Fools (Licking Thicket 3)

“You going to work out after this?”

I stepped back and pulled the bag off my shoulder before plunking it down on his desk and removing my jacket. “Nah. This is my incognito bag.”

After unzipping it, I pulled out a bunch of daffodils and purple hyacinth. “Here,” I said, shoving the newspaper-wrapped bundle at Tuck. I turned back to rummage around in the bag for the jelly jar I’d grabbed from my kitchen. “Hang on and I’ll get water.”

I went over to the little half bath attached to his office and filled up the jar with water before turning back to his office. Tucker stood there frozen in place, staring at the flowers. I wasn’t surprised. They did look a little mangled from the bag.

“Sorry they’re kinda squished. I’ve got lunch in here too, so the flowers probably got steamrolled by the bottled water.” I reached the desk and set down the jar before reaching over to take the flowers from him so I could arrange them in the jar. “I had to sneak them in, you know? Otherwise I woulda just put the whole kit and caboodle in my truck’s cup holder.”

Tuck’s eyes followed the spring blooms. “You… brought me flowers?”

“Well, yeah. I know you’re not a woman. I know that. It’s not… I didn’t do this because I don’t know how to date a guy.”

“You don’t know how to date a guy,” he said.

“Correct. But I do know how to date you. And you love early spring flowers. You hate flowers from the florist or grocery refrigerator, and you especially hate flower delivery because, and I quote, ‘If you’re going to make a personal gesture, you darned well better make it in person.’”

Once I was satisfied they looked okay and they were in a spot on his desk where he’d be able to lean over and smell them whenever he wanted, I turned back to him. “And just tell anyone who asks that Vienna brought them in. She has a big garden.”

I brushed off my hands and reached into my gym bag for the sandwiches. Tucker’s arms suddenly came around me from behind, and I felt the long, firm length of his body against my back. He was trembling the tiniest bit. “Thank you,” he whispered.

I clasped one of his hands and slid it up to the center of my chest for a minute before pulling it up and pressing a kiss to the middle of his big palm. Suddenly, my throat felt weird. “Yeah, uh. You’re welcome.” For the millionth time this week, I wanted to ask him if we could stop this hiding business, but then I reminded myself he was trying to protect himself. And I had to let it happen.

“So.” I turned around and ran my hands up the sleeves of his white coat before deciding to peel it off him. No one wanted doctor germs with their lunch. “I thought maybe we could go fishing on Saturday morning, just the two of us.”

Once I got the coat off, I nudged him into a visitor chair and handed him a sandwich.

Tucker looked at me with a confused expression. “We always go fishing just the two of us on Saturday mornings.”

I grabbed my own sandwich and took the other visitor chair in front of his desk. “Yeah, but this would be like… different.”

“Different, how?”

I felt my face heat up. “You’re my boyfriend. It’d be fishing as boyfriends. That’s different than fishing as friends.”

His soft grin edged around the big sandwich. “Is it? How?”

“When I tie your clinch knot—”

“You make it sound dirty,” he said with a chuckle, nudging my boot with the tip of his fancy leather dress shoe.

I bounced my eyebrows at him. “When I tie your clinch knot, it’ll mean something. You know?”

“It’ll mean my lure might stay on?” he teased.

Someone banged on the door. Before I stopped to think what I was doing, I bolted to Tucker’s secret cubbyhole and slammed the door behind me.

When I remembered the half sandwich in my hand, I took another bite. Might as well fuel up while I was in here.

“Hey there, darling,” Carter’s familiar fake-as-hell voice purred. What the heck was he doing here in the middle of a danged workday? Smarmy asshole.

“C-Carter,” Tuck stammered. “What are you doing here?”

I mentally fist-bumped my best friend… boyfriend… for his question.

Loud footsteps moved across the old creaky wooden floor. “Thought I’d swing by and offer to take you to lunch, but I see there you have… one and a half sandwiches.”

“Ha!” Tucker said too loudly. “Ha, ha! No that’s… I mean, yes. Obviously. But I’m simply ravenous today.”

“Ravenous enough to eat a Carhartt jacket even though it smells like hay and manure?”

“Give me that,” Tucker hissed. “Now tell me the real reason you’re here.”

“I thought maybe I could provide you some sexual pleasure, Doctor,” he said in a sultry voice. Tuck made a little squeaking sound of distress, and I’d had enough.