A Father's Name(69)
“How did you get all this done?” she asked.
“Lou let me leave a little early. I’ll make up the time on Saturday for today and Friday.”
“No one’s ever…” She sniffed, determined not to cry.
“Angel?”
She’d noticed that he’d been calling her Tucker the last few days, and she figured it was his way of distancing himself, but tonight, he reverted to calling her Angel. It was too much. She felt a tear creep out, despite her blinking.
“Angel?” he repeated.
“No one’s ever done anything like this for me.”
“What. No one’s ever been crazy enough to start a fire in the middle of summer, then crank on the air conditioner so you don’t melt?”
“Don’t,” she said. “Don’t minimize this. This is romantic. It’s a sweet gesture, one no one else would do for me. Even though I’m wearing a goofy T-shirt, you have a way of making me feel as if I’m the most beautiful woman in the room.” That sounded far too sappy to her, so she tried to play it off as a joke. “Of course, at the shop, I’m generally the only woman in the room, so I guess—”
“Don’t,” he told her. “Don’t minimize yourself. Some women need to dress to the nines in order to create an illusion of beauty. You simply have to be you. It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing a weird T-shirt and holey jeans, or that pretty sundress you wore to the picnic. You’re always beautiful.”
Standing there in her T-shirt looking at all the trouble Tyler had gone to, Tucker truly felt beautiful. “Since you went to so much work getting ready for our dinner, maybe you wouldn’t mind if I take care of the appetizer?” She slipped her T-shirt off and revealed her sexiest bra.
“I think this might be my favorite appetizer of all times,” he said, accepting her gift.
As she made love to Tyler, she tried to ignore the thought that this was almost over.
For the first time in her life, Tucker wasn’t ready to let go of a relationship that had run its course.
For the first time in her life, Tucker wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready to let Tyler Martinez go.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ON FRIDAY, FEELING RATHER like a man on his way to an appointment with a guillotine, Tyler hurried out of work an hour before his normal lunch break and stopped at home to change. He wasn’t sure why this meeting felt so ominous to him. He wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.
He thought about pulling out one of the two suits he’d kept after he lost his job. He’d gotten rid of everything else. The rest of the suits, his house, the car. He’d liquidated and paid the restitution and his legal fees, then banked the little bit that was left over.
He fingered one of the remaining suits, but he’d worn it to Jason’s funeral and didn’t want to put it back on. Plus putting on one of the suits from his former life might give the ADA and judge the wrong impression. He simply wanted to go to this lunch and tell them no. Then he could get back to the life he was building and leave the past behind him.
He settled for khakis and a polo shirt. Dressy enough to show respect for the judge, but nothing more.
Normally, he loved coming down to the dock in Erie. The city had worked hard to take the area from its industrial past into a city tourist hub. The Bicentennial Tower at the end of the dock was one of his favorite attractions. From its top observation deck he could take in the full scope of the bay as well as the peninsula across the water. Today, he barely registered it, or any of the other tourist attractions, as he made his way to the restaurant.
“I’m here to meet Judge Bradley,” he told the hostess and noted his nervousness might have made him sound curt, so he tacked on a, “please,” to try to soften his words. After all, it wasn’t her fault he was forced to be here.
She smiled and picked up a menu. “Your party is waiting for you, sir.”
She led him back to a table in a quiet corner of the restaurant. He recognized the judge and the young ADA from his trial.
The third person at the table turned and he realized it was Jason’s dad, Bill Matthews. “Mr. Matthews? Why are you here? When did you get back in town?”
“Sit down, Tyler. You remember Judge Bradley, and ADA Kelley?”
He nodded. “Sir, Ma’am.” He sat in the vacant chair and tried to figure out what Jason’s father was doing here.