“Walk him out,” Tanner tells him, and turns toward the fence.
My son clambers over the fence and goes running into his arms and Tanner swings him around before putting him down and tipping his cowboy hat in greeting to Sadie.
“You must be Sadie,” Tanner says, flashing that grin that’s charmed the skirts off of many a buckle bunny. “Heard a lot about you. Pleasure to finally meet you.”
“Likewise,” she answers.
She doesn’t appear dazzled by him. Which is surprising. Tanner’s a good-looking guy, and he uses it to his advantage. But he might as well be a potted plant for all the interest Sadie’s showing in his charms.
She smiles politely at him the way you smile at someone's very enthusiastic golden retriever.
“You’re a friend of Cassidy’s, right?” Tanner asks. “How is she?”
“She’s good. Starting her residency at Johns Hopkins soon.”
His eyes darken briefly. “She still with that douchebag?”
“Her fiancé, you mean?”
“Like I said.”
“Yeah, they’re still together.”
There’s a rare flash of longing across my little brother’s face, but it’s gone so quickly I start doubting what I saw.
Then he looks to me, and the grin comes back. More diabolical.
To Sadie, he says, “My big bro better be treating you right.”
“He’s the perfect gentleman,” she says, eyes sliding towards me.
Yeah, the perfect gentleman. At enormous fucking cost to my sanity.
Tanner snorts.
I don’t have time to give him shit for it, because then Dad emerges from Rosemont. He gives Jonah a big hug and pulls Sadie in for a gentler one.
“I miss seeing you at the bookstore, Sadie,” he tells her. “Nobody else knows all the best mysteries coming in.”
“About that,” she says, and then she takes a hardback book from her purse. “Went down there the other day. Had my old boss give me a copy of ‘Tiger’s Eye’ that just came in. It’s not supposed to be on the shelves yet, so don’t tell.”
Dad’s whole entire face lights up.
It’s the single best host gift anyone could have ever brought him.
And then the two of them are off, talking about books as Dad guides her inside, and Tanner’s gaze meets mine. His eyebrows shoot up.
“They’re old friends, apparently,” I grumble. “He invited her to swim in the lake all alone, did you know that?”
“And that’s a problem because?”
Are all the men in my family fucking stupid? I wish Josie were here. She’s a nurse. She could tell them about the dangers of freezing water.
“It’s not safe!” I explode.
Tanner just bursts out laughing.
And I don’t get the joke, but I know it’s at my expense.
