“Everybody wants a deal.”
Sam had to get back to work, check in with Ashley, and then sort out her schedule so they could have a few more nights together before he left town. But before they headed out, he made a pit stop on the third floor.
“Should we knock?” she asked, cautiously, when he used his key to let them into Dan’s place.
“No way. Dan gets pissy when I knock. Says it’s my place, too. It’s what he does for all his kids—we get keys, the door is open. He’s a seriously good guy like that.”
“I think I like Dan.” Sam’s eyes softened in that way he liked so much.
Tanner gave her a chin lift. “Just wait, he’s epic.”
Tanner pushed open the door.
“It’s Tanner,” Tanner called, setting some of the crap food he’d picked up on the front entry table. He’d grabbed extra Ding Dongs and Cheeto Puffs for Dan. Dude didn’t eat much of that stuff, but these were his favorites. “I brought Sam to meet you.”
“In here,” Dan said from the office. “Be right out.”
They moved through his apartment, past the kitchen and living space. Dan’s place was a two-bedroom with a large balcony and an office. He’d had a girlfriend for a while who decorated, so it looked like it came from a magazine instead of from a guy who worked in a garage.
“Check it out.” Tanner opened the door to the bedroom he’d shared with Mach. Dan hadn’t had any recent foster kids—he was one of the last-resort foster dads. When a kid was about to age out of the system and needed someone to give a shit, the social workers brought him in.
The room was exactly the same as when Tanner had shown up, fresh from couch surfing at Catiana’s house. He shook off the thought. Better not to think about things like that.
“I moved in and was not looking forward to having a roommate.” That wasn’t Catiana. “That turned out awesome, since Mach was who I got paired with.”
“Mach doesn’t know you have an apartment here?” she asked.
He shook his head. “If he does, he’s never said anything.”
Sam stepped into the room, seemingly awed. It was just a room. But, she wasn’t wrong… it felt like more than that.
Since no one had been in there since the last guys moved on—found jobs and a place to live—the space was musty and yet still smelled like the Pine Sol spray Dan made them clean with three times a week. In return, they got a place to stay, a full belly, and he made sure they knew a skill. Usually, that skill was fixing cars, but sometimes he’d go rogue and create a rock star.
“This is where you grew up?” Sam asked. She obviously meant this as a rhetorical question. But—
“It’s where I spent a few years as a teen,” Tanner said. “Not really where I grew up.”
“I think you’re wrong,” she said this slowly, clearly savoring everything about the space. “I think this is where the growing up happened.”
She probably wasn’t wrong.
He didn’t enjoy thinking about that time in his life, so he moved to the window. Looked outside. Watched the traffic.
“You and Mach had bunk beds?” Sam asked, her lips twitching with a grin.
That was nice, the smiling.
“A bed’s a bed when you haven’t had one in a long while,” he said with a shrug.
Now she frowned, the happiness from before all but erased from her face. “That hurts my heart.”
“Don’t let it.” He stepped to her, wrapped his hand around the back of her neck to pull her in for a kiss. “I’ve got loads of cake now. I can buy all the beds.”
“No girls in the bedroom,” Dan said from the doorway. “You know the drill.” He said it, but the huge smile on his mug told the actual story—he didn’t mean it.
Tanner was not above giving Dan an enormous hug. The guy earned it, and more. In spades. So Tanner gave Dan his due, then he held his hand out for Sam.
“This is my Sam,” he said, and the way saying that made his posture straighten and his shoulders push back… yeah.
