Chapter 7
“Lift with your knees,” Rhett tells Winnie while she struggles to carry the only log in her arms.
Lauren and I sit on the back deck of the cabin shielding our eyes from the glaring sun while watching Rhett and Winnie try to fill the fire pit.
Lauren and Rhett’s yard is nothing but a small, cleared space amongst rocky hills and forest of trees that have begun morphing into their summer emeralds.
The breeze is warm and hopeful while beads of sweat form on my brow and the sun toasts my shoulders.
The trees seem alive with constant bird and bug song.
Creaking, cooing, buzzing, and tweeting.
“Come on kid,” Rhett calls over his shoulder. “I'm beating you.”
Winnie finally makes it over, drops the log inside the pit, and lets out an exasperated sigh. “Being a flower girl is hard work.”
“You’re not making the poor kid do all the work are ya?” Rhett’s dad, Jack, walks over from his yard next door with his golden retriever in tow.
“Winnie.” Lauren motions to the man. “This is Rhett’s dad, Jack and his dog, Storm.”
“Hiya Winnie. Nice to meet ya.” Jack, the red-cheeked man, hobbles over and shakes Winnie's hand. “I heard you’re on flower girl duty. That’s a very big job. And Hannah, good to see you again.”
Winnie nods. “Yeah. We have to carry wood.”
“You’ll be the strongest flower girl ever.”
“Alright kid.” Rhett claps his hands. “Let’s try picking up some sticks. That shouldn’t be as hard.”
Winnie huffs but doesn’t dare argue.
“I heard you were in town.” The voice comes from behind me and my spine instantly straightens. Goosebumps soaring across my skin.
I turn and leaning in the back doorway with a smirk on his sun-lit face, is Tanner.
That mustache still sending literal lust coursing through my blood.
Though I just saw him, I’m realizing I already missed him.
His white T-shirt has a small horizontal rip at the rib cage and grease stains all over, his hair is unkept under his baseball hat and it knocks the wind right out of me.
“You guys want a beer?” he asks when I can’t make myself say anything.
“I'm good,” Lauren answers quickly, but her eyes shift over to me.
I stand on wobbling knees. “I’ll come help.”
He nods but I try to read his face, looking for anger or disappoint, I find neither. Instead, I only find a kind gaze as he holds the door for me. I smell the sun and the oil on him as I pass and I have to force myself to keep walking.
“You brought the flowers with you.” He points to the counter where all of Winnie and I’s bouquets sit in mason jars.
“We did,” I say stupidly as he goes to the fridge.
He grabs out two beers and a bottle opener from the drawer next to him and doesn’t say anything as he opens and hands me one. He simply leans back against the counter, arms crossed across his broad chest with a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips under that mustache.
“I didn’t have a trip planned or anything,” I explain quickly, my anxiety crawling up my neck. “Lauren asked me to come up last night, so I got Winnie in the car and drove through the night. She insisted on bringing the flowers and—”
“Hannah, woah.” The smirk melts into concern as he uncrosses his arms and steps toward me.
“It’s okay. You don’t owe me an explanation.
I’m just glad you’re here.” Another step forward.
He towers over me and now, somehow, I'm the one backed against the counter.
“Are you upset that I showed up out of the blue for the recital?”
I shake my head. “Of course not. I love that you did. I just— I feel like I keep showing up, after telling you I can’t come visit.”
He laughs and shakes his head. “I don’t care about that. I’m really glad you’re here.”
“How did you hear I was in town?” My voice is small as I look up at him, the sun-freckles on his nose are obvious from this close up. “Was it Rhett?”
“Uh, sure.” The tops of his cheeks turn pink, and I know a lie when I see one. Having a shitty husband and a daughter with a big imagination helped with that.
“Lauren,” I say and he bites the inside of his cheek.
“Well, not technically.”
“She told you I was here.”
“She invited me over. Said she and Rhett were putting a bonfire on. I swear I didn’t know for sure until I saw your van out front and put it all together.”
Our chests are just inches away as he gazes down at me. I fight to keep my hands on the bottle and not on his chest or lacing them through his hair.
“Mommy, come look!” Winnie's voice breaks through the window and our moment. So, I step around Tanner because if he keeps looking at me like that, then, well. I shake away the image.
Outside, Winnie and Rhett have built a lopsided fire that’s mostly smoke, but that little orange flame from the center has Winnie beaming with pride.
“Tan, come help us vent this thing, would ya?” Jack calls out and Tanner places his hand ever so softly on my lower back as he steps around me, lighting my entire nervous system on fire.
“Hey Fred.” Tanner nods to Winnie. Her little eyes flick up to him and for a moment I'm not sure if she’s going to throw a fit or smile.
Her little jaw drops. “Fred?”
“Your name is Winifred, right?” he asks. “Fred is short for Winifred.”
Laughter bubbles up out of her as the blush spreads across her cheeks.
“You invited him over?” I whisper to Lauren as I sit next to her on the back steps.
“You’d been here for almost twenty-four hours. You needed a little push.”
“Lauren. I can appreciate why you’re trying, but it can’t happen. I’m not staying, and I have a lot more on my plate than just a cute guy who might like me.”
Lauren sighs and then turns to face me. “Okay. Forget the whole Tanner thing for a minute. I want to ask you a question. And Rhett agrees.”
I don’t know why her asking me to be her maid of honor is this intense, but I play along anyway and let her take my hands in hers.
“Stay here,” she insists. “For the whole summer. You could stay with us or there’s a little apartment you could rent in town for a few months. Enroll Winnie in the YMCA here. We could plan the wedding and prepare for the baby, and we could spend the whole summer together.”
I cock my head back while my brain tumbles back over each word she just said. She mentioned staying earlier, but I thought she was mostly joking. The whole summer? An apartment in town?
Winnie squeals from the grass and Tanner gives her a high-five as the smoke from the fire mostly dissipates.
I know instantly that staying is dangerous. Living within driving distance of Tanner Auclair for an entire summer will make it nearly impossible to walk away come fall.
“Hannah, say something,” Lauren pleads. “Mom and Paul are in Florida for the rest of the summer anyway. When’s the next time we will ever get to do something like this? I can use all the help I can get.”
I watch Tanner squat down and listen to Winnie like whatever she has to say is the most interesting thing he has heard all day. Even Rhett’s eyes pop up to see if I'm seeing this too.
“Mommy!” Winnie comes barreling over. “Tan said he went to the ABC too.”
“YMCA,” Tanner calls out.
“Is Tan what we are calling him now?” I ask.
“He called me Fred.” Winnie shrugs.
I think about a summer spent here and I know Lauren is right—when will I ever get a chance to be in my sister’s life like this again?
“Go ask Tanner what his favorite part of the YMCA was.” I spin her and push her in his direction.
Tanner stays squatting and smiles as she approaches.
“I’ll think about it,” I tell Lauren.
That, though it isn’t much, is enough for now. My sister wraps her arms around me and puts her head on my shoulder.
“I thought I heard Hannah was in town!” a man’s voice calls out from the house behind us. Now, out walk Rhett’s brother, Jackie, and his wife, Mayben—Tanner’s sister.
We all say hello and are catching up when Gwen pops her head out the back door. “Where’s the whiskey?”
“In the pantry behind the saltine crackers and pickles,” Lauren answers.
“Did you invite them all over?” I ask her and she shakes her head.
“No. They show up like this a lot. I did invite Tanner, which usually means Mayben and Jackie are close behind and Gwen behind them. This kinda just happens.”
Ethan and I weren’t allowed at his parents’ house without an invitation, or a multiple week heads up at least. Even Mom gets stressed if she doesn’t have a few days heads up.
“Got it!” Gwen calls back.
Then she pops out of the house in a blur of brown curls with a glass of whiskey in her hand. She is wearing a Morton's Bar T-shirt, cut-off denim shorts and is barefoot with bright blue toenails.
Gwen is Rhett’s sister, and a hell of a personality. The one time I met her, it was clear she is the center of every room she enters. People lean in just a little closer to hear whatever she’s going to say next, or linger a little longer in whatever room she’s in.
“Oh my God, Hannah!” She hugs me from behind, then tosses Lauren a beer. “I thought I heard you were in town!”
“I just got here last night.”
“Well, you need to come by Morton's while you’re here. I work the bar, and I need some new faces around there. These regulars, I tell you what.”
“People literally go just to see her,” Lauren adds.
“Oh please.” Gwen rolls her eyes. “People would go to see my dad if he put on some lipstick and a tight T-shirt too, I’m sure. Oh, you must be Winnie!”
Gwen then pops down into the grass. “I'm your Uncle Rhett’s sister.”
“Uncle Rhett has a sister?”
“He does and I am much cooler than him. That over there is Jackie. He’s our brother too. Rhett, Jackie and Gwen. And Jackie is married to Tanner’s sister Mayben.”
I watch Winnie try to place these faces and names amongst each other and she only looks extraordinarily confused.
“Don’t worry.” Gwen pokes her side. “You’ll get used to us. You’re family now.”
My eyes find Tanner’s, and he has a hand in his pocket and a smile on his face. He just tilts his head back, summoning me over and maybe it’s the speed in which I drank my beer, but I am up in an instant. All I can think about is him wrapping those arms back around me.
“You okay?” he asks playfully.
“Yeah, why?” Never better, I think.
“You look like you had tears in your eyes.”
I look back at the circle of adults welcoming Winnie. “You guys are all just really nice. It was never like this growing up.”
Tanner trades my empty beer for his mostly full one. “Well, just wait until we get into a marshmallow toasting contest. All niceties are out the window. This family doesn’t play around.”
I look around at this family and see how my sister has fit in so perfectly with them. These new sisters, new friends, and I don’t recognize this new life of hers and yet she has never seemed more herself.
“Well.” Rhett claps his hands together. “Since you’re all here…”
Everyone freezes and turns to face him. The boys look clueless as to what’s coming next, but Mayben and Gwen look at each other, then at Lauren.
Some sort of female instinct hitting them.
Tanner steps closer behind me so his chest is against my shoulder.
I won’t admit that I lean into him while everyone’s attention is on Rhett and my sister.
“What? What is it?” Jackie asks while Gwen stares at the unopened beer in Lauren’s hands.
“Oh my God, is she—” Tanner’s voice trails off.
“We’re having a baby,” Lauren squeaks out and suddenly there isn’t a dry eye in this yard, which is confirmed by the sniffle over my shoulder.