One in a Million Read online

  behind, we’re going to do this slowly. Football first. Go.”

  “I suck at it. Okay? Is that what you want to know? I’m not Tanner Riggs, and I never will be.”

  “Well, thank God for that,” Tanner said fervently, then let out a mirthless laugh when Troy just stared at him. “Jesus. Do you really think I want you to be me?” he asked. “I made a boatload of mistakes, Troy. I hope to God you don’t follow my path and make as many as I did.”

  “Like get your girl knocked up?” Troy asked.

  Well, yeah. That. Tanner was pretty sure he shouldn’t be craving a drink just to have this discussion with his teenager, but again, more proof he was about as far from a perfect dad as a guy could get. The most important thing he had to do here was walk slowly through the minefield, and not just because Elisa had never really been his girl but because he’d grown up knowing his dad had been able to walk away from him. And that shit…that had done a number on his head for a lot of years.

  No way was he going to ever let Troy go through the same thing. “My actions were the mistake,” Tanner said carefully. “Sleeping with a girl before I understood the ramifications enough to protect us both was the mistake. You’re not a mistake. Never you, Troy.” He felt his throat tighten and his eyes burn. “In fact, you’re the very best part of my life.”

  Troy stared at him, obviously a little blown back by Tanner’s vehemence.

  “Now if we’re straight in that department,” Tanner finally said, “let’s move on to the other points. Are you sexually active with this girl? Are you using protection?”

  Troy blinked. “I told you it’s not what you think.”

  “I don’t know what that means, Troy.”

  Troy looked out the window, jaw tight.

  “Okay,” Tanner said, knowing pushing right now wasn’t the answer. “Next point. No one, and I mean no one, wants or expects you to live up to whatever dubious distinction the name Tanner Riggs brings.”

  Troy snorted. “Everyone here expects me to live up to you, Dad.”

  Tanner went still. Troy had used the word “dad” several times now, but it was never going to get old. He wanted to treasure it, wanted to demand Troy say it again. “Well, then,” he said instead, “what I really want you to know is that you shouldn’t give a shit what anyone thinks.”

  “Easy for the football star to say. You’re not going to put on a pair of tights and get on stage.”

  Tanner hid his grimace. “But you get to kiss the girl.”

  The kid tried to hold back a smile and failed. “Yeah. And I get to die. It’s awesome.”

  “So see, it’s what you think that matters,” Troy said. “Not anyone else.”

  Troy nodded. “That’s what Callie said you’d say.”

  “You discussed this with Callie?”

  “Yeah, and I don’t know what’s up with girls but they have a way of making you talk.”

  Troy sounded so baffled that Tanner nearly laughed. “Get used to it,” he muttered, but a part of his brain was back on Callie. Was he actually jealous of what she and Troy had?

  Yeah, he decided. He was.

  “You can’t be mad at her,” Troy said, reading his mind with startling ease.

  Since this was sounding like a repeat of a conversation he’d had with Callie in reverse, when she’d told him he couldn’t be mad at Troy, Tanner shook off his annoyance. “And the color purple?” he asked. “You hate it since before or after you painted your entire room purple?”

  Troy winced.

  “Since before then,” Tanner muttered. He leaned back. “Jesus. It’s really true.”

  “What’s true?”

  “We’re a lot alike.”

  Troy did not look any more thrilled at this knowledge than Tanner felt. He shook his head. “Think we can have a cease-fire?” he asked the kid.

  Troy went wary. “What would that involve?”

  Tanner slid him a look. “You talking more than you have, for one.”

  Troy made a face.

  “You continuing to make yourself at home here in Lucky Harbor with things like doing the play for another,” Tanner said.

  Troy just stared at him.

  “And most especially,” Tanner added, “you picking out a color for your walls that you like.”

  “And what about you?” Troy asked.

  “What about me?”

  “Well, if I have to do all this stuff like talk and crap,” Troy said, “seems like you should have to do something.”

  “Like…?”

  “Like—” Troy broke off.

  “Oh, don’t chicken out now,” Tanner said. “Talk to me.”

  “Callie.”

  Tanner paused. “What about her?”

  Troy looked down at his feet. “If you’re holding back with her ’cause of me…”

  “No. I’m not.”

  Troy looked up. “So you two are a thing?”

  “No.”

  Troy blinked. “I don’t get it.”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Complicated, like you don’t like her enough?” Troy asked, both disappointment and anger crossing his face. “Because that sucks. She’s totally into you. Like, really into you. If you don’t like her, you’re leading her on.”

  Tanner let out a long breath. “It’s not like that. We decided we’re…friends.”

  Troy stared at him. “She put you in the friend zone?”

  Why did everyone in his life think that this was all Callie’s doing? Because besides your son, she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you, and everyone but you, the resident jackass, knows it…

  “What did you do?” Troy asked. “Did you forget your one-month anniversary? Or accidentally bring up another girl? Or tell her that you think any Nicholas Sparks movie is dumb? Girls don’t like any of that stuff.”

  Tanner scrubbed his hands over his face. “We agreed to be friends. The two of us agreed.”

  With benefits…

  And how’s that working out for ya? a voice inside his head asked.

  Troy shook his head. “That was dumb.”

  “Yeah.” Tanner blew out another breath. “It was.”

  “So…”

  Tanner looked at him. “So…what?”

  “God, Dad. Even I know you go after the girl when you do something dumb.”

  Tanner stared at him and Troy laughed. Laughed. The sound was precious. “I love you,” Tanner said.

  Troy’s smiled faded.

  “I’ve been trying to give you your space before I said that too much,” Tanner said. “I wanted you to get to know me, but that doesn’t seem to be working out so well for us and I don’t want to waste any more time. I love you, Troy. And like I said, that’s never going to change. You need to know that.”

  Troy broke eye contact and stared out the window. “I do know it.”

  “Well…good.”

  Troy eyed him warily. “So do we have to, like, hug now or something?”

  “Yeah,” Tanner said, and snagged Troy with an arm around the neck and pulled him in, giving him a knuckle rub on the head first for good measure.

  With another of those precious laughs, Troy shoved free. “Hope you got that out of your system.”

  “I probably didn’t,” Tanner said. “I might feel the need to tell you that. A lot.”

  “And the hugging?” Troy asked, the wary look on his face just a front now.

  “I don’t know, man,” Tanner said. “I kinda liked it.”

  Troy stared at him, a new light in his eyes, one that Tanner had never seen before.

  Not love, not exactly, but affection.

  He’d take it.

  Chapter 24

  One week later—seven deliciously sexy, erotic nights in Tanner’s arms—it was finally Becca and Sam’s bachelorette/bachelor party. Mother Nature cooperated with mild temps, but as night fell they combated the chill with carefully placed outdoor heaters along the dock and on the boat. The decorations were u