Page 38 of Let Me Be the One
Glory’s mouth fell open. “I, um…” She looked at Tanner. “Why, exactly, don’t you want to touch it?”
“It’s Reggie’s, and toward the end he had a lot of issues.”
“Like…?”
Callie cleared her throat. Loudly. “I’m sure I can manage on my own.”
Of course, Addie didn’t like that. “Come on, honey. I’ll help you.”
“Thank you.” Together, the two women headed down the hall.
Well, hell. He shared a quick look with Kam, who appeared equally resigned. “We’ll be right there.”
“Ha!” he heard Callie reply, and almost grinned.
Snickering, Kam plopped the pillows on top of the basket.“Hurry along, now,” he needlessly quipped, even as he went to help.
Glory had disappeared, but Tanner found her there in the kitchen when he hastily set the basket, piled high now, onto the table. Standing at the back door, she stared out at the yard, her phone in her hand. Before Tanner could leave again, she got a text. Then another. She was texting back when he left the kitchen and joined the others in the bedroom.
His first realization was that the room wasn’t as bad as he remembered. When last he’d been in here, Reggie was all but bedridden, only getting up for the bathroom—when he could. Jaundice had turned him a sickly shade of yellow. All over his face and throat, there’d been patches of red veins resembling spiders. Swelling in his face, limbs, and especially his abdomen made him look like a different person.
Liver disease had devastated him, and even the air had smelled sickly. Tanner had visited anyway, because he loved Reggie. Not like a father, and not in the same way he loved Kam. But Reggie had been kind. He’d taken the time to teach valuable skills to a lost and troubled boy. Those skills had carried Tanner into adulthood.
Reggie’s patience had been endless, his manner always friendly.
He’d been…a nonthreatening adult male at a time when Tanner hadn’t known that existed.
Just by being himself, Reggie had shared a positive example that helped an angry kid maneuver through life. Because of Reggie, Tanner learned that his father in no way represented men as a whole.
Realistically, he’d already known it; through Reggie, he was able to believe it.
“Wimps,” Callie accused, as she studied the room. “This is actually really nice. Lots of space.” As she spoke, she went to a window and tried to wrestle it open. It didn’t budge.
“Here.” Kam stepped forward and forced it up for her. “They probably need the tracks oiled.”
Tanner got the other window. “We have a silicone based lubricant I can bring over tomorrow.” He’d deliberately offered before Kam could—then he wanted to take it back, especially with the knowing grin Kam shot his way.
“Who stripped the bed?” Callie asked.
“That’d be me.” Addie folded her arms around herself. “What the boys weren’t so tactfully saying is that Reggie had some serious issues there at the end. Before it got that bad though, he knew where it was headed. When I came by one day to tell him I was heading to the store if he needed me to pick up anything, he requested a mattress cover. It was a simple matter of gathering up all the bedding and throwing it away.”
Damn. “You should have told me you were doing that. I’d have helped.”
“Oh?” Addie lifted her brows. “Are you the one who just quailed about dragging out a mattress?”
She knew better. He didn’tquailover anything. “Rather than have you do it alone, I’d have handled it.”
“And I’d have helped,” Kam said.
“See?” Addie said. “Aren’t my boys wonderful?”
Callie pretended to give it some thought before finally nodding. “I suppose they are.”
He still would have replaced the mattress beforehe’dsleep on it, but if she was willing, he could at least drag it outside to air it out. “You want to grab the other side?” he asked Kam.
“I guess that’s why we’re in here.”
Getting it down the hall and out the front door proved to be an awkward endeavor. It didn’t help that Reggie’s house—now Callie’s house—was so cluttered. She ran ahead of them to move things out of the way. After they tilted it against the porch railing, she liberally sprayed both sides with a disinfectant and returned to the bedroom to do the same to the box springs.
