Free Say It Strong (Say You Love Me Book 2) by Virna Depaul

Let’s go. It’s getting late.”
    Suddenly, the crunch of gravel beneath rubber soles sounded nearby. I stopped, pointing to my ear. Tucker nodded. We listened. There was no more crunching, but the moment we took another couple of steps, more crunching. Someone was hiding nearby and trying to mask their footsteps by mirroring ours.
    “Hey, who’s there?” I asked.
    It was silly, the way someone hovered there, breathing quietly, just out of view. I hoped it wasn’t a paparazzo. Next thing you knew, Tuck and I would be on the cover of Rumor Magazine with the headline, Liam Collier Trysts with Tuck in Garden.
    “It’s just me,” said a familiar voice. “I swear I wasn’t eavesdropping. I was just walking…and I saw you here. So I tried to be quiet and waited.” Abby came around the fountain looking lovelier than a summery Seattle day.
    The first thing that happened was, my heartbeat picked up speed. There she was—the very girl I’d been talking about, the object of my strange obsession. The second thing that happened was, I gave her a smile. Not a Liam Collier heart-zinger, but a real, genuine so glad to see you smile. She made me feel like I was middle-school Liam again.
    Tucker made a show of buttoning up his shirt. “Oh, hey, Asian Persuasion. No drinks today, I hope?” He took a few dramatic steps away from her.
    “You have a death wish, don’t you, man?” I mumbled to him.
    “No,” she said, “but if I did have a drink to spill on you again, you’d deserve it.” Abby padded out of the shadows in her cute long skirt, tank top clinging to her adorable, tight body, and a pair of flip-flops.
    “Abby,” I said. “Rule number one…don’t ever, ever listen to any crap this guy has to say. Ever.” I pointed to Tucker, who smiled with his mouth open, a cat panting in the summer heat. “He is only trying to push your buttons, okay?”
    “That is so true, Abby.” Tucker nodded somberly. “I can admit that now, because I’m sober.”
    She glanced down sheepishly and tucked her dark hair behind her ears. “What about you?” She looked up, straight at me, eyes connected with mine a moment too long. “Should I take offense when you say some girls are not eye candy? Some are just natural?”
    Ouch. Um… “I didn’t say being eye candy was all good. And I did say you could be eye candy if you wanted. But why would you? You are a goddess from heaven, a veritable Venus on the half shell, a cello-playing enigma!” I gave that last word a little flair of hand. Shit, I was overdoing it.
    Thank God, Abby laughed quietly at that. “Yeah, okay…sounds like complete and utter horseshit to me.” She laughed again.
    “Ssszzzz…scorch!” Tucker cried. Then he looked at me, then at Abby, then at me again, and his mouth fell open. Suddenly, he understood. For once in his life, nothing came out. His pointer finger did a little dance between me and Abby, then he shoved his hands into his pockets and turned back the way we’d come. “I’m just gonna get going. I’ll leave you two… alone ,” he sang the last word in a Barry White way. “Oh, but before I go…can you tell me what time it is?” he asked Abby.
    I almost laughed while she pulled out her phone. “One thirty.”
    “Thanks.” He smiled like the fucktard idiot he was.
    We watched Tucker leave, and it gave us a few moments to absorb the inevitable—we were going to talk now. “Why was that so funny?” She turned back to me.
    “What? Oh, the time thing? He just got you to give him the time of day.” I laughed to myself. “Don’t worry about it. Insider joke.”
    “No, I get it.” She shook her head in embarrassment.
    “Tucker’s a good guy,” I said. I lay down on the stone bench and stretched out. It wasn’t until then that I realized I was still wearing pajama pants with my tank. I sat back up so I wouldn’t so obviously display myself. “What are the chances that you’d go walking in the garden at the same time I did?