Page 74 of Tanner

He folded the letter too and put it down. “What?”

“You said minute.” He stared at her and she stared back with that direct little frown she got when she thought he was the one being unreasonable.

Tanner crouched, took the broken crayon from her, and clicked the two pieces together as though that would fix it. “Use dark green.”

“I wanted this one.”

“Use dark green,” he repeated, hearing the rough edge in his own voice.

Savannah’s mouth trembled.

He shut his eyes and forced himself to breathe. “Sorry.” He opened his eyes, stood and opened the drawer where the crayons were kept now. “Here.”

She took the other crayon and looked up at him. “You sad?”

“No.” She kept looking so Tanner made himself soften his face. “No, baby. I’m okay.”

Savannah went back to the table, but she kept glancing over after that.

He picked the letter up again and read it again. Read it once more. This time he noticed the date properly. Four days away.

Four days.

Four days until strangers walked through the house and decided whether he was enough. Four days until someone stood in Savannah’s room and looked at her bed and her clothes and her toys and decided whether a nineteen-year-old with no legal standing should be allowed to keep the only person he’d ever run for.

His mind didn’t race. It went blank and then his body took over. He was moving before the thought fully formed. Upstairs first.

Savannah’s room. Backpack. Clothes. Underwear. Socks. Pajamas. Her rabbit from the bed. The blanket she still dragged around when she was tired. He opened drawers fast and shoved things in. He crossed to his own room and dragged out the holdall from under the bed. Jeans. T-shirts. Hoodie. Cash tin from the wardrobe shelf. The envelope of papers from the shoe box at the back.

Downstairs, he grabbed chargers from the wall. Wallet from the counter. House keys.

He was halfway through the second sweep of the kitchen before Savannah said, “Why you got bags?”

He froze long enough to turn.

She was standing by the table now, her little face pinched with confusion, a purple crayon still in one hand.

Tanner made his mouth smile even while inside all he felt was turmoil. “We’re going on a little trip.”

Her brow furrowed. “Now?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because.” He grabbed her water bottle from the draining board and shoved it into the side pocket of the backpack. “Because I said so.”

Savannah stayed where she was. That was worse than if she’d cried.

Tanner put the bag down and crouched in front of her. “Hey.”

“Where we going?”

“Just away for a bit.”

She looked over his shoulder at the open holdall on the counter. “Why?”

His smile started to crack so he kissed her cheek. “Just a little trip, sweetie.”