Chapter 20
ANNIE – MID-OCTOBER
This Isn’t Real Life
“Tanner, I’ve got it, really,” I tell him as he detaches Nelson’s car seat from the back of his SUV to carry him inside. “You’re sore from the game on Sunday, let me take everything in.”
It’s Tuesday and Tanner is using his R and R day – after the Bears went five and nothing at Kansas City on Sunday – to move us into his place.
He leans his head one way, while holding the car seat like it’s a feather. “Are we going to have a problem here? Because I’ve convinced your brother that it’s a good idea for you to stay here on the basis you’re getting a full retreat experience.”
I give him a tight smile. “I still can’t believe Colton agreed to this. Not that he shouldn’t because, you know, you and me, it’s not as if, well, you know, right?”
He gives a short laugh and I know those twinkling eyes of his are mocking me from behind his shades.
“Relax, Annie, he knows I’m safe,” he says. “I wouldn’t mess with his trust or the fate of any future Pace juniors.”
He starts walking to the house from his driveway that’s really more of a parking lot filled with insanely expensive cars behind a big wall of steel and I’m wondering whether my babbling gave me away – me thinks thou doth protest too much.
But he turns sharply, floating the seat and my sleeping baby on his man-made breeze as he does. “Not that I’m saying if I tried anything that you’d reciprocate, I’m just saying that I won’t… try anything. Even though you’re great. Smart and funny and you look—”
“Tanner, you don’t have to give me an ‘it’s me not you’ speech when you’re doing me a solid and moving me in for a few days. Thank you for calling me smart, though, because I don’t think anyone else in the world would call me that these days.”
He taps the security code into his front door and I gasp when we step inside. The place is enormous. It has ceilings that go on for days, huge windows that are reflective on the outside but let so much light into the white-walled house that it could be heaven.
It smells of expensive incense and there’s not a thing out of place through the open ground floor living space, from the lounge to the kitchen.
Everything is monochrome, even the giant prints of old sports players on the walls.
There’s a TV that looks more like a theatre screen on the wall and a huge U-shaped sofa set up to face it.
I immediately consider how many hazards and luxury items there are in the space for Nelson to break. I couldn’t afford to replace anything in this house.
Who am I kidding? Without my brother propping me up, I can’t afford much at all.
“Let’s leave my little buddy to nap and I’ll give you the tour of Pace Palace.”
“Pace Palace?” I drop my hands to my wide belt buckle. “Do girls usually fall for that level of arrogance?”
“They sure do,” he says with a chuckle, making me hide my own as I follow him through the downstairs.
“Nice flowers,” I tell him when we pass a stunning bunch of pink blooms on a side table in the hallway that has various rooms coming off it.
“They’re yours.”
Flowers? He bought me—
“From Sas,” he adds quickly. Obviously, he didn’t buy me flowers.
I finger the lilies in the bunch. “She’s a sweetie, though I’m not sure I’ll be here long enough to see them fully open.”
Tanner casts me a look that, for him, is almost a frown, then keeps leading the way down the hall.
“I take it my brother didn’t send a housewarming?”
“I think his concession is his gift.”
“Trusting that we can be adults and I won’t try to jump the bones of another sports guy?”
Tanner stops so abruptly I run into his chest, palms flat to two hard pecs beneath his black shirt.
I swallow hard, looking up into eyes that are fixed on me.
I almost forget where I am and who I’m with as I realize that the expensive scent in this place is Tanner; the whole house smells like him. Spice. Wood. Masculinity.
“I’ve got a couple house rules, and the first is this… No self-deprecation. D’you hear? If Colton’s worried about anyone jumping anyone’s bones, it’s me coming after you.”
His Adam’s apple moves as he swallows, pushing his chest harder against my fingertips, and as I think I wouldn’t be so sure, he says, “I’ve assured him you have nothing to worry about. This is Annie Bannie’s retreat from stress.”
“And men,” I mutter as Pace continues the tour.
“And the wrong men,” he says quietly, letting me know he heard me.
Dadgum, I almost made it a minute without Auston-sized dark thoughts.
There are more rooms in this place than if it was a genuine palace and we’re only just heading upstairs.
He takes me to the farthest door along the corridor first and opens it to a crisp white bed and furniture to match.
“I thought Betty could use this room,” he says, because he isn’t contracting only me for a few days, he’s also bringing my son and his nanny with me.
“She’ll love it, thank you.”
Then he shows me three more bedrooms with divinely crisp sheets and tells me I can choose, but only one of the three has an en suite, so I select that option for my holiday from real life.
As I run my fingers along the sheets, I see him, through the floor-length mirror, leaning on the door frame, watching me.
While I know it’s my imagination and a growing crush I’m trying to ignore, it feels as if someone has cranked the temperature.
My gaze locks on Tanner’s in the mirror for long, slow seconds, until he asks, “Like it?”
I nod, my throat suddenly dry, the memory of his touch heating me in places it ought not to, and when he disappears back into the corridor, I sigh with relief. I have got to get a hold of my hormones.
He’s waiting by another door, hand braced on the handle. “I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to get things ready for him but this is Nelson’s room.”
He pushes open the door and in doing so, steals the air from my lungs.
In the middle of the room is a white crib, with overhanging canopy sheets that are much like Nelson’s at the ranch.
The walls have been stenciled with animals, the ceiling with stars and a moon.
There’s even a bookcase with books on it and a small white wardrobe.
My fingers tremble as I cover my lips and my eyes gloss over with unshed tears.
“How did you do this? Why did you do this?”
I turn to him and his usual happy-go-lucky has been replaced with something like concern. “You don’t like it?”
“Like it? Tanner, I don’t have any words for how kind this is. I love it.”
Now one side of his mouth curves up. “Good. I want you both to feel at home while you’re here.”
“Tanner, I—” I wrap my arms around his wide shoulders because if I look at him, if I speak, I’ll cry. And crying is not my thing. Crying is exactly how I’ve ended up taking advantage of Tanner’s generosity.
I sense his hesitation, right before his arms wrap around my back and his cheek meets my head.
Nelson’s own daddy can’t even bring himself to hold him and here’s Tanner, my brother’s friend and teammate, my driving instructor and, recently, my rock, creating my son a nursery. All this effort for a few days.
“I wish I could give something back for all this. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you for making us feel…” I pull back from him and eventually find the right word. “Wanted.”
“Keep letting me see those happy dimples, Annie, that’s all I want in return.” He tucks wisps of my hair behind my ear and smiles at me in a way that makes me give him all he wants in return. “Maybe a pecan pie once in a while.”
“I can manage that.”
“There’ll be no pecan pie on my watch!” a male voice announces, startling me.
Tanner rolls his eyes. “That’s Aaron. My nutritionist and chef. Come meet him.”
As if Nelson knows food is imminent, he stirs in his car seat and, thankfully, wakes in good spirits. I scoop him onto my hip before joining Tanner and Aaron in the kitchen.
Tanner has already taken a seat on a stool by the counter and Aaron is decanting food from shopping bags.
“Aaron, this is Annie. Annie, Aaron.”
He says it so casually, as if it isn’t a big deal that I’m living in his seven-million-dollar home, greeting his personal chef.
It’s not as if I haven’t been around money. Colton earns plenty of it now, but he doesn’t have all these life add-ons that Tanner has. I guess that’s the difference between a four-year vet and a thirteen-year vet who’s been one of the best, if not the best, tight ends in the league for a long time.
“Good to meet you, Annie,” Aaron says.
I detect an out-of-state twang that I can’t place. He’s an athletic-looking guy, not much taller than me, slim with prominent veins atop tight muscles.
Despite the fact Tanner has moved a woman and her baby into his house when he’s never even had a long-term relationship, and even though Aaron most likely knows who I am and why I’m here, he acts completely blasé.
I narrow my eyes on him as he shifts food into the refrigerator. “Tanner told you to act like this is completely normal, didn’t he?”
He side-eyes Tanner. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now, what can I fix you for lunch, Annie?”
“Oh, you don’t have to do—”
“It’s my job. What do you like? I’ve bought a selection of stuff – fish, meat, veggie.”
Tanner is shoveling almonds into his mouth with one hand and reaching out to take Nelson in the other, tucking him onto his lap and pulling a bowl of fruit toward them. I suppose he’s learned that Nelson gets a fruit snack and a glass of milk after his nap.
“Well then, I’ll have whatever Tanner’s having?”
“Chicken and quinoa salad? I can guarantee you’ll get bored of the footballer diet quickly.”
“Who knows, maybe it will finally shift these baby hips of mine.” I pat them in my jeans.
“Annie, there are women all over the world who would kill for those hips.”