“Tanner’s done a great job with Tatum!” Talia’s vehement defensiveness surprised her.
“Tatum seems to think you think he’s too controlling.”
“Well, to a sixteen-year-old he was, of course. Most parents are, aren’t they? And don’t get me wrong. My brother has faults. Maddening ones. But in his own way, he’s the best parent any kid could hope to have. Besides, he’s her flesh and blood. And no one adores her more than he does.”
“You seem pretty fond of her yourself.”
“I am.” Talia’s voice softened. “Tatum’s birth was like this little piece of heaven in our lives. I was nine going on ten when she was born and it was like I’d just outgrown my baby dolls and then had one in real life. Tanner let me help with her from the very beginning. And then I grew up and started wanting a baby of my own. Almost as much as I wanted away from Tammy. I didn’t understand how Tanner could put up with her. With the constant tension of not knowing when she’d show up, who’d she have with her or what state she’d be in. I get it now, of course. He couldn’t leave without us and Tammy wouldn’t let him take us with him. Until...suddenly when I was sixteen, she did. Just like that.”
“You don’t know why?”
“Tanner said something about her having met someone who wanted her to go on the road with him, and with Tatum no longer being a baby she thought Tanner could handle us kids, but I knew at the time he was lying to me. He wouldn’t look me in the eye the whole time he was giving Thomas and me his story. But I also knew he wasn’t going to tell us the real reason.
“Besides, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. For sure, I didn’t care. I was just glad to know that she was going to be gone forever.”
That had been when he’d overheard Tammy offering up Talia in the shower for a hundred bucks. He’d said it would be his word against Tammy’s if he pressed charges, but he’d probably have won. He’d also have had to let Talia know what had nearly happened. She’d have found out how little her mother valued her. He’d threatened Tammy with court. And he’d won.
“But then, a few weeks later I met Rex and everything fell apart.”
And now Tatum had Del, and Tanner’s life was being obliterated again.
It wasn’t Sedona’s job to care about that.
But she did care. A lot. Which meant that her time was up.
She had some decisions to make.
Or other people did.
She couldn’t go on representing Tatum without letting the Malones know that she wasn’t impartial anymore.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TANNER GOT THE painting done. The white trim took a couple of hours and looked good. Tatum’s paint-color call had been a good one.
Standing out in the yard, just left of the driveway, he turned around and surveyed his work, trying to see it through his sister’s eyes the next time she rounded the corner and pulled up to her home.
She was going to love it. And he should have done it a long time ago. Years ago. When she’d first asked.
The porch was the first thing you saw when you came onto the property. The first thing that had greeted her every day when she got home from school.
But it wasn’t too late. Tatum was fifteen. They still had three more years of homecomings. At least.
It wasn’t like he was kicking her out on her eighteenth birthday. She could live at home for the rest of her life if she wanted to.
After college, that was. He couldn’t back down on his insistence that Tatum have the means to support herself if and when the need ever arose. And not just support herself, but to be able to do so in a field she’d chosen, that the aptitude tests said she’d be good at, so that she didn’t ever need to think about reverting to Tammy’s means of support.
He stood there alone and, for a moment, felt completely lost. No one was there, needing him.
And for the first time since he’d bought the place, the old farm didn’t feel like home to him. It felt like a prison.
Where had he gone wrong?
Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he called Talia. But not before he’d done enough of a self-check to know that he could handle the conversation in a manner that wouldn’t upset her. He wasn’t going to fail her again.
“Tanner? What’s wrong?” Talia picked up on his first ring. Almost as though she’d been holding the phone. It was early yet—just past five.
Pacing in the big yard that he mowed regularly, but had never manicured, he had a thought about sod. About how the green would look against the yellow and white that now graced the front of the house.
“Why does something have to be wrong every time I call?”
“I don’t know.” The comeback was quick, but held none of its usual sharpness. “Why is it that you only call when something’s wrong?”
She had him there.
Until now.
“Well, nothing’s wrong.” That wasn’t entirely true. It felt as if pretty much everything was wrong. But that wasn’t why he’d phoned.
“I want to make a suggestion,” he said, watching the blades of crabgrass mix with dirt as he crushed them with his shoes. “An offer, if you will, but I don’t want to piss you off.”
“You don’t piss me off, Tanner, and that’s no way to talk, anyway. You make me angry sometimes, but today, you’re pretty much off the hook, so shoot.”
That worried him. With a frown he asked, “Why am I off the hook today?”
“Because I’m in a good mood.”
Could life really be that simple?
Steeling himself for her anger, he said, “I’d like to pay for you to go to college,” he said. “You can study wherever you want, whatever you want. I just...I’d like to give you that.”
He’d offered before. She’d told him to quit trying to live her life for her.
“You don’t have to do that, Tanner.”
“I’m not asking you to quit your job.” He said the words quickly before he choked on them. Because while he knew full well now that he had no convincing powers left where she was concerned, he wanted, more than just about anything other than for Tatum to come home, for Talia to quit that job.
“Glad to hear it.”
Was the sarcasm back? If so, she was managing to rein it in a bit.
“I just want you to have other options in the wings if you ever want them.”
“What options do you have?”
Why was everything coming back on him today? First Sedona, now Talia. He was fine. Always had been.
“I have the winery,” he said, very clearly. And with all the confidence in the world. Because he knew the words to be true. “The grapes are coming in better than ever. I have more customers than I can supply. And my own wine is...not bad.” He finished the last with a bit of a smile. Remembering Sedona’s first sip—the look on her face.
And then he heard Talia’s question again. What options do you have? And he said, “I have the option to ask you to accept my gift, or to spend the next ten years worrying about your future.” He gave her the honest answer, and he wasn’t even sure why. Perhaps it was because Sedona had been asking him too many questions. Making him think too much. And he wasn’t sure he’d made all the right choices in the past.
“I don’t need your help, Tanner.”
“I understand that you don’t think so now, but―”
“No, big brother, what I’m telling you is that I don’t need your help because I’ve been going to college since you... Well, for a year now. It turns out I got some funds from my divorce from Donald...I know, I owe you a huge chunk since you bought him off to begin with, but I’m in my sophomore year at UNLV.
“I wasn’t going to tell you about it until I graduated and could start paying you back, but I’m actually thinking about making a change and I have to run it by y
ou first.”
Tanner stopped in his tracks. He glanced at his phone screen, as though he needed to see Talia’s name and number there to convince himself that he was really speaking with her.
She’d been planning to speak with him? When? Talia’s calls in his direction, other than lately regarding Tatum, were pretty much...nonexistent.
As the questions toppled over themselves in his mind, not the least of which was what she was studying, he said, “So run it by me.”
“I’ve been attending class part-time because, with working full-time, I wanted to have enough time to get the 4.0 I’m capable of....”
As if from above, looking down on himself, Tanner saw himself glance at his phone again. And half expected to wake from a dream. How many times in the past ten years had he willed Talia to...just call him even. And now she was telling him she was in school with a 4.0?
Feeling as though he was in the twilight zone, he tuned back in to what she was saying. Just in case it was real. “So I was thinking, if I cut my living expenses down to, say, nil, then I could work part-time, at something that made a bit less money, like maybe a salesclerk in a high-end department store, which would not only provide me with some income, but also fulfill some of my internship hours required to graduate.”
Tanner made it to a tree, slid down and let it prop his back.
“What’s your major?”
“Fashion design. I can work as a buyer for any high-end chain, or, if I’m lucky, get on with a designer, until I can sell some designs of my own. I’ve already got a guy here in Vegas who likes some of my stuff and...”
The enthusiasm in her voice filled places that had been empty for so long. After a bit, she asked, “You still there?”
“Of course. I’m listening to every word,” he said, surprised to hear his voice sounding so strong. So sure. Talia had always loved clothes. Makeup. Jewelry. All things girlie. And it had scared the shit out of him. Because all of those things made her beauty stand out more—which made her prey to creeps like Donald, her ex-husband. And too much temptation to resist for weak men like Rex Chelshire.
“The only problem is, there’s only one place I can think of where I could live rent-free....”
Here it came. She was going to move in with some creep. Be his sugar baby, or whatever the hell they called young girls who shacked up with old guys these days. Again. First Rex, then Donald and now...
“Where is that?” he asked, because he’d told her he’d listen and he would. He’d accept her choice, too. Because he wanted her in his life and understood now that the only way that was going to happen was if he accepted who she was.
God knew, he loved her, no matter who or what she was. “Seriously?” Her chuckle was odd. He couldn’t tell if she was insulted, or making fun of him.
“I was thinking I could move home, Tanner. I’ve already checked and I can transfer to UC without losing any credits. I could start the summer semester. It would be a commute, but nothing I can’t handle.” Her voice was dry.
His reaction was not.
For the second time in a week he felt tears pushing at his eyelids.
If he wasn’t careful, tough guy Tanner Malone was going to go to hell in a handbasket.
* * *
SEDONA HAD DINNER with her folks Saturday night. When she’d called, after her talk with Talia, they’d been getting ready to go to their regular Saturday night spot that overlooked the water, and she’d invited herself along. Over taco salad, she’d talked to them about Grady. About her concern that her brother was settling for less in his quest to have the most. She’d told her parents, in no uncertain terms, what she thought of Brooke.
And her mother, in her usual calm way, smiled and said nothing.
Her father, on the other hand, suggested that she might want to try to be a little more forgiving. By allowing mistakes in others and in herself, he’d said, she became human. And without the ability to allow them, she’d never be able to fully love someone.
It was the most philosophical he’d ever been with her.
And the look in his eye told her he hadn’t been kidding.
Sedona had left them in the parking lot feeling more like a recalcitrant kid who’d been called to task than a successful lawyer with her own private practice, and she wasn’t even sure what she’d done wrong.
At home, she changed into silk lounge pants and the softest T-shirt she owned, poured herself a glass of wine and settled on the deck with Ellie. She was physically tired. But she was mentally exhausted.
It should have surprised her when she heard a truck in her driveway. But it didn’t. Nor did she bother getting up to greet her visitor. He’d find his way back to her.
What did surprise her was the way Ellie jumped down from her lap and moseyed her way over to the top step, peering around the corner of the porch to the side yard, wagging her tail.
It was good to know that she wasn’t the only one who was under Tanner Malone’s spell.
“It’s not anything to write home about, but the bottle’s in the fridge, and you know where the glasses are,” she said as he stepped up onto the deck. With her head against the back of her chair, she stared out at the pinks and oranges rimming the ocean. The sun would be setting soon.
“I brought a bottle,” he offered, and she finally turned to look at him. In black jeans and a white short-sleeved button-down shirt, he looked as though he was heading out on the town.
And he was holding one of his prized private-collection bottles. She’d told her dad about his wine over dinner that night—in between conversational manslaughter. As enthusiastic as the older man had been she really should call him now. Invite him over to share.
She didn’t.
Nor did she demur when Tanner returned a few minutes later, removing her mostly full wineglass to replace it with another one filled with his pinot grigio.
The man had a knack for knowing what she most wanted. And seemed willing to give it to her, too.
“I offer this in apology,” he said, holding up his own glass for a toast before he sipped. Her gaze met his as their glasses clinked, and continued to hold his as they sipped.
He broke the contact when he sat beside her. Ellie jumped into his lap, turned once and lay down. Tanner stroked the dog gently, with his free hand, but stared out at the beach beyond.
It was as though he knew, as she did, that life’s toughest answers lay out there, tumbling in the waves, just waiting to be discovered.
“I don’t like you knowing that I didn’t finish high school.”
“Labels are for people who are too stupid to see reality.”
“It’s not the label. It’s...just always been something only I knew,” he said. “I’m not ashamed. I know I’m not less of a person because I missed the last six months of high school. I’m proud of my choice. It was the right one. But it was also something I consciously chose to keep to myself. It wasn’t a big deal. And I didn’t want it to become one.”
She knew before she opened her mouth that by doing so she was becoming more than a friend to him.
“It was something that you hoarded, but that belonged to those who care about you,” she said quite deliberately. “Because it defines you. Not in terms of education or knowledge, or potential for success, but in terms of determination and loyalty, of hard choices and reliability. And it’s a pretty amazing example, too, of the old adage that you can do whatever you want to do if you put your mind to it.”
It looked as if philosophizing ran in the family that evening.
“Talia’s coming home, but then you already know that, don’t you?”
His intent look was almost too much for her. But she held on, meeting him eye to eye. “She told you I called?”
His raised brow did crazy things inside of her. “She told me she spoke to you. S
he didn’t say who initiated the conversation.”
Did she also tell Tanner how she’d interfered in their lives? Talia had told her about her plans to move home later in their conversation, after Sedona had already stuck her nose in the family’s business. “What else did she say?”
“Only to tell you hello and that she was looking forward to meeting you in person.”
His look held a question she wasn’t ready to answer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
SITTING WITH SEDONA wasn’t wise. Tanner knew he was in danger. There were too many emotions simmering just beneath his surface. He had them tamed, wasn’t really feeling them, but he knew they were there.
And if he wasn’t careful, they’d erupt into a mass of confusion and fear and desire and want and hope and need and not anything he could share with her.
But he’d had to come. To try to explain why he’d behaved so childishly that afternoon. Walking off and leaving her standing there as if she was little more than the hired help.
He’d had to come because she’d spoken with Talia. His sister was coming home and Tanner couldn’t sit quietly with the news. It was bursting through him. Tangling with everything else in there that he couldn’t control.
Like the fact that he’d lost Tatum’s trust at the most critical point of her life.
No. He studied the waves. Tried to become a part of their rhythm. He couldn’t deal with Tatum’s disillusion tonight. Tomorrow he’d go to her. Sit outside The Lemonade Stand and call her cell phone until she answered if he had to. Somehow he’d make this right.
Just not tonight. He wasn’t at his best. And Tatum didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of his own vulnerability.
For that matter, neither did Sedona.
“She’s given me a second chance and I’m afraid I’m going to mess it up,” he said now. He was asking for help.
From the only person he could think of to ask.
“Just be yourself, Tanner. She knows you. Probably better than you do sometimes. She’s coming home to you.”
“She knew me before, too.”
Once a Family Page 21
