“Yes.” The word comes too quickly. I paste on a smile that feels thin at the edges. “Tuck was helping Noah fix his fence today. I think he must’ve gotten tied up. He can’t make it.”
Even as I say it, something in my chest twists.
She frowns slightly, turning her gaze back to the ice. “That’s too bad. Josh will be disappointed.”
My stomach tightens further, guilt layering over anxiety. It’s true. Josh will be disappointed. But there will be other games. Other chances. It’s not like Tuck is…disappearing. Not like he’s choosing someone else over them. Not like— My thoughts hitch, veering somewhere darker before I can stop them.
Not like their father did.
I press my lips together, forcing that memory back where it belongs. Tuck isn’t him. He’s never given me a reason to think he would be. So why does this feel so off?
“Tuck’s not coming?” Nicklas leans around Kate, his brows drawn together.
“He must’ve gotten tied up,” I repeat, but this time the words feel hollow, like I don’t quite believe them myself.
He said he’d be here.
Tuck doesn’t break his word. Not casually. Not with the boys.
A flicker of unease sparks.
Maybe something happened. Maybe there really was some kind of fence emergency—I don’t even know what that would look like. A broken post? A downed line? My brain scrambles for logic, for something that makes sense. And then a colder thought slips in. What if he got hurt? My fingers tighten around my phone. No. He would’ve said that…wouldn’t he? Unless, he didn’t want me to worry.
I tuck my phone into my pocket like that might quiet the noise in my head, but it doesn’t. Not even close. Beside me, Kate pulls out her own phone, her expression unreadable as her fingers move over the screen. She doesn’t say anything, but she doesn’t have to. She’s texting him.
I look back out at the ice, but I’m not really seeing it anymore. Just motion and color and noise layered over the steady drum of my pulse.
“Did you have a nice visit with your friend, Violet?” I ask, the words coming out a little too bright. A little too eager. I need something—anything—to grab onto that isn’t the tightening spiral in my chest.
She glances at me, then smiles. “It was so good to get caught up.”
“Is she a lawyer too?”
“No, we went to undergrad together at Dalhousie. She got married right after graduation. They moved here, and now she’s a full-time homemaker with two small kids. She loves it.” Kate lets out a soft snort. “I’m not sure that’s for me. It seems like a lot of work.”
A real laugh slips out of me this time. “You’re not wrong.” I shake my head. “I used to be a full-time homemaker too, before I moved here.” My smile turns wry. “Actually…I still am. Just with a job and school on top of it now.”
The words settle between us, and I can’t help but wonder how much Tuck knows about me. About what happened with Lucian…and Gina. About how everything I thought was solid just… cracked open one day and never quite fit back together the same way.
I don’t want to tell that story. Not here. Not now. But I can’t help wondering about Tuck’s story. About the parts of him he keeps tucked away so carefully. Nova Scotia. His past. The things he doesn’t say. Kate hasn’t offered anything, and I’m not sure she will. Whatever it is—it’s his to tell.
But it’s there.
I’ve felt it from the beginning. In the way he use to hesitate just a fraction too long before stepping in. In the way he showed up so fully after the car accident. In the way he looks at the boys like they’re something precious he’s afraid to mishandle.
Disappoint.
Fail.
And in that quiet moment Kate and I shared, when she told me he’s spent most of his life trying to earn his place…
I knew.
That kind of weight doesn’t just disappear. It settles in your bones. Shapes your choices. Follows you into every almost, every maybe, every what if.
A heavy past that lingers at the edges of something good…and makes you wonder how long it’ll last before it slips through your fingers. My hand drifts back to my pocket, to the phone I’m trying not to check.
Waiting.
