“Do you know anything about that?”
He shrugs. Guilty.
“Tanner.”
“It’s the Auclair name.” He shrugs. “But also, they owe me.”
“What on earth do they owe you for?”
He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his eyes settled on the bottle between his calloused hands.
“I have cash in my purse right now,” I tell him when he doesn’t reply. “I'm literally about to pay you back?—”
“No.” He snaps his dark golden eyes up to mine. “Absolutely not.”
“I have more than enough money. In fact, I have enough to cover all the kids in the summer program just from the divorce alone. Let me get my wallet?—”
“No.” He grabs my hand before I can walk past him. But the tone in his voice is really what stops me. “Don’t worry about it. Please.”
“Well Winnie is mostly excited for the T-shirt. So, thank you. For that. And for getting me set up here.”
“If you need the moon, I’ll rope it for ya.” His voice is low and honest as his eyes lock on mine.
Instead of acknowledging that truth, I just shift the conversation away from a road I can’t go down. “We are going to get dinner if you would like to join.”
“I would. But it’s Taylor’s birthday and I have to be there. I got in trouble for missing drinks last time.”
Taylor?A bite of jealousy sneaks up on me, but I sip my beer and fake an interested smile to stifle it.
“You’re jealous.” There’s an undeniable sparkle in his eye. A smile. A laugh. Almost like he enjoys the way this shade of envy looks on me.
“No.”
Tanner leans in. “Taylor is a guy. His dad owns the auto shop,but Taylor and I run the place. We graduated together. His brothers are Shelby, Bailey and Stacey. I promise you I'm not ditching you to go get drinks with a girl at the bar.”
“You can,” I say quickly, and I regret it as soon as the words tumble out of my mouth, yet I can’t stop them. “In fact, you should. Make a whole night of it. It’d be good for you.”
He leans even closer now, his eyes searching my face, looking for the crack. “You’re saying I should take a girl to the bar, have a beer with her, then take her home and make awhole night of it?” Challenge drips from every word.
“Yes,” I lie. The jealousy I’ll never admit to, burns deep and hot.
“Alright.” He sets the beer down, leans back in his chair and folds his hands over his abdomen. “What are you doing Saturday?”
“What—"
“Saturday night,” he continues. “I’ll take you to the bar, we can get a beer, then we can go back to my place and make a whole?—”
“Mommy and Tan. Come look at my room.” Winnie’s voice in the doorway is a bucket of cold water over my head.
“Should I close my eyes?” Tanner asks Winnie, but he doesn’t take his eyes off me, leaving me pinned to my chair.
“Yes,” she giggles. “Mommy you too.”
I set my beer down on the table and follow her to her room.
Winnie has messily filled the dresser with her clothes. Little corners of fabric peeking up through the mostly shut drawers. She has her blanket laid out across the bed and her stuffy propped up against the pillow.
She opens her arms wide. “Ta-da!”
