Chapter Twelve
Taking naps sounds so childish. I prefer to call
them horizontal life pauses.
them horizontal life pauses.
—Mel’s Motivational Blog
“This is bogus, man.”
Tanner put his hand on the guy’s head and settled him into the back of the patrol car before slamming the door. He’d yet to arrest someone who fully confessed to dealing drugs. However, they were always so quick to squeal on their friends.
This time the undercover officer they’d placed in the gym had managed to get the names of the “higher ups,” and that made for one successful bust.
Tanner patted the top of the car and the officer pulled from the lot, heading toward the station. It was well past midnight now and all he wanted to do was get back home to Melanie.
Home to Melanie. Just those words sent a spiral of emotions through him. Anticipation of what their future held gripped his heart. Wondering where they’d ultimately end up constantly filtered through his mind. But most of all, there was still that fear he couldn’t let go of.
As long as she was with him, he could convince himself she and the baby were safe. Not that he was a doctor by any means, but there was peace of mind in seeing her happy and healthy.
Soon her belly would start rounding out. There would be ultrasounds, kicks from growing little legs, and ultimately the birth. His arms ached to hold his child. He never thought he’d feel this way again, but damn it, he wanted this. He wanted to be a father, to raise a child in a loving, caring home.
His mother had instilled loyalty and compassion in him at an early age. Tanner owed everything to that amazing woman and couldn’t wait to spend Thanksgiving with her, his stepdad, and Mel.
He headed back into the gym, where Cash was talking with another officer. When Cash glanced over, he shook the other guy’s hand and made his way to Tanner. With a quick nod of thanks to his coworker, Tanner stepped closer to Cash.
“Well, that’s done.”
Cash nodded and slapped Tanner on the back. “I owe you a beer, man.”
“A beer? Hell, you owe me a steak dinner.”
Cash smiled. “Consider it done.”
“I’m just glad we could wrap this up, and it was late, so the gym was empty.”
With the twenty-four-hour gym access for members, Tanner hadn’t been sure if anyone would be here, but thankfully no one was. The bust went off easily and quickly—which was not always the case.
“You think you’ll be able to get the other guy?” Cash asked.
Tanner nodded and leaned his arm against the wraparound check-in counter. “Positive. The force in Macon is already on it. Those guys had been shuttling pills up here for some time now.”
“Bastards get whatever is coming to them.” Cash raked a hand over his stubbled jaw and tugged the bill of his hat down. “You heading home now, or do you want to head on over to Taps?”
“I’m heading home.”
Tanner bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. The image of Melanie waiting for him in his bed was all that was keeping him going right now.
Cash’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, I see how it is. I guess this has to do with Melanie?”
Tanner gave a slight shrug. “Perhaps.”
“Care to tell me what’s going on there? Besides the baby, I mean. You’re not hovering because of—”
“No.” Tanner wasn’t. Well, he was, sort of, but he also cared for Melanie. “Listen, I’m scared as hell, but there’s something about her that I just can’t resist. I want to get to know her more and she’s at my house now, so if we could put off the grilling until later, that would be great.”
Cash laughed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Go on, man. Get home to your woman.”
His woman
. Tanner wasn’t quite sure she was ready for that label, but that’s exactly how he thought of her. She was his. Not in the way that he wanted to possess her, but in the way that he wanted to cherish her and start something new and exciting with her.
Tanner let himself out of the gym and headed to his truck. Thankfully tomorrow, or really today, was Thanksgiving and he was taking Melanie to meet his mother. That thought alone had him looking forward to a future. There was only one other woman who had met his mother, so to say Melanie was special was a vast understatement.
Part of him wondered if he should tell his mother about the pregnancy before he arrived. He wasn’t sure how she’d take the news. She’d been just as devastated when he’d lost his fiancée and child so many years ago.
Springing something this monumental on her . . .
No. She would love this surprise. Tanner wanted Melanie to be part of the revealing. There was nothing his mother loved more than a joyful surprise, and Tanner had a good feeling his mother and Melanie would hit it off perfectly.
The closer he got to his house, the more anxious he became. He figured she’d be asleep, but he hoped like hell she wasn’t. It had been all he could do to concentrate on the case and not the fact that a naked woman was back at his house, soaking in his tub or lying in his bed.
Tanner pulled into his drive and on into the garage. He couldn’t deny he liked seeing Melanie’s car in the drive. Well, the car she was driving now. He still didn’t understand why she’d gotten rid of her Beemer in exchange for something that had clearly seen better days. She had money, that he was fairly certain of. If she’d blackmailed her husband so he’d let her leave, how had she not left with enough money to keep her going?
Added to that, she was an attorney. Granted, she wasn’t practicing here in Haven, but she had in the past. Her online blog and social media sites brought in sponsors and so much press that she’d become quite successful.
Which left him curious as to why she’d chosen a car that looked like something a sixteen-year-old would have if they were working a minimum wage job and paying for their own ride.
He let himself into the kitchen through the attached garage. A quietness settled over the house, but for the first time in years, he was coming home to someone. Tanner never thought he’d want to have someone to come home to again, never thought he’d let himself fall to such vulnerabilities again. But here he was, exposing the very part of his soul that could destroy him.
But the flip side of that fear was the fact that Melanie was just as fragile. Actually, she was likely more so. Which was just another reason he wanted her here. Call it that protective instinct he’d always had, but he wanted to shield her from everything, including and most importantly her past, which clearly still haunted her.
As he did every night, he double-checked all the locks and made sure his alarms were set. He pulled his shoulder holster off as he mounted the steps toward his room. The fresh aroma of his soap enveloped him as he hit the landing. He smiled, knowing Mel had used his things. Call him territorial or barbaric or whatever, but the idea of her rubbing his soap over her sweet body had him feeling exactly that. He was territorial.
The soft glow from his bedroom drew him closer, and as he turned the corner, he couldn’t help but freeze in the doorway at the sight before him. Melanie curled up on his side of the bed, covers drawn up to her chin. The instant punch to that vulnerable point in his soul hit him hard.
Tanner leaned against the door frame and waited for the sliver of doubt to enter in. He’d been a bachelor for so long. He’d enjoyed dating and purposely not getting attached. Yet the moment Melanie came into town, something about her had captivated his attention. Then he’d slept with her and had been completely blindsided by how much he wanted to actually get to know her. But he’d purposely tried to take things slow and back off a tad after their intense encounter. He knew she was skittish and he hadn’t wanted to scare her off.
Add in the baby, and he was a damn lost cause. This right here before his eyes was his family. He wanted her here, and when he’d blurted out about her moving in, he hadn’t thought it through, but he would do everything he could to convince her to stay.
Trying to be quiet, Tanner eased across the room with careful steps. He put his holster and gun on the chest of drawers and took a seat in the corner chair. He’d never changed this room since he moved in. The furniture had come with the house. He’d bought a mattress and a comforter, but that was all. The living room and dining room were the same. He wasn’t much on décor, and what was here had been good enough for him.
He unlaced his shoes and toed them off, then stood to jerk his shirt up and over his head. After sliding out of his jeans, he left his boxer briefs on and started across the room to the opposite side of the bed.
Something hit his foot and he tripped, falling onto the footboard of the bed and muttering a string of curses. Melanie shot up in bed, clutching the sheet to her chest.
“Damn it. Sorry.”
He turned to see what he’d fallen over, and it had been her shoes.
“No, it’s fine,” she said, rubbing her eyes and sitting up fully. “I was trying to stay up for you. I guess I didn’t make it and took a little nap.”
Even though his toe throbbed from contact with the heel of her shoe, his heart warmed at the idea that she had wanted to wait for him. Nobody had ever done that. Then again, he’d never given anyone the chance.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Almost one.”
Melanie smoothed her hair past her face. “I can go if you . . . I’m not sure if you had a bad day or . . . sorry. I’m not sure what to do here.”
Her rumpled state and awkward words had him smiling and easing onto the bed. “All you have to do is stay right where you are. Unless you really want to leave.”
With the sheet tucked under her arms, she glanced down to her fingers in her lap. “I should make myself go. I’m not sure cozying up here is smart.”
“But you don’t want to.”
“I don’t,” she murmured. “It’s just, it’s difficult to trust my instincts after a failed marriage.”
Tanner shifted and propped his back against the headboard and pulled her against his side. “I don’t know much about your marriage. I know enough to know you went through hell and I want to protect you from any more pain.”
“I don’t need to be protected,” she whispered as her palm flattened against his abs. “I need to move on, which I’m doing. I need to learn to trust again, but that’s the hard part, and you just happen to be on my path. Which isn’t really fair to you.”
Tanner turned and leaned her back against her pillows, resting his hands on either side of her face. “Did I give you a reason to not trust me?”
Melanie shook her head.
“Then don’t worry about what’s fair to me,” he commanded. “You work on moving forward just like you have been. I’ll take care of me.”
Melanie stared up at him. He could hardly make out the expression on her face, but he could feel the soft beat of her heart against his side. Her hand slid up over his chest and Tanner swore right then and there that he’d go through anything to keep this woman in his life. He wanted this family, he wanted Melanie.
“I guess I’ll stay tonight,” she whispered as she eased on up and slid her lips over his.
Tanner wasn’t going to argue, but this wasn’t the only night she’d be staying.
* * *
“I can’t believe you stayed all night with Tanner,” Jade exclaimed.
Melanie studied the man in question as he drove toward his mother’s house. Apparently she lived nearly an hour away, but Melanie didn’t know much more.
“Yup,” Melanie replied, obviously not wanting to say too much.
“I can hear her, you know.” Tanner chuckled. “She’s not exactly quiet.”
“Tell him to kiss my ass,” Jade stated.
Melanie rolled her eyes and leaned her elbow on the console. “I’m not relaying that message.”
“Already heard it,” Tanner countered.
“Listen,” Melanie said, getting back on topic. “I’ll be home later tonight. I forgot to charge my laptop, so can you go into the office and do that for me? I have some work to do when I get back.”
“A new blog post? Let me do it.”
“We’ve discussed this. You can do it, but I’ll need to oversee and schedule.”
“You’re no fun,” Jade complained. “I just want to take over for a week. Your followers would love me.”
“I’m sure they would,” Melanie agreed with a laugh. “I feel bad you’re home alone on Thanksgiving.”
“Don’t feel bad for me. I’ve got a new bottle of rosé that I drove two towns over to get because I needed something with an actual cork, plus I have a whole new series on Netflix I’m about to binge-watch. It’s a great day. Besides, Brad may come over for a bit.”
Brad . . . some guy Melanie had yet to meet, but apparently Cash didn’t like him. Who knew what was going on there.
“I’ll bring you some food back,” Melanie promised.
“I’m fine, really. Go enjoy meeting the mother and getting your new little family in order.”
“It’s not like that,” Melanie stated.
Tanner’s hands gripped the wheel tighter as his lips thinned. She immediately regretted her words, but she wasn’t sure what to say. Yes, she was meeting his mom, but it wasn’t like she and Tanner were ready to pick out china patterns or get monogrammed towels.
“Maybe not yet, but it will be.” Jade paused for a second and then lowered her tone. “Mel, he’s good for you. Don’t find reasons to dismiss him.”
Melanie continued to stare at his profile. She’d spent the night in his bed. They’d made love twice last night and once this morning in the shower before he’d taken her back home to change her clothes. Jade had been out for her morning run, so the walk of shame had gone unnoticed.
Tanner put her needs first at all times. Not just in bed, but constantly asking about her, making sure she was comfortable, asking how she felt or if she needed anything. The man was 100 percent not what she was used to.
“I’ll talk to you later,” Melanie said. “Don’t forget my computer.”
“I’m on it.”
She disconnected the call and couldn’t help the overwhelming sensation of awkward tension. Talking on a cell phone was never private. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind Tanner heard everything.
“Do you get home often?” she asked, trying to push through the silence.
“Not as often as my mother would like. But she and my stepdad travel quite a bit.”
“She doesn’t know about the baby, does she?”
Tanner shook his head. “I didn’t want to tell her over the phone. I’d like to think this will be exciting for her, but truth be told, she may have difficulty taking the news.”
Melanie shifted in her seat, sliding her purse from her lap to the floor and dropping her cell inside. “Because she doesn’t know me?”
Tanner swallowed and stared out at the stretch of road ahead. Melanie waited, watched, but he said nothing.
“Tanner?”
“I should’ve told you before now.” He glanced in the side mirror and switched lanes to pass a truck. “Damn it. I just didn’t want to talk about it at all, but you need to know something.”
Dread curled low in her belly. “You’re scaring me.”
He reached across and took her hand before glancing her way for the briefest of seconds. “It’s just about my past. I was engaged before.”
“Okay. I didn’t think I was the first woman in your life.”
“She was pregnant,” he went on. “The doctors had told her she should never try to have a baby because of her health issues, but she wanted a family. The pregnancy wasn’t planned by any means, but it happened.”
Fear consumed her. She saw where this was going and her heart literally ached for him.
“I lost them both,” he murmured.
Melanie squeezed his hand and wondered what she could possibly say that would make this any better. Now she knew why he hovered, why he was constantly asking about her.
“Is that why you wanted me to move in?” she asked. “So you could keep an eye on me?”
She hated the question that came out, but she had to know. Did he care about her or was he reliving his past and terrified something just as tragic would happen?
“Honestly? That was part of the reason. When you first told me about the baby I was thrust back to that time, and the wind was knocked out of me.”
She remembered exactly what he’d looked like when she told him. Now that she knew, his reaction was definitely justified.
“You should’ve told me before now.”
“I know.”
Melanie threaded her fingers through his. “I understand why you didn’t. There’s still so much of me that you don’t know that I don’t want to dive into.”
His thumb feathered back and forth over the back of her hand. “Don’t feel pressured to tell me. I’m here whenever you’re ready. But I needed to fill you in before my mom said something. I didn’t want you going in blind.”
Melanie appreciated his honesty, appreciated that he had opened up something so painful just so she wouldn’t feel lost. Could Tanner be this perfect for her?
She’d been fooled by a charming man with a mesmerizing grin once before. She’d been led astray by her emotions when she didn’t know any better.
But she was different now. She had nothing to hide.
“Neville Prescott abused me,” she stated simply.
“Mel, you don’t have to do this.”
She stared at him for just a moment before looking back to the stretch of highway before them. “I know I don’t, but I’m not the scared woman I was before. He can’t hurt me because I won’t let him.”
“You’re one strong woman.” Tanner released her hand and shut off the radio before clasping her fingers in his again. “I know from working on the force it’s difficult to get women to leave. They’re afraid or they think they deserve the abuse because they’ve done something wrong. It pains me to leave them, but there’s nothing I can do until they want to help themselves.”
There he went again with that passion-filled tone. She’d never stopped to consider what he saw at work or what he had to deal with day in and day out. She knew he couldn’t share anything with her, but knowing he’d worked with women in her situation made her appreciate their bond all the more.
“I stayed longer than I should’ve, but not as long as most women do,” she added. “In all honesty, things could’ve been worse. I’m not defending him, but there were days that would go by when I didn’t even see him, so that was a blessing. If he ignored me, then I knew I was safe.”
“You said you blackmailed him. Has he left you alone since the divorce?”
Melanie glanced down to their hands. How strangely their relationship had formed. Bickering banter turned to a one-night stand, then a pregnancy, and now she wanted to spend more and more time with him. Oh, and she was on the way for the obligatory mother meeting.
“Not exactly,” she said, slowly weighing her words because Tanner was one overprotective man. “He’s contacted me multiple times. He mostly has his assistants reach out to me, but he actually texted me the other day.”
“He what?” Tanner exploded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Melanie shrugged. “It’s not your problem to solve. He’s always going to be a menace, I’m afraid. He’s gearing up to run for the senate next year and thinks a dramatic reunion on camera will do wonders in the polls.”
“He can’t be serious.”
Melanie eased her hand from Tanner’s and adjusted her vents. She needed some cooler air if she was going to dive into this. According to the dash clock, they still had another twenty-five minutes to go.
“Neville never joked about politics,” she told Tanner. “His life revolves around them. His assistants, his campaign manager, they were always at the house, and when they weren’t, they all traveled like a pack of wolves to the office. I was the dutiful wife who hosted parties, smiled, pretended like we had the perfect marriage. But if he had a bad day or if I had done something displeasing, like hanging his shirts wrong in his walk-in closet, there was hell to pay.”
Silence filled the truck and she knew Tanner was letting her go at her own pace. He wasn’t pressuring her into details, and she wasn’t quite sure how far she’d go into those, but she found that getting this out in the open actually gave her more power. She wasn’t hiding behind the ugliness that was her past. She’d never posted any of this on her blog, but Livie and Jade knew every sordid detail.
“Emotional abuse is just as scarring as physical,” she added. “The things he’d tell me were hurtful and I still hear those words when I fall into self-doubt. But that’s not often, because I refuse to let him win.”
“You walking away showed him he wasn’t winning,” Tanner praised. “What the hell did he say to you the other day?”
“He texted, then he had his assistant call. I ignore him, which I’m sure just enrages him all the more.”
When Tanner didn’t respond, Melanie risked looking his way and the first word that came to mind at the sight of his clenched jaw and thin lips was rage
. She reached over and placed her hand on his thigh.
“Don’t let him occupy your thoughts,” she demanded. “He’s nothing to you.”
He threw her a glance. “If he’s harassing you in any way—and texting you after the divorce is harassment, since you were abused—then he has everything to do with me.”
Fear gripped Melanie, threatening to overwhelm her. Tanner couldn’t have any idea how powerful Neville was. The man had so many law enforcement personnel in his pocket, so many government officials. There was no way Melanie would ever allow the path of those two men to cross.
“Does he know you’re pregnant?”
Melanie shook her head. “No. I don’t even want to know how he’ll react.”
“Stop answering calls from the assistants,” Tanner told her. “Change your number if you have to.”
“Oh, I’ve changed it. I give up now. It’s not worth the trouble because he always finds it.”
“I’ll handle him if he contacts you again—him or his assistants. He’s not the only one with powerful contacts and people in his back pocket. I’m pretty damn resourceful.”
Melanie said nothing. She knew she’d never be able to tell Tanner if she had contact again. There was no way in hell Neville could learn about Tanner.
Besides, Tanner was busy with his own life without worrying about taking on her issues.
Her cell chimed in her purse, but she ignored it. She wasn’t in the mood right now and nothing was too pressing that it couldn’t wait.
“Do you want to get that?” Tanner asked.
“I’ll check it later.”
She moved her hand from his thigh and settled back against her seat. “Tell me about your mom before we get there. Am I going to be tackle-hugged, or is she a handshake type woman?”
“Considering I never bring a woman home, she’ll definitely tackle-hug you.”
Melanie laughed. “Good to know. Plus, she likes to cook. I think I’m going to get along just fine with her.”
The nerves in her belly didn’t cease. Now that Melanie knew more about Tanner’s past, the dynamics of this meeting just escalated into a territory Melanie had no experience with. But his mother had to know what was going on. In all honesty, Melanie was glad she was meeting Tanner’s mother. There was quite a bit to be said about a man in how he treated his mom, and knowing Tanner had dropped everything to spend the holiday with his mother warmed Melanie so much.
She wanted to believe he was more than a rebound, that he could be someone she could depend on. On the other hand, she worried if she’d ever fully be free of her past, because she hadn’t been lying when she’d told him Neville was evil. There was nothing that man wouldn’t do to get what he wanted. Unfortunately, he wanted her back in his life.
Melanie wrapped her arms around her midsection. Like hell she’d ever return to the life she’d barely escaped from.