Tucker's Crossing. Marina Adair

      “Taking the bread out of the oven.” She waved the golden brown loaf in his face, wafting toasted cornmeal and honey throughout the room.

      “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

      She did know. Her time was up. But when she turned around, ready to tell him why she was here and what she wanted, she found Cody taking in the room. The lines around his mouth were now deep, pale ridges.

      Panic moistened her palms. Had he seen the agreement? No. He wasn’t even looking at the papers. He was staring through the table at something only he could see.

      Surrounded by six empty chairs, each situated in front of its own gingham place mat, the farm-style table sat with its gerbera daisy–filled mason jar, looking like it was built for laughter-filled family meals. But for Cody, it must have been another reminder of anything but. Not what she wanted him focused on right now.

      “Today must have been hard,” Shelby started, trying to voice what she knew he never would. Guys like Cody thought being strong meant hiding the hurt, and the longer he hid, the longer the healing would take. And Shelby was running out of time. “I mean, coming home after your dad—”

      “You have no idea about how hard today was . . . or what my dad was like.” Cody’s face contorted at the word. He was building walls faster than she could backpedal, securely shutting her out.

      “I know,” Shelby began. “When you didn’t show up to the funeral . . . I just wanted . . . I needed to know that you were okay.”

      “You should have thought about that before you ran off and married Preston.”

      Shelby stepped back, not by design, but because she needed space. The only person who ever mentioned Preston was Silas. And he was dead. Well, and Gina. But hearing his name come from Cody took her back to a time she’d rather forget. “You didn’t give me any choice.”

      Instead of shouting back, condemning her for marrying his best friend and costing him his job, like any other hot-blooded Texan would do, Cody merely shrugged, making it painfully clear that whatever heartache she’d suffered over their breakup had been one-sided. Hers. To him, it had been no big deal.

      “Why don’t you sit down and I’ll put on a pot of coffee,” she said, feeling ridiculous for offering to serve him in his own house. But she needed him to hear her out and she refused to deliver her news with him towering over her.

      “I don’t want to sit down.”

      “Look, there’s some pie in the fridge—”

      “I don’t want pie.”

      “I have sweet tea.”

      “I don’t want any damn tea.”

      Shelby wanted to cry. Once again it was all going to hell where Cody was concerned. Why couldn’t he ever just do what she needed him to do? Because he was a Tucker!

      Chapter 3

      “Then what do you want?”

      Was there ever a more loaded question? Cody wasn’t even sure he knew the answer.

      Up until he saw Shelby, standing naked and fresh from the shower, he knew exactly what he wanted. To come back here, to his family’s ranch, and fire every son of a bitch who’d stood by while his dad wailed on his kid brother. Then somehow finish out his sentence so he could return to his life in Austin.

      But now, after seeing Shelby, here in this house, standing in the middle of his childhood, everything changed.

      He wanted to make sure she was okay, see if she’d finished nursing school, know if Preston had broken her heart the way she’d destroyed his. He wanted to run his hands down her body and see if her lips still tasted as sweet as he remembered. He wanted to go back and force himself to be the kind of man that she deserved.

      Oh, Cody wanted. Too bad they were things a man like him didn’t have the right to want, let alone possess.

      “I want to know what the hell you’re doing in my mom’s kitchen.”

      Hurt swelled in her eyes and he wanted to feel good for putting it there, but it only served as a reminder of how he’d lost her to begin with.

      “I live here.”

      Had he heard her right? “Run that by me again. I thought you said you lived here.”

      “That’s right.”

      Now it was his turn to pale. “How long?”

      “A couple of years ago, your dad,” she stumbled, “I mean, Silas got ill. He needed a nurse. I needed a job. So I applied.”

      “You lived here! With my dad!” The thought of Shelby here, with Silas, in this house, didn’t sit right. Hell, it gave him new fuel for nightmares. It was just one more betrayal to add to the list. “What were you thinking?”

      “Just what I said, your dad needed a nurse and the job came with a place to stay.”

      Running a hand through his hair, he tortured himself with every horrible situation that he could possibly think of involving a fragile, genuine woman like Shelby and his beast of a father. In less than two seconds he’d come up with enough to make him sick.

      Done with the conversation, Cody headed for the back door. He needed space to decompress before he snapped and air that didn’t remind him of his failures.

      “Cody—” Shelby panicked.

      He was leaving. Just like before, only this time she would be forced to actually watch him walk out the door. Her hard-laid plans would all be for nothing. And that was not acceptable. Too much was at stake.

      “Oh, no you don’t.” Stubborn determination threw her into motion. Storming across the tile floor, she yanked him to a stop, forcing him to face the problem head-on. “Don’t you dare walk out on me. We aren’t even close to being done here.”

      Every muscle in his arm tightened under her grasp. Cody spun around in a defensive motion. He was amped and ready to strike. Anyone else in her situation would fear for her life, but not Shelby. And that said something about him.

      Cody might be a massive wall of raging testosterone, but he was also the gentlest man she’d ever known. In their time together, she’d never felt anything but utterly adored and protected. Even loved. Right up until he walked out.

      “Let go,” he ordered.

      “Not until we talk.”

      “I mean it, Shelby Lynn. Let. Me. Go.”

      That was the problem, she couldn’t.

      “And what if I say no?” Bold words for a woman who needed his cooperation.

      Without taking his gaze from hers, he issued a single command: “Don’t push me, Shelby Lynn.”

      Shelby let go, but sent him a threatening glare. “Oh, I haven’t even begun to start pushing.”

      To her dismay, there was no change in his expression. He crossed his arms, looking relaxed in his Armani button-up, totally unaffected by her threat. Here she was, ready to burst into tears and he was disciplined as always, which put a burr in Shelby’s temper.

      “Is that right?” Nope, not even a smile.

      “You don’t scare me, Cody Tucker.”

      Whoa. That got his attention. Cody stood staring at her, his face so full of disbelief and pain that she staggered back a few feet. Did he actually think she was afraid of him? Maybe she didn’t want to know.

      With a curse, Cody stalked toward her too fast for her to react, eating up the distance between them in two forceful steps, fury radiating off his every inch. Shelby couldn’t have moved even if she’d wanted to, which she wasn’t entirely sure she did.

      Cody