“Yeah…” He sighed. “I know.” The expression on his face told her he’d rather be out in the woods wrestling a bear than here having this conversation with her, but he squared his shoulders anyway. “But… Why now? Why…suddenly?”

It wasn’t suddenly. It had been stirring for a while, starting with busloads of women descending on Credence and going into hyperdrive at Tucker in a suit. Yep, that suit had pushed things to warp speed. A supersonic estrogen rocket straight to her libido.

“Because I’m ready. And it’s time. I’ve come out of a long dark tunnel, and I’m in the light, and I want to live, Tucker.”

“It’s just…we remember what you were like.” His voice was low and gentle. “When you first came here.”

“You think I don’t think about that woman every single day of my life?”

She’d been a shell. A timid little mouse with a head full of scars, frightened of her own shadow. And Credence had rallied around her, giving her a place to recover.

“But I’ve come a long way. I’m not her anymore, Tucker, and I want to move on. I want more than making minimum wage at the old folks’ home and turning into some spinster living on my brother’s charity like some tragic Jane Austen heroine. I want to go to college, and I want to travel, and, yes, I want to date and have some fun for once.”

Not that many years ago, she’d have included falling in love, getting married, and having a family of her own on that list. But she was a little too broken for a serious relationship now.

“Fair enough.”

He hesitated like he wanted to say something more, but he didn’t, his lips settling into a grim line instead as he crossed his arms. A smiling Tucker Daniels, with those dimples of his, always caused a tiny flutter in her chest compartment, but there was something about the brooding Tucker that caused a different kind of flutter in her downstairs compartment.

It was so damn…Heathcliff. And Heathcliff was a jackass.

“So…” Della picked up her phone to view the next image Tinder had provided. “Do you think I should go for mister I’m well-hung and know where the clit is?” She swiped to the next candidate. “Or mister the thicker the chick, the harder my dick?”

Tucker winced. “Oh God, neither. Left, swipe left.”

Della swiped left, but there were date-worthy guys here somewhere, and she was determined to make some matches…whether Tucker approved or not.

…