“No more compliments. I appreciate them but–”
“Oh, come on.” He leans forward dropping his palms onto the table. “That’s not fair.”
“None,” I warn. “And lastly. No more almost kissing.”
This one catches him. His jaw goes slack ever so slightly, and a little fire is lit behind his eyes. “What did you just say?”
“No more almost kissing. We need to practice a little more self-restraint,” I say and lean back, feigning confidence in the statement, hoping that maybe one of us will believe it.
Tanner pushes forward, resting his elbows on his knees and leaning into my space. “I’ve already been usingallof my willpower to not kiss you. Almost kissingismy restraint, Hannah.”
“You just broke two of the rules.” My voice hardly leaves my lungs. “But fine. Then self-restraint is the third. You just need to practice a little harder.”
“Fine,” he says and there is a challenge in that single word. One that sends goosebumps across my skin. I watch a golden curl grace his forehead and I am brushing it back before I can think about it.
“Why?” He asks, turning his head to kiss my hand. These rules never stood a chance.
“Why what?”
“Why the rules?” His words are asked into my palm.
“Because my heart is in so many places, I’m afraid I’m losing control of it. I need to focus on Lauren and Winnie in this new chapter and—” I’m halfway to telling him I love him too much to only give him a part of me, but the screen door swings open on its hinges before I can.
“Tan why is my sheep fat?” Winnie calls down the hall.
We both freeze. His hand is on my thigh and my hand still on his cheek. “What do you mean kiddo?” he calls out to her, his eyes staying locked on mine.
“She’s fat and wobbling funny. Is she eggs begging? Like Aunt Laurey?”
“Expecting,” Tanner corrects, but his voice is soft and only for me to hear. Then to her says, “let me come look.”
He stands and goes to the door, leaving me at the table, breathless. Breathless and watching those jeans do good, good deeds.
I clear the table, wash the dishes in the sink and pack away the leftovers. I'm lighting a candle when I hear them calling for me between fits of laughter outside. I dry my hands as I walk to the door and from the front deck, I spot Winnie and Tanner bright-eyed and laughing at one of the pens. Tanner looks up at me and when his eyes land on mine, the laughter dries up and his throat bobs. I turn my head to the side, questioning, but he blows out a breath.
“I would be breaking rule number two,” he calls up to me. Compliments.
“What did you guys need from me?” I ask, leaning my shoulder against the column of the deck and wonder if they can see my pink cheeks from there.
“Well.” Tanner looks over at Winnie. “Do you want to tell her the news?”
Winnie has tears running down her cheeks from laughing so hard.
“What is it?” I ask and she takes a few gasps of air.
“I'm going to be a grandma,” she spits out and falls into another fit of laughter.
I look at Tanner confused, and he stabs his thumb over his shoulder toward the sheep. “Looks like Ava might be pregnant.”
“How?”
“It turns out Poppy is going to be a father.”
There’s no fighting the laughter that bubbles up. I don’t even know if what I'm laughing at is Poppy being a boy, Winnie being a grandma, or these two red cheeked golden retrievers’ laughter.
“I don’t understand. How did you not know it was a boy?”
“The lady dropped them off and said two females. I didn’t think to check.” He shrugs.
