Page 110 of Tanner

Orsen nodded at him. “Tomorrow, too.”

Tanner held his gaze, then nodded back. “Yeah.”

After they left, the house felt quiet again. Savannah had finally crashed out after dinner. Tanner put her to bed and came back down slower than usual, tired showing.

Miles was in the kitchen rinsing out the last two mugs when Tanner stopped in the doorway.

“They meant it,” Tanner said.

Miles looked over. “Yeah.”

Tanner glanced around the room. “People always say they’ll help. Most of them don’t.”

Miles dried his hands and leaned back against the counter. “These ones do.”

Tanner looked at him for a second, then nodded. “Yeah.”

Later, when the house was quiet and Tanner had gone to check on Savannah one more time before bed, Miles stood alone in the kitchen and looked around properly. This wasn’t a fling he could keep separate from the rest of his life. He wasn’t just choosing Tanner. He was choosing him and everything that came with him, and for the first time that thought didn’t make him step back. It made him realize he wanted it all.

Chapter Thirty

The day before the case was the worst kind of day for Tanner because there was nothing left to scrub or sort or fix without inventing jobs that didn’t need doing. The folder was ready. Mrs. Hemsworth’s letter was inside it. Savannah’s things were packed in case anyone asked for anything extra, though he knew that part made no sense. Even the kitchen stayed clean, because he’d already wiped it down twice.

Savannah was on the floor in the living room, building a crooked tower from plastic blocks while a cartoon played low on the television. Miles sat at the table with paperwork spread out in front of him, not because there was more to do, but because he was giving Tanner room without leaving him alone.

That should have helped, but Tanner could feel himself winding tighter with every hour that passed.

He went to the window again and looked out at the street, seeing nothing that could distract him from his own thoughts.

“Sit down,” Miles said from the table.

Tanner turned. “I am sitting down.”

“No, you’re wearing a path in front of the curtain.”

Tanner stared at him, then looked at the floorboards under his own feet and realized he had, in fact, gone back to the same stretch of room over and over.

Savannah added another block to the tower and announced, “Big.”

“Very big,” Miles told her.

Tanner rubbed a hand over his face and sat on the arm of the sofa. That lasted maybe twenty seconds before he got up again.

Miles watched him. “You want to say it or keep pacing?”

“There’s nothing to say.”

“That’s not true.”

Tanner stopped near the doorway. “Tomorrow they get to decide.”

Miles put the papers down. “They get to confirm what’s already been happening.”

“That’s not better.”

“It’s more accurate.”

Tanner snorted. “You always do that.”