4. Chapter Four - Tanner
Tanner
"What the fuck?" I hiss at my brothers once my heart rate has calmed down again. They’ve been watching the most awkward moment of my life from a fair distance, and now I know why Reed was grinning when I shot my shot with the girl that caught my eye as soon as I stepped into this lobby. She looked exhausted and tired, yet I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
If I did, I might have realized who she is. "Why the fuck wouldn't you tell me that's Luca's sister?"
"Well, because we figured your face when you'd find out would be hilarious," Reed points out before he bursts into his next giggle fit. "And I was so right. So, what did she say?"
“Oh, she definitely shot him down,” Jackson adds. Surprisingly, he’d met us at the airport already and there has yet to break a fight out between him and Adam. So far, I might actually believe that the two of them made up. Who would have thought?
"You must be desperate." Adam shoots Reed a warning glare, but I only shake my head at all of them.
They don’t need to know that, indeed, it's been a while. And now that I have free time instead of being busy at work, I’m fucking feeling it.
For the past year, I've thrown myself into work, and finding women, much less a relationship, was so far off my mind, I barely even thought about it.
Because one sunny summer day that I went into a stuffy voice studio, a wave of dread rushed over me and it just… stayed. There was something about the thick, soundproof walls and non-air-conditioned recording booths that made dread sink into my skin and breathing a challenge.
Once I got home, the first thing I did was see what else I could do. Something that would allow me more freedom, to spend days outside if I wished and wouldn’t confine me as much.
And audiobooks appeared on my computer screen like a revelation. Hell yes.
Voice acting movie characters comes with a strict schedule from the production company so they can keep their own schedule on track. You're in a studio with God knows how many people who throw their opinion at you, all of them wanting different things, which leads to having to redo your takes what feels like a thousand times.
But being independent as an audiobook voice actor?
I prepare the books, record them, and send them off to an editor, who'll give me some pointers on what to do again. Does it also require several takes until I’m happy? Hell yes. But nobody gives a fuck if I do them at three in the morning instead of noon.
So I get to enjoy sunny days and still work a damned great job. This whole process has been so much better for my mental health, but it's come with a certain level of loneliness.
When I first started, I met my buddy Ian online. He showed me the ropes and honestly, I couldn’t have done it if not for him taking me under his wing and introducing me to his team. So far, he’s the only friend I’ve made in the industry, though. I’ve made acquaintances, sure, but when I want to rant or talk to anyone who’s not my family, he’s the one I call.
But it’s not like my friendships before. There’s no going drinking after a successful day at work or finishing a project, since he lives several states away. No spontaneous trips to a club to let loose. I don’t miss it too much, but sometimes… yeah, sometimes I do.
“Nope, I’m good,” I assure Reed. “Not desperate at all, but if I saw correctly on the plane, you were very interested in checking out the Red-Light District.”
He turns beet red and raises his middle finger at me. I caught him typing ‘Do brothels accept credit card’ into his phone and even though I’d only shot him an amused look, I intend to tease him about it a lot.
“No idea what you’re talking about.”
“Your search history tells differently.”
“Okay, okay,” Jackson says placatingly and steps between the two of us. “We’re entering the territory of ‘I don’t want to know.’”
“How about we check out our rooms?” Adam interjects. “Come on. Unpack your shit and we’ll meet back here for dinner.”
“Alright,” Reed and I grumble and follow our older brothers to the elevators. Not without some playful punches and kicking each others’ suitcases though.
"So, what exactly is even the plan?" I ask as we're sitting at one of the tables. God, it’s weird to sit here with all four of us, in real life instead of a screen. Almost feels like before Jackson went off to college, only our sister Zoey is missing to make this round complete. "Was your plan just to hang out, do some catching up and smoke together?"
"Why does there always have to be a plan?" Reed asks with a chuckle, shaking his head. “Were you expecting a whole-ass schedule?”
"Because some people in this round"—my pointed gaze goes to Jackson—"are not that great with surprises. So I figured one of you would've come up with at least some kind of itinerary."
Reed’s gaze also jumps to Jackson. As we grew up, he struggled with any kind of changes to his routine. Be it a surprise party for his birthday or one of us staying out longer—or even shorter—than anticipated, it would irritate him, even if he did his best to hide it.
Past Jackson would have hated this vacation since it got him away from his routine, but he doesn’t seem that bothered by it. Thank God, maybe he finally got some more therapy for that. Maybe that’s how he and Adam get along so well again.
"Well, it might surprise you, but we didn't," Jackson says, reaching for his glass, the corners of his mouth twitching into a smile at my shocked expression. “We’ll play it by ear.”
“Oh wow.” I reach for my glass and take a sip of water. “England seems to be working out great for you, man.”
“Can’t really deny that.” He grins and looks down. He moved there for his latest movie, but from what I’ve heard, they finished filming a while ago. Plus, there are the glances he always casts behind his computer screen when we’re playing, or the times we heard him whispering, just as we entered the call.
Oh, he’s totally got a girlfriend waiting for him there. I wonder when we’ll get to meet her.
"Hello, Earth to Adam." Reed waves his hand in front of Adam's face, but he fails to get his attention. His eyes are firmly on his girlfriend Lily, who is sitting at a table with Luca, Millie and their families at the other side of the room. They seem to be having a lot of fun, judging by the amount of laughter and giggling we hear all the way over here.
"What? Sorry." Adam finally shakes his head and looks at us, a hint of red on his cheeks.
"Oh, look at him, he's blushing," I tease him. And even though he's shooting me a glare, I know he knows I’m only teasing him out of love. We all know by now that Lily is the best thing that could have happened for him.
"Really, it's about time that you found someone,” Reed adds, making him the receiving end of Adam’s glare. “Don't look at me like that—I'm happy for you. We all are," he adds with an eye roll, smiling gratefully when the waitress finally comes over with our food.
"Thank God, I'm starving,” I say once she’s gone again after setting our plates down. “So, really? No plan? None at all?"
"Nope. None at all. It didn't seem too fair for me to order you here and then plan out the whole thing without your input."
"Seriously?" Reed gasps, clutching his heart dramatically. "You're not going to boss us around? That's a first."
My eyes jump over to Jackson. Usually, he'd be the one making a snarky comment, never missing an opportunity to argue with Adam, but he's smiling. God, the fact that they’re not at each other's throat yet is so unnerving.
"Okay, guys, this is getting really fucking creepy. What's going on? Who of you got replaced by a shapeshifter?" I ask, popping a fry into my mouth.
"I told you we made up," Adam points out, waving his fork holding a piece of steak through the air.
"Well, I didn't believe you,” I admit, and he rolls his eyes at me. “And by the way, I’m still curious about that whole story. You seriously made up? Just like that?"
"'Just like that' would be a bit of an overstatement," Jackson chimes in with a soft head shake. "We had a fight. Then we had another fight. Then we had a big fight. And then we actually talked to each other and made up."
"Yup, turns out I'm an idiot. Jackson's an idiot. We've talked it out," Adam adds, and my eyes jump between the two of them.
"I'm calling bullshit." I shake my head, disbelief coating my voice. "The two of you are way too stubborn for that to work."
Or maybe I just don't want to get my hopes up. We hold weekly gaming nights, but Adam has missed them for a while now. So when did all of this happen?
"I'm with Tanner here. I’ll believe it when I see it longer than one evening," Reed says, crossing his arms in front of his chest and sinking into his chair.
"Well, we'll prove it." Adam shrugs. Reed and I shoot each other a look.
As we grew up, the two of them would always be fighting. Now that I'm grown myself, I really don't blame them for their complicated feelings about each other.
When our parents died, they were the ones who had to step up. Adam immediately took our dad’s place in his company, going straight from university to leading a growing talent management company, while Jackson took over us siblings. While Adam was leading Crony, his company, Jackson drove us to school and our respective extracurriculars. He was the one to comfort us when we were hurt, the one who celebrated our successes, all while putting his life on the back burner.
Both of them pulled the short end of the stick. Looking back, all of us know we’re incredibly lucky they took on that responsibility.
Yet it is obvious that both of them resent a great deal of what life handed to them, even though they made the best of it.
So I'd love it if the two of them had made up. I truly would. But I've known them to be at each others’ throat for the past fifteen-ish years of my life, so yeah, I'm not buying that they have become a happy family overnight.
"Just be happy," Reed whispers, and I glance at him. “Enjoy it while it lasts and hope for the best."
"Like we have a choice," I hiss right back and finally dig into my burger. "I’m just hoping they don’t kill each other when it goes sideways.”
"Same," Reed answers and pops a fry into his mouth. Adam’s eyes jump to us, and we quickly shut up and eat.
"Are you sure you don't want to come along?" Adam asks, shooting me a worried glance when we leave the hotel restaurant after dinner. We’d spend the evening joking and I found myself hoping. Hoping that this would last, that the two of them actually buried their hatchet.
"I'm sure," I tell him with a thankful nod and smile. "I’ll try to catch some early sleep and prevent jet lag, you know?" I hide a yawn behind my hand. The nap on the plane wasn’t enough to keep me going and I can’t wait to shower and sleep the flight off.
"Well, I don’t know," Jackson laughs, and I roll my eyes at him.
“We can’t all live in this time zone,” I quip back, and Reed shudders.
“All of us in the same time zone? No way!”
The three of them burst into laughter and leave the hotel to find a drink somewhere, joking about us all living too close together and who would kill who first.
But if there's one thing I don't need today, it's alcohol. Exhaustion makes my bones feel heavy, like the ground is tugging at my limbs. Now that the three are out of sight, my whole posture slumps as I make my way to the elevator.
God, I feel like I haven't slept in three days. Which is close enough to reality, I guess, considering I only got a three-hour nap on the plane before we flew into some turbulence, and I couldn’t go back to sleep.
"Well, well, if it isn't Mr. Didgeridoo," I suddenly hear a melodic voice behind me and turn around with a grin on my face.
"What in the ever-loving fuck is a didgeridoo?" I ask amusedly as Summer comes to a stop right next to me to wait for the elevator as well.
"It's an instrument by Australian Aborigines," she explains with a cute giggle. "You know, the kind of instrument that's a pretty long pipe and can go very deep. Kind of like an alphorn, but that just doesn’t have the same ring to it, don’t you think?"
"Now I'd only have to know what an alphorn is," I say, and she glances up at me through her long eyelashes, surprised. Damn, her eyes are really pretty.
"Tell me you've never watched Heidi without telling me you've never watched Heidi ," she mutters and shakes her head disapprovingly.
"No, I can't say I have," I admit with a chuckle and let her enter the elevator first, glancing around for the others, but she seems to be alone.
"Sorry about earlier. I didn't know you're Luca's sister."
She glances up at me, scrunching her eyebrows together, confused. "What does my brother have to do with you trying to chat me up?"
"Well, you know…” I mutter, avoiding her gaze. “Bro code and all that."
She rolls her eyes at me, then shifts her weight, like she's nervous, as she presses the button for her level. She leans her back against the opposite side of the elevator, looking at me with a narrow, stern stare.
"I don't bite, you know," I point out, but she shakes her head and crosses her arms in front of her chest.
"Bro code? Listen, I'm not some object and my brother has no say in who I talk to, much less who I sleep with. So you can put your bro code where the sun doesn't shine. I make my own decisions."
She looks me up and down, disdain seeping from her every pore. Definitely not one of my proudest conversations here.
"Okay?" I clear my throat and gulp. She’s fiery. Not at all what you’d expect, knowing the cinnamon roll that her brother is, always a sweet smile on his lips, soft-spoken and happy, like a damned golden retriever. No, she’s more like a feral cat. Come to close and she’ll scratch you.
"Well, this is me," she says, shooting me a tight grin before she scurries out of the elevator. “Good night, Tanner. Hope you find your way to the twenty-first century overnight.” As she scurries off, she mutters about misogyny and how many sheep she might be worth and it takes every ounce of strength in me to not break into laughter.
"Sleep well, Summer," I shout after her, and she waves at me over her shoulder, just before the elevator doors close.
Wait. Does that mean she wants me to chat her up again? Or the opposite?
I’ll deal with that once my brain has rested a bit and I can think straight. I lean my back against the cool elevator wall, halting when it doesn’t move.
Oh. Maybe it would have helped to press the button to my floor. God, it’s time I catch some sleep.