Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Tanner saw the lights of the restaurant ahead. The sun had set, and waves were crashing into the rocks far below the path. He was on the south side of West Oaks, a five mile walk from Bennett Security’s headquarters.
His pace slowed, but not because he was tired.
If anything, he wanted to just keep on walking, all the way down along the coast with no destination.
He’d been dreading tonight since Noah had ambushed him yesterday with this stupid idea, and now that it was here, he didn’t know how he’d get through it.
Embrace the fear, he repeated in his head.
But fuck that. He was tired of his heart racing, of not sleeping. The buzz in his head had only been getting worse. Days at work were okay, but nights at home were near unbearable.
Almost a week had passed since Faith had slept over. He’d boomeranged between wanting her so much his entire being ached for her and torturing himself over the guilt. Not healthy, yet he couldn’t stop doing it.
Tanner kept putting one foot in front of the other, right up to the parking lot of the seafood place. Through the bank of windows, he could tell it was rowdy. Large groups of people were already crowded around the communal tables, laughing and shouting.
Damn it. He’d known this place would be busy but hearing the noise and seeing all those people stoked his panic even more than he’d been expecting. His heart drummed in his rib cage.
It was bad enough he’d have to see Faith with Noah, but to have all this chaos around him?
No. He couldn’t do it. He had to bail.
“Tanner!” Myra jogged toward him across the parking lot.
And now he was stuck.
Then he felt ashamed of himself for even thinking about ghosting this poor girl. She was supposed to be his date, and he owed her his best effort.
He forced a smile onto his face. “Hey, how’s it going?”
“Better now. Thank jeez I’m out of the office. Dr. Petrie was flipping out today because somebody—I’m not naming names—forgot to restock the nitrile gloves.” She shrugged. “Okay, it was me. But whatever. It’s not a war crime.” Then she glanced at him again and gasped.
“Holy crud, your hair. What happened to it?”
He rubbed a hand through his shorn locks. “Felt like trying something new.”
“Dang, boy. New is good. You’ve upped your hotness quotient by like, a thousand.”
He probably looked like some animal caught in headlights before it was turned into roadkill. Myra burst out laughing. “Okay, I need to say this. Nobody technically asked you if you wanted to be my date before we planned it, which my therapist tells me was rude. Apparently, I have boundary issues.”
“You have a therapist? Are they any good?” In case he wanted to see one again. Maybe.
“Yeah, she’s a buzzkill, but she’s also right a lot of the time. So, you’re off the hook tonight.”
“I am?”
“Yep. Let’s just consider this a friends thing.”
Tanner exhaled, and his shoulder muscles unwound a few notches. His adrenaline was still up, but at least this was one fewer thing to worry about.
Myra rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to look that relieved.”
“Sorry. The truth is, I’m hung up on someone else, and that’s not your fault. I wouldn’t want to give you the wrong idea.”
“That sounds juicy. Do tell.”
Thankfully, Noah’s Maserati SUV rolled into the parking lot right at that moment. While Tanner and Myra had agreed via text to meet at the restaurant, Noah had said he was picking up Faith from her house.
“Whoa, sweet ride,” Myra said.
“Noah comes from money. Grew up in the fancy part of West Oaks.” Tanner realized how dismissive and judgmental that had sounded. “He doesn’t act like it, though. When we served together, I had no idea until he invited me to spend a few days’ leave on his family’s private island.”
“For real?”
“Don’t mention I told you that. He gets self-conscious.”
“Yet he’s driving that car around?”
“I didn’t say it made sense.”
She mimed locking up her mouth.
The passenger door opened, and one long, tanned leg appeared, then the other. Faith’s blond hair was braided down her back. She’d worn a pale blue dress ending just above her knees.
He thought about her lying in his bed, that hair splayed on the pillow, nipples jutting through her shirt…
Stop. That’s your friend’s girl. Or at least, she probably will be.
Myra nudged his side with her elbow. “Hung up on someone, huh?”
“Boundaries,” he muttered.
He still didn’t want to be here. But that didn’t matter, did it? The operation was underway. It was full speed ahead until he was out the other side.
In the restaurant, the hostess was busy with another party, so they waited. Faith and Myra stood a few feet behind, chatting.
Noah clapped a hand on Tanner’s shoulder. “You know, I haven’t had a chance to ask about your extreme makeover.”
“My haircut? I thought that was old news. I did it days ago.”
“But I haven’t given you any shit for it yet. Some kind of TikTok challenge?”
“Nope. Just felt like it. Don’t know why.”
“It’s one of those mysteries of the universe?”
“Like how you manage to get any action wearing the same clothes as my dad.”
Noah popped his collar. “Faith hasn’t complained yet about my polo shirts.”
“Matter of time.” Tanner smiled, gnashing his teeth together.
The hostess reappeared and led them to a table right in the middle of the interior. Tanner was already starting to sweat. There was a sea of people around him, noise, distractions. His chest was seizing up.
He pulled on his T-shirt to get some air. “Are there any tables outside on the patio?”
“Not for another hour.”
Shit.
Skin crawling, he slid into a chair beside Myra and across from Noah. The hostess handed out menus. The server arrived, and they ordered a round of beers, along with some fried appetizer things. They chatted until the drinks arrived.
Noah held up his beer. “A toast to old friends and new beginnings,” he shouted over the noise. They clinked bottlenecks together.
The table behind them exploded into raucous laughter, and Tanner flinched.
Noah leaned toward him. “Something wrong?”
He sipped his beer, shaking his head.
I’m calm, he told himself. I can manage this. No worries.
Myra set her beer bottle on the table with a thunk. “Okay, I just realized something. Is Noah the only person at the table who doesn’t know Faith corrupted an eighteen-year-old?”
Faith groaned, covering her face with her hands. “Please, don’t.”
“Boundaries, Myra,” Tanner warned. “Didn’t we talk about this?”
But Noah was looking at them expectantly. “You can’t say something like that and not explain.”
Tanner held up a hand. “Either Faith tells it, or we change the subject.”
She blew a strand of hair from her forehead. “Fine, I’ll tell Noah. But he’ll probably lose all respect for me.”
She started the story reluctantly, then grew more animated as she went on. Myra and Noah were both rapt. Tanner loved seeing Faith like this, confident enough in herself to let both her humor and sweetness shine through.
And when he focused only on her, the rest of the noise fell away for a little while.
“The kid actually ordered a beer?” Noah asked.
“And commented on how ‘experienced’ I must be, since I’d been married.”
“Wait, he what?” Tanner hadn’t heard that part before.
“And then Tanner fixed everything by taking me to the boardwalk and for a walk on the beach.” Faith tipped her beer back. “We even went on a nighttime swim, and I nearly froze my butt off.”
Noah eyed him. “Why haven’t I heard about this?”
His discomfort reared back to life. “I was just doing what any good wingman would’ve done.”
“I don’t think so,” Myra said, poking his arm. “Sounds to me like you went above and beyond.”
Noah grinned. “But that’s Tanner. Like when we got paired up as swim buddies when we were qualifying as SEALs. He and I were miles off Coronado Island doing a timed swim, and I was about ready to succumb to hypothermia…”
Noah told a well-worn story about Tanner supposedly dragging him back to shore, though Tanner remembered the whole thing differently.
The anecdote felt patronizing. Like Noah was patting him on the head.
Good boy, Tanner. Good for you. Saved your buddy’s precious life so Noah could someday make captain and get the girl and the happily ever after.
And there went the rest of his decent mood.
After that, Faith and Myra launched into stories about their months working for Dr. Petrie.
But somewhere along the way, the noise in the room turned into a constant roar in Tanner’s ears. Every time someone passed too close to their table, he felt the tension in his body winding tighter.
He tried not to notice Noah’s arm draped over Faith’s chair. The brightness of her smile and the shine of her hair. Faith seemed to pull at his vision, like all the light in the room began and ended with her.
Then a guy in a baseball cap stood up from the table next to them, holding an ice-filled drink aloft. His friend pushed him. Baseball cap stumbled back.
Tanner saw it all unfolding like it was slow motion.
Baseball cap knocked against Faith’s chair, an elbow slamming into her head. His icy drink spilled into her lap.
Tanner was out of his chair before he’d even realized it. He shoved the baseball cap guy away from her. The guy fell against his own table, disrupting half the drinks and sending people scattering.
Tanner grabbed the guy’s shirt and yanked him back up. Baseball cap’s friends shouted in protest.
“Apologize,” Tanner growled.
Noah appeared at his shoulder. “That’s enough, man. Stop.”
Baseball cap scowled at them both. But people couldn’t just go around being reckless, with no regard for the harm they caused. Didn’t they know how dangerous it was? How any second the world could tip on its side and go straight to hell?
“You hurt her. Don’t you care?”
“Jeez, okay. I’m sorry.”
Tanner let him go.
The guy readjusted his cap. “Fucking psychopath.”
Loud music still played, but many of the voices in the restaurant had gone silent. Tanner felt like he was coming out of a fog.
He looked over at Faith and Myra. They were wiping off Faith’s dress with a napkin.
Noah smiled at the other group. “It was just an accident, right? Everyone’s sorry.
Another round of drinks on us. Okay?” He pulled Tanner back to their table, while the baseball cap guy and his friends returned to theirs, muttering to each other.
But it seemed like Noah’s peace offering had smoothed things over.
Tanner sat roughly in his chair. His heart was racing so fast he thought it would explode.
“Are you all right?” he asked Faith hoarsely.
She stared back at him with shock in her eyes. “I’m fine. What about you?”
No. No, I’m not.
Myra tugged at Tanner’s shirt. “Dude, you need to chill. That was exciting, but you have to pace yourself. I don’t want to get thrown out before we finish dinner.”
Noah made some joke, and the rest of them tried to get on with their evening like nothing had happened. Yet Tanner still felt like he was inside a haze of relentless input. His heart rate wouldn’t calm down.
He felt Faith watching him, her shoulders tense, like she was waiting for him to blow up again.
Tanner knew he should get out of here before he did something else he would regret, but he couldn’t bring himself to get out of his chair and leave the table. All his energy went to staying still. Acting normal.
Finally, the night was winding down, and the crowd inside the restaurant ebbed. He and Noah split the check, while Faith and Myra went to the bathroom.
“You want to get some air?” Noah asked.
“Yeah. That would be good.”
Tanner let his buddy guide him out into the parking lot. He gulped down the fresh air as the noise and lights of the restaurant receded. Ocean waves crashed in the background.
They walked halfway across the lot toward Noah’s Maserati. Then Noah turned around. “What is up with you tonight?”
“What do you mean?”
Noah sighed. “Scaring the shit out of that kid who spilled his drink? That’s not like you.”
“I just thought Faith deserved an apology.”
“Faith is my date, remember? If she couldn’t handle it herself, then I could have.”
“I’m sure you could.” He kept thinking of Noah’s arm on her chair.
“And you still seem pissed off. Right now. Why?”
Tanner paced across the gravel, balling his fists. “I saw that guy hit her in the head, and I reacted. You’re right, I shouldn’t have. But after what happened at her house a few days ago, when she got hurt, I guess I’m sensitive.”
“That would make sense if we were in a dangerous situation. But we weren’t. It was just some drunk losing his balance.”
Fucking psychopath, the guy had said.
“I was looking out for her. Faith is my friend.”
“Like the way you took her out after her bad first date? A little nighttime swim?”
“Pretty much.”
Noah’s expression tightened with the dawning realization. “You sure that’s the truth? She’s just a friend?”