“Dad, do you have something to do at the barn?” I said exasperated.
He looked at me. “I do. You stay here, Brooke. You hear me?”
“Yes.”
Tucker’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “What is that all about?” he asked when my father left the house. “He?
?s talking to you like you’re a kid in trouble.”
I burst out crying. “Oh, Tucker. Everything is so fucked up.”
He quickly moved to sit with me on the couch and put his arm around me. “What happened?”
I spilled my guts, telling him that my father found out about me and Mo and was now threatening to ruin him if I didn’t stay away.
“He treats you like you’re ten,” Tucker said of my father. “Why are you putting up with it?”
“I don’t want him hurting Mo.”
“Did you tell him you loved him?”
“Yes. He sees me as this innocent kid being taken advantage of by Mo. I can’t make him see it any other way.”
“So that’s it? You’re just going to let him go without a fight?”
I looked at Tucker. “My father said he’d ruin him.”
Tucker shrugged. “Don’t you think Mo has a right to have a say in all this? If he loves you, too, maybe he doesn’t give a shit what your father will say or do?”
I sniffed. “First of all, he does. He’s been worried about my father and the town finding out this whole time. Second, he doesn’t love me.”
“How do you know?” Tucker asked.
“He hasn’t said it, for one.”
“Have you? Have you told him that you love him?”
I huffed out a breath. “It’s different. Besides, Mo was here, according to my father, but he didn’t call me to let me know he was telling my father or that he was coming here. He’d already left when I got here, and he hadn’t contacted me about what had happened. In my mind, that’s the answer. My father got pissed, and Mo, being a good friend, is staying away.”
Tucker arched a brow. “So, he’s made a decision without consulting you, sort of like you’ve made a decision without consulting him. And you both made the same decision. Perhaps your relationship wasn’t as solid as you thought.”
His words hurt me. “You’re supposed to be my friend, Tucker.”
“I am, honey.” He pulled me closer, kissing me on the head. “But if you’d rather that I placate you, I will. Life sucks. Your father is unfair. Mo is a cowardly dick. How’s that?”
“Better.” I buried my head in his chest and cried.
“I think your dad likes me,” he murmured as I cried.
“He does.”
“Too bad I’m taken.”
I looked up at him. “So, you and Holly?”
He gave me a coy grin. “Not yet, but I’m working on it.”
I smiled. “I hope it works out. At least one of us should be happy.”