Intertwined

remaining close. Did he think to protect her, as she’d imagined earlier?

“I wanted to talk to you.” As Tucker spoke, his gaze traveled from her to the wolf, the wolf to her. “In private.”

“Okay. Talk.”

“Let’s go inside.”

“No. Here’s fine.” Last time they’d been alone inside her house, all he’d wanted to do was make out.

He cast another glance at the wolf, gulped. “All right. Well, you’ve been so distant lately, you know? And I don’t like it. I want to go back to the way we were. Where you smile at me every time you see me and answer my calls every night.”

She felt a twinge of guilt. She had been avoiding his calls.

“I think I know what this is about,” he said. “Penny, right?” The last was sneered.

Wait. What? “I don’t understand. Penny?”

Some of the scorn drained from him, and his shoulders sagged. “I knew you were too smart to believe her.”

“Believe her about what?” Seriously. She was more confused by the second.

“She told me she told you,” he said, then shook his head, as if he didn’t understand the direction of this conversation. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter, right? Me and you, that’s all that matters.”

Me and you. Her stomach twisted.

“Let’s go out tonight. Talk. Please,” he added beseechingly.

Stomach. Twisting. Again. “Look, Tucker. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings by ignoring your calls, you have to believe that, but my life is in turmoil right now. Maybe we should, I don’t know, take a break or something.” Yes, a break. How perfect. That would give her time to figure some things out.

“No. We don’t need a break.” He shook his head violently, his eyes pleading with her. “I can’t lose you.”

Her life’s goal was to solve problems, not cause them, so his sudden tortured expression made her want to apologize rather than continue. Still. She forged ahead. “Why? What can you possibly see in me? I’m not as pretty or popular as Christy Hayes, who would cut off her leg to date you. I hate football and know nothing about it. I choose to read textbooks over spending time with you.”

“Listen to me.” He approached her, arms extending to latch onto her shoulders. “None of that is important to—”

Wolf growled low in his throat.

Tucker stilled, gulped again. “You’re beautiful and smart and I just feel better when I’m with you. I don’t know how else to describe it, and I don’t know how you do it. All I know is that you make me feel normal for the first time in my life.”

Normal? Tucker hadn’t always felt normal? That surprised her, and proved just how little she’d ever actually known about him. He’d always seemed like the most put-together, confident guy she’d ever met. Well, besides Wolf, but he didn’t count.

“That’s not a reason to stay together, Tucker.” The words left her of their own accord and she shook her head. Was she breaking up with him now, rather than merely asking for some time apart?

Yes, she thought. Yes, she was. They truly weren’t meant for each other. She’d been a terrible girlfriend. Absent, distracted and less than passionate. They’d only ever kissed. Anytime he’d tried for more, she’d always stopped him. She’d thought it was because she wasn’t ready, but now, looking back, she realized she hadn’t been ready with him. He wasn’t right for her. They were too different.

Like you’ve got more in common with a wolf? She brushed that thought aside. She hadn’t been thinking about Wolf along those lines, whoever he was. Had she?

“If you don’t want to date me, at least be my friend,” he said, a desperate edge to the words. “Please. Like I said, I can’t lose you. And I swear to you now that I’m not the father of Penny’s baby. Don’t let her convince you otherwise. Promise me.”

Mary Ann laughed. “Penny’s not pregnant.” A baby was something her friend would have mentioned.

Unless…unless the father really was Mary Ann’s boyfriend.

Her stomach did that twisting thing again and her focus intensified on Tucker. He was pale, sweating. “She’s not pregnant. Is she?”

He looked away guiltily, then gave a jerky nod. “She’s slept with half the football team. Surely you know that. It could be anyone’s.”

The seriousness of his tone settled like a weight inside her. She thought back to the last time she’d spoken to Penny. It had been in front of the school, more than a week ago. Since then, she’d been too distracted. But she remembered that Penny’s eyes had been red-rimmed, as if she’d been crying. As if she’d told the father of her baby that she was pregnant and he had denied responsibility.

Before that, at the café, Penny had mentioned Tucker would cheat on Mary Ann if she didn’t sleep with him soon. That he might already be doing so. There’d been something in Penny’s eyes, an emotion Mary Ann hadn’t understood until now. Guilt.

“She’s…you…”

“I’m not the father, I swear! I’m not ready to have kids.”

His words sank in, as did acceptance. Penny really was pregnant. And Tucker had slept with her. He hadn’t said, “There’s no way I can be the father because I never touched her.” Just that he wasn’t the dad because he didn’t want to be.

Slightly light-headed, she covered her mouth with her hand. The fact that Tucker had cheated on her embarrassed her to her very soul, yes. Had everyone but her known? Had they laughed at her behind her back? But what hurt her most, what cut like a knife, what utterly destroyed her, was Penny’s betrayal. Penny, whom she loved. Penny, whom she trusted.

“How long?” she asked quietly. It couldn’t have been too long ago, because she and Tucker had only been dating a few months. “How many times were you together? When were you together?” She couldn’t stop the questions from lashing from her.

Wolf nudged her leg with his nose, and her hand automatically sought the warmth of his fur. There was comfort in the action, comfort from simply stroking him.

Tucker shifted uncomfortably. “Like I said, none of that is important.”

“Tell me! Or I swear we’ll never be friends.” They wouldn’t be anyway, but he didn’t need to know that right now.

She’d thought him pale before, but he became chalk-white, the blue lines in his forehead visible. “Just once, I swear. Not that long after we started dating. I came over but you weren’t home, so I popped over to her house to ask where you were since you weren’t answering my calls. If only you’d answered my calls…” He shook his head, pulling himself from his “regrets.” “We started talking and things just happened. It didn’t mean anything, you have to believe me, Mar.”

It hadn’t meant anything to him. Oh, well, that made everything better and negated what he and Penny had done. She wanted to shake him. What they’d done shredded her, left her raw. Of course it meant something.

“You need to go,” she croaked past the lump in her throat.

“We can work this out.” Expression once more beseeching, he moved toward her. “I know we can. You just have to—”

Wolf snarled as she shouted, “Go!”

A muscle in Tucker’s jaw clenched. For a long while, he did nothing but peer over at her. Finally, Wolf grew tired of waiting and stalked forward, sharp teeth bared.

Tucker squealed like a toddler and danced a wide circle around the animal before running for his truck. Which was parked in Penny’s driveway, she realized. Had the two spoken before he’d come here? Had they had sex, then laughed about Mary Ann’s prudishness?

Wolf nudged her leg again.

“You need to go, too,” she said softly. Yeah, she’d wanted him to stay earlier, but she didn’t think she could withstand company right now.

Her hand was shaking as she unlocked her front door. Hinges squeaked as it opened. Wolf soared past her. He’d never done that before, and any other time, she would have welcomed him.