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 abu
se 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.
Chapter Thirteen
Throw glitter in today’s face.
—Mel’s Motivational Blog
Tanner waited until the meal was over. He wasn’t quite sure when to tell his mother about the baby, but now seemed as good a time as any, considering she had threatened to pull out his baby books.
“I’d love to see them,” Melanie stated, giving Tanner a wide grin across the table.
“They’re in the front closet on the top shelf.” His mother pushed her seat back from the table and came to her feet. “Leave all of these dishes and I’ll get them later. Tanner, be a dear and reach up in the closet and grab the two leather-bound picture albums.”
He raked a hand across the back of his neck and blew out a sigh. “Actually, Mom, I need to tell you something.”
His stepfather stood as well. “You three go into the living room and I’ll get all the dishes into the kitchen.”
Tanner couldn’t have handpicked a better man for his mother than Patrick Bailey. He spoiled her and showed his mother she was worthy of being pampered and loved.
Melanie eyed him, her smile disappearing. Her jovial state now replaced by nerves and fear that he was judging her taut expression correctly. He offered her a grin, trying to ease her worry.
“C’mon, Mel. Let’s go in the living room.”
“Why don’t I help Patrick with the dishes?” she offered.
Tanner shook his head. “No way.”
“You most certainly will not,” his mother said at the same time. “No guest in my home will do dishes. Now, come in the living room. I want to hear what my son has to say, and then I have the most adorable baby photo to show you. Oh, and then there’s that one from your junior high dance. Do you remember, Tanner? The one where you were so nervous you went for a haircut—”
“Yes, Mom. I remember.”
He really didn’t want to take this
stroll down memory lane. Beyond the embarrassment, he had more pressing matters to deal with.
Tanner rounded the table in the narrow dining room and eased Melanie’s chair out. He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Relax.”
Placing a secure hand on the small of her back, he led her into the living room and onto the same floral sofa his mother had owned for the past twenty years. She claimed they didn’t make them sturdy like this anymore, so she refused to get new furniture. She also claimed she’d rather spend her money on cruises, which she and Patrick often took.
Teresa Bailey sank into her favorite tan rocker-recliner and crossed her legs. Resting one elbow on the arm of the puffy chair, she smiled. “So, what is it you want to tell me? Though I do have a pretty good idea.”
From the huge smile on his mother’s face, he truly feared he was about to burst that bubble his mother was floating in.
“I’m not sure how to say this other than to just come out and tell you.”
His mother practically beamed. “You’re getting married? Am I right? Oh, sorry. I shouldn’t have ruined the announcement, but I couldn’t wait.”
“We’re not getting married, Mom.”
Melanie shifted beside him and slid her arm around his. Her silent support meant a great deal to him. He’d opened up to her about his past hurt. He’d hated doing so on the drive here because he’d felt like maybe they couldn’t fully engage in what needed to be said, but he couldn’t have Melanie completely off guard.
“Melanie is pregnant.”
His mom’s smile faltered, her eyes widened as she darted her gaze to Melanie. “Pregnant?”
“I’m about six weeks along now.”
Silence settled in the room and Tanner wasn’t sure what his mom was thinking, but in the next second she jumped from her seat and squealed, throwing her arms wide.
“Oh, my word, honey. Come give me a hug.”
Tanner wasn’t sure who she was talking to, but Melanie came to her feet and was enveloped by his mom. The weight of what seemed like years of worry slid right off his shoulders. Patrick came rushing into the room.
“What happened?”
“We’re going to be grandparents,” his mom exclaimed, releasing Melanie.
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