He shook his head. “This is a pretty layered lie now…”
“I know,” I said with a sigh. “I hate it. But I just have to get Derek here. I need him in this city, to be in Deacon’s life a lot more than he is now. That’s all I really care about at this point. She can threaten me if she wants, she can make passes at Deacon, I really don’t care. But I need that boy in Manhattan.”
He stared at me for a while, his chin propped on his closed knuckles. “Deacon told me some of the terrible things she did to him. I really hate that bitch. I wish we could have Derek but not her.”
“Ditto.”
He shook his head. “They’ve been divorced over six months now. She needs to move on.”
“Honestly, the only reason we can get here is because she hasn’t moved on.” If she had a new man in her life, there would be no reason to rip out her roots.
“I don’t like her having Derek either. Deacon makes her sound emotionally unstable.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear this.
“He told me he has a scar on the side of his skull because she chucked a plate at his head…for not talking to her. She threw his Nobel Prize over the fence—”
I held up my hand. “I’m sorry, I can’t hear this.” I dropped my gaze, afraid I might start to cry.
Tucker went quiet. “I’m sorry.”
Not only had he been in a toxic relationship…but an abusive one. Society always thought emotional and physical abuse was in one direction, a man hitting a woman, but it happened the other way around too. I knew Deacon would never raise a hand to her, no matter how angry he was, so she completely took advantage of his chivalry. He said he developed a drinking problem because he lost his father, but I suspected Valerie was also a contributing factor. Instead of being the crutch he needed to get through a difficult time, she dragged him down. “I try to stay objective about the whole thing, but sometimes it’s hard. From the beginning, I could tell she was more than difficult…controlling, manipulative, selfish. And when she threatened me like that, right after I’d dropped off her son, I knew she’d been a million times worse to Deacon. It made me shed a few tears when I got back into the car. Deacon and Derek both deserve better. Derek needs to have his father’s presence in his life regularly, to have a strong role model, someone who can show him how to be a good person instead of being influenced by her. I originally wanted to get Derek out here for Deacon, but I love that little man so much… I want to make sure he’s happy.”
Tucker leaned forward with his elbows on the table, his eyes slightly down. “I’m so grateful that my brother found you. He has someone who loves him selflessly, who cares about him more than herself, who doesn’t give a shit about his money…but his heart.”
It was such a sweet thing to say that it left me speechless.
“I’ll make sure he never lets you go, not that I think he ever will.”
I’d just poured a glass of wine at the counter when a knock sounded on the door.
I suspected it was Deacon because I hadn’t ordered a pizza or Chinese food. I set down the bottle and checked the peephole before I opened it. “Hey.” My eyes lit up like Christmas morning when I looked at him, because he was that big present under the tree.
He stepped into my apartment and slid his hands into my hair as he kissed me. He tilted my chin up and deepened the kiss, massaging my mouth with his, taking my breath away and making me breathless. He greeted me wordlessly, with just his affection.
He pulled away and shut the door behind him.
It took me a few seconds to bounce back, to believe that really happened, that he kissed me like that every time he saw me. It was a dream come true, a fantasy, to have a man like that want me the way I wanted him.
His arms circled my waist, and he held me in the entryway, his arms tight around my body. His forehead moved to mine, and he held me there. Neither one of us had mentioned Valerie’s impending arrival, as if we didn’t want to spend a single moment of our time discussing her.
He gave me another kiss before he pulled away. “I want to take you to dinner.”
We’d never had a date outside the house. We spent our time in our homes, mainly in bed. Since I knew so many people, I didn’t think we could be in public together because it would be a dead giveaway we were sleeping together. “Deacon, we can’t.”