Page 95 of Tanner

Miles moved then, sitting on the edge of the bed but leaving space between them. He didn’t crowd him and he didn’t make Tanner turn and face him either.

Tanner swallowed. “I’m sorry I ran. I’m sorry I took her out like that. I’m sorry I left that note. I’m sorry you had to come find me at a bus station because I lost my head.” Tanner gave a short, humorless laugh and shook his head. “I know how it looked.”

Miles answered without hesitation. “It looked like you panicked.”

Tanner turned to him. “That doesn’t make it any better.”

“No.” Miles kept his voice even. “It makes it true.”

He looked away first. “I shouldn’t have done it.”

“No, but you came back.”

Tanner pressed his lips together. It didn’t feel that simple. He hadn’t come back because he’d calmed down and thought it through. He’d come back because Miles had stood in front of him and kept saying the right thing.

Savannah shifted behind him, making a sleepy sound, and Tanner looked over his shoulder. She settled again with one hand still wrapped in the blanket.

“I thought they were going to take her,” he admitted.

Miles answered the way he always did when Tanner said something he thought should already be obvious. “I know.”

Tanner looked back at him. “You don’t have to keep saying that.”

“I do if you keep talking like I’m not hearing you.”

He sat there for another moment with his hands hanging between his knees. Shame was still there, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been.

“I made it worse,” he said quietly.

Miles rested his forearms on his thighs. “Maybe, but it doesn’t matter now.”

Tanner turned to him. “Doesn’t matter?”

“It happened and now we deal with what’s in front of us.”

That was such a Miles answer Tanner almost hated it on principle. He looked toward the bed where Savannah still slept. “What’s in front of us is CPS.”

“Yeah.”

“And TJ.”

“Yeah.”

“And whatever the hell comes after that.”

Miles nodded. “Yeah.”

A knock sounded at the front of the house. Miles looked toward the hall, then squeezed Tanner’s hand before getting up. Tanner heard the front door open, low voices for a moment, then the door closed again.

A minute later, the bedroom door opened a crack. “Everybody decent?” TJ asked.

Miles looked at him. “You want him to come inside?”

Everything in him still went tight when authority showed up in a doorway, but this wasn’t the night before. TJ had already been here. He had already said what he had to say.

Tanner swallowed. “Yeah.”

Miles looked toward the door. “Come in.”