Chapter Twelve
T anner reached the preschool five minutes early and stopped across the road with Savannah’s hand in his, looking at the low brick building beyond the fence.
There was a painted sign by the gate, a row of small windows with paper cutouts taped inside, and a fenced play area around the side with a plastic slide.
It looked nice and that should have helped, but it only made him more aware of how hard he was working to make this look normal.
Beside him, Savannah was singing to herself while she swung the little bag he’d packed for her.
“You ready?” he asked.
She nodded hard enough to make her ponytail bounce. “I’m gonna make friends.”
Tanner managed a small smile. “That’s the plan.”
He adjusted the strap of her bag, tightened his hold on her hand, and led her across the road toward the entrance with his face set in what he hoped passed for calm and collected when he felt anything but that.
Inside the preschool, the reception area was bright and clean.
A low shelf held books and puzzles. Children’s drawings covered one wall in a cheerful mess of paint and paper and crooked handwriting.
Somewhere deeper in the building, kids were laughing.
Tanner kept hold of Savannah’s hand and approached the desk.
A woman in her forties with short brown hair looked up from a clipboard and smiled. “Hi there. You must be Savannah.”
Savannah pressed closer to Tanner’s side and looked up at him first.
“This is Savannah,” Tanner said. “We’re here for intake.”
“Of course.” The woman stood and came around the desk. “I’m Laura. We spoke on the phone.”
Tanner nodded once. He remembered the call. Laura had sounded capable and kind, which had made the whole thing easier.
Laura crouched to Savannah’s level. “Do you want to come see the room where the painting happens?”
Savannah looked at Tanner again. “That sounds fun, doesn’t it?”
Savannah gave a small nod.
Laura smiled and stood. “You can both come in for a look, then we’ll finish a couple of forms.”
She pressed a button under the desk, and a door beside reception clicked open. “This way.”
Tanner followed her down the short hall with Savannah tucked close at his side.
There were several doors showing classrooms inside.
In one, a few kids sat around a table with crayons and paper while another had a group building something lopsided out of blocks on the rug.
A younger woman at the far side of the room waved when she saw them.
Savannah stopped just inside the door.
Tanner bent slightly. “You can go and have a look.”
She stayed put for another second, then took three cautious steps toward the table with the crayons.
Laura glanced back at him. “Why don’t we do the paperwork while she settles?”
Tanner straightened. “Yeah.”
Back in the office area, Laura handed him a clipboard.
Most of it was what he expected. Name. Address.
Emergency contact. Allergies. GP details.
People approved for pickup. He worked through it, though his jaw clenched when he reached the parts that asked for things he hadn’t sorted yet.
He put his own number down where he had to and left one line blank until Laura noticed.
“Do you have a second emergency contact?” she asked.
Tanner kept his eyes on the page. “Not local.”
“That’s alright. We can come back to it.” She glanced over the form as he handed it back. “And if you could bring in proof of guardianship or custody for Savannah, we’ll add that to her file as well.”
There it was. Tanner kept his face blank. “What kind of proof?”
“Court paperwork, guardianship documents, anything official that shows you’re authorized to sign for her care.” Laura’s tone stayed friendly and matter-of-fact. “It’s standard.”
He knew enough not to argue and kept his face blank. “I’m still sorting some paperwork,” he said.
Laura nodded. “That’s fine. Just bring it in when you can.”
Tanner didn’t answer right away, waiting for her to ask more questions. When she didn’t, he asked, “She can stay today?”
“Yes.” Laura smiled at him. “We’ll get her settled in this morning. Just bring the documents next time, alright?”
Next time. Tanner gave a quick nod. “Alright.”
Laura smiled again, already moving on. “She’s doing well so far.”
He looked at the monitors. Savannah had made it to the table and was sitting on a tiny blue chair with a crayon in one hand.
A little boy beside her was talking to her while she watched him with serious concentration.
She hadn’t cried or asked to leave. She looked small as she sat at the table, but she wasn’t looking for him. In fact, she appeared happy.
Tanner told himself that should be enough to ease the knot in his stomach, but it wasn’t. He thanked Laura and walked out of the building, trying not to look back.
Once outside, Tanner stepped off the path and reached into his pocket for his phone, more to have something in his hand than because he needed it.
Guardianship documents. Anything official.
He had nothing. He had a house in his name and years of taking care of Savannah, but none of that mattered once somebody asked for documents he didn’t have.
He could ask more questions. That was the problem. Asking meant hearing the answer, and hearing the answer meant the whole thing stopped being something he could sidestep for one more day.
“Well, that looked painful.”
Tanner turned too fast.
A man stood beside a dark pickup with a takeaway coffee cup in one hand. Another smaller man stood next to him, leaning against the passenger door with his arms folded. For one hard second Tanner’s whole body went on alert. He almost turned and walked in the other direction on instinct alone.
The man who spoke lifted his free hand slightly. “Easy. We’re not here to cause any problems. I’m Cody and he’s Orsen.”
Tanner stopped but didn’t come any closer. “What are you doing here?”
“Getting coffee,” Cody said. He jerked his chin toward the small café across the road. “And before you ask, yes, there are better places to get it, but they make it strong here.”
Orsen pushed off the truck door. “He means burnt.”
Cody ignored him. “Saw you go inside so thought we’d say hi.”
Tanner looked from one to the other. “You can say hi from there.”
Cody nodded. “Hi, then.”
Tanner should have left it there and walked away, but instead he stood in the parking lot and watched them.
Cody took a careful sip of coffee. “You look like you’re about two seconds from climbing out of your skin.”
“I’m fine,” Tanner grunted, narrowing his eyes.
“Sure.”
Tanner’s jaw clenched. “Why are you here, really?”
Cody met his eyes. “I told you. Coffee. We saw you and I figured if you wanted company for five minutes, I could offer. If you didn’t, we’d leave.”
No pressure. That should have made it easier, but if anything, it made it harder. Tanner glanced toward the preschool doors, then back at them. “I’ve got things to do.”
“Then do them,” Orsen said. Tanner looked at him sharply and Orsen shrugged. “Nobody said otherwise.”
There was no challenge from Orsen, and it took some of the fight out of Tanner before he could stop it. He glanced at the cafe, then back to Cody and Orsen.
Cody nodded toward the café. “Coffee. Twenty minutes. You can glare at us the whole time if it helps.”
Tanner let out a breath through his nose. “I don’t need company.”
Cody’s mouth twitched. “Everybody says that when they need company.”
“I said I’m fine.”
Orsen said, “I killed my father.”
The words caused Tanner to jerk, and he stared at Orsen who stared back at him. Cody didn’t react, which told Tanner this wasn’t news to him.
Orsen stared at him. “You think I’m standing here judging how people survive?”
Tanner stared at him, shaking his head slightly.
Orsen’s face stayed calm. “Because I’m not.”
Tanner looked away first. The tightness in his chest eased a little, but didn’t disappear entirely. He still didn’t trust them. He still didn’t know what they wanted from him. But Orsen had said it and left it at that, and Tanner knew that couldn’t have been easy for him.
Cody tipped his head toward the café again. “Twenty minutes and then you can go about the rest of your day until you need to pick her up.”
Tanner rubbed a hand over the back of his neck then tugged on his hair. “I have to be back.”
“Then we won’t keep you.”
He should have said no, but instead he heard himself say, “Fine. Twenty minutes.”
Cody grinned. “That’s the spirit.”
“That’s not spirit. That’s me making a bad decision,” Tanner muttered.
“Still counts.”
The café across the road was small and crowded enough to make Tanner hesitate at the door.
Cody went in first, talking to the girl behind the counter with an easy familiarity while Orsen held the door open a second too long until Tanner either had to go in or look foolish standing there, so he went inside.
They found a table at the back by the window. Cody ordered coffee for Tanner without making a point of asking first, and for some reason that irritated Tanner less than it should have. He sat with his shoulders tensed and both hands around the hot mug once it arrived.
For the first few minutes, Cody kept it exactly how he said he would. He talked about college classes with the kind of annoyance Tanner remembered from school, though Cody made it funny now.
“I’ve got one lecturer,” Cody said, “who says ‘circle back’ every ten minutes. I have no idea why when the course is psychology course.”
Orsen took a sip of coffee. “Maybe he just likes saying it and he likes you all hearing it.”
“You’re so supportive.”
“I’m honest.”
Cody pointed at him. “See? This is why I’m the social one.”