“You’re up early. I would have thought you might have slept in.”

Tucker looked over at his dad, who, even in his mid-fifties, still looked as robust and healthy as he’d been the last time he’d played a game for Green Bay. Working the ranch kept him active and Tucker was grateful for that.

“Haven’t been sleeping much.”

“I figured you didn’t make this stopover because you wanted to spend a day helping me rebuild fence on the northeast side of the property.”

Tucker laughed. “Yeah, not so much.”

“Okay. What’s going on?”

Tucker looked out over the front of the property. Dogs were playing and scrub blew across in the breeze. But it was calm and peaceful.

Not inside Tucker, though. Inside there was turmoil, a twister of emotions he needed to get out. “I’m in love with Aubry Ross. She’s Clyde Ross’s daughter.”

“Clyde Ross being the owner of the Rivers?”

“Yeah.”

“Is that a problem?”

“It wasn’t until she brought me to her parents’ house for dinner. Clyde pulled me aside and told me that Aubry’s career in medicine has to take precedence in her life, and if I didn’t stop seeing her he’d send me back down to Triple-A ball or trade me.”

“Bastard.” His dad took a sip of his coffee, then took a seat on one of the chairs on the porch, propping his feet up on the porch rail. “So what are you gonna do about it?”

“I don’t know. If it was any other guy telling me to stop seeing his daughter or else, I’d tell him to fuck off. No one tells me what to do. But Clyde Ross owns the Rivers. He could do anything he wants to me, from trading me to sending me back to Triple-A ball.”

Tucker sat on the top step, turning to face his dad. “Instead, I took a step back from the relationship, keeping my distance from Aubry.”

“Understandable knee-jerk reaction to having your job threatened. What did Aubry say when you told her what her father said?”

“I didn’t tell her. I didn’t want to pit her between me and her dad.”

His father took another few swallows of his coffee before answering. “Okay. I can kind of see your point there. But now I guess you’re gonna have to choose.”

The door opened. “Choose what?”

Tucker’s mom came outside. A former lawyer, she was smart, savvy and had managed to raise five unruly children without killing any of them.

“Kid’s got a problem with a woman and her dad,” his father said. “Tucker, fill your mom in on what happened.”

While his mom took a seat next to his dad, Tucker told her what had happened with Aubry and with Aubry’s father.

“Well, hell,” his mom said. “That’s unfair. To you and to Aubry. She’s not a child and she’s old enough to make her own decisions regarding her personal life. But to threaten your career like that? That’s below the belt, Tucker.”

“Yeah. The worst thing is that I immediately backed away from Aubry. I deliberately avoided her. Deep inside, I knew it was the wrong choice, but I got scared.”

“How do you know it’s the wrong thing?” his mother asked, her lips curving as if she already knew the answer.

“Because I feel miserable. Every damn day I wake up feeling awful, and I go to bed feeling awful. I miss her. I miss talking to her and I miss seeing her. And even worse, she found out about her father’s threat. She came to my condo and read me the riot act. Then she dumped me.”

“Ouch.” His mother sipped her coffee. “I don’t blame her for being angry with you, Tucker. We women don’t like it when men keep secrets.”

“This is true,” his dad said.

“You should have been honest with her from the beginning,” his mother said.

Tucker grimaced. “That would have felt like running to Aubry to fix my issue with her dad. That didn’t feel right to me. I don’t know, none of this feels right.”

“But is she worth losing your job over?” his dad asked. “Because if you continue this relationship with her, her father might make good on his promise.”

“Yes. She is worth it.” That’s when he realized he should have told Aubry right from the beginning. He should have stood up to Clyde and told him he could do whatever he wanted to him, but that it wouldn’t matter.

“I guess you’ve got your answer, then, Son,” his father said. “But you’ve got to be prepared to live with the consequences.”

“Yeah, I know. I guess I just needed the time to think this through. Or maybe I never needed any time to think it through. Hell, I don’t know what I needed. I feel shitty now that I’ve let all this time go by. Aubry thinks I abandoned her, that I chose my career over her. She probably hates me.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” his mother said, laying her hand on his dad’s knee. “We women are very forgiving. We have to be, because you men are often idiots.”

“Hey,” his dad said, frowning at her.

She laughed, then rubbed her shoulder against his.

He looked at his parents, at the obvious love they had for each other even after all these years. He knew they’d had their squabbles over the years, had seen them argue, then make up. It was true love between the two of them.

That’s what he wanted. What he wanted to have forever.

With Aubry.

Now he just had to get back home and see her after his game tomorrow night.