, I compared every single guy I spent any time with to you. I never got close to anyone because of you. Because they weren’t you.”
“Fuck, Sammy. If I’d known how hard it was gonna be to get over you, how goddamn impossible, I