Realizing this conversation had just taken a turn she knew was headed down a doomed path, she stood steady. Petrified, but steady. “It’s thirty-two and half,” she corrected, feigning all the courage and bravado she didn’t feel.
“Actually, it’s thirty-two thousand, six hundred twenty-three dollars and eighty-eight cents if I paid it off today.”
“If you paid it off?” she repeated.
“Okay,” he revised on a shrug. “Not if. When.”
He reached back to his hip pocket and produced a thick envelope. “The deed to your Cessna. I just paid it off.”
B.J.’s vision blurred. For a moment, her
equilibrium shorted out. She had no idea if she was vertical or not. She must’ve swayed, reached out her hand for support, or something because the next word out of Tucker’s mouth was, “B.J.?” He sounded concerned. Steady fingers dug into her bicep, grounding her.
She blinked him back into focus and brushed his hand away. “I’m fine.” Turning away so he couldn’t see her face that had no doubt lost its color, she repeated, “I’m fine.” But in the next breath, she rasped, “Oh, my God. You bought my plane.”
Spotting the pile of tires she’d won off Ralphie, she plopped down on top of the stack and looked up at Grady’s father. “What…what do you want from me?”
140
The Trouble with Tomboys
He took his time answering her. After blowing out a long, steady breath, he said, “Grady’s bound and determined to marry you to set this thing with the baby right.”
B.J. snorted. “Well, I already told him no, so you don’t have to worry none there.”
Tucker gave a slight, amused smile. “You don’t understand. After everything my boy’s been through in the past three years, I’m just as bound and determined to see he gets everything he wants.” His gaze slid to her, his unfinished sentence lingering thick in the air... And he wants you.
B.J. shivered and sucked in a stuttered breath.
“So, uh...you bought my plane so I would marry him?
Wow. That’s not what I expected.”
Tucker laughed softly. “It’s a little more involved than that.”
B.J.’s hopes sunk. “Of course it is.”
“If you thought was I going to pay you off and try to run you out of town, you weren’t too far off,”
Tucker admitted. “That was my initial reaction.
But...Grady’s been different lately. He actually mentioned...this week he talked some about what happened to Amy.”
B.J. felt a lump grow in her throat, wondering if Grady felt as guilty as she did about cheating on Amy like they had. God, of course he did. She lowered her head, ashamed.
“I’ve waited two and half years for him to open up to me, to say something, anything. And now finally…” Tucker shook his head. “I didn’t catch on to what had changed with him until Tara Rose told me about your visit yesterday. Suddenly, I realized it wasn’t what had changed him. It was who.”
“So, what’re you saying?” B.J. asked, her voice gone hoarse.
“I’m saying he wants to marry you, so that’s what you’re going to do. And you’ll stay with him for 141
as long as he needs you around. Then, when he grows tired of you, that’s when I expect you to take your plane and get out of Tommy Creek.”
B.J. cocked an eyebrow. “What if he never grows tired of me?”
“Well, now, that’s where you can lay money on your bet. You keep him happy until the baby’s born, and I get some proof it’s his child, then you can have the deed to your plane, free and clear. Call it a wedding present. If not…” He shrugged. “Take your plane and leave town, shipping the baby back when it’s born.”
B.J. froze. “Excuse me? Did you just say, ‘ship the baby back’?”
Tucker Rawlings nailed her with an inflexible look. “It’s the baby he really wants.”
Feeling sick to her stomach, B.J. resisted the urge to cover her belly, instinctively wanting to protect the child inside.
Okay, yeah, she’d been avoiding the whole I’m-going-to-be-a-mommy issue. Just thinking about having a kid, utterly dependent on her, made her feel queasy and panicked. But to actually give the baby up? That thought had never even crossed her mind.
“What if I can’t prove the kid’s Grady’s?” she asked, suddenly so desperate she needed Tucker Rawlings to feel a bit of uncertainty as well.
He sent her a hard smile. “Oh, Grady’s not going to learn about the paternity test. That’s for my own peace of mind. He’s not ever going to learn about this little conversation we’re having either…” He paused, sending her a meaningful look. “Is he?”