Chapter 36
After we leave Dollie’s, I try to convince Tanner to stay home and rest and start processing all the information he just received.
Instead, he insists on following me back to the apartment and helping me clean up before Winnie gets home.
There was no chance that I was going to tell him no, so, we climb the stairs quietly together.
I don’t even make it a few steps in my apartment before my stomach sinks.
“Fuck,” I groan and drop my purse onto the counter.
“Now you sound like Lauren.” Tanner laughs and comes up next to me and freezes when he sees what I see.
“Oh. Fuck is right. Did you feed it before we left?”
I point to the food pellet at the bottom of the tank. “I dropped it in before we left. It’s one of those long-time food supply things. It was supposed to last a week and well, it lasted. He just didn’t.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Well first, you’re going to dispose of the body.” I motion toward the bowl. “Then we are going to replace it before she gets back.” I check the clock above the stove and grab my purse again. “Do you have time before you have to be at work for the evening?”
He pats my butt. “For you, I always have the time.”
“Good. Come on.”
He flushes the fish down the toilet, then we are in his truck heading to the pet store where we spend an eternity trying to pick the perfect replacement.
“I don’t know,” Tanner says about the fish the teenage girl has just chased around the overstocked tank. “It doesn’t look as goofy as the original.”
“The first one was half-dead when we got it. That’s why it looked goofy.”
The girl dumps the poor fish back into the tank and three catch and releases later, Tanner agrees on the perfect Fish-Tanner replacement.
“Do you want to talk about Dollie?” I finally ask on the drive back. The bag with the fish is on my lap and the air around us is thick with what has gone unsaid.
He sighs. “I just don’t know how I never knew. That picture has always been there. I have looked at it before, even. I’m mad at myself for never having made the connection.”
“What about your mom? Do you think she knows?”
“I don’t know how she wouldn’t have known.” He shakes his head. “I mean did he really not tell her anything about himself? Surely people knew he was Dollie’s son, right?”
I reach over and squeeze his hand then he brings our clutched hands to rest them in my lap.
“If he’s half as charming as you, I have a feeling people would have believed just about anything that came out of his mouth.” I trace the veins in his hand, and I watch him fight the smile.
The glint of his necklace catches my attention, so I reach my free hand over and untuck it from his shirt.
“Dollie gave it to me when I graduated high school. It was her husband’s.”
“I love it.” I trace it to the back of his neck and feel the links against his warm, tanned skin. The necklace he had no idea belonged to his own grandfather.
When we pull into the parking lot, I lean over the console and give him a quick kiss. “Swing by after work?”
He nods. “Thank you for being there today.”
“Of course.”
Before we go our separate ways, he brings the back of my hand to his lips. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I sneak one more kiss and skip over to the apartment.
However, three steps up, my heart nearly leaps out of my chest at sight of the man sitting on the there. Dark hair, bright eyes, strong roman nose. And the smell of fake roses.
Ethan.
“Holy shit, I’m so sorry!” He leaps to his feet and in a moment, I realize it isn’t Ethan. It’s Sebastian. His brother. The much less terrifying of the two. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I tried calling."
“Oh my God.” I clutch my chest. “It’s so good to see you, but holy shit.”
“I’m so sorry.” He laughs, then pauses looking at the bag in my hand. “Is that a fish?”
“Long story, come on up,” I tell him and shuffle past him into the apartment. “Winnie will be back soon. She’s been visiting with my parents this weekend.” I set the fish and its bag into the tank to start acclimating it, put the flowers in a vase, and offer Sebastian a beer. “How are you?”
“I, uh.” He shrugs. “I’ve been okay.”
“How’s Gigi?” I ask and he shrugs again.
I’ve only ever met Gigi on a handful of occasions. She’s a lawyer at the Forrest firm that his parents set him up with. She’s on track to become one of the youngest judges in the state of Illinois. She’s successful and accomplished and all together perfect for the Forrest family.
“She’s working a ton.” His eyes drop to his beer.
Sebastian is a handsome guy, big and broad shouldered.
Being a lawyer never did seem to suit him.
Especially not a lawyer at the Forrest Law Firm.
The Forrests are rigid and cold. Though Sebastian comes off quiet and distant at times, he’s compassionate.
The black sheep of the family, or maybe the only white lamb left to the slaughter.
“But it’s been okay.” He sighs and leans on the counter, scratching a hand over his beard. His eyes drift over to the bowl. “I really need to know about the fish.”
I laugh and open the bag and let the fish free into its new home.
“Winnie got one from the fair. Then it died and I didn’t want her to come home to it being dead.
Let’s sit on the balcony.” I wave for him to follow me before he questions the massive bouquet of flowers on the counter.
“I don’t think I can look at a goldfish for a minute longer. ”
We sit across from each other, and I try to ignore the similarities in him and Ethan.
On Sebastian, the same features seem softer.
Gentler. Less severe. The striking gaze of his blue eyes are softened by thick long lashes.
His sharp jaw softened by a beard and his hair is curly to Ethan’s slicked back straight.
But still, those Forrest genes lurk in the shape of his nose and penetrating gaze.
“It’s beautiful up here,” he notes. “I really needed out of the city.”
“You could move here too,” I tell him as a half joke.
He leans back in his chair. “Are you thinking about moving here?”
“Maybe. Lauren is having a baby, and I just can’t imagine leaving her.”
I leave out the Tanner part, even though after this weekend, the truth is that it may be the biggest factor now.
Sebastian shifts uncomfortably in the metal chair and it’s now that I notice his lack of eye contact. He’s looking over out at the parking lot like he’s looking for something. Courage maybe?
“I didn’t come here just because I was passing through,” Sebastian admits finally. “I talked to Ethan.”
Fear begins crawling up my neck in an instant. That old uneasy anxiety that had lived in my chest under Ethan’s roof is suddenly flooding my nervous system.
“What Sebastian? What is it?” I am ready to shake the words out of him.
“He is going to petition for visitation rights of Winnie. And may even eventually seek partial custody.” He rubs the scruff at his jaw. “Hannah, I’m afraid he might take you back to court.”