Page 104 of Let Me Be the One
After he’d finished his shower and dressed in jogging pants, a T-shirt, and sneakers, he took Blu out and thenjoined Addie in the kitchen. Percy the cat was there, presumably waiting for Blu to settle so he could snuggle. “Something smells good.”
“Grab a seat,” she said, then proceeded to serve him pot roast, potatoes, carrots, and corn bread with a tall glass of iced tea.
Sure enough, when Blu sprawled out next to Tanner’s chair, Percy curled up near his hip.
“I missed lunch.” Tanner dug in, then hummed his appreciation and gave his usual heartfelt compliment. “No one cooks like you, Addie.”
“You’re biased, but thank you.” She took the seat opposite him. “I saw Callie again today.”
“Oh?”
“She wanted me to know that she’s having a little birthday gathering for Nell next Saturday. We’re all invited.”
“A birthday gathering?” As he ate, Tanner wondered what had brought that on. “I didn’t know they were close.”
“Nell won her over with one visit. I think she’s been back there every other day.” Sitting forward in her seat and crossing her arms on the table, Addie asked, “Did you know Callie does videos?”
He recalled her saying something about it. “Documenting her progress on the house or something, right?”
“Or something.”
Feeling Addie’s amusement, he asked, “What am I missing?”
“Only that she’s turning into an influencer.”
“A what?”
“I didn’t really know either, but Nell was here today to groom Blu. You know how he sheds in warmer weather. She was singing Callie’s praises the entire time.” Hearing his name, the dog tilted his head, earsperked, and swept his tail over the floor, disturbing Percy. The cat stretched, but otherwise didn’t bestir himself. “You love her, don’t you, boy?”
Tanner almost choked—until he realized Addie was talking to the dog. “Blu has loved Nell from the day he met her. She has a way about her. It’s uncanny how animals trust her.” He reached down to rub Blu around the scruff. More fur floated out, but Nell had done a great job.
Percy opened one eye, so Tanner also gave a gentle scratch to the cat’s chin before brushing his hand on his leg to remove the fur and then getting back to eating.
Thankfully, none of them were squeamish about fur. They all loved Blu and Percy too much for that.
“They’re a good judge of character,” Addie agreed. “Might be why Blu is so fond of Callie, too.”
Rather than weigh in on that, Tanner just made a sound of agreement and concentrated on cleaning his plate.
“I told Callie we’d all be there for the shindig.”
“We?”
“Me, you, and Kam. She’s insisting on doing it all herself. She has this plan of decorating the kitchen to surprise Nell. Balloons, streamers, and all that. I’m loaning her some of our decorations. Should be fun. We haven’t done up a real birthday party since you boys were teens.”
“Not that you don’t try,” Tanner said with a grin. Addie still went overboard, but they’d left the balloons behind.
With a shrug, Addie said, “She’s ordering a fancy cake and no matter how I argued she wouldn’t agree to let me bake it.”
“Callie knows you work too hard already.”
“I could have made the cake,” she grumbled, but then got back on point. “It’ll just be Callie, us, and Liam.”
Not a surprise. Anyone who saw Liam and Nell together knew they were interested in each other. So far,Liam had steered clear though. His plans for the future didn’t leave a lot of free time, and in many ways Nell was fragile—not something Liam would miss. No one wanted to see her hurt again. Once, not long after Nell had turned sixteen, Liam had explained that she was too young for him. He’d already turned nineteen a few months before, and at the time, Tanner had agreed.
“So you’ll be there?” Addie pressed. “Kam has already confirmed.”
Tanner tried to sound casual when he said, “Sure. Should be fun,” but his thoughts had jumped ahead to seeing Callie again. He glanced at the time, but no, it was probably too late to call her. “I wonder if there’s anything she’d like us to do to help.” Tomorrow, before getting to work, he could ask her.
