Tanner
Tanner took a quick bite out of his sandwich and returned his attention to the computer screen, entering more numbers into the spreadsheet and hoping it would make sense this time. He had a deadline tonight and he’d be damned if he would be late.
A tap on his office door pulled him out of the columns of numbers swimming before him and he looked at his guest with a mixture of confusion and concern. “Dad?” His brows drew together. “What’s wrong?”
Michael Carlisle had declared himself semi-retired three years ago, choosing to spend most of his days golfing or fishing rather than showing up in the office. His father took the seat across the desk from him, wearing an impeccably ironed shirt and his favorite tie. Tanner immediately tensed up, dreading whatever crisis was about to be discussed. He absolutely did not have time for this.
“Get her to forgive you yet?” His father leaned back in the chair, resting an ankle on the opposite knee, and folded his hands over his abdomen. His bushy eyebrows raised a fraction as he waited expectantly for an answer.
Tanner rolled his eyes and took another bite of his lunch. “What do you need, Dad?” he asked around a mouth full of food, pointedly ignoring his father’s question.
Mike lifted his shoulders slightly. “I am still president of the company. I need to see what’s going on around here.”
“Yeah, and I’m the CEO.” He shook his head and chuckled lightly. “This place is a well-oiled machine and you usually only show your face in here once or twice a month. This is the third time in the past two weeks. Why are you really here?”
His father sighed and straightened in his chair. “Because I think I forgot to teach you some important things about running Carlisle International.” Mike’s gaze fixed on the mahogany desk separating them, and a thoughtful expression descended over his face. “Probably the most important thing.”
Tanner sighed and closed his eyes. He counted to ten in his mind and mustered all of his patience. He had a list of things to get done before he could get home to Belle and his father wasn’t helping his time constraints. At all. “Listen, Dad, unless this is something urgent—”
“I didn’t think it was until you acted like a damn fool and tried to ruin your marriage. I tried to give you space, son. I figured you’d be as stubborn and pig-headed as me, but that you’d figure it out on your own eventually.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I guess I should’ve said something sooner. Told you that you were being as big of an asshole as I used to be.”
Obviously his father wasn’t going to leave anytime soon. Rather than fighting him any further, he waved him on, feeling irritated to be on the receiving end of another lecture. “I have a feeling this is going to go faster if you just tell me all the things I’m screwing up.”
Mike’s open palm slapped down on the desk. “Don’t act like such an arrogant son of a bitch.”
Shocked at the display of blatant anger from his father, some of Tanner’s ire slipped. Both of his parents had been strict and stern while he was growing up, but at that moment, Mike Carlisle was radiating fury, something Tanner wasn’t accustomed to. “Dad, I—”
“No.” He cut his son off again and stood. “You’re going to sit there and listen to me.”
Tanner swallowed back the words that were on the tip of his tongue as he watched his father pace back and forth in the space in front of his desk. Several minutes ticked by as Mike continued to march resolutely, seeming to gather his thoughts.
Finally he turned and leaned over Tanner’s desk, bracing his hands on the smooth wood surface. “You don’t get to ignore your family because of this.” He waved a hand around the room. “You don’t get to act like a reckless teenager and you damn sure don’t get to break her heart.”
Mike’s voice thickened with emotion. “This company is not worth more than your wife and your kids. I had to learn the hard way, and I almost lost your mom because of it. I hoped you’d be smarter than me.”
Tanner leapt to his feet and his black leather chair hit the bookcase behind him with the movement. “Twenty-five years, Dad.” He walked over to the window and stared out unseeingly for several long minutes. “Twenty-five years ago you brought me here for the first time. You had just built this office and moved out of that tiny building on Crescent.”
He ran his hands through his hair and locked his fingers behind his neck, turning to face his father. “You brought me here on the first day of summer vacation when I was eight and told me one day I would be the boss. I would be in charge. I would be responsible for the company and the family. You brought me to work with you all the time. You trained me for this.”
His eyes lifted to the ceiling, and he barked out a mirthless laugh. “And the first time in thirty-three years I decided to just have fun and be as irresponsible as Wyatt…it blew up in my face. I was miserable, I missed Belle and the kids like crazy, and I woke up with a hangover from hell, knowing I’d just made the worst mistake in my life.”
The color drained from his father’s face and his mouth fell open. “Son, I never meant…I never wanted you to feel…” He scrubbed his hands over his face and sighed. “Well, hell.”
Tanner’s hands fell to his sides. “I didn’t want to disappoint you. The last thing I ever wanted to do was disappoint you.” He sighed and nearly collapsed into the chair his father had been sitting in earlier. “But that’s exactly what I did. I disappointed you and Mom and, hell, I broke Belle’s heart.”
Mike took the seat next to his son and rested his elbows on his knees. He kept his gaze fixed on his interlaced fingers for a long time. “Tanner, I don’t understand why you never said anything before this. Son, you know you can come to me for anything.”
A hollow smile curved Tanner’s lips. “So you’ll give up the Thursday morning golf games if I need to start taking some time off?”
He quirked an eyebrow at Tanner. “How about we do one better than that?” He circled around the desk and took up residence in Tanner’s seat. He quickly located a blank piece of paper and pen and began scribbling furiously. After five minutes, he slid the paper across the desk. “How does that look? We can make adjustments as we go.”
Tanner’s eyes scanned over the page, and he grinned. “Hey, the old man’s still got it.”
His father pinned him with a stoic expression. “The ‘old man’ built it. And don’t you forget it.” Finally the veneer cracked, and he offered his son a wink and a smile. “Now I think that means you need to get the hell out of here.”
For the first time in longer than he cared to remember, some of the tension drained from Tanner’s shoulders. “Thanks, Dad.”
Before his father could even respond, he grabbed the rest of his lunch off the desk and all but sprinted out the door.
***
He peeled back the blue sheet that was covering her and began trailing kisses from her wrist up to her shoulder, never taking his eyes off her face. Just as his mouth moved over her elbow, her eyelids fluttered and he couldn’t help but grin. “Good morning, Sleeping Beauty,” he murmured against her skin.
Belle rolled onto her back and smiled at him. “Good morning, baby.” As soon as the words left her mouth, clouds formed in her eyes and she bit down on her bottom lip. “Tanner, I’m sorry I said—”
Tanner shook his head and ran his tongue up the column of her neck, silencing her thoughts and eliciting a soft moan. “No, sweetheart, you were right. I’ve been working too damn much.” He nipped the sensitive skin between her neck and shoulder lightly before pulling his head back. “And we’re gonna make up for some of that today.”
A mischievous glint lit up her eyes. “That sounds like fun.”
He chuckled softly and planted a kiss on her forehead before jumping off the bed and taking a few large steps to the dresser. His greedy little vixen was going to tempt every ounce of his self-control and they’d never wind up leaving the apartment if he didn’t refocus. He grabbed a dark green shirt and a pair of cutoff denim shorts from her drawers and tossed them on the bed. “Here ya go, sweetheart.”
Her full lips turned down into a pretty little pout that begged to be kissed. Shit. Tanner had to look away before he climbed on top of her and…
“What’s this?” She looked from the clothes on the bed to him and back again. Then a slow smile started to spread across her face. Belle stood on her knees on the mattress, turning to face him, and crossed her arms in front of her, catching the hem of her shirt. “So you want me to get dressed?”
At the sound of her voice that somehow had dropped an octave, Tanner couldn’t help but lift his eyes just as she whipped her shirt over her head. “Dammit all to hell.” The words sounded hoarse in his own ears and he couldn’t stop himself from crossing to the bed and pushing her back down against the mattress. “We’re gonna be late.”
She ran her hands up the back of his blue cotton shirt and gave a throaty laugh. “Just ten minutes, baby.” Her words ended on a moan as his tongue made a path down the front of her body. “Okay, maybe fifteen.”
Two and a half hours later, they stood on the landing overlooking the Lower Cascade Falls. The roaring waterfall was even more beautiful than he had anticipated, and the look on Belle’s face when she caught her first glimpse of the falls caused his heart to swell.
Tanner wrapped his arms around her waist and held her back close to his front. He planted a kiss on the top of her head. “I love you, Belle.”
Her hands covered his and her head tilted back against his chest. “I love you too, Tanner.”
He turned her around in his arms and slowly backed her against one of the square stone posts. He bent his head down and brushed his lips across hers. “Promise me you’ll tell me if I’m working too much again.”
A sheen of unshed tears covered her eyes, and she ran her hand over the light growth of facial hair covering his cheek. “Tanner, I didn’t mean it.” A fat drop escaped and trailed down her face. “You, me, us…” She shook her head and kissed him. “We’re a forever thing, right?”
Tanner swiped his thumb under her eyes, clearing away any hint of the tear. He couldn’t help but grin when she used his words on him. “Hell yeah, we are. Sweetheart, listen, I promise you I’ll try my damndest to make you happy. Every day. But you gotta tell me when I screw up, okay?”
She smiled back up at him. “And what makes you happy, baby?”
His mouth covered hers for several long minutes before a desperate need for oxygen forced them apart. “This. You. In my arms.” His breath came in stuttering gasps as he tried to pull air into his lungs. “Belle, when the team went through the worst damned losing streak ever, when I thought I was gonna fail my midterm, hell, when I was certain I’d screwed up the biggest account my dad had…” His forehead rested against hers. “Sweetheart, I didn’t give a damn about any of that because I’d come home to you and you’d throw in some ridiculous movie and sit in my lap, and suddenly nothing else would matter.”
Her tears began to fall in earnest, and Tanner brushed his lips over each wet cheek. “If I promise to keep trying, will you promise to keep letting me?”
“Tan-ner,” his name broke on a hiccuping sob as she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tight, “I promise.”