The Start of Us
Chapter 1
Every year after the accident, Tucker returned to Silver Stone ranch in February. Not that the Stone family held an official memorial or anything, but it seemed the right thing to do.
Caleb usually said something at the breakfast table and arranged to take his siblings up to their parents’ hillside graves if the weather wasn’t too miserable.
The first year the most noticeable change was that Caleb had a wife. Her presence wasn’t a shock—Tucker had heard from Luke about Caleb’s whirlwind courtship, but now here Wendy was, blonde, beautiful, and icy as hell.
Tucker kept his mouth shut, though, because it wasn’t really his business. Besides, the woman had looked nearly ready to pop any minute, her baby belly overwhelmingly huge on her petite frame. There was no mistaking it—she and Caleb were solidly a unit.
A couple of years later when Tucker visited, Ginny and Dare hauled out photo albums from somewhere, which was both a huge hit and a terrible disaster. Tears flowed like spring rain even as the walls rang with laughter. It had been a celebration of life as much as a lament for their losses.
At this point, little Sasha was nearly three years old and had peeked at the pictures of the gramma and grandpa she’d never met with moderate interest before wandering away. Her little sister, Emma, a crawling toddler with blonde curls and endless energy, had settled in her Auntie Ginny’s lap and tunelessly sang nonsense songs. Wendy still constantly looked as if she smelled something unpleasant, but she was relatively easy to ignore.
Ginny, nearly eighteen, had filled out in ways Tucker tried very hard not to notice. Long legs and sweet curves and…
He headed home a couple days early to avoid thinking too hard about all those changes.
But this year, five years after the accident, something felt different.
The room was heavy with unspoken grief during the evening meal, the limited conversation mostly fueled by fourteen year old Dusty, who seemed the most settled into the reality of his big brother and the rest of his siblings raising him.
Ginny and Dare took off as fast as possible once the meal was done. “Ginny’s with me in the cottage tonight,” Dare announced.
“Don’t be late for chores in the morning,” Caleb grumbled. But he hauled them both in for big hugs before silently letting them go.
Everyone grieves in their own way, Tucker figured.
“Come on,” Luke demanded of Tucker. “We’ve got plans tonight as well.”
“Don’t you be late, either,” Caleb warned.
“Always on time, big brother,” Luke sang before grinning at Walker, who’d drawn the short straw and was on wash-up duty that night. “Have fun with your dishpan hands.”
Walker glanced around the room to see where the kids and Wendy were then rapidly flashed his middle finger.
Laughing, Luke hauled Tucker off to the barn for a little manly therapy, aka, beating the hell out of each other for a while.
A shot of excitement hit in spite of the sadness of the day. Fighting was outlawed in Tucker’s home. The physical kind and the verbal, both being far too uncouth and undignified for his parents to endure. Even though at twenty-four Tucker now worked and roomed at a boarding stable away from his childhood home, the rules had been very thoroughly trained into him.
Luke stripped off his shirt then raised his fists, already weaving slightly as if he expected Tucker to attack without warning. “Ready?”
Whatever his friend needed, Tucker would offer. He’d take what he needed at the same time.
He jerked his shirt forward over his head. “You really want to do this? I don’t want to mess up your pretty face before Friday night.”
“Aim low, then.”
Luke darted forward, jabbing hard at Tucker’s ribs. He got in half a blow before Tucker pivoted to the side and swung. His knuckles thudded into Luke’s chest.
Luke grabbed for him and tried to wrestle him to the ground.
“You’re just asking to be embarrassed,” Tucker drawled. He caught Luke around his torso and lifted his friend off his feet. Luke twisted far enough that Tucker lost his balance, and they both fell to the dirt floor.
Fighting was cathartic and, in a strange way, calming. An hour later, they were both sweaty and scuffed up, but Luke wore a grin and Tucker felt as if he were the king of the world.
“God, your fists are like rocks,” Luke complained, stretching out his legs as he sucked back water. His chest rocked with sharp inhalations as he fought to catch his breath.
“Your ribs are dangerous,” Tucker said dryly, settling onto a stool. “For a minute I thought I was going to get a hangnail.”
“Jerk.”
“Ass.”
Luke grinned at him. Then his expression fell. “I’m glad you’re here. Today sucks.”
Sadness welled up in Tucker’s belly. “It doesn’t get much easier, does it?”
His friend stared at the wall for a silent minute before speaking softly. “Parts do. Sometimes I go whole weeks without thinking ‘I need to let Dad know about—whatever.’ Yet every time it happens, it slices so hard it’s as if I just lost them.”
He cut off, his voice thick with sorrow.
Tucker bowed his head, letting the pressure in his throat and chest wash over him. He breathed deep then lifted his gaze to his friend’s. “Good.”
Luke’s brow furrowed, and his expression slid to confused.
“If it didn’t hurt, you’d be angry at yourself,” Tucker said quietly. “I know you. You’ve got a huge heart—it’s okay that it still aches.”
Luke nodded slowly. “Thanks. I needed to hear that.” He hesitated then offered a grimace. “This is on the down-low. Don’t tell anyone, okay?”
Tucker raised a brow at the other man. “Really? Do I need to pinkie swear that I’ll keep your secret?”
“It’s not my secret,” Luke said. “I overheard Wendy telling Caleb he was being ridiculous. That he was sentimental and stupid to try to hold onto the ranch.”
“Shit.” Tucker’s opinion of the woman hadn’t improved over time. He considered. “You think Caleb wants to sell the place?”
“Hell no, but wants to and needs to are different things, know what I mean?” Luke shook his head. “Wendy is not my favourite person.”
“Mine either,” Tucker agreed. “Be glad you don’t have to live with her.”
“Amen. I feel for Ginny, I really do.” Luke made a face. “Even living in the basement of the ranch house means too much exposure to Wendy’s negativity.”
“She could move out to the bunkhouse…” Tucker stopped himself, the image of the curvy brunette surrounded by the ranch hands of Silver Stone doing something terrible to his gut.
He trusted them to have her back, but what if…
He met Luke’s smirk. His friend snickered. “Yeah, that didn’t take you long.”
“Move in with Dare in the cottage?”
“I suggested that, but Ginny says she’s staying put because Dusty and the little girls are still in the house. Plus someone needs to keep things rolling around the place since we all know Wendy is mostly useless.”
It was hard to see his friends suffering, but it wasn’t as if Tucker could give Caleb marriage advice. His parents were no shining example of how a marriage should work.
That had been the Stones and the Hayeses. People gone far too soon who had left a lasting memory.
Luke’s phone went off. He glanced at the screen and his expression folded into a frown as he answered. “Ginny?”
Tucker couldn’t hear her words, but Luke’s reaction said enough.
He took a sharp breath. “Fuck. Stay put, and keep Dare there. I’ll be out as quick as I can.” Luke hung up and met Tucker’s gaze. “They’re not at the cottage like we thought, watching movies and crying. They’re at the pub, and Dare is three sheets to the wind. Ginny can’t get her to stop.”
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