“Sure. See you then.” But Summer couldn’t stand to be inside her house, with her silent phone. So she pulled on a jacket, made sure she had everything she needed for work, and got in her car. She navigated to Tanner’s apartment building and parked across the street. The Chinese restaurant was a couple of blocks away, and Summer walked the distance there.
A large park sat kitty-corner to the restaurant, and she started through the trees that had started to lose their leaves. Mothers with small children enjoyed the fall sunshine, and Summer smiled at the innocence and carefree nature of the scene. If only her insides would stop churning like she’d swallowed a food processor.
She checked her phone. No texts. No calls. Not time for lunch. She sat on a bench and closed her eyes, letting the sound of the breeze, the calls of children, the rumble of traffic enter her soul.
Please let him call, she prayed. Surely the Lord had more important things to do than prompt a rodeo champion to call his girlfriend, but Summer couldn’t help the plea. She believed God cared about her, cared about her life, as mundane as it may be.
Tanner didn’t call. She got up and retraced her steps back to the Chinese restaurant. Belinda pulled in just as Summer stepped onto the curb, and she went to help her friend with her baby.
“I got his bag.” She lifted the diaper bag out of the backseat. Belinda thanked her as she unstrapped Oliver from the car seat. She straightened and met Summer’s eye over the top of the sedan.
“What’s wrong?”
Summer sighed. “What makes you think something’s wrong?”
“You look like you haven’t slept.” Belinda came around the car. “You’re out in public without mascara on.”
Summer rolled her eyes. “I don’t always wear mascara.”
“Yes, you do. You even told Margie it was the only makeup that was essential to leave the house.”
So maybe she’d said that. Once. A long time ago. She started toward the entrance. “Tanner went to Colorado Springs, right?”
“Right.” Belinda spoke with caution.
“He was supposed to text me when he got there. Call me when I got off work. I haven’t heard from him.”
They entered the restaurant, where a small crowd of people had gathered for lunch. They joined the line before Belinda said, “You know what you should do? Go to Colorado Springs.”
Summer reached for Oliver and took him from Belinda as a way to distract herself. “We’ve been over this. I can’t get the time off.”
“Tomorrow’s your day off, right?”
“Right.” Now Summer infused a bit of caution into her voice. Where was Belinda going with this? Did she really think Summer could get to Colorado Springs—a six-hour drive—and back in one day?
“So you leave in the morning. Meet up with him for lunch and dinner and breakfast, and come home the following day.”
“I have to work that following day.”
“So you’ll call in sick. What will Doctor Brady do?”
“It’ll make him short-staffed.” Summer shook her head, dissatisfied with the plan. “I can’t do that to him. It’s not fair.”
“He’ll call around to the other nurses and see who can come in.” Belinda nudged her. “And lucky you! I’ll be available. I’ll cover your shift.” Belinda grinned like she’d just solved global warming or achieved world peace. She lifted her eyebrows, waiting. “So?”
Summer met her friend’s eye with hope blooming, billowing, bouncing through her system. “But you hate working more than two days a week.”
Belinda sobered, her dancing green eyes softening with compassion. “I’d do it for you.”
Summer shrieked and wrapped her free arm around her friend. “Thank you, Belinda.”
“Just one day, though,” she said. “So you better not sleep in tomorrow like you do. You get up nice and early and hit the road.” She smiled, the years of their friendship seeping between them. “Now, the real question is whether I should get the honey coconut shrimp or the sweet and sour chicken.” She tipped her head back to study the menu.
“Should I call him?” Summer asked as she contemplated the menu too.
“Oh, make it a surprise,” Belinda said just before stepping up to the counter and ordering the spicy peanut chicken.
*
Summer worked, and slept, and got up early just like she’d promised. She packed an overnight bag, filled her car with gas, and queued up the map app on her phone. She didn’t have his address, but she’d called Brynn Greene on her break the night before and gotten theirs.
She pulled into their driveway as the sun started to brighten the sky into yellows and golds. After knocking tentatively on the door, Brynn answered with Ethan coming out of the hallway behind her.
“Sorry it’s so early,” she said. “You could’ve texted me.”
“Ethan was worried.” Brynn glanced behind her, worry evident in the set of her mouth.
“I can’t get ahold of anyone,” he said. “Not his mom, his brother, him.” He sighed. “Tanner’s address and phone number are unlisted, obviously. I know he lives in a gated community somewhere. I managed to find his mom’s address using her phone number.” He handed her a slip of paper. “Summer, let us know what’s goin’ on, would you?”
She nodded as she absorbed the address written on the paper. “Do you think something’s happened?”
“It’s not like Tanner not to answer his phone,” Ethan said. “Well, that’s not true. It’s totally like Tanner to ignore my calls. But yours?” He gazed at her with more wisdom in his eyes than she liked. She and Tanner had spent several evenings together with Brynn and Ethan. She’d become friends with them, but she wasn’t sure how much Tanner had told his old rodeo pal.
“I’ll let you know,” she said, biting back the words she wanted to tell Ethan. She couldn’t admit to him and Brynn that she loved Tanner. She hadn’t even told him that yet, and he should be the first to know.
She put the address in her phone and headed north. Just under six hours later, the sun shone brightly overhead, though the temperature in the air hardly accounted for it. Colorado Springs seemed peaceful. A normal day in a normal city.
Easing into the driveway of the house where her map app had led her, she saw the garage door was open and a car was parked inside. That tricky hope rebounded from her gut to her throat and back.
She knocked and waited, rewarded when Tanner’s mother opened the door. She looked a decade older than Summer remembered and she wore a pair of jeans and a jacket.
“Mrs. Wolf,” she said. “I’m Summer Hamblin, the nurse who worked with your son, Tanner. Do you remember me?”
The woman blinked, recognition finally lighting her eyes. “Yes, of course. Are you looking for Tanner?”
Summer lifted her phone. “I can’t seem to get ahold of him. I got your address from his friend, Ethan Greene.”
The woman pulled the throat of her jacket closed and said, “Come in. It’s cold outside.”
Summer entered the house, sweeping it for signs of Tanner though she knew he had his own place in town. “Have you seen Tanner?”
“Yes, yes.” She bustled into the kitchen. “He’s at the hospital.”
Alarm made Summer reach for the back of the couch to steady herself. “The hospital? Why’s he at the hospital?”
“It’s okay,” his mother said. “Kamry is with him. She said she’d call if anything changed. I just couldn’t sit there all day again today.”
The interior of the house swam in darkness. Summer blinked, trying to clear her vision, trying to make the woman’s words make sense. She was aware of Tanner’s mother making tea and offering her some, but she sat on the couch—when had she sat on the couch?—and shook her head.
Tanner was in the hospital. Had been for a couple of days. And instead of calling her, he had someone named Kamry there with him. An in-town girlfriend?
Was she his out-of-town girlfriend?
Did he have a girlfriend in every city he
visited?
She hated the distrustful feelings, the roaring envy, she felt rising through her, suffocating her. “I should go,” she said as calmly as she could. She tested her weight on her legs and they held. “Thank you so much, Mrs. Wolf.”
She escaped the house and had made it halfway down the sidewalk to her car when Mrs. Wolf called, “I just got a text,” she said. “They went to The Red Door for lunch.”
Summer turned and said, “Thanks,” before hurrying to her car and backing out of the driveway as fast as she dared. She pulled over once a few blocks away and stared out the windshield.
Tanner went to lunch with Kamry? After being in the hospital?
“Nothing makes sense,” she said. She flipped the car into drive. But she knew where she needed to go to get answers.
She pulled into the parking lot of The Red Door twenty minutes later. Her heart thundered in her chest, but she’d come this far.
Be brave, she told herself. She fisted her fingers, the anger she’d kept at bay surging now, and marched toward the entrance. The parking lot seemed fairly full for a weekday lunch crowd, and as soon as she entered, she knew she’d come to a ritzy, expensive establishment. Yellow lights hung above the tables and a man in a suit met her at the podium.
“Just one today, or is your party already here?”
“I’m—yes, I’m with Tanner Wolf.”
The man scanned her, his gaze doubtful. “Mister Wolf didn’t say he was expecting anyone else.”
“Oh, he’s not expecting me.” Her fury and frustration seemed to double at the downward turn of the man’s mouth. Past him, she spotted Tanner’s trademark black cowboy hat. “There he is. I’ll just go over and say hello.”
She caught sight of a blonde woman just before the host stepped in front of her. “I can’t let you do that.”
Summer strained to see past him, to see who had replaced her in a matter of hours, who had made Tanner forget about her as soon as he’d gotten back into town. She couldn’t see much, especially with the poor lighting. Her gut writhed. Maybe she had simply been Tanner’s summer distraction. Someone to kiss until he could get back to his real life.
The thoughts felt traitorous and somewhat false, yet they burned all the same. She focused back on the man in her way. “Listen,” she said. “I’m not going to make a scene.” She darted around him and made her way closer to Tanner’s table along the back wall. Halfway there, the host blocked her again, this time signaling to someone else.
Summer felt the weight of several pairs of eyes on her, and she swallowed. “I just want to talk to him for a second.”
“Let me see if he wants to talk to you.”
“Fine, you do that. He’s my boyfriend, and I don’t know who that other woman is.” She stood on her tiptoes and managed to see that Tanner had finally looked in her direction. “I don’t care who she is.” She raised her voice, hoping it would carry to him. “He’s my boyfriend!” She couldn’t seem to get a proper breath, and by the time Tanner’s much taller frame appeared behind the host, Summer’s chest was heaving.
“It’s okay, James. She is my girlfriend.”
The world righted itself as Tanner smiled down at her. “What are you doin’ here, Summer?” He embraced her, breathed in the scent of her hair, doing and saying all the right things. The exact right things she wanted him to.
She caught hold of reason and pushed him away. “You didn’t text or call. You haven’t answered your phone for two days. I had to get your mom’s address from Ethan, and she told me you were in the hospital. But oh, it’s okay, because Kamry was with you.” She stabbed her finger to the blonde woman who’d come up behind Tanner.
They looked at each other, and Tanner started laughing. Kamry seemed stretched too thin, and Summer couldn’t figure out why. Suddenly, she didn’t want to figure out why.
She spun on her heel and marched out.
13
“You better go after her,” Kamry said. “Tanner. Tanner, she’s leaving.”
Tanner’s brain seemed several minutes behind. Kamry had pointed out that a woman was trying to get to him; he hadn’t even noticed. Every cell in his body felt depleted as he’d only slept for a few hours since arriving in town.
He hadn’t wanted to leave his brother’s side. Hadn’t wanted Kamry to have to shoulder the responsibility of caring for three injured family members. The boys would be released later that day, so he’d taken her to lunch for a little break. She’d go home with her kids and Tanner was planning to spend another night in the hospital with his brother.
Kamry filled his vision, her eyes tired yet earnest. “She left, Tanner. You should go after her. That was your Summer, right?”
His Summer.
Yes, she was his Summer. With his brain finally caught up, he strode forward, knocking into a nearby table he hadn’t seen. He grunted against the pain and kept going. Bursting out of the door, he saw Summer in her car, tears tracking down her face.
He waved his arms and hobbled into the lot, a shout coming from his throat. She slammed on her brakes and their eyes met through the glass. He sucked in a breath, then another, as he watched her.
She sat back and put the car in park. He moved toward her window, which she rolled down halfway.
“Summer.” He leaned against the car, his heart bobbing in his throat. “Come on back inside. Let’s have lunch.”
“I’m not hungry.” She folded her arms.
“You would never stop for fast food,” he said. “And it’s only twelve-thirty, which means you haven’t eaten since your dinner break last night.” A smile crossed his face, but he erased it before she saw. She wouldn’t like it. Didn’t like it when he teased her, though he loved teasing her.
The opening in the window wasn’t wide enough for him to bend through and kiss her. “Please,” he tried. “We just barely started. You can officially meet my sister-in-law, and I’ll tell you why I haven’t even looked at my phone since I got here.” He wasn’t even sure where his phone was at the moment. He wasn’t as attached to his devices as some people were, a mistake he realized now that his very worried girlfriend had driven six hours to make sure he was okay.
“Wait.” Summer stared at him, her eyes bright and full of hope. Bright and full of anticipation. Bright and full of love. “Your sister-in-law?”
Tanner kicked a grin in her direction. “Yeah, Kamry is my sister-in-law. She’s married to my brother, Bill. Remember? The only sibling I have?”
“I remember.” Her voice sounded like she’d swallowed frogs. “I guess I better go park if I’m going to eat lunch.”
“I guess you better.” He fell back a few steps from the car, grateful she hadn’t sped off with him standing in the parking lot. He followed her to an open spot and caught her as she stepped from the car. “I’m so glad you’re here.” Emotion coated his words and he swallowed to keep it down. He hadn’t cried in years, but there were the tears burning behind his eyes.
He blinked, unsure of what was happening. He hadn’t cried at his own injury. Hadn’t cried when he’d seen Bill unconscious in that hospital bed. And here he was, weepy over a woman.
“I love you.” He touched his lips to hers, glad when she responded in kind. “I’m so sorry I didn’t call. I think my phone is in my truck. Or maybe my house. I’m not a hundred percent sure. It’s probably dead by now too.”
She clung to him, standing on her tiptoes, and swayed to music only she could hear. He smoothed his hands down her blouse and over her hips. “I don’t see you in street clothes very often,” he murmured. “You look nice.”
She gave a choked laugh. “Anything’s better than scrubs, right?” She lifted her eyes to his and he saw the fear, the hope, the desire within. “What happened, Tanner?”
Instead of telling her right away, he kissed her again, stealing from her strength, drawing from her determination. “Do you know how sexy it is that you drove here to see me?” He growled as he tracked his lips across her jaw and placed a k
iss against the soft skin on her neck.
She sighed into him as she had in the past, and said, “Tanner, we’re standing in a parking lot.”
“Yeah.” He kissed her again.
“Your sister-in-law is waiting.”
“I told her all about you.” He moved his mouth to her ear.
“I didn’t want to tell you this in a parking lot.”
“Tell me what?”
She ducked her head, effectively putting a couple of inches between their faces. “I’m in love with you,” she said, her voice shaking at the end of the sentence. “That’s why I drove six hours to find you. Because I love you.” A shy smile slipped across her face. Her beautiful, freckly face he’d never get enough of.
He ran his thumb across her cheekbone. “Well, that’s great news,” he said before kissing her again. “In fact, that’s the best news I’ve had this year.”
She flinched away when he leaned forward to kiss her again. “Just this year?”
He laughed, the sound soaring into the sky. “My Summer sweetheart, it’s the best news I’ve ever had in my whole life.”
*
“I’m not going back to the rodeo,” he told Summer later that night. Later, after their lunch with Kamry. Later, after they’d gotten the boys settled at home. Later, after he’d brought his mom for a visit with Bill, who was now awake. Later, after he’d taken his mother home, and checked on Bill, and thought he’d never be able to feel normal again. He thought he could sleep for days and still not feel normal.
She shifted in his arms. “You’re not?”
His natural instinct was to hold her tighter, keep her close. So he did. She’d come home with him and not said a word about his gigantic house, the spotless nature of it, how sterile it felt. She’d been at his side all day, lending her strength and giving him comfort in the simplest ways like squeezing his hand and suggesting they get pizza for the boys and Kamry.
Now she lay against him on the couch. He wanted to go to bed, but he didn’t want to leave her side.
“Tanner?”
He jerked out of his doze and took a moment to remember what they’d been talking about. “No. No more rodeo.”
Lucky Number Thirteen: An Inspirational Western Romance Novella (Three Rivers Ranch Romance Book 9) Page 8
