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The questions started piling on top of themselves then, and a keen sense of overwhelm descended on Bobbie Jo. “Not exactly a lie,” she said. “Just not the whole story.”
“I see.”
“I suppose you’d like the whole story.”
“I suppose I would,” he drawled.
Bobbie Jo laid her head against his bicep again, his fingers tightening in hers. Squeezing, almost encouraging her to go ahead and tell him. “I could’ve stayed in Oklahoma and found a job at a farm or ranch. I came here, because my family lost our ranch.”
She paused to take a breath and to really examine how she felt about the losses she’d suffered in Oklahoma. “I’m sorry,” Tuck murmured.
“I wanted to take it over,” she said. “But it just didn’t work out. I had this degree in metallurgical engineering—that’s the study of metals and their uses—and you know what? I first started looking at this area because of a company called Hammond Manufacturing.”
“You have got to be kidding.”
“You do know what they do there, right?”
“I have no idea what they do there,” he said. “But I bet my cousin hires metalluring engineers.”
“Metallurgical.”
“That sounds so…like something I’m allergic to.” He chuckled. “Metalluring sounds so much prettier.”
She grinned too, something she hadn’t realized she could do so soon after such a horrific phone call. “Anyway, HMC wasn’t hiring engineers at the time, but the website says they’re constantly looking for good people. I put in my application, and I started looking for work in the area. Hunter Hammond hired me, just not for the company I was anticipating.”
“Does Hunt know this?” Tuck asked.
“No,” she said. “Unless he sees the applications that go through at HMC.”
“Then no. That’s all Mike. Probably not even him. He’s got managers and department heads and stuff.” Tucker squeezed her hand again. “Still, Bobbie Jo, why didn’t you say something? Mike can pull your application and get you a job in like, two seconds flat.” He looked at her again, and his gaze weighed so stinking much.
He wanted answers she didn’t know how to give.
“I like it here,” she said again. “This place reminds me of my family ranch, minus the mountains of course. And we had a lot more corn.” She did smile then, and she let her eyes drift closed again. “I’m not really a city girl.”
“You don’t say,” Tuck teased. Then he fell silent too, and they stayed that way, side-by-side, hands clasped together, until an alarm shattered their peace. “That’s me.” Tuck pulled his hand away and silenced his phone.
He folded his long legs under him and looked at her. Bobbie Jo might as well have been naked for how much he could see. “You’ll be okay?”
“I have to get back to work too.”
“Yeah, but what I meant was…you’ll be okay?” He watched her, searching her face. “I’ll bring you dinner tonight.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “People don’t take dinner to people who’ve broken up with their loser, cheater boyfriends.”
“He—wait, he cheated on you?”
“No,” Bobbie Jo said miserably. “But it feels like it, and if I pretend he did, then I can dislike him more.”
Tuck gave her half a smile, and it still made her pulse race. What that meant, she wasn’t sure. She was almost embarrassed he affected her this way. “I’ve never liked him.”
Bobbie Jo laughed, and Tuck got to his feet. He offered her his hand, and when she took it, snaps, crackles, and pops moved through her bloodstream. She stood too, and they looked at one another in the dull, flat light of the nearly New Year’s day.
She had no idea what she’d say or do if Tuck asked her to dinner right now. He didn’t ask, and instead, he finally said, “Dinner tonight. I’ll bring you and Hattie something, okay?”
She wasn’t going to argue with him. “Okay,” she agreed. “No green peppers. Hattie’s allergic to peppers.”
“Good to know,” he said as if he might actually be making her something with green peppers in it. He went around the corner first, and she followed him. “You have got to be kidding me,” Tuck muttered.
