“No,” his mom said, and then hesitated. “But she’s been seen celebrating something at the Love Shack.”
Tanner’s gut clenched. “You know what that something might be?”
“My gut guess?” she asked. “That she’s going to go back to Florida soon.”
“She can’t have him,” Tanner said immediately. Hell no. The kid was giving him gray hair, testing him.
Troy could push all he wanted, Tanner wasn’t going to walk away. He might have a stroke but he wouldn’t give up.
“I don’t think she’s planning on taking him with her, honey,” his mom said.
Tanner blew out a breath. This was not good. This would seriously fuck with Troy’s head, being ditched by a parent.
As he knew all too well.
“Bring him here for dinner,” his mom said. “You’re both too thin. I’ll fatten you up.”
“He’s not going to be in the mood.”
“Baby, everyone’s in the mood for my pot roast, trust me.”
Tanner drove past the Love Shack, then decided the hell with it and did a U-turn and parked in the lot. He took the extra minute to call Lucille, eyes on the bar. “You still got him?” he asked.
“Of course,” Lucille said.
“Can you hold him five more minutes?”
“Honey, you can leave him here with me until I go to the big bingo game in the sky,” Lucille said, forever earning a spot of gratitude in Tanner’s heart.
“Five minutes,” he said, and hung up. And then he walked into the Love Shack.
Elisa was belly up to the bar with Dan. They were toasting each other with a shot of something. Once upon a time, Elisa had been the hottest thing Tanner had ever seen with her wild blond hair and curvy figure and that way she had of smiling at a man like he was the only man alive.
She tossed her head back and laughed heartily, and her boyfriend hung on her every move.
She was still hot, Tanner could admit. But she no longer stirred his blood.
Catching sight of him, she straightened, sending him a much more muted smile than she’d given her boyfriend. “Hey,” she said. “What’s up?”
“We need to talk,” Tanner said.
“Sure,” she said, and glanced at Dan. “Go ahead.”
“Here?” Tanner asked, giving her an are-you-sure look, wanting to give her the chance to make this private.
“Yes,” she said. “Here.”
Fine. Here it was. “You going back to Florida?”
There was a quick flash of an emotion he recognized all too well, because it’d been what he’d spent a whole lot of years feeling over her.
Guilt.
His guilt had been directly related to ruining her life with a pregnancy at age seventeen. He’d never regretted Troy, not once, but he did regret forcing Elisa to grow up fast. And though he’d done his best by her, the simple truth was that she’d been just a girl to him, never the love of his life.
And there was only one reason she’d ever flash guilt back at him. “You are,” he said flatly. “And Troy?”
“He’ll be happier here with you.”
True statement. But she didn’t want Troy. “Jesus, Elisa. You can’t just walk away from him.”
“Don’t you judge me,” she said, pointing a finger in his face. “Don’t you dare judge me!”
At the tone of distress and fury in her voice, others around them quieted and started to take notice of their conversation. “Let’s take this outside,” Tanner said.
“Happy to,” Dan said, slipping a proprietary arm around Elisa.
“Not you,” Tanner said. “Me and Elisa.”
Dan scowled. “Anywhere she goes, I go.”
Perfect. Tanner gave Elisa a long, hard look and she turned to face the guy. “I’ve got this, baby.” She leaned in closer and put her lips to the corner of Dan’s. “He’s an ex–Navy SEAL,” she whispered, “so stop it.”
“I’m not afraid of him,” Dan said.
Elisa patted him on the chest, softening her voice. “Wait here, okay? I’ll be right back.”
Dan flicked her a glance. “You sure?”
“Yes.” She went up on tiptoes and brushed a kiss across his lips.
Tanner turned on his heel and walked outside. Elisa followed and then stood there, arms crossed over her chest in a defensive posture.
“What the hell, Elisa?”
“I’m getting married,” she said.
Belatedly he noticed the rock sparkling on her finger. “What does that have to do with deserting Troy?”
“Deserting him?” she repeated in disbelief. “More like I’m giving you your turn. You deserted us, for years and years.”
“If you’re referring to when I went into the navy because I was a teenager with no other means to support the three of us—”
“Bullshit!”
“Elisa.” He shoved his hands through his hair. “I gave up college for you. I went into the navy so you wouldn’t have to give up college too. I sent you every penny I could—”
“I didn’t want your money!” she yelled at him.
He raised a brow. To his knowledge, she’d cashed every single check.
“And I didn’t want you to give up college! I wanted you!” She gave him a push to the chest.
He held his ground with ease and tried to process. “Is that why you took off for Florida and sent me divorce papers?” he asked. “Because you wanted me?”
“Yes. No.” She blew out a heavy sigh. “It just got so messed up. And I was so young. And stupid.” She closed her eyes. “It started out just me wanting to go to the same college as you.”
He’d known that. But she hadn’t gotten accepted. “In the end, it didn’t matter,” he said quietly. “You got pregnant and I didn’t end up going.”
“Yes, but I didn’t know that when—” She tightened her mouth and he went still.
“When what, Elisa?”
She sighed. “When I pretended to be on the pill.”
His world tilted a little bit, like he was off his axis. “Say that again.”
She closed her eyes. “I got pregnant on purpose so you’d go to a junior college near home and stay with me forever.”
He backed to the concrete wall lining the parking lot and sat. Had to, because his legs were like rubber.
Elisa came and sat next to him, quiet, staring down at her boots. “Of course you never did anything I wanted you to do,” she said eventually. She reached for his hand and brought it to her heart. “I’m sorry, Tanner. I’m so sorry I lied to you, about everything.”
He met her gaze, surprised to find her eyes shiny with tears and real regret. He was torn between being furious at her fifteen-year deception and being terrified for Troy to lose his mom. “He needs both of us, Elisa. Don’t do this.”
“I’ve given him everything I have,” she said. “I need something for myself.”
“And Dan is that something?”
“Yes. I love him, and I love Florida.”
He thought of what Troy had gotten in trouble for today, and all the trouble he probably still had to find, and he knew that the kid needed two parents. At the very least. “Troy needs—”
“You,” Elisa said softly. “He needs you, Tanner. You two will be okay. And he can come see me whenever he wants.” She sucked in a breath. “Don’t hate me.”
He wanted to, badly. But he shook his head. “I can’t.” He squeezed her fingers back. “You gave me my son.”
She hugged him and he let her for a moment. “I still think you’re doing the wrong thing,” he said, rising to his feet.
“You said you didn’t hate me.”
“I don’t, but I’m still pissed as hell. Troy deserves better than this from his mom.”
She shook her head, her expression stubborn and closed, and he knew he couldn’t talk her into staying. Hell, he was just lucky that she didn’t want to take Troy along with her because then there’d have been a real battle.
She stood
too and tried to smile but sucked in a half sob. “You’ll take care of—”
“Yes,” he said. “I’ll take care of him.”
“And you,” she whispered. “Take care of you too.”
Tanner opened his mouth, but she spoke first, quickly. “I know I have no right to tell you what to do,” she said. “But it’s your turn, Tanner. You always take care of everyone even when it’s at a high cost to yourself. So promise me you’ll take care of you.”
Chapter 23
Tanner picked Troy up at Lucille’s art gallery. The teen walked out to the truck, moving so slowly he might as well have been walking backward.
“So Mom finally bailed, huh?” Troy asked when he finally got close enough to be heard.
“You know?” Tanner asked.
“Yeah. I overheard her talking on the phone a week ago.”
Shit. No wonder the kid had been attitude-ridden and pissed at the world. “You’ll still see her,” Tanner told him. “You can fly back there whenever you want and—”
“I don’t care.” Troy tossed his backpack into the back, slid into the truck, and buckled up.
“Troy—”
“I don’t wanna talk about it.”
Tanner wanted to say tough shit because they needed to talk about it, but that battle could wait until they weren’t in the truck. So could the talk about getting caught in a girl’s bedroom. “School okay?”
He got a barely lifted shoulder.
“You turn in your research paper for English that was due today?”
Another shoulder lift.
“Help me out here,” Tanner said. “Is that yes, no, or go to hell?”
Troy let out a breath. Like maybe Tanner was a colossal pain in his ass. “I turned the paper in,” he said.
“And?” Tanner asked.
“And what?”
“Did you get a passing grade?”
“Dunno yet.”
Tanner started to pull away from the curb and then realized Lucille had come out of her gallery. She headed around the truck toward the driver side. Tanner slid Troy a look. “Anything you want to tell me?”
Troy apparently pleaded the fifth because he remained silent.
With no other choice except to remain parked or run Lucille over—which was a little too tempting—Tanner waited until she’d cleared the front of the truck to roll his window down.
She was so short that he could barely see her.
“Hi there!” she chirped, going up on her tiptoes to look into the cab. She winked at Troy. “You tell him?”
Tanner slid a look at Troy. “Tell me what?”
The kid shook his head.
“Eh?” Lucille cupped a hand around her ear. “Speak up, boy. You know I’m old as dirt.”
“I didn’t tell him,” Troy mumbled.
“Well, why not?” Lucille turned to Tanner. “He got himself a part in the school play. The lead in Romeo and Juliet.”
Tanner went brows up. “You tried out for the school play?” he asked Troy.
Troy slouched in his seat.
Lucille laughed. “He did it because Brittney’s going to be Juliet. Tell him, Troy.”
Troy closed his eyes.
“He needed help catching the girl,” Lucille said. “My specialty.” She peered up at Tanner. “You’re next.”
“What?”
“You’re due,” she said.
“Due for what?” he asked warily.
“To get the girl.” She grinned. “You need a lot of help but you’re not ready to ask. No worries, I’m invested in this one since it’s my granddaughter we’re talking about.”
Tanner opened his mouth—to say what, he hadn’t the foggiest clue—but Lucille tapped the side of the truck. “Whelp, have a great evening, boys.”
And then she walked off.
Tanner turned to eyeball Troy. “Romeo?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Is Brittney the girl you made the heart in the sand for?”
Nothing.
“Is she the girl whose mother is going to call me about your visit?”
A very weighted, very loaded silence.
The list of things the kid didn’t want to talk about was getting longer by the minute. And the tension in the truck cab was ratcheting up.
“It’s not what you think,” Troy said tightly in a tone that suggested he didn’t expect to be believed but desperately wanted just that.
Tanner knew that was Troy feeling backed into a corner—a bad place for a teenager. Trying to lighten the mood, he said, “You get to kiss the girl in the play, right?”
Troy blinked and then…grinned. The kid actually grinned.
Tanner soaked up the beautiful sight and put the truck in gear. Some things were worth waiting for, he supposed. He drove them home and turned to Troy. “We still have something to discuss.”
Troy sank into his seat again, crossing his arms. He couldn’t have looked more defensive if he’d tried. “Nothing to talk about. People get disappointed all the time, it’s just a fact. Grandma’s disappointed I’m not a little kid that she can dote on. Mom’s disappointed she had me. The color purple sucks. Life goes on.”
Tanner stared at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you want to discuss being disappointed in me for being in the play over football? Or getting caught sneaking around?”
“Okay, now wait a minute—” But Tanner was talking to air because the kid was already half out the door. Tanner snagged him by the back of his sweatshirt. “Not so fast.”
“I’ve got homework.”
“Which you don’t give a shit about,” Tanner said. “Talk to me. Grandma loves you from your head to your fifteen-year-old punk smartass. Your mom loves you. I love you—and for the record, I always have, always will. And what the hell does the color purple have to do with anything?”
Troy sighed and let his head fall back against the seat. “Don’t try to tell me that the football thing didn’t hurt.”
“We already discussed this.” Tanner looked around to see if he’d stepped into some weird time warp, but nope, it was just him and the kid. And the kid was…well, it was a little bit like looking in a mirror circa his high school years. Still, he was definitely missing a couple of pieces to this puzzle. “Okay,” he said, “because I’m feeling a little out of the loop and a whole lot