Used While I Pretended to Sleep novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Tucker Talks

I flushed the double dose down the toilet at 10:31 the next Friday, and Byron never heard it.

He had stood in my doorway and watched me swallow.

Then he said goodnight, and I waited in the dark for the whole house to come up the stairs.

Denton was on call and did not come.

Abel's truck pulled in at midnight and stayed in the drive, and I heard him on the phone, yelling at someone about a permit.

At 12:20 my door opened, and only one man came in.

I knew his weight on the boards.

Tucker Harland was the biggest of them, taller than Byron, with a sandy beard and hands that could close around a bowling ball.

He seldom said more than a sentence at a time.

He shut the door behind him very quietly, and he stood still for a long moment.

Then he crossed the room and sat down in the chair by my bed.

"Hey, Roxy," he said.

I almost opened my eyes.

I had never heard him say anything in a voice that low.

"I know you can't hear me," Tucker said. "That's why I can say it."

The chair creaked.

"I've known you four years, and I haven't said ten words to you. You thought I didn't like you. I figured I'd let you think it."

He rubbed his hands together slowly.

"I fixed your bike chain the first summer. You said thanks, and you smiled at me, and I went out to the truck and sat there for an hour."

My throat went tight in the dark.

"Then your mom died," he said, and his voice cracked on it. "And you stood on that porch in your black dress and thanked everybody for coming. And I thought, I would do anything for that kid."

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