friend.” Wow, that sounded way more sexual than I meant for it to. “A friend from high school. Kennedy. Actually, she was Brooklyn’s best friend. But we were friends too. I’m pretty sure I’ve told you about her before.”
“Did you sleep with her?” Tanner asked.
“No.” I guess he thought it was as inappropriate as I was worried it was.
“Are you going to?”
Oh. He wasn’t concerned about the fact that it was immoral to sleep with Kennedy. He was just concerned because he loved to meet all the women I slept with ahead of time. Because he was Tanner. “Um.” I didn’t know how to answer his question. Because I didn’t know the answer.
“Are you going to sleep with her?” Tanner asked again.
I sat down on the sofa across from his makeshift worried-dad scene. “I mean, we’re friends.” It would be wrong, right? To sleep with Kennedy? To even want to? I ran my hand down my face. Fuck. Did I want to? I smiled, picturing her in her adorable pajamas.
“Penny’s your friend and you want to sleep with her.”
“Yeah, but I think Penny and I are better off as just friends.”
“I guess your dinner to seduce her went poorly?” Tanner asked.
I nodded. “She brotherized me.”
Tanner laughed. “Brotherized? What is that?”
“When someone friend zone’s you in a brother way. It’s even worse than a friend zone.”
“Ouch. So you haven’t secured the camera then?”
“No, I got it.”
Tanner just stared at me. “So where is it? Wait, don’t tell me.” He stood up and started examining my shirt.
“I meant I will have it. Rob’s bringing it by practice.”
Tanner let go of the collar of my shirt. “But he can’t come. It’s a best friend’s secret mission.”
“He’s my best friend too.”
Tanner lowered his eyebrows. “Best friend isn’t plural.”
Seriously, Tanner and Rob might as well be twins. How could they not see that they had the same sense of humor? And the same obsession with singular and plural nouns? Why did they hate each other so much? It was ridiculous. “He didn’t give me a choice,” I said.
“Stubborn little ass. Well, that’s fine. We’ll get his camera and tell him to get lost.”
“Why can’t the two of you just get along?”
“Because there’s only room for one of us in this town. And I’m not leaving. I love it here.” He sat back down.
“Then why haven’t you properly moved in yet?”
“I have.”
I gestured to the sheet that was covering what I thought was a tree.
“Oh that?” He laughed. “Nigel already has so much to dust. It’s just easier this way. Speaking of Nigel, he was worried sick too. You owe him an apology as well.”
“I’ll do that when I see him. But right now I need to go home and change before work.” I stood up.
“No need, Nigel brought all your things.”
“All my things?”
Tanner pointed to the couch I’d been sitting on.
I turned to look at the very familiar couch. “Is this my couch?”
“Yes. Nigel has a good eye for these things. As he put it, ‘a leather couch has no business being in photos to sell a family home.’ He let Bill know you’d need a few more things for the staging.”
“So my clothes…”
“All in your room here.”
Okay. “Well, I should probably go change.”
“I’ll be waiting. We can take my car to work. I’ll just have my driver drop you off first.”
I knew Tanner was trying to keep me safe. But I couldn’t be in his sight all the time. I left Tanner in the great room and wandered down the hall to the room I’d stayed in the other night. I swear the room seemed bigger. And everything but my couch was in it. Really, how did this room not look more cramped?
I opened up the closet to see all my suits, perfectly organized by color. Just the way they had been at my house.
“Mr. Caldwell,” Nigel said.
I jumped. “Nigel, please stop sneaking up on me like that.”
“Sorry, Mr. Caldwell. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve removed everything from your home and brought it here.”
I looked around. Actually there was one noticeable thing missing. All my paintings of Brooklyn. Probably because the room was locked.
It was like Nigel could read my mind. “Well, everything but the paintings, sir. They weren’t my taste.”
I looked over at him. Not his taste? Maybe he was just jealous that I’d been painting Brooklyn’s face and not his. If anyone else had seen them, I would have been embarrassed. Or worried they would think I was