“I did.” He stuck his hands in his pockets.
Avery looked from him to the machine, shaking her head. “Take it back.”
He let out a laugh. “I can’t take it back.”
“Well, I don’t want it.” Anger flashed in her eyes, clear and hot as lightning.
“Yes, you do.” Wow. He’d expected her to be slightly uncomfortable with a gift as big as an X-ray machine, but not like this. “In fact, you need it. Your business won’t run without it. At least not how you want it to.”
Avery stormed out, brushing past him and stomping down the hall to the reception area. She went behind the counter and started stacking up piles of paper they’d kept there—invoices, bills, and plans. He could tell from the set of her jaw that she was grinding her teeth, her cheeks now a bright red. She swept some mail from the top counter, which he’d cleared earlier, and thrust it at him.
“Here. You got an invitation.”
Her seething tone reminded him, as it was probably meant to, that he hadn’t been invited to replace her X-ray machine. Avery folded the papers into her arms and held them tight to her chest, eyes sweeping over him. She clearly expected him to open it. As if he’d stand here and open his mail when she was so angry. His own body reacted to the waves of tension in the air—heart racing, heat covering the back of his neck. Tucker shoved the envelope in his back pocket. It had a thick heft to it, and something poked out of the top, but he didn’t care.
Nothing mattered except having this conversation with her, right here, right now. Deep in his gut, he knew the snap decision had been wrong. He should have run it by her first, even if he intended to pay for the whole thing—which he did. He’d never have dangled the equipment in front of her if there wasn’t a real way to get it. She’d asked him to consult her, and he hadn’t.
“Avery—”
She didn’t let him finish. “What were you thinking, Tucker? I can’t afford payments on that kind of equipment. I told you that. I told you that time and time again, and you just stomped all over my decision to do without for now. I can make my own decisions, Tucker!”
“There aren’t any payments. I paid cash for it.”
Avery’s face went even redder, redder than he thought possible, and she pressed her lips into a thin white line. “You what?” Her voice had gone so deadly he looked down at his gut to see if he’d been stabbed.
“I had the money, and I paid for it. It’s all settled. There are no payments.”
She drew herself up, her mouth opening and closing. Finally, Avery settled on the words she wanted to say. “Call them right now.” She stabbed a finger at the phone on the reception desk. “Call them and tell them it was a mistake. Get your money back.”
He took a step toward her, but Avery put up a hand to stop him. Her teeth clicked together. God, she was mad. He hadn’t seen her this mad in all the years he’d known her.
“Don’t handle me, Tucker.” She looked like she wanted to scream, wanted to fight, and was holding it back. It might have been easier if she’d let loose. Tucker wished she would. “While I’ve been appreciative of the work you’ve done around here, this is way too much. I don’t need you—I don’t need anybody—to fix everything in my life.”
“I’m not trying to fix everything in your life.” Tucker ran a hand through his hair and let his fingers clench for a brief second before he let it go. “You said you were willing to do without the X-ray machine, but we both know it’ll make getting your business up and running that much harder. You’ll be telling people to wait for the equipment, but they can’t wait. They’ll find another vet in the meantime, and then…” He made a circling motion with his hand. “It’s a downward spiral. Do I think you could come back from it over time? Of course I do. But I had the money, and I didn’t want you to have to do that.”
Avery had started shaking her head midway through his speech, and she kept on shaking it. “This is too much. You’re not hearing me. It’s too much for one person to give another person. It’s especially too much for you to give me.”
“It’s a gift, and I already gave it.”
“I can’t accept it. For all the reasons I’ve listed.” Avery’s chin quivered, but she quickly got it back under control. A flare of frustration burned a path through Tucker’s belly. It was one thing to want to be independent. He wanted to be independent. But why would Avery shoot herself in the foot just to prove it? Why take on a setback if she didn’t have to?
“Why not? What’s wrong with me wanting the mother of my child to have what she needs to open her practice?” Couldn’t she see? Couldn’t she see that this was about Shanna as much as the two of them, and probably more?
“Well,” Avery snapped. “Up until a few weeks ago, you hadn’t thought about me in years. You didn’t know you had a child.”
Too far. “And whose fault is that, Avery? You chose not to contact me.” A surge of grief almost stopped him from speaking. Yes, he’d been a jerk ten years ago. He’d been young and impulsive and he’d wanted to get out of Benton Ridge. Everybody did. Tucker had had no way of knowing that life would put him right back at home, where he wanted to be. He’d had no idea what he had until it was gone. And he’d have made a different decision if he’d been in possession of all the facts. “You didn’t bother to tell me you were pregnant, and
