23
Tanner was in the kitchen when Maddie returned home from work. There was a bubbling pot of boiling water on one burner and another pan filled with the most delicious smelling tomato sauce. Her stomach gurgled in anticipation. Spaghetti was one of her favorite meals and Tanner made a terrific sauce.
“If there’s garlic bread, too, I might just have to marry you.”
Tanner laughed, opening the box of pasta and dumping it into the boiling water. He said that breaking the noodles in half was sacrilege.
“I think you already did that. I wouldn’t mind a back rub tonight, though. I’m a little tense after talking to Abby.”
“I can’t wait to hear how that went.”
“I want to hear about your meeting with your father as well. It sounds like we both might have had tough days.” He placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed her briefly before pushing her toward the bedroom. “Why don’t you go change and relax a little? Dinner will be ready in about ten minutes. Do you know if Amanda is eating with us?”
“She has plans. It’s just us.”
Her daughter had sent her a text earlier letting her know that she and Josh were going on a date tonight. Whatever had happened with their talk, it had obviously worked out.
She changed into a pair of sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt, leaving her feet bare when she rejoined her husband in the kitchen. He’d already set the table and poured two glasses of iced tea. He was filling their plates, the smell of tomato and garlic teasing her nostrils. She was so hungry she was sure she could eat her weight in food.
“It’s my job to set the table,” she said, settling into a chair and picking up her fork. “You didn’t have to do it.”
It was the least she could do since she couldn’t cook. She also did the dishes.
“It’s fine,” he replied. “Now tell me about you and your dad. Did you two come to some sort of truce?”
“We did. I told him that I was disappointed in him, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love him. I also told him that he needs to back off trying to push me and my new sister together. I’m going to take baby steps into that relationship, and I honestly don’t know that she and I will ever be close. He admitted that he was pushing because he didn’t think that I would want to be friends with her because we’re so different.”
“She’s a bit much, but it seems like her heart is in the right place.”
“I’m sure she’s a good person, which is exactly what I told my dad. But he can’t rush the happy family narrative. I don’t know that we’ll ever get there. Basically, she’s a stranger to me. I think he understood and he’s going to take a step back from this. It was a hard conversation to have with a parent. Telling them that you realize that they’re not perfect, and that they aren’t going to get their way about something. I do think that if you asked him to be truthful, he’d tell you that he was disappointed in me, too.”
“Because you didn’t embrace your sister and invite her to Christmas?”
“Something like that. I think he had built up some sort of fantasy in his head, and I knocked those dreams down with my behavior.”
“Your behavior is understandable. This is all new to you. Your dad has had much longer to get used to all of it.”
“That’s what I said. So tell me about your meeting with Abby. What’s happening in the investigation?”
“A lot has happened today.”
Tanner filled her in on the meeting with Janice Gates, and Logan and Ava’s trip to the swinger’s club.
“Ava is definitely going to give Logan some shit about this for awhile,” Maddie said with a laugh.
“They had to go as a couple because they don’t allow singles there,” Tanner explained. “It could have been you and me, but I figured a trip to a swinger’s club would end up on the front page of the newspaper. Hudson would love to call me a kinky bastard out to tear down family values.”
“Arnold Hudson can go fuck himself.”
Tanner’s eyes widened and then he laughed, shaking this head.
“Potty mouth. Although I can’t say that I disagree with you.”
“He’s a pimple on the backside of humanity. Heaven help this state if he actually gets elected. He’d sell his grandmother for power and money.”
“You are in a mood today, and might I say that I like it. Feisty. I love that in a woman.”
“Is that all you love?”