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“Oh.”

Miles slipped the keys into his pocket. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

Tanner hated the part of himself that needed to ask the next question, but he asked it anyway. “You will?”

Miles looked at him for a second. “Yeah.” Miles stepped closer, crouched a little, and looked at Savannah. “I’m borrowing your Tanny for a meeting later. You keep an eye on him till then.”

Savannah considered that seriously. “Okay.”

Miles touched the top of her head lightly and straightened. At the door, he looked back at Tanner.

“We’re handling it,” he said, then he left.

Tanner stood in the kitchen with Savannah pressed against his leg and the paper still on the counter in front of him. Two o’clock. A name. A room. A process that had stopped being something he could avoid by not looking at it.

Savannah tugged at his shirt and held the rabbit up. “He needs breakfast too.”

He picked Savannah up and kissed her temple. “Alright,” he said. “We do this.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Miles parked outside the family services building ten minutes early and switched off the engine. The place sat back from the road behind a low fence with a narrow strip of grass out front and a sign that had probably once been white. It was one of those buildings designed to look harmless.

Tanner sat beside him with both hands locked around a folder that held everything they’d managed to pull together. Birth certificate. Clinic card. School forms. The photocopies TJ had told him to bring. He hadn’t said much since they’d left the house. Savannah was in the back in her car seat, swinging one foot and humming while she held her rabbit by one ear.

Miles glanced at Tanner. “You want another minute?”

Tanner stared through the windshield. “No.”

TJ pulled into the space beside them a few seconds later and got out with a folder under one arm. He’d left the uniform jacket at the station on purpose and was wearing plain clothes instead. Sheriff or not, the badge still sat on his belt. Tanner noticed it the second TJ came into view and his grip on the papers tightened.

Miles got out and opened the back door for Savannah. “You ready, sweetheart?”

Savannah held up the rabbit. “He ready.”

Miles nodded. “Good.

She let him unclip her and slid into his arms without fuss. Tanner was already out by then, shutting his own door harder than he meant to. TJ came around the hood of his truck and slowed when he reached them.

“You alright?” TJ asked Tanner.

Tanner looked at him for a second. “No.”

TJ nodded. “You can do this.”

Miles shifted Savannah higher on his hip. “We going in?”

Tanner dragged a hand over his mouth and nodded.

In the waiting room, a receptionist sat behind glass tapping at a keyboard. She looked up when they came in and gave them the professional smile people give. “Can I help you?”

TJ stepped in before Tanner had to answer. “We’re here for the 2pm with Ms. Palmer.”

The woman checked the screen. “Tanner Fernsby?” Tanner nodded once. She looked at Savannah next, then back to the keyboard. “If you’d like to take a seat, she’ll be right out.”

Miles carried Savannah to the chairs and sat with her on his knee. Tanner took the seat beside him but stayed forward on the edge instead of sitting back. TJ sat on Tanner’s other side and put his folder on his lap. Nobody spoke for a minute.

Savannah leaned against Miles and whispered, “This doctor?”