Page 112 of Tanner

Tanner’s jaw tightened. “That sounds easy when you say it.”

“It’s not easy, Tanner, but it’s what we should do.”

Tanner looked past him toward the living room where Savannah was singing to herself over the blocks. “I’m tired.”

Miles nodded once. “I know.”

“No.” Tanner met his eyes again. “I’m tired of waiting for the next thing to hit. Tired of people saying it’ll be alright when they don’t know that. Tired of starting to…” He stopped.

Miles didn’t move. “Starting to what?”

Tanner laughed under his breath, but there was no humor in it. “See? That’s the part I shouldn’t do.”

“What part?”

Tanner looked at him properly then, because there was no point trying to dodge it anymore. Not with tomorrow right there. “Starting to trust any of this,” he said quietly. “You. Them. The house staying calm for more than five minutes. Good things. Any of it.” He dragged in a breath. “Because they don’t last. That’s the whole point. They don’t.”

Tanner had wanted Miles from the start. The problem now was that it wasn’t only want anymore. It had become deeper than that.

Miles watched him. “You think saying it out loud makes it safer when it goes bad.”

“Maybe.”

“Does it?”

Tanner gave the smallest shake of his head. “No.”

Savannah appeared in the doorway holding two blocks and her rabbit by one ear. “Hungry.”

Tanner blinked, then smiled at her. “You’re always hungry.”

“Yes,” she agreed.

Miles took the blocks from her before she dropped them. “Apple or crackers?”

“Both.”

“Greedy.”

Savannah grinned.

Tanner watched Miles take her to the counter, watched him slice the apple, watched Savannah stand on tiptoe and steal a cracker before he’d finished. Something inside him made him speak before he could stop himself.

“I love you.”

Miles stopped with the knife in his hand. Savannah kept eating, one cracker already half gone. Tanner stood by the counter and felt every part of himself lock at once because there it was now, out in the open, and he couldn’t take it back or soften it or pretend it had meant something else.

He looked down at the counter between them. “I wasn’t going to say it like that.”

Miles put the knife down carefully. “I know,” he said.

Tanner nodded, his face burning. “Right.”

Savannah reached for another cracker. Miles moved the plate closer to her, then looked back at Tanner. He came over then and stopped next to Tanner. “I heard you,” Miles said.

That made Tanner’s throat tighten. He looked up at him at last. “You don’t have to say anything back.”

Miles held his eyes. “I know.” Miles kissed him softly and smiled.