Bury the Hatchet

Chapter Twenty-One - Bury the Hatchet

TALLIE

Dana's little boy, Ryan, was squirming around in my arms. He kept trying to contort his body so he could put a Thunderbirds sticker on my cheek—never mind the fact that he'd already put six others on me in various places by then—when Hunter came up to the wives' room to collect me after the game.

Dana was a tall, athletic blonde, a little bit on the tomboy side of things, but absolutely gorgeous and as sweet as could be, if slightly shy. She was also the mother of two toddlers, who kept her on her toes. Ryan, in particular, being all of fifteen months old, had a rambunctious streak a mile wide, not to mention some seriously sticky fingers. I wasn't sure what he'd been into, but it was now all over me, too.

When Hunter looked down at me, he seemed as dour as I'd ever seen him. That was probably to be expected after the team had been thoroughly trounced, twelve to one, in the game. Dana had reassured me when we returned to the wives' room to wait for our husbands that tonight's game wouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but I doubted Hunter's ego would agree with that assessment.

Dana glanced at Hunter when he reached us, stretching out her arms for the squirming toddler. "Come on, buddy. Back to Mommy. Looks like Hunter and Tallie are ready to go."

Ryan apparently didn't want to give up yet. He grabbed on to my upper arm, digging in his fingers over my fresh bruises.

I bit down on my tongue to keep from crying out in pain. Dana's eyes shot up to mine, worried. Apparently, I didn't do such a good job of keeping my face a mask. She tugged him over to her lap.

"Sorry," she said, glancing between me and Hunter and back. "He's got quite a grip. Taking after his daddy."

"It's all right, really. He's just a little boy." And Ryan hadn't been trying to hurt me. Not like Lance.

"You ready?" Hunter asked me. He held out a hand. I took it and got to my feet, fighting back a grimace at the pain in my upper arms. He didn't say anything, and his face betrayed nothing, but his barely contained anger was seething just beneath the surface, crackling between us where we touched.

I nodded, gathering up my purse and phone, but Dana practically leapt to her feet before we could go.

"I forgot. There's one more thing I need to talk to you about before you go." She gave Hunter an apologetic look. "Do you mind?" Without waiting for him to respond, she plopped Ryan over into Hunter's arms and guided me away with a gentle but insistent hand on my elbow. She didn't stop until we were together in a quiet corner of the room. Her legs were long, and I had worn heels—a habit that was hard to break, particularly since there might be an opportunity for Hunter and I to perform for the cameras while we were out—so I'd had to hurry to keep up with her.

"What's up?" I asked, trying to come off nonchalant even though I was almost positive I'd interpreted her behavior correctly. She thought Hunter was hurting me. There wasn't a better explanation for her reaction.

She and I had already made plans, along with a few of the other Thunderbirds' wives and girlfriends, to get together later in the week for lunch and an afternoon of girl time and charity event planning. Dana had spearheaded it all, but I'd agreed to be her backup in everything since I'd been involved in so many other charitable endeavors through the pageants I'd been part of over the years. It looked like she was going to need my assistance to get all of these women on the same page, too. I'd rarely seen such a catty group, and that was saying something considering I'd spent all of my twenty-one years as part of the pageant world.

Regardless of all that, I'd already given Dana my phone number, and we were planning to see each other again in a few days. I didn't understand what the problem was or why she couldn't talk about it in front of Hunter unless she believed he was the one behind the pain in my biceps.