Make a Right (9 page)

She didn’t pick up on it. He thought. Taking Suzie-Q’s leash, she beckoned for them to follow now. “Walk softly and keep your voice down. We’re sneaking around the back.”

Tuck shot Cade an inquiring look to find a mirror reflection aimed his way. The sight made his grin quirk up at the corner; after a pause and the roll of an eye, Cade chuckled.

Some things changed, sure. Other things? They never would, and that kept him going.

“Around back” of this place was no short trek. Halfway there, Tuck slowed his pace to let Cade go ahead of him. Cade would want to be the first to see Megan, and be damned if Cade hadn’t perked up like a kid on Christmas morning at the sound of her name. Not sorry he came now, was he?

Besides, walking behind Cade gave Tuck his own view to appreciate, studying the man through the new lenses Hannah had lent him. The man that he’d grown into, the one Tuck could see now overlaying the Cade he’d known before like a veil settling in beneath his skin. Tall, strong, silent, whipcord strong…and that was just the surface of him.

What else didn’t he know about the man he loved?

Cade looked back over his shoulder with an almost fey glint in his eye and a hesitant smile. Relieved, Tuck saluted him with two fingers. He’d almost rattled his cage but good just then.

Here
, Hannah mouthed at Cade and Tuck, beckoning. She waved them next to her and warned them to keep quiet and walk softly, creeping up the sides of a set of plain wooden veranda steps so as to avoid creaks when the boards bore their weight.

At the top, she pointed at the screen door, propped open, as a silent order to look inside.

Tuck felt uncomfortably like a Peeping Tom, and from his awkward shuffle, so did Cade, but they both trusted Hannah. Shoulder to shoulder, he and Cade peeked around the door frame to get a good look at what had Hannah’s eyes sparkling.

Tuck would have whistled, amazed, if he hadn’t held it in at the last second. Be damned and double-damned. She’d changed more than any of them.

Megan hadn’t noticed them coming. Tuck would be surprised if she noticed anything outside the hurricane alley of books and papers drowning their kitchen table. She wore gold-rimmed glasses, had a sleek dark waterfall of black hair that’d escaped the remnants of a messy ponytail, and sat with her feet hooked behind the chair rungs. Startle her and she’d fall ass over teakettle.

There would be blue eyes lambent as the ocean behind those glasses, and cheeks naturally pink. A sharp tongue to go with her sharp chin.

No way in hell Tuck would have recognized her if he’d passed her on the street. He checked Cade out sidelong, covering his mouth when he saw how the sight of her had transfixed Cade.

Yeah. He saw it too, didn’t he? The resemblance that went past the trimmings. Megan could have been Cade’s flesh-and-blood sister.

The woman swore at her papers, pushed her glasses atop her head, and kicked the chair back to stalk around the kitchen, holding a textbook the size of a breadbox that needed both hands to carry when opened. Hannah winked at Cade and Tuck and slipped ahead of them before she waved them, still silently, fully into the door frame.

“Megan,” she called. No response. She dodged into Megan’s flight and stuck a finger in the pages of Megan’s book, laughing when her fiancée scowled at her.

“I’ve almost got this! Babe, I love you, but if you interrupt me in the middle of a key point of this dissertation, no court in the land would convict me. Capisce?”

Tuck bit his lip hard. Better hurry or he’d lose it, and it’d be a sure bet Cade would too.

Hannah ignored Megan’s protest and turned her around by the shoulders. “That can wait. No, really, it can. Look who I found.”

Megan flipped her hair back and dropped her glasses onto her nose in a smooth move that spoke of long practice. She blinked at them through the lenses, her frown deep as Cade’s at his most irritated—

Then—

She dropped her book, narrowly missing out on crushing her bare toes, and launched herself at Cade same as Hannah had tackled Tuck. Arms around his neck, choking the life out of him, Cade awkwardly spluttering and searching for a gentlemanly way to hold her. He shot Tuck a wide-eyed look.

“Oh no, you’re on your own here,” Tuck told him, amused as fuck and so damn pleased he was about to go
pop
. Hannah leaned on his shoulder and sighed contentedly.

He heard it after she must have. “
Cade
,” Megan was saying, over and over again. “Dad, Cade, you made it—”

Tuck had something in his eye again. So did Hannah. Must have been going around. He’d bet Cade had a piece of grit in there too, only he hid his face against Megan’s dark hair and gave up trying to find a proper hold just for the sake of holding tight. “I missed you,” he said, quieter than a whisper, patting her back.

That old movie got one thing right. There really was no place like home, and even if this wasn’t their home, then it was where their family was. Same difference and same satisfaction.

And that suited Tuck fine.

Chapter Five

Suzie-Q liked Megan as much as she did Cade, and Tuck was there to tell you the feelings were mutual. No sooner had she let go of Cade than she dropped to her knees and let Suzie-Q swarm her.

“Watch it or she’ll lick you half to death,” Tuck warned.

“She wouldn’t. Not a pretty girl like this.” Megan cradled the dog’s head and shook her gently. “When did you get a dog?”

“She’s—” Cade stopped before Tuck knew he would have finished that with “not mine.” He cleared his throat. “A few months ago.”

“She sort of found us,” Tuck said to cover their bases.

Cade took a step back and frowned at their surroundings, which, to be frank, Tuck hadn’t bothered with. “Should she stay outside?”

Tuck bristled. No way was anyone putting his girl out into the cold. Or the heat.

“It’s an old, old house,” Cade said quietly. “She’s too young to know better than to jump and scratch.”

Megan scoffed at him, and Hannah rolled her eyes indulgently. “Try and separate those two. I can already tell it’s mission impossible. We’ll shut the doors to the front of the house, and she’ll be fine.” She nudged Cade. “You still worry too much.”

“And you have no idea how much that worries me,” Cade said, dry as dust.

Tuck chuckled to himself, loving the byplay. He craned his neck to look into the narrow corridor outside the kitchen. A set of stairs led up, skinnier still, and not a one of them level. He thought he liked them better than he would’ve if they’d been perfect.

“Colonial?” Cade asked, tapping at a triangle-shaped cupboard.

“Built in 1796,” Hannah said proudly. “Not bad for a couple of street kids doing what they had to do just to keep themselves fed and come out alive, is it?”

“We all did the things we had to, to get by,” Cade murmured. “Some better than others.” He crossed his arms to hug his chest, changed his mind a half second later, and rubbed roughly at the back of his neck. The rapid changes of mood were as visible as neon signs but written in a language only Cade understood.

Tuck wasn’t sure but didn’t think the girls had noticed. Best to distract them in any case. He unhooked Suzie-Q’s leash and patted her rump to tell her she could go explore. “So you only live back here?”

“These were servant’s quarters,” Cade said, a frown forming between his eyebrows.

“And?” Hannah cocked a hip and an eyebrow in perfect sync. “They’re small, but they’re solid, and they have personality. The good professor—everyone calls her that, you should too—lives mostly in the front when she’s here.”

“That doesn’t feel lonely to you, leaving two-thirds of the place to sit unused?”

“No,” Hannah said thoughtfully. “You would think, right? But that’s her space. I can feel it when I’m in there. This is ours. Our home.” She took her place beside Megan, tweaking yet another book away from her. “What else do we need?”

“You couldn’t pay me enough to go up front,” Megan said. “I mean, seriously. It’s crammed with antique crap you could break by breathing on wrong. We just keep those rooms clean.” She waggled her hand from side to side. “Okay, Hannah keeps them clean.”

“Uh-huh,” Tuck teased her. “What
did
you break?”

Megan kicked Tuck in the ankle. Lighter than she used to, hard enough to get her point across. She could have socked him one to the chin, and he wouldn’t have cared a bit.

Tuck gave her the “I’m waiting” gesture.

She rolled her eyes. “China something or other. A teapot?”

“Royal Doulton,” Hannah said. She shared a
yikes
face with Cade. “I put a restraining order on her. Ten feet away from anything fragile at all times.” She tweaked Megan’s ear. “But if you’re up to it, you can clean off that table so we can sit down like civilized human beings.”

“Screw civilized,” Megan grumbled, scooping up armfuls and dumping them on a counter. “Bitch.”

“Twat,” Hannah returned. Her smile and Megan’s grin made it clear that this was how they said “I love you.”

You always could tell with the ones who’d grown up rough, even as far as these two had turned around. Without thinking, Tuck leaned back against Cade. Cade hesitated almost too briefly to notice before he enfolded Tuck from behind and tucked his chin over Tuck’s shoulder.

Tuck let himself enjoy it, pretending just for a second there was no pretense involved here. “So while Hannah’s cleaning
and
gardening and who knows what else, taking care of all the work to keep you two in house and home, what are you doing?”

Megan waved a single sheet of paper covered in what Tuck saw were mathematical formulae so complicated his head spun without even trying to puzzle them out. “I,” she said, with a proper pause for dramatic effect, “am
this
close—as in a matter of days—to finishing my doctorate.”

Tuck’s jaw dropped, mirrored by Cade’s. He could feel it on his shoulder. “No fucking way. Already? Didn’t you just start a couple of years ago?”

“This is the same woman who fast-tracked her way through college and her master’s degree, remember?” Hannah damn near glowed with pride. “Be as impressed by her as I am, or”—her eyes sparkled—“I may just have to cut you.”

“Bah. Do your worst,” Tuck said. Whatever, as long as the two of them looked as pleased with one another as a pair of purring cats.

Megan kissed Hannah’s cheek, which was apparently all the keeping still she could manage when she wasn’t zoned out deep in the heart of calculus. If that was calculus. Tuck suspected the presence of physics dominating her work.

She bounded toward them to push Tuck out of the way and grab Cade. “C’mon. I’ll show you the crash space we made up for you guys. Where are your bags? Never mind, we’ll get them later.”

The way she hung on Cade’s arm made Tuck laugh. She looked all of thirteen again, skinny and short, worshipping Cade like he’d hung the moon. He wasn’t doing any scowling, either, when he let her drag him off, chattering all the way.

Hannah watched them go, sighing contentedly. “That’s my girl,” she murmured.

Tuck pressed his cheek to the top of her head. “Both our girls,” he said.

Hannah elbowed him in the ribs. Tuck savored the brief
ouch
. Same as he’d noticed how the new Cade overlaid the old version and sank beneath his skin, he’d started to see the kid he’d known woven in with the woman his sister had become. Much more comfortable.

“I need to wash my hands,” she said, letting go at last. “Sit down. Do you want some coffee? Tea? It’s iced. We’ve gone native.”

“Nah, maybe later. And you could do a hell of a lot worse than this kind of native.” Tuck got where they were coming from, preferring the back side of the house better than the fancy front. Plain and simple, no frills, worn in like a comfortable pair of shoes, and cleaner than clean. A wooden table, gauzy white curtains over the sink, and the faint smell of oranges, like sunshine. “I like this place,” he said, simple but true.

Hannah filled a mug for herself, half coffee and half cream. “Megan still says I need fattening up,” she explained. “You might think she’s already mostly an absent-minded professor, but she takes good care of me. Like you do for Cade.”

“I do what I do,” Tuck said. He shrugged uncomfortably and immediately prayed she didn’t pick up on his fidget. “If you ask me, you and Megan take care of each other. It’s not either-or. We taught you well.”

“And you taught us humble modesty too,” she teased. “Sit down. I want to get caught up with everything you two have been doing.”

Tuck steadied himself. He’d known he’d get this question and tried to prepare.
Stick your head between your legs and kiss your ass good-bye
; or, if he’d done his homework right, it’d be smooth sailing.

Here goes nothin’…

* * *

“So Cade goes to school
and
works?” Hannah asked, blowing on her coffee to cool it to a drinkable temperature.

Tuck really wasn’t a coffee person, but he’d given in, the dry-mouth from talking compelling him, and accepted his own mug of java though his was three-quarters cream with a splash of coffee. “It’s an on-call kind of job, filling in when other staffers get sick, but yeah. He works his ass off.”

“And you don’t?”

“It’s not the same.” Tuck turned his mug around in haphazard half circles. “He’s the brainy one. Me? I drive.”

“So? Don’t tell me navigating the city during rush hour is less of a challenge,” Hannah said, startling a laugh out of Tuck. Good thing too. Might have gotten melancholy there. “You always were happiest behind the wheel,” she agreed. “What’s wrong with being happy?”

Hard to argue with that point.

“Still. I know it isn’t easy. Sometimes it’s like choreographing a ballet between work and classes to make sure Megan and I actually cross paths at least once a day.” Hannah shook her head. “If he’s working
and
taking classes, how do you two manage?”

Tuck stopped in his verbal tracks. “We, uh…”

“Don’t see each other as much as one would like,” Cade said from behind him, smooth as glass. Relieved in ways past describing, Tuck turned sideways in the kitchen chair to watch Cade come in.