It takes all I have not to burst out laughing. Tanner jumps out of the seat and holds up his hands. “Hell no. My tooth’s not going anywhere!”
And at that moment, our eyes meet. My heart flip flops in my chest, and there’s no denying the chemistry between us. Crossing my arms over my chest, I glare at him. “That’s for ignoring me.”
Lexi clears her throat. “Okay, I think I’m going to go. Unless you really have a tooth ache?” she asks, turning to Tanner.
He shakes his head. “I have an ache, but it’s not in my mouth.” The way he looks at me is so serious it makes me tremble. Lexi backs out of the room and I mouth the words thank you to her as she leaves.
Tanner nods toward the hallway where Lexi just walked away. “Did you put her up to that?”
“Nope,” I say with a sardonic smile. “That’s just Lexi’s humor.” Silence fills the air and I sigh. “Why didn’t you call me back? Ellie and I have been worried about you.”
“Where is she?” he asks.
I waved a hand in the air. “Out looking for you. She left about ten minutes ago to find you.”
He runs a hand over his face which has more sun on it than it did yesterday. “I’m sorry. I’ll call her. Yesterday was a shit day for me. Like literally. When I heard your message this morning—”
“This morning?” I cut in. “It took you that long to listen to it?”
A laugh escapes his lips. “Believe me, Soph, if I could’ve listened to it earlier, I would have. I knew you’d be angry so that’s why I came here instead of calling you back. I didn’t think you’d see me otherwise.”
“Where did you go yesterday that you couldn’t call anyone back?”
“Well,” he began as he took a step toward me, “let’s just say you’re going to love this. I drove to the beach to catch a few waves but ended up not being in the mood for it. On the way home, I stopped by a local dive and dropped my phone in a toilet full of literal shit.”
Gasping, I slap a hand over my mouth. “Seriously?”
He nods. “It took all I had not to fucking puke all over the damn place in there. But then it gets worse.” I wonder if he’s telling me the truth, but I can see the sincerity in his eyes. He takes another step toward me. “As my phone falls into the shit-filled toilet, it splashes all over me. By this point, I’m regretting ever leaving your house in the first place. I should’ve just stayed there until we worked everything out.”
He stares at me all serious and it’s so hard to keep a straight face. In my mind, I can see it all … him in a disgusting bathroom with shit all over him. “So, you’re covered in shit in a dingy bathroom. What happens after that?” I ask, keeping a hand over my mouth to hide my smile.
He comes closer and I’m dying for him to pull me into his arms. “After that, I go out to my Jeep and strip down, only for a cop to show up and threaten to arrest me for indecency. But when he saw and smelled the shit all over me, he let me go. Guess he didn’t want to touch me. Hell, I didn’t want to be anywhere near myself.”
“Oh my God, Tanner, that’s insane. So, you weren’t ignoring me then?”
Reaching for my hand, he pulls me close. “Of course not. I would never ignore you, Soph. By the time I got back into town last night, the phone store was closed. I went there first thing this morning to get a new one and that’s when I found out you left me a voicemail.” His hands cup my cheeks. “Believe me, I was scared to death that you wouldn’t want to see me. That’s why I came here pretending to be a patient. I figured Ellie would play along if she was here.”
I have no doubt she would. “She came to see me yesterday,” I confess. “Turns out I was wrong about everything. There’s nothing to worry about with her. All she wants is for us to be happy.”
Pulling me in tight to his body, he brings his lips down to mine. “Does this mean you’re not scared to be mine now?”
I kiss him again. “I’ll always be scared of getting hurt, Tanner. Love isn’t easy.”