There may have still been the whole kitchen island between them, but somehow the space didn’t feel as far as moments before.
“You left. You ran. I respect that. I did my share of running. But I’m on the flip.” He couldn’t bring himself to look at her. “I’m also the guy who got left.”
His parents went to jail and then to prison, and who knew where they ended up now? They weren’t exactly a nuclear family, so none of that mattered. Dan had seen something special in him when he was a teen. Mach, too. Tanner had figured out the hard way that family wasn’t made of blood. Family ties came from an active decision to open up. To be authentic with each other. (Something he didn’t want to think too hard about because he’d been channeling Linx a whole lot around Sam.)
He was broken when Dan took him in. Dan didn’t care that his history was fucked. That his ex, Catiana, wrecked his ability to talk to girls. Or that he used to hit the streets whenever shit got hard.
He couldn’t go into it all there in his kitchen with her. That was a lot to lay out tonight. Definitely not something he was prepared to dive into right then.
“You wanna go or you wanna hit the pool?” He tipped his chin to the front door. “You called roses, so it’s yours to pick.”
“Tanner,” Sam reached for his arm.
He stopped. Turned. “Yeah?”
“Thank you.” She lifted on her tiptoes and pressed a light kiss to his lips.
He stilled even as his heart beat faster and his body went wired.
The simple kiss was nothing that led to anything else, just a reminder that she heard him. Maybe she didn’t understand him. Where he came from. Why he felt this way.
But she heard him.
“Thank you,” she said, again.
“For what?” he asked, hoping she got the message he meant to send.
“For the roses,” she said, with a small, sad smile. “Thank you for letting me have the roses.”
“You feeling like a dip in the pool?” he asked. He hoped like hell she’d say yes.
Chapter Nine
SAMANTHA
Tanner knows.He knows. He knows.
The mantra played on repeat in her head, and she itched to leave. But she also made the decision there at his house that she was going to enjoy tonight before planning for tomorrow.
There were times in a woman’s life when she had to decide if she was going to sacrifice her happiness for what was right, or go ahead and make a horrible decision because it sounded more fun. Sam would be leaving. She knew this. But for tonight she decided to let herself have that fun.
That’s why she picked the stay-and-play-in-the-pool option.
Tomorrow would be the day to start working on the future. Planning her next steps would be the simple part. Actually making the cut and leaving? It’d gotten harder as she’d made connections each place she landed.
Disappearing used to be so simple, but it’d gotten more complex each time. Now, when she ran, she had to clip ties with new people she’d grown to care for—and Ashley wouldn’t understand. She hated the upheaval in their friendship when Sam started over.
Sam chewed on her lip. Great Aunt Etta would not be thrilled, either.
Her parents would, once again, resign themselves to another move. Another place to watch her settle.
She slipped off her shirt in Tanner’s guest bathroom. Hisguestbathroom was bigger than her whole studio apartment. The designer had continued the black theme into the bathroom, but paired it with burgundy so it looked a little more brothel meets vampire than the rest of the house.
She made quick work of changing. Then she paused at her reflection in the mirror.
“I have to leave again,” she said to the reflection. There was no response. She pressed her fingertips against her eyelids.
Tanner left her a plush burgundy towel that matched the bathroom, and she wrapped it around her waist. Then she stopped. Removed it.
