Page 45 of Shelter for Tanna

“Oh! That sounds like fun. Think they’ll come on such short notice?”

“Guess there’s only one way to find out, huh?” He pulled his phone from his pocket and hit a contact. “Hey! You and Lana and the kids want to come over tomorrow? Just burgers and dogs. Yeah. Uh-huh. Sure. Oh, nothing. We’ll take care of it all and… Okay, if you insist, bring some bags of chips. Yeah. Does one sound okay? Okay then, see you at one o’clock. I’m calling Sparky and Fresh too. You’re on! See you then. Bye.” Braden ended the call and laughed. “I just got challenged to a game of cornhole. Guess I’d better get the boards out in the morning.”

Three calls later and he was finished. “So what are we looking at here?” she asked.

“HotShot and Lana and their two kids. Sparky, Fiona, and their three. Fresh, Angela, and their two. So we’ll have a full house. I called Pokey too, but they’ve got to go to his parents’ house. Sparky said they’d bring dessert, and Fresh is bringing all the drinks. All I’ve got to do is pick up dogs, patties, buns, and make sure I have all the condiments. That’s easy enough. Wanna run to the store with me?”

“I’ll have to get them together and?”

“Tanna.” Braden turned her face to his with a finger under her chin. “Daniel is fourteen. They can stay here long enough for us to run to the store. We won’t be gone long. He’s got his phone, so he can call one of us if there’s a problem.”

“Okay. Guess that’ll work.”

They were only gone about an hour and when they came back, Max was asleep on the sofa and Daniel was still reading his magazine. They were fine. That was the moment it happened.

Tanna started to relax. Things were really good. She was a little shaky about meeting all his friends, but she knew that would have to happen, so the sooner, the better, she supposed. The meal would be simple enough, and maybe the kids would be good with Daniel and Max. It could be fun.

By the next evening, she was in heaven. Lana, Fiona, and Angela had been super nice to her, even insisting they all go for a spa day together. Tanna didn’t have the heart to tell them she couldn’t afford it, but it would sure be fun if she could. Their kids were all polite and well-behaved, and the oldest Wilson boy, Matthew, was Daniel’s age. They’d had a great time together, and it did her heart good to see him have fun with another kid.

But bedtime came soon enough, and they all had to leave. She couldn’t get the kids to school and herself to work from Braden’s house, so they couldn’t stay. “But Mom,” Max whined, “I don’t want to go! I like it here!”

“I know, honey, but you’ve got school tomorrow.”

“Get married so we don’t have to leave!” the little boy shouted and ran up the stairs.

“From the mouths of babes,” she heard Braden mutter.

Tanna wheeled on him and tried to look mad, but she couldn’t help the grin that ruined the effect. “Don’t encourage him.”

He held his palms up in surrender. “Me? No. I would never do that. Never.” That made her laugh aloud.

They drove home and as they went, all Tanna could think about was the empty bed she was going home to. When she’d asked Braden if he wanted to come there for the night, he told her that he’d stay with her later in the week, but he thought they needed a night to think about the weekend, the way it had gone, and if there was anything they needed to work on.

The boys were asleep and she was climbing into bed when her phone rang. “Couldn’t stand it, could you?” she asked with a chuckle.

“No. I couldn’t. I miss you. Everything okay there?”

“Yeah. They’re dead to the world. Worn out, I think. Your friends and their families… God, Braden, that was all so great. They’re really nice.”

“They like you, Tanna. Every one of them told me that as they were leaving, how great you are and how much they like you. The kids all got along too.”

“They did. They’ve all got such good kids.”

“Yeah, well, did you know the Wilson kids go to the county schools out this way? So if the boys ever went to school out here, they’d go with Matthew and Thomas. That would be good.”

“It would.” She was almost afraid to ask, but she had to. “So you said you wanted us to take tonight to think. Have you?”

“I have. And there’s not one thing I would change about this weekend. It was incredible. I love having the three of you here, and I love having you in my bed.”

A bolt of sexual energy roared through Tanna’s belly and zapped her clit. “Yeah, I loved being in your bed. Wish I were there now.”

“I wish you were too. God, babe, you’re so soft and hot and wet and?”

“I’m never going to get to sleep if you’re going to talk like that,” she whined.

“Got a b-o-b?”

“A what?”

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