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“About what?” I ask, showing the annoyance that I’m feeling.
“My youngest son has a heart of gold. Out of all of my sons, he loves the absolute hardest. For years, he’s talked about wanting to find the right woman and put down some roots. I worry that maybe he’s so eager to skip to the end that he’s just settling.”
Okay, now, I feel quite offended. “Yes, Tammie, I have three kids, but that doesn’t mean that I’musingyour son or just trying to get something out of it. I don’t need him to be my sugar daddy or something.”
She laughs. “It’s not thesugarpart I worry about. It’s thedaddy.”
“My kids have a father,” I defend. “I’m not looking for someone to fill that role. As far as I’m concerned, my kids can never have enough people who care about them.”
“Just be sure that you are bringing the right kind of people around your kids. Just because they claim to have good intentions doesn’t mean they do.”
I shake my head, trying to wrap my head around what she’s trying to say. “So, should I be worried about your son around my kids or not? Because one second, you’re defending him, and the next, you’re telling me to watch my back.”
She sighs. “Darlin’, I love my son. Believe me when I say that I made every mistake in the book while raising him. That includes bringing around a whole lot of guys who had no intention of sticking around.”
“You don’t think your son will stick around?”
“I think he will do his best. I think either he will regret his decision and eventually walk away, or he will stay because he’s a good man, but it would lead to him eventually resenting you.”
Before I can say anything else, I hear Tanner’s voice. Our conversation was so heated that I didn’t even hear him come in. “Neither of those things is going to happen.”
He walks over and puts his arm around my waist before continuing. “Here’s how this is going to go. I love this woman. She’s part of my life now. You can either jump on board with that and put on a smile, or you can get used to the fact that I won’t come around as much.”
“Tanner, I’m just saying—”
“No, Momma. You’ve said enough. Come on, Erin. Let’s go say bye to Avery and Duke and get out of here.”
The truck ride is another quiet one. I knew Tammie wasn’t going to be a fan of mine, but I didn’t think she would corner me and try to convince me how terrible of an idea this whole thing is.
I’m so preoccupied in my own thoughts that I don’t even realize until Tanner parks the truck that we aren’t at my house.
“Where are we?” I ask.
“I thought it was about time you saw my place.” He smiles at me.
“Oh, okay.”
He leads me inside, and my jaw drops. The only way I can describe it is a nerd’s paradise. There’s framed posters all over the walls, a huge shelf with movies and music, and a gaming computer with a fancy chair. My thirteen-year-old would never want to leave this place.
“Wow,” I say.
It suddenly hits me that this man is only twenty-five. No matter how mature he may seem, Tanner is only twenty-five, and he’s living exactly like a twenty-five-year-old should.
And I’m asking him to take on a mom and her three kids. That’s a hell of a burden for someone.
Tanner notices my change in demeanor and says, “Hey, what’s wrong? Are you not happy that I brought you here?”
“No, I love that you brought me here. But it’s just making me think that maybe we are in different places in our lives.”
He looks taken back. “What the hell does that mean?”
“I mean, I’m doing the mom thing, and you’re living inside of a Best Buy.” I start pacing around the room. “Maybe this is just the final nail in the coffin of why this whole thing is a bad idea.”
He holds his hand up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. You’re going to have to back up ten steps. What were the firstnails in the coffin?”
“Number one, Judd. Number two, your mother. Both of them seem to be determined to make sure this thing fails.”
“Erin, one of them is your ex-husband who I’m pretty sure is going to hate anything you do regardless of what it is. And the other one is my mother—a woman who suddenly wants to find her maternal instinct when her kids are grown and out of the house. She’s trying to make up for all of her shitty decisions. I don’t put weight in either of what those two people say.”
