She waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, don’t look so scandalized. I’m divorced, not dead. So are you two dating now?”
Corinne didn’t know what they were. Not yet. And she wasn’t in an all-fired hurry to define it. She’d rushed into a serious relationship with Lance and that had been a disaster of epic proportions. Not that she believed Tucker was anything like her ex-husband. But she couldn’t afford to be impulsive and foolish. She had a child to consider. “I don’t have time to date. Not on top of rehearsals.” And Tucker had seemed fine with the idea of going slow, letting her set the pace.
“Rehearsals.” The tone put Corinne’s back up. “You wanna keep a man like him, you best be rehearsing something other than choreography. Leastwise the vertical kind.”
Corinne switched off the water and pivoted to face her mother. “Excuse me?”
“I’m just saying, he’s a good looking, successful attorney. You’ve gotta lock that in while you can.”
“Lock what in, exactly?”
“Don’t be dense, Corinne. He’d be a good provider and a helluva step up from where you are now. It’s time you stopped wallowing and did something about it.”
“Wallowing?” she repeated. Sheer disbelief was the only thing keeping her from shouting. “Is that what you think I’ve been doing?”
“You’ve gone a year and a half with no man at all. What else do you call it?”
“Prioritizing,” Corinne snapped. “I’ve been working and going to school and doing everything I can to make life better for Kurt. To get us to a place where we’re no longer a burden to you.”
Some small part of her hoped Marianne would jump in and correct her. Say they weren’t a burden. But, of course, that didn’t happen.
“Be a lot quicker to find a new husband.”
Because she really wanted to hurl the jar of bath salts, Corinne curled her hands around the edge of the tub. “Do you not understand what I came from, Mama? Do you not realize exactly what kind of marriage I had? And you really think I’m in any kind of a hurry to find another man after that?”
“You picked wrong the first time. Figured you’d learned better. No question, Tucker McGee is a better man than Lance.”
“That’s the first thing you’ve said that I agree with.”
“Then what’s the problem? You like him. He seems to like you.” Her expression implied Though God knows why. “Why not better things for yourself?”
Appalled, insulted, Corinne rose to her feet, mustering as much pride as she could manage. “Because I’m no longer in the business of using people to get what I want. Now please step out. I want a bath.”
Marianne sniffed. “You don’t have to get all huffy about it.”
“Just go. Please, go.”
“Fine.”
As soon as her mother was out of the room, Corinne locked the door. Then she sagged against the counter.
God. Was that what people would think of her with Tucker? That she was out to use him? Planning to sink in her claws and drain him like some kind of parasite?
Of course they would. Because she’d done it before. Because no one cared that she wasn’t that girl anymore. No one would let her be someone else. And who would possibly believe a man like Tucker could legitimately be interested in someone like her? Who could blame them? She didn’t understand his interest herself.
The gossip was inevitable. She knew that. She’d come to expect it about her and resigned herself to enduring it. But she wouldn’t repay Tucker’s kindness by painting a target on his back. She simply couldn’t put him through that.
He’d be angry and say it didn’t matter. But what did he know? He’d never been at the center of the shitstorm of public opinion. He didn’t understand what that was like. And even if he stood by her, it wouldn’t last. Couldn’t. No one would willingly subject themselves to that. Not for the likes of her. It would change how he saw her, whatever he thought he felt for her. He would walk away, and she’d lose the only good thing to happen to her since she came back home.
She’d already endured so much. She didn’t think she could go through that. She couldn’t stand to have him look at her like everyone else. As if she were less. As if she’d brought all her misfortunes on herself in some kind of epic karmic smackdown.
There was only one thing to do. She had to walk away before either of them got in any deeper.
Decided, she slipped into the water and sank, feeling the bright light of hope wink out.
Chapter 10
Somehow, somewhere, Tucker had made a serious misstep.