Chapter 2
Chapter Two
As soon as the call with Faith ended, Sylvie whirled on Tanner. “You need to look out for her tonight.”
“Obviously. That’s what a wingman does.”
As Sylvie should know, since they’d been friends for years now, and Tanner had been a solid wingman to her, too.
“No, seriously. Faith is… She’s trying to move on from her shitty ex-husband. From what she’s hinted, her marriage was nowhere near healthy. She won’t even tell me all the details, which is a clue in itself, don’t you think?”
“Yeah. Sounds rough.” The idea of some asshole hurting Faith made his stomach twist.
Tanner knew that Sylvie and Faith hailed from the same tiny town in Central Texas. But while Sylvie had left over a decade ago, Faith had only moved away recently. The few times he’d hung out with her, she’d seemed sweet and open. She had a bubbly laugh that could work its way under your skin.
“It’s a big deal for her to be going out at all,” Sylvie said. “I’m trying really hard to be supportive.”
Tanner hooked an arm around Sylvie’s shoulders. “Aww, you’re like a protective mama bear.”
“Who’s bailing on her friend. I suck.”
“No, you’re busy. Speaking of—Max is looking impatient.” He pointed up at their boss’s glass-walled office, where the man himself was pacing. “You’d better head up there. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Faith.”
She gave him a quick hug. “Thank you. I know you will.” Sylvie raced upstairs. Tanner watched her go, hands in his pockets, then headed for the elevators.
Faith had given him the address of a restaurant on Ocean Lane, the main beachfront strip in West Oaks. He had a couple hours till he had to be there, which meant plenty of time for a workout.
Since it was Friday afternoon, the Bennett Security gym was deserted. The rest of the bodyguards had already bounced, which was just the way he liked it. He loved his co-workers, but the guys could get rowdy at times. Tanner needed the peace and quiet.
He changed into workout clothes in the locker room, then set his phone and towel on a bench.
As he loaded the squat bar with his warm-up weight, Leon Kozinski walked in.
His least favorite teammate. Just great.
Kozinski strolled over to the dumbbells. “Jeez, Tanner, don’t you ever leave this place?”
“Nope. This is my natural habitat.”
Kozinski’s brow wrinkled, like he was working hard to puzzle out what that meant. Then he caught sight of himself in the mirror and got distracted.
The guy had done a stint in the army and had a black belt in something-or-other. But he was annoying as hell, and Tanner still couldn’t believe their boss Max had hired him.
They’d been short-staffed lately. Maybe decent bodyguards were hard to come by at the moment.
“What I don’t understand is why you’re still here.” Tanner lined up his shoulders beneath the barbell and stood to unrack it.
Kozinski grabbed a couple of twenty-five-pound weights. “Just getting a pump before going out.”
“Of course you are.”
For Tanner, it had been a while since he’d had plans for a Friday night.
Lately, most things beyond his basic routine were just…
too much. He’d been trying to keep his stress levels down.
But he also didn’t like to think he’d been hiding out or choosing the easy path.
Avoiding discomfort had never been his style.
Faith was getting herself back out there, not letting her past keep her down. Tanner admired her for it.
If she could do it, why not him?
Besides, helping out Faith wouldn’t be a tall order. All he’d have to do was sit at a bar by himself, right? Not so bad. It would probably be noisy and crowded, which made his chest tighten up. But worst case, if the bar scene got to be too intense, he could sit outside on the curb.
No worries.
His mantra these days.
Six punishing sets of squats later, he unloaded the plates and put away the equipment he’d been using. Then he picked up Kozinski’s dumbbells, too, which the guy had left strewn across the floor.
Some assholes didn’t know how to clean up after themselves.
As he got ready in the locker room, he couldn’t stop picturing Faith in that strappy short dress. He could already imagine her long, tanned legs…
Which he really shouldn’t do. He was supposed to be her wingman for a date with some other dude.
Still, the thought of her in that dress made him want to look decent, too. His usual shorts and graphic tee combo seemed insufficient.
Hair still damp from the shower, Tanner dug into his locker until he found a pair of jeans. He had a black T-shirt in here, too, folded up and clean. He pulled it on.
The locker room door opened, and footsteps echoed on the tile. “Damn, actual pants?” Noah Vandermeer clapped a hand on his shoulder. “That’s like formal wear for you. You got a date tonight?”
“Just with your mom.” Tanner slid his flip-flops on. He could only compromise on his wardrobe so much.
Noah flipped him off. Practically a gesture of love.
Like Tanner, Noah was a retired SEAL. They went way back to when they were tadpoles. He and Noah had been swim buddies during BUD/S and tight ever since. Much more than friends. Brothers.
“Haven’t seen you all week,” Noah said. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Just that we missed you last weekend. The kids were all asking for you. You gonna be there next time?”
He and Noah volunteered with teens who were interested in the military on the weekends. “Planning on it. Wasn’t feeling well before.”
“Since when do you get sick?”
Since that shitstorm a few months back, Tanner thought. The concussion that had knocked him on his ass in so many ways.
But he’d beaten this kind of crap after he’d first left the SEALs. He would beat it again. The last thing he wanted was his friends wasting their energy worrying about him.
“Just a stomach thing.”
Noah studied him like he could tell that wasn’t the whole story. “If you ever want to talk, you know where to find me.”
“You want more of my sparkling personality?”
“Always.” Noah leaned against the next locker. “So, Max wanted me to ask you about that other captain spot that opened up. You given it any thought?”
“You know that’s not my thing.”
Noah was a Bennett Security bodyguard too, but he’d been promoted not long ago. Being a captain meant Noah had supervisory responsibilities, plus all the administrative nonsense that went along with the higher pay. He was welcome to it. Tanner had no interest.
“But you’re one of the most senior guys here. Don’t you want to stand up there next to me? Boss the idiots around?”
“Like Kozinski? No, thanks. I get enough of him as it is.”
Tanner just wanted to train, do his job, then wake up and do it again. That was all he asked out of life—to be useful, serve a cause greater than himself, and wear a smile as he did it.
“Don’t let a tool like him affect your decision,” Noah said. “Besides, aren’t you the guy who’s all about welcoming challenges?”
“I’m just not feeling it. Okay?” He struggled to keep the testiness out of his voice. Tanner’s armpits were starting to sweat, and his lungs were clenching, refusing to fill all the way. Why did this room feel smaller than it had before?
“Whatever,” Noah said. “Fine. We’ll see what Max has to say about it. Pretty sure he’s got his mind set on you.”
Then Max will be disappointed, Tanner thought.
Noah’s head tilted. “You didn’t say if you had a date or not.”
“It’s a favor to Sylvie, that’s all. Faith is meeting up with some guy. I’m going to hang around nearby in case she needs an out.”
“Oh, it’s Faith?” Noah’s eyebrows hitched in a way that Tanner didn’t love. “I remember when she came by the office. Huh. She’s something.”
“Yep,” Tanner ground out.
“I didn’t know she was dating again after the whole divorce situation.”
“Apparently so.”
“If this thing tonight doesn’t go anywhere, you think Sylvie would mind if I ask her out?”
Tanner threw his stuff into his locker a little harder than he’d intended. “How the hell should I know?” he growled.
Noah’s head turned sharply toward him. “Somebody’s in a mood.”
He didn’t even know why he was annoyed. Not like he had any right to care who Faith went out with. He barely knew the woman. And as far as guys went, Noah was one of his best friends and as stand-up as they came.
Maybe he was just getting sick of all the questions. Noah didn’t know when to let up sometimes.
“I must be getting hangry. I’d better grab some food before wingman duty. See you later.”
He grabbed his wallet, slammed the locker shut, and turned tail. He wasn’t proud of it. But sometimes there was no way out but to retreat.
Tanner’s flip-flops slapped against his soles.
He’d walked several miles along Ocean Lane to get to the restaurant.
He had a car but preferred to drive it as little as possible.
Walking cleared his head, helped him focus on the present moment.
Just taking in his surroundings, keeping up a steady rhythm. It soothed him.
The sun hovered low over the horizon. Lights, music, and voices spilled from restaurants as he passed.
Tanner double-checked the message Faith had sent. She was meeting her date at a sushi place. It had an Irish-themed pub next door, and he’d planned to take up space at the bar and sip a Guinness. Faith was supposed to text him if she needed anything.
But when he reached the pub, he found himself frozen on the sidewalk, looking through the windows.
The place was packed. People were practically on top of each other, shouting and laughing as they watched a soccer game on the televisions. Shoulders pressed against shoulders, noise deafening even from outside.
Too much input. His mind was already buzzing from it. Sweat prickled all over his skin. Tanner’s vision started to blacken at the edges.
Somebody bumped into him as they pushed past. “Excuse me,” the guy said irritably, then looked up at him, eyes widening. “Uh, sorry.”
“No worries.” He knew he was in the way. He also knew nobody would call him on it unless they were slightly closer to his size. It was a privilege of usually being the largest person in the vicinity.
He waited a moment, hoping the panic would subside, but apparently his brain wasn’t going to cooperate. In fact, his breathing grew shallower, his throat seeming to swell.
Shit. This wasn’t a convenient time to start with that nonsense. But he didn’t want to be sitting on the curb like some lost kid when Faith walked by. He had to at least try sitting inside.
Tanner took a few steps down the sidewalk, checking out the view inside the sushi restaurant. Way less crowded, and it had a bar with an open seat on one end. Far more doable.
Faith wouldn’t mind, right? Not like he was going to introduce himself to her date. He’d just sit and wait like he would’ve next door.
He opened the door for a couple exiting, then went in. At the bar, he ordered a Sapporo and squeezed onto the stool.
He could feel the exits around him like pulsing warning signs. Front door, plus the swinging kitchen door at the back, which would lead to an alley. A hallway with the bathrooms. None directly behind him, though. He angled his body to improve his peripheral vision.
Everything’s fine, he repeated to himself. No worries.
“Need a food menu?” the bartender asked while making a cocktail in a shaker. Her eyes flicked over him, and she smiled.
“Nah. I’m good. Just the beer.” His stomach was too knotted up to eat, though he probably should.
Tanner drummed his fingers on the stone counter as he waited, taking deep breaths and counting. In, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four.
The bartender returned with the Sapporo bottle and popped the cap. “Nice ink.” She nodded at his arms. “You here alone?”
“Sort of.”
“That’s mysterious.” Someone down the bar tried to get her attention, but she remained focused on Tanner as he sipped his beer. “If you think of anything you need, let me know.”
He smiled back. She was friendly. Or was she flirting?
Sylvie liked to tease him for being clueless about women. He didn’t think that was true, but his exes had said similar things. You don’t know how to flirt, they claimed. You talk to women the same way you talk to guys.
He didn’t see how that was a problem. Somehow, he’d ended up with plenty of girlfriends, so he couldn’t be doing everything wrong.
Tanner was still friends with almost all his exes. They had a weird tendency to get engaged to the very next guy after him. Or girl, for the ex who’d fallen in love with a woman. He got a lot of invites to weddings.
At an engagement party a couple months back, he’d overheard his ex talking about him to her maid of honor.
You know that sorbet some fancy restaurants serve between courses?
That’s Tanner. He’s the perfect palate cleanser before the main course—when you’re ready to cut the shit with all the juvenile guys, but you haven’t found ‘the one’ yet.
He wasn’t sure if it was good or bad. Was he cool and refreshing? Or…did he have no flavor at all?
Either way, he wasn’t the type anyone wanted to settle down with. Which was okay with him. He wasn’t avoiding commitment, necessarily. More like commitment was avoiding him.
He was glad to be single at the moment. For the last six months, he’d been too focused on keeping his head together to have extra energy for dating.
The front door to the restaurant swung open, and Faith appeared.
She was wearing the strappy dress, and damn—she looked even better in it than he’d imagined, even with the little cardigan she’d thrown over it.
Faith’s legs were slender and toned. Her long, cornsilk-blond hair hung over her shoulders.
His dick perked up, showing interest, but Tanner told his body to behave itself.
Perving on Faith was against the wingman code.
Her date walked in behind her, resting a hand on the small of her back. What had she said his name was? Luke?
Luke was a lucky guy.
Tanner turned to face the bar so she wouldn’t notice him staring.
The bartender smiled over at him again, and he returned it. His lungs were breathing easier, relaxing. Almost felt like his old self.
A small win, but he would take it.