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Savannah ran toward him at pickup with a paper painting clutched in both hands. She was smiling wide enough to show every tooth she had, and Tanner couldn’t help but smile back at her.

“I made this,” she said.

Tanner crouched to take it ignoring the twinge in his back from lifting heavy objects. It had been worth it as he now had thirty dollars. “You did.”

“And I had snack and a story and Mia cried.”

Tanner glanced up in time to see Laura approach with the same polite smile she’d worn that morning.

“She had a good first session,” Laura said. “A little quiet at first, but she settled well.”

“That’s good.”

Laura nodded. “If you can just bring in the guardianship documents when you have them, we’ll finish off the file and get everything properly updated. I’ll send a message so you have a reminder on your phone.”

There it was again. Tanner’s problem.

Tanner kept his face neutral. “Yeah. I’m sorting it out.”

“Perfect.” She smiled at Savannah. “See you next time.”

Tanner took Savannah’s hand and headed home, the paper painting held carefully in his other hand. Yellow swirls. Brown lines. A shape that might have been a house if he looked at it from the right angle. He’d hang it up because Savannah had made it.

Savannah chattered the whole way home. About crayons. About a girl named Mia. About the rabbit crackers at snack time. Tanner answered where he had to and kept his eyes ahead. By the time they reached the house, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

Pulling it out he saw the message was from the preschool.

Hi Tanner. When you get a chance, could you bring in the guardianship documents for Savannah’s file? Thank you.

He stood outside the front door then locked the phone without replying, put it back in his pocket, and opened the door.

Chapter Thirteen

By the time Miles pulled up outside Cody and TJ’s place, the yard was already busy. Two cars lined the curb, and a truck sat in the driveway. Music drifted from the back yard, and the smell of food hit him the second he got out. He shut the truck door and headed through the side gate, scanning the yard before he could stop himself.

Cody stood by the grill with tongs in one hand and a bottle of water in the other, acting as if feeding this many people was no effort at all. TJ was beside him with a plate of buns, telling him he was doing it wrong. Neither of them sounded serious.

“You’re late,” Cody called.

Miles glanced at his watch. “By all of three minutes.”

“That’s late.”

“TJ, are you hearing this?”

TJ looked over and grinned. “Ignore him.”

Miles snorted and reached for a beer from the patio table. “Need any help?”

Cody held out the tongs. “You can take over.”

“No.”

“Coward.”

“Correct.”

Behind them, one of the kids shrieked with laughter. Miles turned in time to see Cassie tear across the grass with Arthur chasing after her with a water gun. Christian, now two, sat in a plastic chair with a bowl of chips and a bottle of fruit juice. Macy sat on Lincoln’s lap, eating fruit and feeding him between bites. He took it all with the patient look of an older brother used to being fussed over by his little sister. Near the fence, Carter stood talking to Toni, TJ’s ex-wife and now Carter’s wife, while both of them kept one eye on the kids.