Unfinished Hero 02 Creed by Kristen Ashley Page A

birthday?”
    They way he said that made me turn my head and look up at him.
    “Yeah.”
    He stared at me then looked back at the water, lifted his Snickers bar to his mouth and bit off a huge chunk.
    I felt bad since he didn’t have a Dad and I knew, with the way he talked about him, that what he would want most in the whole world was his Dad being there for his birthday. I didn’t really care if Daddy was at mine. In fact, he always made me wear dresses that were too fancy on my birthday so it felt mean, but I was kinda glad he wasn’t.
    We sat together and sifted our feet through the water, staring at it and chewing on our Snickers bars and we did this until Tuck finished his. He shoved the wrapper in his cutoff jeans shorts pocket. Then he dug in his other one and I watched him come out with a little, white cardboard box.
    He handed it to me.
    “Happy birthday, Sylvie.”
    I stared down at the box then I looked up at him. “Wow.”
    He grinned at me.
    I liked presents and I liked it more that he gave me one but that grin would have been enough for me.
    “We don’t have wrapping paper and I used all my allowance on that so I couldn’t buy any,” he told me.
    “That’s okay!” I chirped, threw off the top of the box and looked down at the gold necklace with the tiny twinkling green jewel hanging off the chain, this attached to a little sheet of plastic.
    “They said that’s a peridot. Your birthstone,” Tuck’s voice came at me.
    I tipped my head back to look at him. “I like it. Green’s my favorite color.”
    He grinned at me again.
    “I’m gonna wear it always, Tuck,” I whispered and was about to pull it out so I could put it on but his face went funny and he shook his head.
    “It’s cheap, Sylvie,” he said quiet. “The girl I bought it from said you can’t get it wet. It’ll make your skin turn green.”
    “I don’t care,” I told him.
    “Your Dad will,” he told me.
    He would.
    Darn.
    I looked back down at the necklace and said soft, “I’ll wear it all the other times when I’m not in the water.”
    “Okay,” he replied.
    I looked up at him and smiled.
    Then I jumped up to my feet, ran back to my bike, put the necklace in the basket with my Snickers wrapper because Tuck said his Dad said that littering was bad and you should never do it. So we never did.
    I ran back down the pier pulling off my t-shirt and stopping to tug off my shorts. I had my bathing suit underneath.
    “ Cannonball! ” I yelled and dashed down the rest of the pier. I jumped straight off the end as high in the air as I could get. I curled my arms around my tucked legs and hit the warm water.
    I barely surfaced before I heard and saw Tuck hit the water beside me.
    I smiled.
    He surfaced, took one stroke and made it to me then he ducked me.
    I came up laughing.
    We did cannonballs and dives and had ducking contests and floated and had swimming contests that Tuck let me win because it was my birthday and we did it for hours.
    When I got home, my stepmom was asleep so I didn’t get caught being gone and spending the day with Tuck at the lake.
    It was the best birthday ever.
    Ever.
     
     

Chapter Seven
    I’m What You Need
     
    Present day…
    My eyes opened and I stared at the alarm clock amongst the junk on my nightstand.
    Fuck.
    Last night I picked bourbon. I should have picked tequila.
    I pulled myself out of bed then I lugged myself down the hall to the bathroom. I used the facilities, washed my face, brushed my teeth, downed numerous gulps of water cupped in my hand and was walking out when I heard the front door open and close.
    Right. Well then. There it was.
    God did not answer my prayers and made yesterday a bad dream like that whole season of Dallas where Bobby was dead and then, poof , the next season he’s in the shower.
    It would appear that, yesterday, Tucker Creed actually did come back into my life, I agreed to partner up with him then ended the evening eating his food and fucking