Page 97 of Tanner

TJ looked at him steadily. “Straightforward, then.”

Savannah stirred before Tanner could answer. She rolled onto her back, then blinked her eyes open. She looked at Tanner first, then Miles.

“Morning, baby,” Tanner said, putting the mug on the bedside table.

She rubbed one eye with her fist. “Home?”

“Yeah.” His voice caught slightly on the word. “Home.”

Savannah sat up and reached for him. Tanner took her and pulled her into his lap. She leaned into him at once and put her head under his chin.

TJ stepped back. “I’ll get breakfast started.” He left before Savannah really noticed him.

Miles stood too. “I’m gonna wash my face.”

Tanner looked up. “You don’t have to—”

“I know.” Miles brushed Savannah’s hair back from her face. “I’m still doing it.” Then he left as well.

Tanner sat there with Savannah in his lap and the coffee cooling on the bedside table. Both men had walked out without pushing him for anything else.

Savannah yawned against his throat. “Hungry.”

That, at least, he knew how to handle. “Yeah?” He kissed the top of her head and stood. “Let’s fix that, then.”

By the time he got to the kitchen, Cody was at the stove making scrambled eggs. TJ stood at the counter with his phone and a pad of paper. Miles was pouring juice into a plastic cup. The room looked too normal for the morning they were having.

Savannah lifted her head from Tanner’s shoulder. “Juice.”

Miles held the cup up. “Already ahead of you.”

Tanner put her in the chair Cody pulled out for her. She took the cup with both hands and drank half of it straight away.

“Toast?” Cody asked her.

Savannah nodded.

Cody pointed the spatula at Tanner. “You too.”

“I’m not that hungry.”

“Didn’t ask.”

On another day Tanner might have snapped back. This morning he just took the plate Cody pushed into his hands and picked at the toast while Savannah ate eggs.

The others kept the conversation light while she was there. Cody asked if she wanted strawberries. Miles found a clean spoon because she had decided she wanted that instead of the fork. TJ stepped into the hall to take a call and came back looking tighter around the mouth, but he said nothing in front of her.

Tanner noticed anyway. He also noticed Miles watching him too.

When Savannah slid off the chair and wandered into the living room looking for her rabbit, everything changed.

TJ put his phone on the counter. “I spoke to the caseworker’s office.”

Tanner froze. “You did?”

“They can meet this afternoon,” TJ said. “Two o’clock.”

Tanner stared at him. “Today?”