Make a Right by Willa Okati Page A

like the ones you just did,” he said, his lips reddened from heat and pressure. “I do know what it’s like to love without hope.”
    That? That felt like being slapped. “And you called me cruel,” Tuck said.
    Cade took a step back and lapsed into silence. But if he looked now with fresh eyes, Tuck could see the same kind of helpless tangle inside his chest behind the blank mask Cade wore.
    He could still feel Cade’s warm skin ghosting next to his, and he burned for more.
    Least he wasn’t alone. Cade’s breathing remained shallow, and he looked at Tuck’s lips as if he were starving for them.
    “Why?” Tuck asked, all he could manage. “If it could be better, why’s it got to be like this between us now?” None of it made sense, not a bit, but it did make Tuck’s head ache to bursting. He rubbed his eyes, grimly pleased to see sparks burst through the blackness behind his lids when he pressed too hard.
    When he looked up, Cade had turned away. “We can’t stay up here any longer. They’ll get suspicious. You know I’m right.”
    “Even Thomas,” Tuck said.
    Cade inclined his head once.
    “Goddamnit, Cade…” Tuck gave in. Thomas could go fuck himself, but the girls were a different matter. They’d worry. Maybe even come after them, and he knew he couldn’t take the chance of being caught off guard.
    What was a man supposed to do? Supposed to think?
    But there was no more time. Tuck gave up the battle for the sake of the war. “Okay. I’m going. But just so you know? We’re not done with this.”
    “Trust me,” Cade said, walking away. “I never doubted that for a second.”
    * * *
    “You okay?”
    Shit . Startled, Tuck’s heart lolloped up into his throat. Hannah had intercepted them at the foot of the stairs, glancing past him to Cade and then back at him. She hadn’t changed. Still sun-and-freckle dusted, still plain and sweet-natured and dressed in gardener’s tee and jeans dirty at the knees.
    “I forgot you don’t get along with Thomas,” she said, quiet and firm, “but this is my wedding. Try and get along with him for me. Okay?”
    Just as he’d figured, but Tuck borrowed Cade’s stillness for his own to keep his cool, and trust him, it took all of that plus a tiny reserve he hadn’t even known he possessed. Even then, all he could do was nod and wonder if he was really choking from the pressure or just imagining that.
    “Tuck?”
    Damn it; now he’d gone and tripped her Spidey senses. Should have known she’d be smarter than him too. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day.” That she’d have to believe, because it was true. “Puts a guy more on edge than usual, you know?” Among other things, but those she didn’t need to know about. That was the whole point.
    She swatted him, but affectionately and with no small amount of relief. “Thank you. We’re eating outside, on the veranda. Come get some before it’s too late. Megan decimates plums like you wouldn’t believe. Oh—was the bedroom okay?”
    “The what now?”
    She frowned. “Megan didn’t show you? Wait, no. She took Cade up there alone. I had you.” She linked her arm through Tuck’s. “It’s not the best-best, but I didn’t think you’d want the professor’s room. So I gave you the second-biggest guest room. It even has a bed big enough for two biggish men.”
    Shit on a shingle . They’d be sharing a bed, he and Cade. He hadn’t thought of that before and wondered why the hell not.
    Cade had known. And hadn’t said a word. Had he given Cade a chance to, though? Tuck couldn’t remember.
    Talk fast. Think fast . “Second-best guest room in a place like this? How will we ever cope?” He put his arm around her shoulders in a loose hug. “We’ll be fine.”
    “Are you sure?” Hannah peered up at him. “Cade?”
    Christ on a cracker! Tuck had thought Cade would be long gone downstairs by now, but no, there he stood halfway down the steps, waiting. No doubt he’d heard it all,