One in a Million (7 page)

“Knock it off, you idiot,” Tanner said. He looked at Troy. “He’s kidding.”

“Oh.” Troy nodded. “That’s good because Tumblr says you’re having a thing with some chick named Callie.”

“I am not having a thing with Callie,” Tanner said, though he had to admit he wouldn’t mind having a thing with her. Maybe a couple of things. He turned to Cole. “And what the hell do you mean, I’m not your type?”

Tanner took Troy fishing. He took the boat out to his secret sweet spot and showed the kid how to get one on the line without fail.

The entire time Troy looked like he was getting a root canal.

So much for bonding.

After nearly three hours of silence, Tanner gave up. “Is there a problem?”

No answer.

“Hello,” he said.

Troy pulled out an earbud. Tinny music blared out. Tanner stared at him and then shook his head. Jesus. “Not your thing, fishing?”

Troy looked relieved. “Fish suck.”

Okay, so maybe they weren’t two peas in a pod after all.

That evening they sat at Tanner’s kitchen table and worked on Troy’s chemistry homework due to the D he’d come home with.

“Chemistry sucks,” Troy said an hour later when he still hadn’t gotten halfway through. “Sucks hard.”

“Working sucks,” Tanner said. “Fishing sucks. School sucks. Let’s try this—what
doesn’t
suck?”

“Here? Nothing,” Troy said sullenly.

Tanner pushed the books aside. “Come on. I’ve got something we need to do.”

“What now?”

Tanner pushed open the door to his spare bedroom, the one he’d given over to the kid. It’d been pretty sparse when Troy had first arrived, just a futon. But Tanner had picked up a bed, a dresser, and a desk.

“Great,” Troy said, looking at the desk. “A place to do more work. In a white room. It’s like my own private padded cell.”

Tanner ignored the sarcasm. “You don’t like white? Then pick a color. We’ll paint this weekend.”

“Dark purple,” Troy said without hesitation.

Tanner swiveled his head and stared at him. “Dark purple?”

“Dark purple.”

Tanner rubbed a hand over the top of his head and winced at the bump there from hitting it earlier. “Look, I get that you’re pissed off at having to be here, that it feels unfair and you want to strike out and all that, but you’re the one who has to live with the color. So I’m going to ask you again. Dark purple? You sure?”

Troy just stared at him sullenly.

“Okay,” Tanner muttered, and shook his head. “You’re sure.” He started to leave and then stopped. He remembered after his dad had left, how his mom had picked up two jobs to make ends meet, and he’d felt so helpless and furious all the time. “Listen,” he said. “It will get better here.”

More nothing and Tanner shook his head. “Fine. Life sucks. Go with that, it’s a great attitude.”

Troy moved past Tanner and stretched out on the bed. He closed his eyes and for a moment looked so painfully young and so painfully vulnerable.

“’Night,” Tanner said quietly and turned to go.

“Um,” Troy said.

Tanner turned back. “Yeah?”

Troy hesitated. “Thanks.”

It was possibly the first time Troy had ever said that word to him, and Tanner felt an ache from deep in his chest. The kind of ache that was either a heart attack in the making or he was having a bona fide, real dad moment. He wanted to press Troy for more but knew that wasn’t the right thing to do.

As for what was the right thing, he didn’t have a clue. So he nodded and left the kid there on his bed and hit his own, where he dreamed of a green-eyed, strawberry blonde who lit up at the sight of a doughnut and hadn’t a single clue that she was the hottest woman in the room.

The next morning he sat at the bakery for an hour but she never showed.

The pretty brunette from the other day was there, though. She came up to his table with a try-me smile. “Is this seat taken?” she asked.

“No,” he said, and rose. “And this one isn’t either.”

“But…” She stared at him as he started to walk away. “Don’t you want to finish your breakfast? We could make it a date.”

“Sorry,” he said genuinely. “But I already have one.”

C
allie figured out the way to battle her doughnut demons. She stayed in bed. It wasn’t bad as far as offices went, and the dress code—PJs—really worked for her. She’d gotten up long enough for a teeth-brushing mission and to grab her laptop, and then she’d crawled back into bed and gone straight to work, telling herself that she didn’t need caffeine and sugar to get going.

Her humiliation did that just fine.

She worked like a fiend. No one could deny that she knew how to throw a hell of a good party. She just hoped her brides enjoyed it because odds were that the reception would be the highlight of their marriage.

An hour or two later she decided that this working from home thing was a decent gig. In fact, maybe she wouldn’t ever go into town again.

That’s when someone knocked on her door.

She went still, frozen like a deer in the headlights. Then she glanced at the clock. It was ten in the morning. Both Becca and Olivia were at work by now. She hadn’t ordered a pizza for breakfast—though she absolutely would have if anyplace in Lucky Harbor delivered pizzas for breakfast. Hey, maybe she could quit her job and do that.

In any case, she wasn’t expecting company.

The knock came again and she looked down at herself. A double-extra-large men’s sweatshirt that kept falling off her shoulder. Plaid PJ bottoms about a foot too long and washed so many times they were threadbare. Today’s footwear of choice—Shrek slippers.

Yeah. She was ready for a Victoria’s Secret catwalk.

She climbed off her bed and looked out the peephole. Dark, silky hair. Dark eyes. Navy sweatshirt. Sexy jeans. Damn it.
What was he doing here?

“I can hear you breathing,” Tanner said.

She stopped breathing and went utterly still.

“And now I can hear you panicking.”

She let out the breath with a
whoosh
and backed away from the door, heart pounding. “Why are you here?” she asked the door.

“Because our table was already taken at the bakery.”

“What? That’s ridiculous. It’s not our table.”

“Felt like it,” he said.

She thunked her forehead on the door. “Why are you really here?” she whispered.

“Because you didn’t show.”

She lifted her head and stared at the door. “Why did it matter to you?”

“Open the door, Callie.”

“Tell me why, Tanner.”

Was that a barely-there sigh she heard? “Because you’re not an ostrich,” he said.

She blinked. “Maybe I am. Maybe I hide all the time. Maybe I’m a master hider.”
Oh my God, Callie, shut up.

“I do know you,” he said.

She shook her head even though he couldn’t see her. “You don’t.”

“I know you’re smart as hell, so smart that most of us football players paid you to do our homework.”

“That was ten years ago,” she said. “You don’t know me now.”

“You run a hugely popular website that you design and handle by yourself,” he said. “I don’t quite get the need for thirty bazillion shades of white satin, or why anyone would want doves to fly over their heads and possibly crap on them, but that’s just me. You’re here in Lucky Harbor checking on your grandma—a serious pain in every bachelor’s ass in this town—but that aside, what you’re doing makes you a pretty damn sweet and caring person. Oh, and I know you have a serious thing for doughnuts.”

She stared at the door. He really had noticed her.

“Open up,” he said into the silence. “I’ve got something for you.”

“A doughnut?” she asked hopefully. “Because that’s the only way I’m opening this door.”

“Better,” he said.

“There’s nothing better.”

“A baker’s dozen,” he said. “And coffee.”

Momentarily forgetting what she looked like, she unlocked the door. Indeed, he was standing there with a big baker’s box and a carrier of four coffees.

“Gimme.” Mouth watering, she reached for the box, but he lifted it high and stepped inside, kicking the door shut behind him.

His eyes were dark, hooded by heavy lids and his thick lashes. His jaw was covered in a few days’ growth of beard, longer than she’d ever seen it, making him look simultaneously dangerous and…vulnerable?

That couldn’t be right. Tanner didn’t do vulnerable.

But something was bothering him. She didn’t get the sense that it had anything to do with her, which meant it was none of her business, but it didn’t stop her from wondering.

And wondering about him made her feel like that silly teen again, with the even sillier crush. “You okay?” she asked softly.

“Was going to ask you the same.”

“Me? I’m great.”

He laughed softly, then moved in closer, his body brushing hers. For a beat she thought maybe he was going to kiss her on the cheek. It threw her in a startlingly good way and she stilled.

He did the same. His dark eyes softened and the laughter faded out of them. Then he shifted even closer so that her body brushed his.

She felt every inch of herself quiver because
holy cow
. Something was burning and she was pretty sure it was her. Time slowed and she realized she’d actually stopped breathing.

So had he. Then he took a slow, long, thorough tour at what she was wearing from her hair to the tips of her Shrek slippers, and smiled.

“You haven’t disappointed yet,” he said.

She held her head high. “I wasn’t dressed to impress.”

“I like it.”

This deflected most of her self-righteousness. “You do?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?” she asked suspiciously.

“Mostly because you’re not wearing any underwear.”

“Hey!” She crossed her arms over her breasts. “How do you know that?”

“God-given talent,” he said. “And you’re happy to see me.”

Her self-righteousness was back in a flash. “For your information,” she said, “I’m cold.”

He smiled.

“I am!”

“I just find it funny that on your website you have an entire section dedicated to fancy lingerie, and you don’t wear any,” he said.

“Ohmigod.” She stared at him, horrified. “Why are you reading my website?”

“Why not?”

“Why not?” She tossed up her hands and struggled for the obvious. “Are you terminally insane? Soon to be married? A woman?”

He was grinning at her now. “No.”

“Then why?” She poked him in a hard pec. Her finger practically bounced off the wall of his chest. Damn, he was built. “Why are you on my website?”

“I’m curious about you.”

That should not give her a little thrill. “Well, don’t be. And stay off the site.”

“What if I was a client?”

“That would be entirely different,” she said. “Then I’d sell you the whole fantasy. But you and I both know that fantasy is expensive and also simply a balloon just waiting to burst.”

Tanner offered her one of the coffees. It was a bribe, of course, but she wasn’t above falling for it. She took a big gulp and closed her eyes in bliss. “God have mercy, how I missed you,” she whispered to the cup.

“Aw,” he said. “Sweet.”

“I was talking to the coffee.” When the caffeine hit her system, she opened her eyes.

Tanner had set everything on her counter and had moved to the wall of windows. He was hands in pockets, looking out at the water.

She knew there was no way he could miss the fact that she had a perfect view of his boat. And therefore him, when he was out there working.

Now she was sorry that she’d pretended otherwise that first day at the bakery.

He turned to face her, brows up.

She ignored him and eyed the box of doughnuts. She didn’t want to be rude and dive in, but she could smell the sugar. It was calling to her.

Tanner came back into the kitchen and leaned against the counter next to her, comfortable as you please in her space. He didn’t appear to be in any hurry to get to the doughnuts so she tried to control herself.

He nodded to a stack of travel brochures for faraway, exotic places like Bora Bora and Anguilla.

“You planning on running off?” he asked.

“Just keeping up on the latest hot locales for honeymoons. Brides are usually incredibly picky about the location, thinking that’s the most important part of the honeymoon.”

“And it’s not?” he asked.

“Let’s just say that I tend to cash my checks fast, before reality sets in and they realize they’ve made a mistake.”

“Ouch,” he said.

“We both know relationships are one big ouch.”

“True enough,” he agreed. “They’re messy and complicated, and screw everything up.” He limped over to the drink carrier and pulled out a second coffee. When he caught her looking at him, he shrugged. “It’s a double espresso kind of morning.”

She nodded toward his leg. “It’s bothering you.”

Another shrug, one that said it always bothered him, he lived with it.

“Isn’t there anything that can be done about the pain?” she asked.

“I don’t like pain meds.”

She could understand that. But she found she wanted to understand so much more. They weren’t supposed to be doing this, getting to know each other, and yet she couldn’t help herself. “So how is it you went from the navy to the oil rigs?” she asked. “Was it like once-an-adrenaline-junkie, always-an-adrenaline-junkie sort of thing?”

“After my tour of duty, I knew I didn’t want to be career navy. But my college scholarship was long gone and I needed money.”

“To support your family,” she said.

“What there was left of it,” he said. “My mom needed some help. I needed a good-paying job fast so I followed the guys to the rigs. They were working abovewater but the money was far better below, planting explosives. I was the resident expert.”

Yeah, he was definitely a long way from that wild kid he’d once been. He’d grown up hard and fast, molded by circumstance into a strong, capable man who was focused. Determined. And, apparently, fearless. “Dangerous,” she said.

He shrugged. “I had the expertise. Why not use it? And yeah, maybe I can see how people thought the job appealed to the adrenaline junkie in me, but that’s not what drew me. I was going to partner with the guys in Lucky Harbor Charters and I wanted to bring my fair share to the table. The job fulfilled all my needs.” He gestured to the empty cup in her hands. “Feeling human yet?”

“Getting there,” she said. “Thank you.”

He opened the box of doughnuts and held it out. “Nothing with powdered sugar.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” She picked out a maple bar. Tanner did the same, and they ate there, standing up facing each other in her kitchen.

A kitchen that suddenly felt a lot smaller than usual. She licked her thumb to get the last of the glaze, sucking it into her mouth.

Tanner’s eyes dilated black.

She went still, letting her thumb slip free with a little suction sound. “Sorry,” she whispered.

“For?”

“The porn-star noises.”

He flashed a grin. “That was my favorite part.” He held out the box. “Another?”

“I think maybe I should stop at one.”

“Not on my account,” he said, and took a second doughnut for himself.

Callie blew out a sigh and did the same. “I won’t be able to button my jeans.”

“There’s always your PJs.”

They both looked down at them and for a moment she wished that she’d listened to her own advice from her site and was wearing some really sexy lingerie.

From the countertop her phone buzzed an incoming text. With maple glaze all over her fingers, she carefully swiped the screen with her thumb. “Siri, read my text.”

“Text from Best Grandma Ever,” Siri said. “Darling, the word on the street is that you keep going out into the wild wearing strange combinations of clothing. You’re not going to catch a man like Tanner Riggs in sweatpants. Put on some of them fancy skinny jeans they sell nowadays. Show him what you’ve got.”

Callie closed her eyes. “Thank you, Siri.”

“Yes,” Tanner said, smiling. “Thank you, Siri.”

“You’re going to forget you heard that,” she said.

“I’m pretty sure I’m not,” Tanner said. “And for the record, you could totally catch me in your sweats.”

“Stop,” she said, and blew out a breath. “Not that I’m not grateful or anything, but tell me again why you’re here?”

“Because you didn’t show at the bakery,” he said. “You let your asshole ex scare you off.”

“You think he’s an asshole?”

“I know he’s an asshole.”

She took another big bite of the maple bar and let the sugar soothe her. “For all you know,” she said, “I did something first that prompted him to leave me.”

“Babe, even if that was true, the words are simple. I don’t want to get married. That’s all he had to say, preferably before the wedding day. Instead, he pussied out and screwed you over good.”

“Why do guys say that when talking about weakness?” she asked.

“What, pussy?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, why isn’t it that instead of acting like a pussy, he acted like a
man’s ego
, because we all know there’s nothing more fragile than that.”

He grinned. “You’re right. I stand corrected.” His smile faded. “Is he the reason you left Lucky Harbor?”

“Maybe a little bit.” Humiliated, angry, disillusioned, she’d stayed in San Francisco after graduation. She’d been finished with love, finished with forever-afters, and most definitely finished with men in general. But finding a job after graduation wasn’t easy, and she’d fallen back on something she’d been good at—weddings.

And no, she hadn’t missed the irony.

“Was yesterday the first time you’ve seen him since your wedding day?” Tanner asked.

“You know, usually people avoid talking to me about this. I think they’re afraid I’m going to cry or something.”

“Are you?”

“Hell no,” she said. “Not over him.”

He looked at her for a long moment. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Definitely not,” she said.

“Gotta talk shit out,” he said. “Or it’ll kill you.”

“You don’t seem like a big talker,” she said.

“I pick my moments.”

“And this is one of them?” she asked.

He slid her a look. “If I said yes, what would you want to know?”

Everything.