Chapter Thirteen
B y the time Miles pulled up outside Cody and TJ’s place, the yard was already busy.
Two cars lined the curb, and a truck sat in the driveway.
Music drifted from the back yard, and the smell of food hit him the second he got out.
He shut the truck door and headed through the side gate, scanning the yard before he could stop himself.
Cody stood by the grill with tongs in one hand and a bottle of water in the other, acting as if feeding this many people was no effort at all. TJ was beside him with a plate of buns, telling him he was doing it wrong. Neither of them sounded serious.
“You’re late,” Cody called.
Miles glanced at his watch. “By all of three minutes.”
“That’s late.”
“TJ, are you hearing this?”
TJ looked over and grinned. “Ignore him.”
Miles snorted and reached for a beer from the patio table. “Need any help?”
Cody held out the tongs. “You can take over.”
“No.”
“Coward.”
“Correct.”
Behind them, one of the kids shrieked with laughter.
Miles turned in time to see Cassie tear across the grass with Arthur chasing after her with a water gun.
Christian, now two, sat in a plastic chair with a bowl of chips and a bottle of fruit juice.
Macy sat on Lincoln’s lap, eating fruit and feeding him between bites.
He took it all with the patient look of an older brother used to being fussed over by his little sister.
Near the fence, Carter stood talking to Toni, TJ’s ex-wife and now Carter’s wife, while both of them kept one eye on the kids.
Miles leaned against the table and took a drink from his beer. “Looks busy.”
“Messy but functional,” TJ said.
“That your new life motto?”
“It’s my relationship motto.”
Miles shook his head and looked around the yard. Orsen sat on one of the patio chairs with a bottle of water. Santino sat beside him, listening while Orsen talked.
Movement at the gate caught Miles’ attention.
Tanner stood just inside it with Savannah on one hip.
He wore jeans and a faded T-shirt, nothing special, but Miles noticed him all the same.
Savannah had both arms around Tanner’s neck, her face buried against his shoulder for a second before she lifted her head to look around.
Tanner stayed where he was, taking in the people and the yard before he adjusted Savannah higher and stepped forward.
TJ wiped his hands on a towel and went over first. He smiled at Savannah, said something that made her lift her head, then clapped Tanner lightly on the shoulder and pointed toward the drinks table. Tanner answered and came farther in.
“That’s new,” Miles said.
Cody flipped a burger. “What is?”
“He came.”
Cody glanced at him. “Told you food would do most of the work.”
“That’s your sales pitch for everything.”
“It’s a good one.”
Savannah slid down from Tanner’s hip a minute later and stayed tucked against his leg while Arthur wandered over, holding out a plastic dinosaur.
The two of them stared at each other for a second, then Savannah took it.
Tanner watched the exchange with tense shoulders, but when nothing bad happened he let her take a couple of steps away and begin playing.
Miles took another drink and kept his mouth shut.
Carter came over with a paper plate in one hand. “You standing there all evening or you planning to help with something?”
“I offered.”
“No, you didn’t,” Cody corrected.
“I considered offering.” Miles shrugged.
“That’s not the same thing.”
Carter smirked and held his plate out toward the grill. Cody dropped a burger onto it, and the three of them stood talking for a few minutes.
They settled into the afternoon after that. Food came off the grill and the kids got louder. Cody moved easily between the others, talking to TJ one minute, Toni and Carter the next, then calling something over to Orsen and Santino.
Miles helped where he was needed, carried drinks out, and cut up food for Christian when Toni had her hands full with Macy. Every now and then his attention slid back to Tanner without him meaning to.
Tanner stayed near the edge of the group more than in the middle of it. He listened more than he spoke. Savannah stayed near him until Cassie dragged her off to inspect a bucket of sidewalk chalk. Tanner let that happen, but not before checking where they were going and who else was over there.
Miles recognized it because he’d seen it before in people who had spent too long waiting for things to go wrong. Tanner never quite settled.
At one point Cody dropped into the chair beside Miles and held out a plate piled with salad he clearly had no intention of eating.
“You’re staring.”
“I’m sitting in a yard.”
“You can do both.”
Miles took the plate off him and put it on the table untouched. “Go bother somebody else.”
Cody grinned. “I bothered him first. That’s why he’s here.”
“Then leave it alone.”
That got Cody to look at him properly and the grin eased. “I am leaving it alone,” he said. “He came and brought Savannah. He’s still here. That’s enough for one day.”
Miles looked past him toward the chalk by the fence. Savannah crouched on the paving stones with blue dust on her fingers while Cassie explained something important with both hands. Tanner was a few feet away with a bottle of water, his attention split between Miles and Savannah at the same time.
“Yeah,” Miles said. “I know.”
When everyone had food and the noise had settled a little, Toni walked over to where Tanner stood with Savannah.
Christian was on her hip, sticky-handed and half asleep.
Savannah had ended up with a slice of watermelon nearly as big as her face, and Tanner crouched to wipe juice from her chin before she could smear it over her shirt.
“She’s gorgeous,” Toni said. “How old is she?”
“Three,” Tanner said.
Savannah held up three wet fingers, which made Toni smile. She shifted Christian higher on her hip and looked at Tanner. “So, you’ve got custody of her, then?”
Miles noticed Tanner tense. He straightened too quickly and said, “Yeah.”
Toni smiled again. “You’re doing a good job.”
Tanner said something polite that Miles didn’t catch. Savannah tugged at his hand and held up the watermelon rind, and Toni’s attention shifted back to her. She smiled, said something to Savannah, then moved on after another minute.
A few minutes later Savannah came barrelling toward the drinks table with chalk on one cheek and one of the older boys behind her shouting that she’d stolen the yellow. Tanner followed at a slower pace.
Savannah stopped in front of Miles and lifted both hands. Yellow chalk dust coated her fingers. “Look.”
Miles paused, realizing he liked the fact Savannah had come to him. Miles crouched so she didn’t have to crane her neck. “That looks good.”
“I did flowers.”
“Did you?”
She nodded hard. “And a sun, but he stood on it.” She pointed accusingly at Arthur.
Arthur protested immediately. “I didn’t.”
Savannah stamped her foot. “You did.”
Miles glanced between them. “Sounds like I’m hearing two different stories.”
Arthur considered this, then shrugged. “Maybe I stood on it a little.”
Savannah appeared to accept that. She wiped her yellow hands on Tanner’s jeans before anyone could stop her. Tanner looked down at the streaks, then up at Miles.
“You’re lucky she’s cute.”
“I know,” Tanner said.
Miles laughed before he could help it. Tanner smiled then. It didn’t last long but Miles had seen it and paused to stare. Savannah darted off again the moment Cassie called her name.
Tanner watched her go, then bent and rubbed at the chalk on his jeans with a napkin that did nothing to help. Miles handed him another one from the stack on the table.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
For a moment neither of them spoke, until Tanner said, “She likes it here.” Tanner folded the napkin in his hands.
Miles looked toward Savannah. “Looks that way.” He liked it too, more than he probably should have. Savannah wasn’t his, but he found he wanted to see her happy.
“She asked if Cassie lives here.”
“And?”
“I told her no.”
Miles glanced at him. “How did she take it?”
Tanner’s mouth shifted slightly. “She pouted then ran off.”
He said it with his eyes on the yard, not on Miles. “Kids get attached fast,” Miles said.
“Yeah.”
There was another pause. Miles rested one hand on the edge of the table. “You alright?”
Tanner gave him a look that should have shut the question down. “Why?”
“No reason.”
“That’s a lie.”
Miles could have denied it. Tanner would have seen through that too, considering what had happened between them “I heard the question.”
Tanner’s face didn’t change much, but Miles felt a change. “Of course you did.”
“She didn’t mean anything by it.”
“I know.”
Miles nodded. “Still hit though.”
Tanner looked away toward the fence, where Savannah was now kneeling beside Cassie and drawing something big and messy across the paving stones. “That’s how it goes,” Tanner said after a moment. “People ask things.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re about to tell me something I don’t want to hear.”
Miles kept his tone even. “Probably.”
That got Tanner to look at him. “And?”
“It’s fine until it isn’t. Most people don’t mean any harm. They ask because they’re making conversation or because they think they’re being helpful. Then one person decides something sounds off, and after that it gets bigger than you want.”
Tanner’s jaw tightened. “I know how people work.”
“I know you do.”
“Then what?”
Miles held his gaze. “I’m saying it before somebody else says it badly. You need the paperwork side sorted.”
Tanner let out a deep breath and looked away again. “I’m working on it,” he said.
Miles thought of forms. Anything official that needed answers Tanner might not have the paperwork for. “That means what?”
Tanner’s grip tightened on the napkin. “It means I’m trying.”
Tanner said it in a flat tone, but Miles heard the strain in it anyway. Miles eased his stance before Tanner could read any challenge in it. “Alright.”
Tanner frowned at him, probably expecting more. “That it?”
“I’m not asking as a deputy sheriff. If I was doing that, this would be a very different conversation. I’m asking because if you leave it too long, somebody else will force the issue, and they won’t care how hard you’ve been keeping things together.”
Tanner swallowed. His eyes went to Savannah again. “She’s fine with me,” he said quietly.
Miles didn’t answer straight away. He made sure Tanner was looking at him when he did. “I know.”
For a second Miles thought Tanner might say something more, but just then Cody yelled from the grill that if nobody came and took the burgers right then he was eating them himself, and the moment broke.
Tanner shook his head, the edge of a laugh there and gone. “That’s probably a threat.”
“It is if he’s hungry.”
“And he’s always hungry?”
“Pretty much.”
Tanner looked at him then, more directly than he had all afternoon. “You always do this?”
“Do what?”
“Wait until somebody’s comfortable before saying the thing they don’t want to hear.”
Miles considered it. “No.”
“That should worry me more than it does.”
“Probably.”
Savannah came back to Tanner not long after that. Chalk still dusted over her fingers and now one cheek. Tanner lifted her onto his lap when he sat down, and she went without protest, settling against his chest with her head under his chin.
Cody walked over with a container in one hand and held it out. “For later.”
Tanner looked at it, then at him. “You already packed leftovers?”
Cody shrugged. “There’s always too much food.”
That got a small smile out of Tanner before he took the container and put it on the table beside him.
Miles stayed where he was, talking when somebody pulled him into a conversation and watching Tanner when he thought he could get away with it.
Tanner had settled more than he had earlier.
Not fully, though. Not enough that Miles would call him relaxed.
But he was still there, Savannah tucked against him, listening when Cody said something and answering now and then.
The trouble was he wasn’t only watching Tanner anymore.
Somewhere along the way, Savannah had worked her way in there too.
At one point Tanner looked up and caught Miles watching and Miles held his gaze. Tanner looked away first, but not before something changed in his expression. Then Cody said something to him, low enough that Miles couldn’t hear it, and Tanner shook his head with the edge of a smile still there.
Miles took a drink from his beer and looked back toward the yard, but the pull of that glance stayed with him longer than it should have.