Tucker (The Family Simon 1)

“Ice please.” Abby settled on one of the stools and when Cooper was done pouring their drinks, raised her glass and had her first bit of nourishment for the day. She let the liquid burn down her throat, liking that it melted away the numbness.

After taking a second drink, she set the tumbler back down and glanced up at Cooper.

His eyes were intense, his mouth set tight.

“How are you doing, kid?”

Abby wasn’t sure what it was. The tone of his voice. The look in his eyes. The fact that she was functioning on less than three hours sleep or the fact that her heart was so bruised it hurt. Who knew?

All she did know was that the ball of fear inside her suddenly expanded. It retracted and then split wide open.

And then came the tears. Oh God, the tears. It was an ugly cry.

Cooper had her in his arms, face pressed to his chest before the first teardrop slid off her face. He held her for what seemed like hours and when she was done, her face was swollen, and her voice was hoarse.

She’d told Cooper pretty much everything. Her feelings. Her love for Tucker. And her fear of losing him. She even told Cooper that one thing she hadn’t shared with anybody…not even her best friend, Lisa.

Cooper now knew that those three little words had never been uttered. And he knew how scared she was.

Eventually, she pulled herself together and moved out of his embrace. She should have been embarrassed. Abby didn’t do the big, epic breakdown. It just wasn’t her.

But she wasn’t. Abby was just…empty.

“Why don’t you take a shower,” Cooper said. “I’m going to whip us up something that goes with Scotch and we’ll get drunk. Sound good?”

Abby slid off the stool and took a step toward her bedroom. “Why are you here, Cooper?”

“I had nowhere else to be.”

A ghost of a smile lit up Abby’s face. “Bullshit.”

The guy ran a successful software company that produced some of the most innovative games out there. He’d taken over his father’s dying company, a move many thought would pound in the last nail of the coffin so to speak. But from what Tucker had told Abby, Cooper had surprised them all.

Sure the guy still lived in the fast lane when it came to his personal life, but when it came to business? He had the steel backbone that the Simon family was known for. He’d doubled and then tripled his business within five years, bringing to the masses innovative video games focused on the military and science fiction. He married Hollywood and the gamer community.

So yeah, Abby knew he was busy as hell, especially with Comic-Con coming up in a few months.

“You can’t call bullshit.”

“Sure I can.” She headed for her bedroom. “But Cooper?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad you’re here.”

Chapter Twenty-five

Havana seemed like an oven compared to the frigid New York he’d left behind, and yet Tucker was cold as hell.

He was cold, tired, and he couldn’t stop thinking about Abby. About the fear he’d seen in her eyes and the anxiety in her voice. About all the unfinished things between them. The things he needed to face.

The things he needed to say.

And Marley. God, his head was so fucked up right now. How did he even process the idea that she might be alive? That after all this time, she’d been here in Cuba? How the hell did that happen? Where was the rest of her crew? Alex her research partner. Gabe the pilot.

“We’re almost there.”

He nodded to his brother Teague and clenched his hands, rolling his shoulders a bit because they were tight as hell. Seated in the back of a van, Jack was on the other side of him and in the seats ahead were Marley’s parents.