Having Tanner Bravo's Baby

Then again, he would want them to know he had her back. She was glad for that. Truly.

More footsteps in the hall. DeDe appeared, followed by the scruffy brown dog she’d named Cisco, a stray Mitch had found and adopted after the loss of Candy. The dog dropped to its haunches and panted in contentment.

DeDe, on the other hand, had a red nose and a look of pure misery in her puffy eyes. She wore a purple leotard and tights to match.

“Goodbye,” she said glumly and held up her cheek to be kissed.

Mitch and Kelly exchanged bleak glances. But neither wavered. They hugged their daughter and told her they loved her. DeDe bore their attention with the brave determination of a tragic heroine condemned to a horrible and hopeless fate.

Kelly pointed out the calendar she’d made of DeDe’s numerous activities. It was mounted by magnet on the fridge, a list of phone numbers beside it. “Cell phone service will be undependable. But there are landlines in the suite. And if you call the resort’s main desk, they’ll track us down. So you can always reach us,” she said. “Anytime.”

Tanner stood. “We’re on it.” There was that we again. “Don’t worry.”

Kelly grabbed him in a hug. “I just want to be sure we’ve covered everything. You both already have keys….”

“It’s going to be fine,” Crystal promised.

They all moved toward the front door—even the sulking DeDe, who trailed behind the others, still angry but unwilling to let her parents go without giving them a final, reluctant wave goodbye. The dog followed DeDe, taking up the rear.

The four of them—Crystal, Tanner, DeDe and Cisco—stood out on the sidewalk until the limo rounded the corner. DeDe turned for the house first.

Inside, the nine-year-old went straight to her room, the faithful mutt at her heels.

Crystal started to follow, but Tanner caught her hand. He shook his head and said low, “Don’t get all over her now. Let her settle down a little.”

Crystal decided he was probably right. “Good point.” She pulled her hand free. It felt much too good tucked so warmly in his.

“She’s leaving in a few minutes anyway,” he said. “Some lesson or other, I think.”

Crystal went into the kitchen to double-check the calendar. Sure enough, a lesson at eleven and an afternoon at a friend’s to follow.

Tanner stuck his head in the doorway from the living room. “Am I right?”

“Yep.”

DeDe, wearing her purple backpack, trudged back in from the hallway. “I have to go now,” she said loftily. “I have modern dance at eleven. Mrs. Lu is picking me up. Then we’ll go to Mia’s after.” Mia Lu was in several of DeDe’s dance classes as well as in her class at school. The two girls were good friends. “I’ll be back by four. If that’s okay.”

Crystal gave her a smile. “See you at four, then.”

DeDe sniffed, a sound that was followed by a heavy sigh. “Well. Okay, then. Bye…”

Tanner nodded. “Later.”

“Cisco. Stay,” DeDe commanded. The dog gave a low whine and sat. DeDe went out the front door. By silent agreement, Crystal and Tanner moved to the bay window in the living room. They watched as Mrs. Lu drove up in her white van. DeDe got in and the van drove away.

Tanner grunted. “That kid. She used to be so reasonable.” He nudged her gently with his elbow. “Maybe you should chant to make her change her attitude.”

“Ha-ha.”

“Or maybe she needs a hot rock massage….”

She granted him a glance of cool superiority. “How many times do I have to explain to you that enlightenment is a personal journey? She has to want to change. That’s the first, all-important step.”

“Woo-woo,” he said.

“Tease me all you want, but deep down, you know what I’m saying is true.”

He put his arm around her, a fond sort of gesture, as they stood there gazing out the window together. She didn’t pull away. It felt good—companionable.

And he said in a musing tone, “Even as a baby, she would lie there making happy, cooing sounds. Hardly ever cried. I gotta say, the way she’s been behaving lately, I almost wish she was a baby again. I’ll take the loaded diapers and the feedings every four hours, any day.”

That’s right, Crystal thought. Kelly was still in high school when she had DeDe—and living with her big brother at the time. Tanner would know all about DeDe as a baby. The idea pleased her. He might be a tough, private eye type, but he did have experience with babies. More experience than she had, when you came right down to it.

She predicted, “I’m sure DeDe’ll get used to the changes having her dad around has made in her life. She’ll be her old self again in time, just watch.”

Tanner grunted. “I only hope it’s soon. Think. She’s almost ten. She’ll be a teenager before you know it. When that happens, all bets are off.”

Crystal’s thoughts strayed back to the baby—their baby. “It’s not easy, is it, raising a child?”

He put on a dark look. “Hell, no.” And then he grinned. “Haven’t you heard? Only crazy people have kids.”

She laughed. “Crazy. Right.”

“That’s us,” he said low. “Out of our minds in a big, big way.” And they shared a long look of what could only be called mutual understanding. Bizarre. Crystal and Tanner, all bondy together. But then he said, “Well, I guess we ought to bring our stuff in, get settled, all that….” He dropped his arm from around her shoulders and started for the door.

Our stuff? The good feeling fled. He was up to something.

“Wait a minute.”

He turned back to her. “Yeah?”

“You just said our stuff?”

“That’s right.” His expression was way too innocuous—and Tanner Bravo was never innocuous. The vague sense of alarm she felt ratcheted up a notch. Then he said, “I gave it some thought last night after I left your place, and I realized that this was a great opportunity and we shouldn’t let it pass us by.”

She stared at him, not following. “A great opportunity?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“For what?”

“To live together.”

She still didn’t understand. “But…why would we want to live together?”

“Oh, come on, Crys. You know it’s a good idea.”

“No. No, I don’t. There’s no reason we need to share a house.”

“Yeah. We do.”

“No. We don’t.”

“Think of it this way. It’s like an experiment. To see how we get along, being around each other every day. Just in case.”

She fell back a step. “Just in case…what?”

“In case we decide we want to get married, after all.”

Chapter Four

Tanner wanted to grab her and kiss her. He’d been wanting to take her in his arms since the moment she’d walked into the kitchen, before Kelly and Mitch had taken off.

But judging by the look on her face when he’d said the word married, kisses were not in the offing.

She said, so carefully, “Tanner. I thought I explained to you. There’s not going to be any marriage.”

“Yeah.” He gave her a thoughtful nod. “You explained that.”

Her cheeks were flushed. A pulse beat in the curve of her throat. Total frustration. It came off her in waves. “And…we agreed about not getting married. You said okay.”

“Okay can mean a whole lot of things, Crystal. For instance, ‘Okay, I hear you.’ And I did. I heard you. Doesn’t mean I agreed with you.”

She folded her arms around herself. Tight. “I’m not going to marry you. That’s that. You’d better get used to it.”

He could have gotten irritated. But no. He’d thought this whole thing through. Any show of anger on his part would only make her more determined to resist him.

So he asked in a lazy, good-natured tone, “I’ve been wondering. What have you got against marriage?”

“Nothing,” she answered, too quickly. Then she qualified her statement. “I mean, you know. In principle.”

“You have nothing against marriage, in principle….”

“Isn’t that what I said?”

“Only in reality?”

“No. That’s not what I meant. I meant that I think marriage is great as an institution. I have nothing but admiration for couples who love each other and want to work together to build a life and all that. I just don’t think you and I are cut out for it. At least not with each other.”

“Why not give us a chance? We might surprise you.”

She made a scoffing sound. “Oh, I doubt that.”

“Hey, don’t be so rigid.”

She stiffened where she stood. “I am not rigid.”

Tanner hid a grin. That one must have stung. Crystal prided herself on going with the flow and all that crap. She was the ultimate play-it-as-it-lays kind of woman. Calling her rigid had gotten her right where she lived. Which was what he’d intended.

He said gently, “Yeah. You are. You’re being rigid. And that’s not like you. You could…give it a chance, couldn’t you? Kind of…roll with the punches.”

She looked at him sideways. “You’re telling me to roll with the punches?”

“Wild, huh?”

“Well, and what do you mean, give it a chance? I don’t see marriage as something you…take a chance at. Like the lottery or the slot machines in Vegas. When and if I ever get married, I want to be sure I’m making the right decision. I want my marriage to last.”

Patiently, he explained himself. “I meant give the idea of you and me getting married a chance. Think about it. That’s all.”

She glanced away. He knew then that he was making progress. A moment later, she huffed out a breath. “I just don’t…last night, you didn’t even hint that you might be considering marriage.”

He reached out, pried her top hand free where she had clutched it around herself and cradled it in both of his. “Be fair. You’ve known about the baby for weeks. You’ve had all that time to think about what you wanted to do.”

Now she looked at him. Finally. A look of indecision, which was good. Excellent, even. “Well, yes,” she said. “I understand. Of course you need time…”

“Come on. Come here…” He pulled her to the couch and guided her down next to him. Then he said, using words she might have chosen herself, “I only want you to be…open to all the possibilities, that’s all.”

She cleared her throat. “Well, of course I’m open. But I don’t want to get marr—”

“Shh.” He touched her mouth, lightly. “Listen.”

“What?”

“I’ve made some calls. Got a couple of colleagues to take over the trips I had scheduled in the next two weeks—everything else I have working, the things I need to handle myself…they’re all right here in town, or within a fifty mile radius, anyway. And that means I can help you out with DeDe. I can stay here.”

“I don’t need for you to stay here.”

He let a moment of silence elapse before asking, “What are you so afraid of, Crystal?”

She pinched up her mouth at him. “I’m not afraid of anything.”

“I think you are. You’re afraid of marriage. And you’re afraid of me.”

“No. No, I’m not. I…I respect the institution of marriage. Someday, I might even get married myself. To the right kind of guy.”

“Which I’m not?” Okay. Now he was starting to get a little ticked off at her.

“No,” she said defiantly. “You’re not. Not for me—a fact which you know, as we’ve both agreed every time we had sex together that it was never going to go anywhere because we weren’t suited to each other, which is why we were never going to have sex again.”

“And then we did.”

“Not the point.”

“True.” He chose his next words with great care. “I just want you to realize that everything’s changed now that you’re pregnant.”

“But I do realize that.”

“Good. Now, all our past agreements about how we weren’t going to be together are just that. Gone. Done. Over. Now, I think we have a responsibility to see if, just maybe, we might be able to get it together for a lifetime, after all.”

That shut her up. For maybe five seconds. And when she did speak, she conceded. Sort of. “I…all right. I see your point. You never know. Anything’s possible and we should be open. We shouldn’t close off any avenue out of hand.”

“Good.” He rose. “Then it’s settled. I’ll stay.”

She gazed up at him, looking adorably puzzled. “Since when was that settled?”

“Since we decided that we’ve got a built-in opportunity here, to give living together a try, an opportunity we both agree we shouldn’t pass up.”

“I don’t remember agreeing to that—I mean, not exactly.”

“Come on, Crystal. Stop waffling and give us both a break here.”

“I just…” And then she sighed. “It’s not as if I can stop you from staying here if you’re going to insist.”

“You’re right. You can’t. And I am.”

“But…”

“What?”

“Well, just for the sake of clarity. I get the guest room and we are not sleeping in the same bed. DeDe doesn’t need that. She’s confused enough already.”

Damn. He’d been looking forward to whole nights in bed with her for a change. But she had a point about DeDe.

Then again, his niece was gone a lot. She took a boatload of different dance lessons, and she had a whole bunch of friends. There was always a sleepover at somebody’s house. He and Crystal would have plenty of time alone, just the two of them….

“Fine,” he said, trying to look agreeable and harmless, which they both knew he wasn’t. “It won’t be the first time I’ve slept on the daybed in Kelly’s office.”

She frowned and he knew she was feeling guilty for taking the better bedroom. “You could use Mitch and Kelly’s room….”

“Naw. The daybed will do fine.” He held down a hand to her. “So what do you say? Let’s bring our stuff in.”

She looked at him sideways for a moment, and he knew she was thinking suspicious thoughts. But in the end she let him help her up and they went out together.

Back inside, he put his things in the office and sat on the daybed and thought how getting her to agree that he’d stay in the house had gone pretty well. He had two weeks to get himself a better sense of Crystal as a potential wife.

He’d also get a chance to break down her defenses against the possibility that they might get married. They’d even have a kid to take care of, to practice being parents. Maybe they’d get lucky and DeDe would go back to being her old easygoing self, now that her mom and dad weren’t there to fight with. Hey, it could happen.

And no matter how it all shook out in the end, at least he’d talked Crystal into this much: They were sharing a house. He only hoped the next phase of his plan would go as well as the first.

A tap on the door. “It’s open.”

Crystal pushed it wide. “I’m heading over to Raley’s, to get some things I need for dinner.”

“Great. I’ll go with you.”

She blinked. He was sure she would try and blow him off. But then she said, “Well, sure. If you want to.”

“I’ll drive.”

He was up to something. Crystal knew it. Something beyond the whole weird “practice marriage” deal he’d dreamed up. She could tell by the hooded look in those eyes of his when he jumped at the chance to drive her to the grocery store.

“Raley’s is that way.” She pointed to the left as he turned right.

“I know where Raley’s is.” He made the turn and drove on in the wrong direction.

“So how come we’re not going there?”

He turned his head her way and the sun glinted on the black lenses of his wraparound sunglasses. “I have something to show you first.”

“What?”

He turned to face the road again. “My office.”

“Why?”

“Just wait. You’ll see.”

She considered arguing with him, pointing out to him that she was willing to be flexible, no matter what he thought. No, she didn’t want to get married just because they were having a baby. And truthfully, she didn’t think the two of them would ever make a forever kind of match.

But okay, she could accept that it wouldn’t hurt for the two of them to see how they got along, day-to-day, sharing the same house. Especially since the perfect opportunity to do that had fallen right in their laps.

However, his saying he wanted to go shopping with her and then heading off for somewhere else without telling her what he was up to, well, that amounted to trickery and trickery was low. And wasn’t it just like him to do what he wanted and not bother to consult her?

Still. It wasn’t as if she needed to be anywhere in particular at the moment. She could afford a detour, even if he had manipulated her into it.

Plus, she knew damned well that if she called him on his little deception, he would only start in on her about being rigid and not going with the flow. She just didn’t want to hear it. So she rolled down the window, enjoyed the feel of the warm wind on her cheeks and didn’t say a word the whole rest of the way to Rancho Cordova, where Tanner had his office.

The ride took about a half hour. At last, he turned into the back parking lot of a flat-roofed, unremarkable two-story building. He pulled into a space, stopped the car and took off his sunglasses.

“Ready?” There was excitement in his voice.

She almost smiled. Really, it was kind of touching how eager he seemed. “Lead the way,” she said.

They went in through a rear entrance and up a flight of stairs. On the second floor, they walked down two hallways lined with doors that led to the offices of lawyers and bail bondsmen and a few businesses whose names told her nothing about what went on inside.

At last, he stopped in front of a door with Dark Horse Investigations on it and his name beneath. He unlocked that door, pushed it wide and gestured her in ahead of him.

She stepped into a reception area, which included a desk with nothing on it but a phone and a water-cooler minus the water. The lone window to the left of the desk had cheap brown miniblinds and a view of the building next door. There was brown all-weather carpeting on the floor. A brown loveseat, two end tables and a couple of brown chairs waited next to the door.

Beyond the empty desk was another door. That one had only his name on it. “I take it your private office is through there?”

He dropped to the sofa. “You got it. Want to have a look?”

“This is your deal. Do you want me to have a look?”

“Go for it.”

So she crossed the room and opened the door on more brown carpeting, another desk—this one with a computer on top as well as a phone. Two lonely brown guest chairs faced the desk. There were four tall file cabinets filling one wall and another window with cheap blinds—that one looking out on the street in front. Framed documents marched in a line across the back wall. She moved into the room to get a closer look. The documents declared him licensed to be a private investigator in the states of California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Texas.

Crystal returned to the bare waiting room, shut the door and turned to find Tanner watching her. “Depressing,” she said.

“What? You don’t like brown?”

“I’m surprised you ever get any clients, with an office like this.”

“When you hire a P.I., it’s not for the decor. And the truth is, I hardly use this place. I have a twenty-four-hour answering service. I usually just pick up my calls and meet clients…anywhere. Starbucks. Their offices. Whatever.”

The phone on the desk started ringing. Tanner didn’t get up.

She asked, “You’re not going to answer it?”

He waited for the phone to fall silent before he explained. “The service will get it and send me a text.” Right on cue, the phone at his belt chimed out two notes.

She waited for him to check the display and slide the cell back into the carrying case before she asked, “Call me crazy, but I have to know. Why have an office if you don’t need it?”

He lifted a hard shoulder in a half-shrug. “Seems more…professional, I guess. An office. And an assistant. Someone to take the calls during business hours, someone to be here, to greet clients, someone to keep the records up-to-date, do the books. All that.” He slanted her a look. “I have had assistants. They never worked out. I’m used to going it alone and they always had too many damn questions about every little thing. But I’m willing to try one more time, especially if I can find someone who likes to make her own decisions, someone who’s independent by nature….”

By then it was all so painfully clear. “You mean someone like me?”

“That’s right. Someone just like you.”

“I don’t believe it. You’re offering me a job.”

“Believe it. I am.”

“You are just full of big plans today, aren’t you?”

He gave her his broodiest look. “A man finds out he’s going to be a father, it’s his nature to start making plans.”

She leaned back against the shut door to his brown inner sanctum. “Tell me you’re kidding. You don’t really imagine that you and I could work together.”

“Seriously. Not kidding. I can

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