Tanner sipped his own.“What makes you say that?”
“I may have only been on the force for eight months, but my deductive reasoning works just fine.A new mother, a little shaky.Maybe an abusive situation she got out of when the twins were born?”
“Bree pretty much keeps to herself.I don’t know that much about her.”
That was both true and not true.For someone who was so amazingly gentle and tender with the babies, she seemed to have no idea whatsoever how to interact on an emotional level with other adults.
Every time he came in here and got those green eyes of hers to finally meet his, he counted it a win.
“Oh.”Scott took another sip of his coffee.“I thought you two were an item.My bad.”
“No, not an item.She’s a friend.”
And if Tanner could figure out how to get through to her, maybe so much more than that.
Chapter Twelve
When Bree stepped out the back door of the Sunrise later that evening, Tanner was waiting.He took Beth’s carrier from her, leaving her with only Christian.They were almost getting too heavy for her to carry both of them in their carriers.Soon she’d need to purchase a double stroller.
There were a lot of things she’d put off purchasing, not knowing how long the twins would be hers.If Melissa was successful, it would only be a couple more weeks.
If Melissa wasn’t successful...Bree had no idea what was in store for any of them.
“Thank you,” she whispered to Tanner.
As they walked toward her apartment on the outskirts of town, Tanner told her about his day.Then another funny story about his family—this time about how he broke a window in his parents’ house while competing with his brother, Noah, for who could twirl the baseball bat around the most times.
Tanner had won.But they’d both spent their entire spring break doing chores to pay for the window.
“How about you?”he asked.“Got any brothers or sisters?”
“No, no siblings for me.My cousin, Melissa, was the closest thing I had to a sibling.”
“Did you two ever do anything stupid to get in trouble?”
Yeah, right now.The kind where they’d both be dead if the Organization found out Melissa was trying to shut them down, and Bree was not only alive, but doing whatever she could to assist Melissa.
But she just shook her head.“No, I moved away before either of us got to the rebellious age.And I’ve always been more of a keep-your-head-down kind of girl.”
“Ah, smart.If I’d been like you, I would’ve gotten into a lot less trouble.”
“Seems like you’ve done okay.”
His gorgeous grin had her almost forgetting how to walk.“Depends on who you ask.Linda Dugas might say otherwise.”
“Linda Dugas from the Sunday School frog incident?”
He threw back his head and laughed.“I should’ve known you were too smart not to remember.Yes, Linda eventually forgave me for said frog incident.She and I even dated for a few months in high school.”
“It didn’t work out between you two?”The thought of him with someone else shouldn’t bother her at all.Who he dated in the past or might date in the future was none of her business.She refused to even acknowledge her clenching stomach.
“No.We both went off to college.She met some accountant or something, fell madly in love and moved to somewhere completely insane like Philadelphia.”
She couldn’t stop her own chuckle.“Philly.Yeah, man, some people just go hog wild.”
“Yes!See?I knew you would understand.Why would anyone ever want to leave Colorado?”
“Why indeed?”
