Page 82 of Husband to Go

“Sweetheart, actually I think you’d be even more sexy if you gained twenty pounds. Have you thought about it?”

My cheeks go red. Everyone in my life has always told me that I need to lose weight. To hear these words from Tanner are a miracle, and I melt once more.

We continue chatting, and the conversation is nice and light. But then, we go quiet after a few minutes. I feel like we’re both holding back a little bit. Maybe he’s nervous like I am? But I want to show him that we can work this out. It’s been great so far, and the only way to move is forward.

“So, I thought we were going to ask each other questions?” I ask.

“We can. What do you want to know?”

“Um,” I start. I can’t believe I haven’t prepared. All that time getting ready with Andrea, and I never thought to make a list of questions that I should ask Tanner. Ugh.

“Having trouble?” he asks with an amused grin.

“A little bit, yeah,” I nod. “I don’t know what I should know about you. Do you have any siblings?”

“I do, I have a younger sister.” That’s interesting. I’d imagined Tanner as an only child, seeing his penchant for being alone. This is strange but I try not to show it.

“What’s her name?”

“Lacey. She has a son named Jason, and he’s really adorable.”

“You have a nephew?” I ask, flummoxed.

“I do. He’s about two. I actually haven’t seen him in a while, but I’m hoping to get out there more.”

“Where do they live?”

“New Jersey. I saw my sister a couple of days ago, but Jason was at daycare during my visit.”

I can’t believe he has a sister and a nephew. Well, I’ll be damned.

“Is there a reason why you don’t see your sister a lot?” I ask carefully.

Tanner turns his head and looks off to the side. I think I may have hit a nerve.

“You don’t have to answer my question if you don’t want. It’s totally fine.” Maybe we aren’t at a point where we can tell one another just anything yet. After all, we fell into one another, and might need to slow down and grow this relationship at its own pace.

He takes a deep breath.

“No, I want to tell you,” he begins. Tanner looks back at me. “Growing up was hard for Lacey and me. When we were really young, it was fine, but when our parents died, things kind of fell apart. I had this overwhelming need to get away from our life. I couldn’t take it, and as a result, I ran away and left Lacey all alone.”

I hold my breath, listening to Tanner’s tale. I never realized things were so difficult for him during his childhood.

“What do you mean, you ran away?”

He heaves a deep breath.

“I went to college, and never came home during the entire four years. Lacey was staying with some friends, and she must have felt all alone because she fell in with some bad people.”

“Bad people?” I echo.

He shakes his head, looking tortured.

“I don’t want to get into it, but they dabbled in drugs and crime. Everything that goes around comes around, and basically, Lacey ended up going to jail for a while. After she got out, we reconnected, but she wasn’t ready to have me back in her life immediately, so we spent evenmoretime apart. About seven years ago, she contacted me, and we started rebuilding our relationship. Five years ago, she moved to New Jersey. She’s actually been using her past experiences to help other people, and three years ago a woman she was trying to get out of her own tough spot had a baby and left the kid with Lacey. And he’s been with her ever since.”

That sounds insane. Tanner looks torn up, and I put my hand on top of his on the table. He takes a deep breath, looks at our connection and smiles.

“I’ve never really talked to anyone about this before. It feels nice to open up, believe it or not.”