Love Blooms

by Jamie Pope

  He made his escape with Teo before she could say another word.

  * * *

  “Mr. Tanner?” Teo called him from his kitchen table. Tanner had let him play on his laptop while he cooked them dinner. It wasn’t much, just spaghetti, but that’s what Teo requested when Tanner asked, and Tanner knew it was something he could handle. It was nice to cook for someone else. It seemed like a waste to cook for himself most days. But tonight he had a guest in the house. It was nice to have it not feel so empty.

  “What did I tell you about calling me Mister? We’re buddies.”

  “I like to call you that. Mommy says it’s a sign of respect.”

  Tanner bent over and kissed Teo’s forehead. “You’re a good boy, Teo. What can I help you with?”

  “I’m trying to spell words. Where do you type?”

  “You can play any game you want, but you want to write words?”

  “Yes. I like to type. Mommy can do it really fast.”

  “What does your mommy type?”

  “Her homework.”

  “Did you know she was going to school?”

  He shrugged. “She didn’t tell me. But she does homework.”

  He scooped Teo up and sat in his seat placing the boy in his lap. “Let’s get you typing. Maybe you’ll be a famous author one day.”

  His video chat notification popped up. It was his grandfather. He had been ignoring his grandfather’s calls and e-mails for the better part of the month. He had nothing to say to the man who kept such a big damn secret from him. Nova told him not to be angry at him, not even to be angry at his father. But his anger was too large just to focus on his mother. It was her fault, but it wasn’t only her fault. He had always felt like an outsider in his own family. He would have understood himself more if one of them had just given him a clue.

  “What’s that?”

  “Video chat,” Tanner answered. “It’s like a phone call, but you see the person.”

  “Who’s calling you?”

  “My grandfather, but I can talk to him later.”

  “Can I meet him? I don’t have a grandfather.” Teo did have a grandfather, but Nova didn’t want him to know that. A part of Tanner thought she was wrong to keep his family a secret, but he might feel the same way she did if they had abandoned him when he needed help the most.

  “Okay, but only for a little while. Dinner is almost ready.”

  He accepted the call and saw the surprise on his grandfather’s face when he saw Teo there with him. “Hello, Captain.”

  “Tanner . . .” He used his name instead of his rank. “I’ve been wanting to speak to you for quite some time.”

  “I’ve been busy. This is my friend Teo. Teo, this is my grandfather, Captain Edmonds.”

  “Are you a captain like on Star Trek? Uncle Wylie took me to the movies to see that.”

  “No, son.” The captain smiled. “I’m a naval captain. I was in charge of a very large ship.”

  “That’s cool. Do you still have your ship?”

  “No. I’m retired, but I’m sure I could arrange for you to tour one.”

  Teo looked at Tanner. “Can we go? Will you take me?”

  “Yes, but we have to ask your mom first. Go wash your hands. I think the sauce is ready.”

  “Okay. It was nice to meet you, Captain.”

  “It was nice to meet you, too.”

  Teo hopped off his lap and hurried off to the bathroom.

  “He’s a nice boy.”

  “He is. As you can see, I’m entertaining tonight and don’t have time to talk.”

  “Why are you avoiding me?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me my father wasn’t my father?”

  His grandfather went pale. “How did you find out?” he asked softly.

  “I figured it out. I should have twenty years ago.”

  “It wasn’t my place—”

  “Save it. You were the only one I could count on and you let me down. I’ve got to go. I don’t have anything else to say to you.”

  * * *

  A loud crack of thunder made Nova jump as she walked up the steps to Tanner’s front door. Even if the threat of a torrential downpour wasn’t there she would have been jumpy. Teo hadn’t been exaggerating. Tanner had the biggest house she had ever seen. She never got to this part of the island. Tanner’s house was in Chilmark. The part where all the superwealthy lived on their beachfront estates. It seemed like another world to her, but there she was, about to go inside to get her kid. She had forgotten how different Tanner was from her.

  She had seen small signs of his wealth when they went to Boston, but she could put it aside, because that was just the one time. But now it was right in her face and she couldn’t ignore it. It made her feel like she didn’t belong here, that she had no business in being involved with a man who never knew what it was like to be without.

  He opened the door wearing the same ratty jeans and T-shirt she had last seen him in. He reached for her hand and she felt the roughness of his calluses. He knew hard work. And the doubts she had got pushed down again. “Come inside, princess. I’ve got dinner waiting for you.” He treated her well. “Teo’s in my old bedroom. I made him brush his teeth and all that mom stuff you make him do before bed. He asked me to make sure you told him good night when you came in.”

  He was good with her kid. She may not belong here in this house with an heir to a fortune, but she couldn’t walk away. He was too good to pull herself away from. She reached up and kissed his cheek. And then she smacked his arm. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me your house was the size of a football stadium?”

  “It’s not my house. It’s my grandparents’ house, but they haven’t used it in years and they are letting me use it so it doesn’t sit empty.”

  “It will be yours one day. The entire empire will be yours.”

  “Don’t sound so . . . so . . . foreboding. It’s too big for me. It’s too much. I was thinking about moving into a little house near Mansi’s on the outskirts of town.”

  “And give up this view?” She walked through the living room and into the kitchen, which had a full-sized deck overlooking the ocean. Lightning flashed across the sky, lighting up the deck and displaying the ocean and the small beach before it.

  “My current view is far better.” She felt his lips on her shoulder and then on her neck. “Come on. Let’s go say good night to Teo.”

  He took her hand and led her down a long hallway to a bedroom that was twice the size of her own. It was a little boy’s room done in a nautical theme. There was a captain’s bed built into the wall and ships in bottles, oars tacked to the wall. It was one of the most beautiful rooms she had ever seen. “He’s never going to want to come home after being here.”

  “I’ll still come home,” she heard his small voice say from the middle of the huge bed.

  “You will?” She kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the bed with him.

  “I have to take care of you.” He nodded.

  “Yes, you do. I don’t do well without you.”

  “Mr. Tanner told me that you go to school on Thursdays.”

  She glanced up at Tanner who was standing near the door. “I do.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? I knew you didn’t have dates.”

  “How did you know? You told Aunt Cass that I do.”

  “Ladies take a lot of time getting ready for dates. You just said you needed a sweater because the building gets cold, and you took books with you.”

  “You’re very smart. I can’t get anything past you.”

  “I know. I will help you do your homework now.”

  “Thank you, sir. I’m going to need all the help I can get.”

  “You spend more time with me.” She was trying. She was happy that he knew she was trying.

  “I think I’m finally getting the hang of this motherhood thing.”

  He nodded. “You’re doing a good job.”

  “Why, thank you.” She kissed his cheeks.
<
br />   “You didn’t ask if you could kiss me,” he said with surprise.

  “I’m sorry. I forgot.”

  “I like it better when you don’t ask me.” He grinned at her.

  “I’ll remember that. Good night, Teo,”

  “Good night.”

  She left him, grabbed her shoes, and went to Tanner. He kissed the side of her face and wrapped his arm around her, leading her to the other side of the house and into a bedroom that was bigger than her entire apartment.

  “My God, look at the size of this master bedroom.”

  “This isn’t the master,” he said to her as he locked the door. “This is the guest suite. My grandparents’ bedroom is the master, but I couldn’t bring myself to sleep in there.”

  “Why not?”

  “Just in case I brought a girl home.” He took her shoes from her and tossed them aside before he unbuttoned her jeans and pulled down the zipper. “I don’t think I could make love in their bed.”

  “You brought a lot of women back here, have you?”

  “Only you.” He planted a kiss on her throat and tugged her jeans down from her hips. “This house is a magnet for gold diggers.”

  “What makes you think I’m not a gold digger?”

  “Because you looked more horrified than impressed when you came in.”

  “A little.” He slid his hands up her back unhooking her bra, but he made no move to further undress her; he just kept rubbing her back in slow gentle circles. It was more arousing than any overtly sexual thing he might do. “Are you honestly telling that you haven’t had sex since you’ve been on the island?”

  “Just because I haven’t brought any women home doesn’t mean I haven’t had sex. My backseat is pretty spacious. I’m fond of doing it in alleyways behind bars.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “You shouldn’t. I haven’t been with anyone since I left the army. I had an understanding with another officer. She wanted to get serious, I didn’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “If life had gone according to plan I might have settled down with her. She was smart. She was attractive. She loved the army as much as I did, but one of my men died during a training exercise I was in charge of. It happened right in front of my eyes. His parachute malfunctioned and I watched him plunge to his death. He was twenty-two. He was supposed to be heading home for leave a few days after that. Instead I was the one to show up at his mother’s door to notify her. It fucked me up, Nova. I kept seeing his broken body in my dreams and then all the other shit from war that I’ve been putting out of my mind came flooding back. I wanted to get away from everything that reminded me of it. I came here.”

  “And had the misfortune of running into me.”

  “I should want to get the hell away from you, but the only thing that comes to mind when I’m with you is getting closer. I want to keep you with me.”

  His words scared her. He hadn’t even scratched the surface of her past. He’d be running for the hills if he really knew all about her. About what she was capable of. “What did I tell you about being sweet to me?”

  “You’re not the boss of me,” he said just before he kissed her.

  “I’m sorry that you lost that young soldier. I wish you hadn’t had to be a witness to that.”

  “Me too, but if it wasn’t that, it would have been something else. It was time for me to get out. The army taught me to be a man. It was time for me to see how that man functioned outside of it.”

  She stepped away from him to remove her shirt and the rest of her clothing. “Can I spend the night?”

  “Did you think I was letting you out of this bedroom tonight? It’s raining now and it’s dark and I can’t let you drive all the way back to your house in these conditions.”

  “And will you make love to me tonight?”

  “If I have to,” he said with a grin.

  “I would like it to last for two hours. More if you can manage it.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” His eyes ran up and down her body slowly. She grew so aroused she was shaking with need. But he didn’t touch her. He knew her body too well. He knew if he did, things would heat up much too fast and she would explode as soon as she felt his hands on her skin.

  They hadn’t been together in over two weeks. He had seen her every day. There were a few times he slept in her bed at night, but mostly he was just there with her, for her. He had gone grocery shopping with her and to the movies. He had fixed stuff around her house. He had just been there and it made her want him even more than she had.

  He was trying to make her fall in love with him. It was the exact opposite of what she wanted but it was working. He was masterful at it.

  “I promised you dinner. I made spaghetti. It was a big hit with Teo especially when I covered it with cheese.”

  “Sounds delicious.”

  “Get in bed. I have wine. Red and white. Which one do you want? I can bring you both.”

  “I don’t drink.”

  His eyes widened slightly. “Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen you even take a sip.”

  “No. When both your parents had substance abuse issues and you married a drug addict you tend to avoid anything that can be addicting.”

  “Does it bother you when I drink?”

  “No. You don’t have a problem. I’ve never seen you have more than one or two.”

  “So, it will be okay with you if I lick wine off your body?”

  She wrapped her arms around him. “Just take me to bed now.”

  “I’m not going to be able to last two hours if I take you to bed now.”

  “I lied. I don’t need it to last a long time. I just need you.”

  He nodded and lifted her up, depositing her on the bed with a bounce. She sat up, and crawled toward him. Not content to just sit there and watch him strip, she undid his jeans, pulling his erection out and placing it into her mouth. He shut his eyes briefly and moaned, but then pulled away. “Oh, no, you don’t. I can’t deal with that right now.”

  “You like it when I do that.”

  “Of course I do, but I’m too far gone.” He peeled off his shirt and shoved his pants down his legs and came to lay on top of her. She loved this feeling of skin against skin, the way her nipples rubbed against the hair of his chest. He licked across her lips and kissed her in a slow, deep, unhurried way that caused her to burn up.

  “I’ve been thinking about this moment for the past two weeks,” he said when he lifted his mouth to kiss down her body. “I don’t know what it is about you, but I can’t seem to function unless I’m with you.”

  “It’s . . .” She lost her train of thought when his mouth closed around her nipple. “It’s probably because you haven’t had sex in over a year.”

  “It’s not that.” He looked up at her. “It’s not the sex. It’s you. I want to be with you.”

  “Okay. Okay. You win. Make love to me.”

  “I need to get a condom.”

  “Wait.” She grabbed his shoulder. “I went back on birth control after Boston. You don’t have to go.”

  “I don’t have to go. You’re sure?”

  This was a big step for her. She was letting her guard down. She was trusting him with more and more of her as the days went by. “I’m sure. Are you sure?”

  “I’ve never been with a woman without protection.”

  “It’s okay. We can use protection. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be safe.”

  He wrapped one of her legs around his waist and pushed inside of her. She gasped, was shocked by the intrusion, but it was a good kind of shock. “I’m sure.”

  He started to move inside of her, deep, long, slow strokes. He took his time. He ran his hand down her body. He kissed her face. He was making love to her. This was no longer sex. He was the first man to ever make love to her and she was starting to think that he would be the last. Because after this ended she wouldn’t be able to give this much of herself to another man. There
wasn’t another man alive who would be as worthy of it.

  * * *

  Tanner watched Nova as she gazed at her tiny niece with adoration. She was prickly and could be standoffish and with her long nails and glamorous façade, she looked like the last person who would be maternal, but she looked so natural with a baby in her arms, and just for the briefest of moments he wanted to make her a mother again. He thought about seeing her with his child in her arms.

  It was an outrageous thought. It was probably something primal. Something to do with pheromones and men wanting to spread their genetic seed around. It sure as hell wasn’t a rational thought. She would probably bash him over the head with a cast iron pot if he ever mentioned it, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that the thought was there and fully formed.

  “What’s it like being a father?” he asked Wylie who was standing next to him outside of his house. It had warmed up a lot. April on the Vineyard was a beautiful time of year and they were taking full advantage of the weather and having a small get-together with Cassandra’s family in order to celebrate the birth of little Sunny.

  “I thought Cass was the love of my life. But my kid, man. I keep looking at her and thinking, I made that. In reality I know that Cass has done all the heavy lifting and to Sunny I’m nothing more than another set of arms when her mama needs a break, but still, I love it.”

  “That’s good. You’re my first friend with a kid. I guess that means no more late nights on the town for us.”

  “We never had late nights on the town. Everything closes around here before eleven.”

  “I know. I guess that’s why I came here after I got out. I needed to calm down. There was a time when I didn’t think I was going to make it more than a week here. Over a year later I can’t seem to get my ass to go off island anymore.”

  “You went to Boston. You took my sister. Both of you have been pretty closemouthed about that trip. I didn’t know until Mansi told me about it. Nova didn’t even tell Cass, and she tells her everything.”

  Tanner glanced over to Nova again. Teo was at her side; he was touching the baby’s hand and looking at it with awe. The kid would be a good big brother. “Hey, Teo. Your uncle and I are going to take a walk. You want to come?”