“Tanner, I – I can’t just move in with you. Can you even hear yourself?”
“Yeah, I can. I can hear how much sense it makes. Try it for a week or two. The media interest is going to increase over the coming week or so with the Archers game on the horizon. It’s exactly what you need.”
“What about Sunshine Ranch? I’m needed here.”
“Come home for the weekends, when you don’t need to go to college. But instead of wasting time commuting, you’ll be able to study or work on your project while Betty looks after Nelson.”
“What if Betty doesn’t want to?”
“Let me talk to her.”
I scoff flippantly, hating that this does appeal. It would be safer. It would be logistically easier. And provided I don’t letliketurn into anything else, so long as I keep my wandering thoughts to myself… “Maybe it’s not an awful idea.”
“I can take you out driving on the city roads, too, and get you some experience off the ranch.”
“My brother willnevergo for it.”
“Lucky for you, it’s your life, not his. But leave him to me, he’ll see this makes sense. It’ll be doing him a favor, too. He’ll have more time to train and see Sas. Plus, I’ve got prior with this kind of thing. Sas stayed with me for most of last season while those two figured their shit out. And when we get rookies who’re new to the state and the team, guess who puts them up while they find their feet?”
He points his thumbs to his chest and smiles like he’s on a whitening toothpaste commercial.
“Try it for a week. If y’all hate it, we’ll go back to how things are. No biggie.”
“What if I get used to your private chef and your maid and your swanky house and fast cars?”
His lips curve up at one side. “I defy you not to.”
20
ANNIE – MID-OCTOBER
This Isn’t Real Life
“Tanner, I’ve got it, really,” I tell him as he detaches Nelson’s car seat from the back of his SUV to carry him inside. “You’re sore from the game on Sunday, let me take everything in.”
It’s Tuesday and Tanner is using his R and R day – after the Bears went five and nothing at Kansas City on Sunday – to move us into his place.
He leans his head one way, while holding the car seat like it’s a feather. “Are we going to have a problem here? Because I’ve convinced your brother that it’s a good idea for you to stay here on the basis you’re getting a full retreat experience.”
I give him a tight smile. “I still can’t believe Colton agreed to this. Not that he shouldn’t because, you know, you and me, it’s not as if, well, you know, right?”
He gives a short laugh and I know those twinkling eyes of his are mocking me from behind his shades.
“Relax, Annie, he knows I’m safe,” he says. “I wouldn’t mess with his trust or the fate of any future Pace juniors.”
He starts walking to the house from his driveway that’s really more of a parking lot filled with insanely expensive cars behind a big wall of steel and I’m wondering whether my babbling gave me away –me thinks thou doth protest too much.
But he turns sharply, floating the seat and my sleeping baby on his man-made breeze as he does. “Not that I’m saying if I tried anything that you’d reciprocate, I’m just saying that I won’t… try anything. Even though you’re great. Smart and funny and you look?—”
“Tanner, you don’t have to give me an ‘it’s me not you’ speech when you’re doing me a solid and moving me in for a few days. Thank you for calling me smart, though, because I don’t think anyone else in the world would call me that these days.”
He taps the security code into his front door and I gasp when we step inside. The place is enormous. It has ceilings that go on for days, huge windows that are reflective on the outside but let so much light into the white-walled house that it could be heaven.
It smells of expensive incense and there’s not a thing out of place through the open ground floor living space, from the lounge to the kitchen. Everything is monochrome, even the giant prints of old sports players on the walls. There’s a TV that looks more like a theatre screen on the wall and a huge U-shaped sofa set up to face it.
I immediately consider how many hazards and luxury items there are in the space for Nelson to break. I couldn’t afford to replace anything in this house.
Who am I kidding? Without my brother propping me up, I can’t afford much at all.
