Page 3 of Home Run

But this Tanner, the one who knew instinctively what to do when a girl cried, and seemed to be able to hold a conversation without making any kind of innuendo or suggestion of us getting together, wasn’t a Tanner I’d met before. He was simply sitting opposite me, drinking his coffee, genuinely interested in why I was upset and wanting to help. Something I was finding alarming and appealing in equal quantities.

I nodded, taking a deep breath. “Yeah, kinda, my mom has a new boyfriend?—”

Quick as a flash, Tanner’s eyes darkened and a snarl pulled his lip. “Did he do something? Tell me he didn’t do anything. If anyone laid a finger on you…”

I held my hand up to silence him. “No, nothing like that. And he’s notthatnew, but she called me yesterday to tell me he was going to move in and she needed to clear some space for him. And she was planning to donate some of my dad’s old stuff—suits, shirts, old things we hadn’t been ready to get rid of. I’m still not sure I’m ready, and I kind of lost it.” The well of emotion rose up in my throat, and I took another big sniff. “We had a huge argument, and I took the train home yesterday afternoon, packed up everything important to me, and caught the first train back here. That box has old photos and notes, things that belong to my dad, an old ashtray I’d made in school whenI was a kid…The suitcase was all his old shirts and sweaters.”

Tanner’s eyes widened. I don’t think I’d ever been close enough to him or stared at him long enough to notice the ring of navy around the edge of his iris or the tiny marble flecks blending into it, making them appear even bluer.

“You came from D.C. this morning?”

“Yeah.”

“Does your mom know you came back?”

I nodded. “Yeah, she heard the Uber pick me up. It’s not her fault, I want her to be happy…but it’s my dad. If she donates it all…” I didn’t finish the sentence. I couldn’t. My throat was closing and I really didn’t want another round of tears. I blinked them away before any could fall.

He waited for a second, his full lips rolling into each other. “How did your dad die?”

Putting down my cup, I picked up one of Tanner’s empty packets of sugar just for something to do. I didn’t talk about my dad much, not because I didn’t want to but because it always led to more questions I wasn’t always ready to answer. Or in the frame of mind to answer. My dad’s job was important for the safety of the United States, but it put him in danger and ultimately took him from his family.

“He was in the CIA with Radley’s dad. He was killed on a mission.” I shrugged, trying to pass it off as nonchalance, because even though it had been four years, I still needed to swallow down the anger I held. And some days I missed him so much it shook my bones. “I don’t know what happened. But he went to work and didn’t come home, and now there’s a stupid star on a wall at Langley.”

To Tanner’s credit, he didn’t pull one of those expressions people did when they found out a relative had died, the head-bobby kind of one where they didn’t know what to say but wanted to tell you how sorry they were. That head bob was multiplied a hundred times over when anyone heard about my dad.

Instead, he sipped his coffee.

“Can’t Radley’s mom tell you, given she’s the president and all?”

“She told my mom they were in Iran, and they got caught up in some bad intel and ambushed. He wasn’t the only one who died, that’s all I know. At least we got his body back.” I pulled out a napkin from the dispenser to wipe my nose.

I wanted to ask what he was thinking as he held me with his gaze, but it broke when two plates, piled high with eggs, toast, waffles, bacon, and fruit, along with little cups of maple syrup and whipped cream, were placed in front of us. It was enough food to feed a family for a week.

“Want more coffee?” asked Giuseppe.

“Nah, I think we’re good for the moment. This looks awesome as always.” The earnestness Tanner had been staring at me with vanished as he glanced up at Giuseppe and grinned.

“I added some extra bacon just how you like it.”

“Thanks, man, you’re the best. I’ll hold some tickets for you this week if you want them.”

“Hell yeah, you’re playing the Mets. I’m not missing that.” Giuseppe nodded to the food. “I want clean plates.”

There was no way I could finish all this.

“I’ll eat what you can’t,” Tanner added, taking in my wide eyes as Giuseppe walked back to the kitchens.

“Thank you.” I picked up my fork and dug in, deciding to change the subject. My brain needed to think about happier things. “So, what did I miss this morning?”

If my mom hadn’t called me yesterday afternoon to talk to me about Doug moving in, I would have been at Tanner’s apartment having breakfast, along with Radley and the rest of his roommates to watch movies on their first day off since the beginning of the baseball season. Instead, I’d been sitting at Union Station waiting for the first train back to New York.

“Scout stayed over.”

I put down my fork and looked at Tanner with my brows almost in my hairline. This wasbrand-newnews. “Scout? The girl Parker likes? They’re dating now?”

Parker King, one of Tanner’s roommates, had liked a girl who worked on the social media team at the New York Lions since before I’d known them. Last Christmas the group of us had gone skating at Rockefeller Center, and Parker had spotted Scout with another guy and promptly declared he was going home in a sulk. In a bid to get him to stay with the group, Tanner and I had taken a couple of laps of the rink to see what we could deduce.

My assessment had been that Scout wasn’t into the guy all that much and it would be over soon. I’d been correct, and Scout started the current season as a single lady. But I hadn’t heard anything about her and Parker dating.

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