Chapter 12
Tanner
My plan was shot to hell once I kissed Kenzie good night and went to my room.
It was only eight on a Saturday night and I had two missed calls from my sperm-donor father.
How dare he call me after what he’s done?
I squeezed my phone in my hand, hoping it would someone break.
But I knew I couldn’t do it. My weekly Sunday call with my mom was the next morning.
She’d be working her second job now, her best friend and neighbor checking in with the boys, and it did no good to worry her.
We’d agreed that if he found me or reached out to me, it’d be okay.
I lived thousands of miles away from them and he had no idea what their new last name was.
Seeing his name come up on the screen sent white-hot rage through me. I opened the voicemail and reluctantly hit Play.
‘Hey, TJ, was in the area and thought we could grab a meal together. Been watching your stats, you’ve been playing real well, son.’
I cringed at the use of that word and continued listening.
‘We haven’t caught up in a while and, boy, I tell you, it was a real shocker you didn’t accept the draft. I’m glad you didn’t after I saw how much signing bonuses the others got. You deserve more. Give me a call.’
Fucking money. That was all he wanted. Every time he came back, he conned money out of my mom.
He’d done it when I was six, had come back when I was eight, got my mom pregnant and bolted when he’d learned one of his sons was blind.
Cleaned out my mom’s bank accounts and took off.
He’d been smart enough to always approach me in front of people the last seven times I’d seen him.
The bastard deserved my fist to his face.
My phone rang again, the number I hated, and I picked up without thinking. “Leave me the fuck alone.”
“Nice to talk with you too.”
“We have nothing to talk about and I sure as hell am not meeting up with you. Nothing’s changed since the last time you wanted to talk about money.” I wished he was in the room so I could grip his arms in my hands and break them. “Stop calling me.”
“You’re my son.”
“You left our family three times. I am not your son.”
“Legally, I am.”
Yes, the only retort he had in the argument we had every couple of months. “Sure, Roy, your claim to fame is the fact your stupid-ass name is on my birth certificate. That guarantees you nothing.”
“I just need money for—”
I hung up.
Bastard. Fucking worthless. I chucked my phone across my room, the device hitting the small desk lamp and sending it to the ground with a loud crash. Kenzie dashed into my room, still wearing the Cubs shirt, and brought her hands to her mouth. “Tanner! Are you okay?”
“Yeah, fine,” I barked at her and rifled through my drawers to find a pair of jeans. I stripped down, put them on and found an old shirt that didn’t smell. I needed air. Beer. Something, anything. “I’m heading out.”
“What happened?”
I hated the worry in her voice, as though she had any idea what Roy could do to my insides. An hour ago, I’d been so happy. This part of my life had to roar back and remind me I wouldn’t be happy until I had money. “I’m heading out. Just leave me alone.”
“Oh, you’re heading out? Where are you going?
” She crossed her arms, the little line between her eyebrows begging me to tell her everything.
I wanted to share the burden with someone so fucking badly I tasted it.
But I wouldn’t do that to her. She had enough to worry about with her little list to find her place in college. She deserved better.
With a wave of disgust at myself, I said words that would surely get her to back off. “Just because we had sex doesn’t mean I need to tell you where I’m going.”
She recoiled, but dropped her gaze to the floor then back to my face. “That’s fair. But just because I wrote twenty times doesn’t mean I can’t erase it.”
God, I wanted to smile at her attitude. My lips quirked and the entire charade was almost over—a moment of weakness I wasn’t equipped to deal with.
Sure, self-destruct the best thing that’s happened to me in a while.
Do it, idiot. “We’re not in a relationship, Kenzie.
It’s not great style to pine after a guy after a good fuck. ”
She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, her knowing gaze studying me with a scrutiny that made me nervous. Then she laughed. “It was a great fuck and if you think for one minute that your stupid insults are going to get me to leave you alone, nice try.”
It was an incredible fuck. I picked my phone off the floor and headed to the door to do god-knew-what, but I hadn’t taken two steps out of the room before her body pressed against my back. “What are you—hey!”
She had her arms wrapped around my neck, almost choking me, and her legs crossed around my waist. “Go on about your business. Don’t mind me.”
“Get off me, seriously.” I tried removing her, but my hand kept sliding off her smooth skin. Does she use lotion? What kind? “Kenzie. I’m not joking.”
“I’m not either.”
“Let go.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Nothing happened. Christ.” I walked down the stairs and opened the front door before a thought occurred. “Are you wearing anything underneath your shirt?”
“Nope.”
“Fucking hell, Kenzie. You can’t—get down. I’m going outside and you don’t need to flash everyone your ass.”
“I’ll get down the second you tell me what happened, because I know we aren’t in a relationship, dickhead, but we are in a friendship.
Don’t try and tell me you don’t care, because you do.
You sat with me on the roof when I was feeling sorry for myself and pulled me out of it.
So yeah, insult me, push me away, but don’t forget who I’m related to.
You’ll need to try a different move if you expect me to let it go. ”
“My dad called me.”
“Are you close?”
“No,” I said, letting the overwhelming emotions take over.
“He left us numerous times. He only calls when he wants money.” It was easy to talk when she couldn’t see my face and I couldn’t see hers.
We stood there, her little body pressed against mine, right in front of the big wooden door.
It was an unremarkable thing to look at when I was sharing something that felt remarkable to me. “I hate him.”
She didn’t respond with words. She pressed a kiss right next to my ear and squeezed me harder. It was so sweet it startled me. Then she said, “If I get down, will you give me like, sixty seconds to throw on pants and I’ll come with you?”
“I don’t know where I’m going.”
“That’s okay. I rarely do, either. But you shouldn’t go alone.”
Those words cracked through the ice-like hold I had on my past, and the idea of telling someone else about it, even a little bit, felt freeing. I patted her legs, signaling her to get down. “I’ll wait for you.”
“Forgive me, but I’m not one thousand percent certain you won’t take off. So, up the stairs, cowboy. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
That got a smile out of me and I followed her crazy order. She made me sit on her bed before she got down and moved a rocky desk chair in front of the door. “I’m not going to bolt.”
“You told me I was pining after you. Forgive me for being a little dramatic.” She flipped me off and bent down for something, but all I saw was her bare ass in the air.
It had only been a couple hours and fuck, it was stupid to think a distraction was needed beyond her.
But she slid on red booty shorts—my weakness—and threw on her jeans.
Damn, I liked the view. “Let me find a bra and I’ll be good to go. ”
She removed the large shirt and had no issue letting me stare at her perfect pink nipples I’d had the pleasure of tasting over and over, and looking at her made my mouth water.
They weren’t large tits, not like the huge ones that I got flashed often, but they were the right size for me to cup in each hand.
And the way she moans when I lick them. Yeah, I’d pick that over large ones any day.
It was over too quick and soon enough, she had a Sam Hunt shirt on and gray Chucks. With one final push of those glasses up her nose, she held out her hand. “Let’s go. Lead the way and I’ll follow.”
We walked in silence for fifteen minutes with neither one of us trying to remove our hand from the other, and I couldn’t decide what bothered me more.
The rage that never went away despite the fact that Roy was so close to being removed from our lives, or how Kenzie’s words repeated over and over in my mind, making each breath a little more difficult.
Lead the way and I’ll follow.
We’re in a friendship.
Try harder to push me away.
Sounds of laughter greeted us as we neared one of the busier areas of campus.
Older students typically stayed on campus during the summer and the bars remained busy on weekends.
Techno music blared from one of my favorites from junior year, but the urge to go in and get drunk wasn’t there.
Instead, a coffee truck caught my attention and I pulled her toward it. “Want a drink?”
“I could do a decaf, yeah.”
I bought two small decafs and we continued our walk to nowhere.
We passed Greek Row, the south quad and the campus cemetery before we circled back to the quad.
There were benches surrounding its perimeter, but she didn’t strike me as someone who preferred a bench.
“Want to lie in the center of the quad?”
“Uh, hell yeah.” She laughed and sped up until we reached the circle of grass dead center of the campus. “Look at the moon, damn. It’s bright.”
It was. It provided the right amount of light so I could see Kenzie’s smile. We plopped down, her going to her usual crisscrossed position, and she sighed. It was a cute sound and I set my coffee down before putting my arm around her in a hug. “Thank you.”
She gnawed on her lip, giving me an unsure glance. “For?”