Relief skated over his features. “Good.” He hugged me tighter. “Tell me about this place. I know the house up front belongs to your oldest sister, but what’s the story with this one?”
A faint smile tugged at my lips as I pulled up some of the happiest memories of my life. “This was Odette’s home.”
“Odette?”
“She’s the closest thing I ever had to a grandmother. Until I was six years old, my siblings and I lived in this dinky, rundown trailer park on the opposite side of town. Odette’s trailer was a few doors down from ours.” I pulled a fortifying breath into my lungs as I turned my head, resting my cheek on his chest as I braced myself to give him the parts of me I’d been holding back. My parents took off when I was too young to really remember them.”
“Jesus,” Tanner grunted.
“It wasn’t all bad. I mean, it’s not like you can miss someone you don’t remember. Gypsy was in her early twenties by then, and she’d basically been raising each of us from birth already. She gave up everything to take care of us. She did her absolute best, busted her ass to make sure none of us felt like we were missing out, and we didn’t. That’s how incredible my big sister is. She filled both roles so well, I sometimes forget they weren’t hers from the start.”
His voice was jagged as he said, “I love that she gave you that.”
“I do too.”
“But I hate that you guys had it so hard.”
I inhaled deeply. “I do too, especially for her. But she had Odette. We all did. As soon as Detty realized our parents had taken off, she stepped up. She babysat while Gypsy worked two jobs. Any way she could help, she did, until she became as much a part of the family as any of us. When Gypsy met Marco, everything changed. He saved my sister. He saved all of us. He actually bought this house for us. Picked it precisely because it had a second structure on the property that Odette could move into so she could have her own space while still being with her family.”
My vision started to grow fuzzy with unshed tears as I thought about the woman who’d meant so much to me, who’d been such a massive part of my life for so long. “Detty was who I came to when I needed someone who could calm the storm. She was a steadying presence, and she had this way of giving me peace. Aside from my shop, this is the place I come to when I need to feel that. She may be gone, but when I come here, I can still feel her all around me.”
“She sounds like an amazing woman.”
“She was the best,” I said with a wistful smile. “I miss her every single day, but it’s not the kind of missing that causes pain, you know? She hadn’t been young when she first came into our lives, but we got to keep her for another twenty years, and she kept teaching us new things up until that very last day.”
Lifting my head, I propped my chin back on my hands so I could see into Tanner’s eyes. “Whenever I felt broken, she put me back together.”
“Baby,” he breathed, the word coming out pained. “You are not broken.”
“I felt like it sometimes. I always swore to myself that I would nevereversettle for a man like my father. But every man I let into my life managed to turn out just like him. I had a father who couldn’t be bothered to love me followed by a string of terrible relationships that chipped away pieces of me. It’s hard not to feel broken after something like that.”
His hand came up to the side of my neck, his thumb soothingly rubbing along my jaw. “We all break here and there. It’s just a part of life. But you kept putting yourself back together. That’s what matters. All those beautifully broken pieces were glued back into place, and, baby, they created the most breathtaking mosaic. I see it every time I look at you.”
God, the way this man undid me. “Detty would have loved you. I have no doubt she’s smiling down on me right now.”
“Then I give you my word, right here and now, that I’ll strive every single day to be the kind of man she’d want for you.”
I didn’t doubt that for a single second. And that made me love him even more.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Holiday
“So... does this mean you guys are official?”
That question came from Naomi, and was about the hundredth question thrown my way in the past half hour. Not that I minded. I was still riding the high of Tanner and me sharing ourI love yous the night before.
The grapevine had worked overtime, and word of what had happened at the Tap Room managed to make its way through town, getting back to my friends. By the time I opened One More Chapter, they were already gathered out on the sidewalk, waiting to ambush me.
Between helping customers, I answered every question they threw my way. Well, with the exception of the more personal ones, such as,How good was the makeup sex once you got everything out on the table?—of course, that one came from Lennix. I wouldn’t have expected any less from my bold, brash bestie.
I couldn’t keep the smile off my face as I stood at the front counter, trying and failing to work on the schedule for the following week.
“Yes, we made things official,” I answered, rolling my eyes teasingly. Truth was, it felt like a swarm of butterflies had been flapping their wings, creating gale-force winds in my belly since I woke up wrapped in Tanner’s arms earlier that morning. I wasn’t just happy. I was downright giddy.
“Oh my god, look at her face.” Ivy jabbed her finger in my direction, a shit-eating grin tugging at her lips. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look this happy.”
At the sound of a sniffle, I turned to find Lennix with tears in her eyes. My brows dipped into a frown as I abandoned the schedule and rounded the counter. “What’s the matter, babe?”
