“The lady putsour busy lives to shame. Maybe she should run for mayor,” he joked, but thenquirked a brow at his brother. “Or maybe you should run for mayor.” Tuckwas well-liked enough, and he worked as a firefighter for heaven’s sake, he wasa perfect candidate. Then, maybe Nash was biased. “Can’t say I’m offended bythat. But dear god, Mrs. Rutherford. Remember how she kept tryin’ to set us upwith her nieces in the city? I avoid her all over town these days. I need toget married just so I can have a good cover story.” Neither of them liked todiscuss their father much, but Nash’s coping mechanism was to randomly bring itup, even if ultimately it didn’t help him all that much anyway. He took a deepbreath, slowly releasing it anxiously. “Uh….eleven years?” He couldn’ttell from Tuck’s expression how he felt about it, and in that kind ofsituation, Nash did what he always did – talk entirely too much. “Her name isBabs, she works at the drive-in. At first I was just kinda flirtin’ with her, yaknow like I always do, nothin’ serious, didn’t really think anything of it.Then she started flirtin’ back, way more aggressively, and it just kinda happened.I think I may have caught some feelins along the way. She’s just really clever,so witty, and hilarious – the girl can make me cry from laughin’ so much. She’salso so kind and thoughtful. And we have a lot in common, we can just rambleand goof around and talk about stupid stuff and serious stuff all the same. Imean, yeah, I’m attracted to her but it’s more than that, ya know? I like, likeher. Even just talkin’ to her. There isn’t another girl out there like her. Idon’t think I’ve ever felt that way about anyone and I’m just…did I mention inover my head? Because yeah, I’m in way over my head.” He sighed. Nash could trustTuck with his life and even though he may have spilled the beans to a few otherpeople, he hadn’t been as candid with them as he was with his brother. Plus, hetrusted his advice, and getting all of that off his chest was cathartic for theyounger Gordon.
Tuck shook his head, the beers were already starting to get to his brother’s head and he could tell. Or maybe they were getting to his own head for thinking that he couldn’t run for mayor. Tuck couldn’t picture himself running for anything in their town unless he felt strongly about it. He could picture seeing campaign posters around the place though, but none with his picture on it. There wouldn’t be a poster big enough to fit his head. “Maybe I should run for mayor.” Tuck contemplated it for another few seconds before he forgot about it, laughing at his brother’s reminder. “Don’t even get me started on her nieces, I’m still trying to explain to the woman why I never showed up to dinner at her house the weekend they came down to visit her.” Tuck was grateful that Nash didn’t linger on the topic of their father for too long. There were a lot of things that the man had done for them but there was always a lot of pride that got in the way from both ends of the relationship. To this day it made Tuck upset just thinking about how tough he used to be with the both of them, but he was even more upset that one of the last conversations he had with his father was an argument. “Eleven years...” he murmured to himself, thinking it over. Although there was still plenty of beer left in his bottle, he walked inside towards the kitchen after Nash spilled all the information he had been keeping from him. Babs Schaffer... Nash was dating Babs Schaffer and he was in over his head. He was in over his head and by everything he said it was obvious that Nash was more than just in over his head. If Tuck didn’t know better he would say that Nash was already in love with the girl. Tuck finally headed back towards the balcony with more beers in hand for them, remaining silent as he handed his brother another one despite still having one in his hand. Taking a deep breath, he brought up his beer for a long drink, finally finishing it off before reaching for another. “I don’t know if you realize this but you couldn’t say all of that without a hint of a smile on your face,” he said quietly. “You clearly like this girl, and I know why you’ve been hesitant to bring it all out in the open.” People would talk, but it wouldn’t be something that didn’t blow over after a week or two. “If you like her that much, don’t let anythin’ stop you from bein’ with her Nash. We’ve been through our fair share of shit with relationships. You’ve messed up, and Lord knows I’ve fucked up too. All I can say is pay no mind to people, you do whatever you gotta do to make it last if you really wanna be with Babs. You owe yourself some happiness, brother.”