Page 10 of Tanner (Dirty Misfits MC 5)
And as I gazed into the beautiful green eyes he had given to our daughter, I saw the sincerity behind them.
Laced with panic.
“Give me ten minutes to pack some things up, okay?” I asked.
Tanner waved his hand above his head before he nodded. “Lead the way, then. I’ll help.”
And I prayed to myself that whatever force he was talking about hadn’t found Cheyenne at her best friend’s yet.
Five
Tanner
As I walked through their apartment, I gazed at the few pictures that were set out. The place wasn’t decorated much, almost as if it were a passing-through point and not much more. But the few pictures that did manage to get into frames and onto tables and shelves all held one person.
My daughter.
“I always keep a go bag filled with mine and Cheyenne’s stuff in case of emergencies. Usually, it’s just to go see my sister in Santa Barbara. But it’ll work now in a pinch,” Summer said.
I picked up the picture on her nightstand and smiled softly to myself. I felt a strong, unexplained connection to the little girl in the photo. I wasn’t sure if that was because she was my daughter, though, or if it was because we had the same eyes.
And lips.
And facial structure.
“She’s got your stubbornness, too,” Summer said.
I set the picture down. “You ready to go?”
She thumbed over her shoulder. “Just gonna get our toiletries and we’ll be good to go.”
I heard her backtracking into the bathroom and packing her things before she called out to me.
“Tanner?”
I gazed in her general direction. “Yeah?”
She poked her head out. “Her name’s Cheyenne.”
My heart stopped in its chest. “What’s her middle name?”
She swallowed hard. “Rae.”
Rae.
Cheyenne Rae.
“Rae” was a family middle name of mine. It was my mother’s middle name, our dog’s name, my grandmother’s first name, and my great-grandmother’s middle name as well.
“You—you named her—”
Summer cut me off as she came out of the bathroom with a toiletry bag packed. “No reason to be nostalgic. Just because you haven’t been around to be her father doesn’t mean—”
“You didn’t really give me a choice in that, Summer.”
She didn’t look at me as she shoved the smaller bag into her bigger one. “Cheyenne’s at a sleepover. We’ll have to go get her, unless you think it’s safe enough for her to just go stay with my sister or something. She’s a detective now, you know.”
My eyebrows rose. “No, shit! I bet your parents hate that.”
She giggled softly. “Enough to disown her. Neither of us have spoken to them since we both graduated.”
I took a step toward her. “What happened to you? You know, after I graduated? We were supposed to meet up and—”
She zipped the bag closed, cutting me off again. “Will we need to go get Cheyenne for this?”
I studied the profile of her face. “Why don’t you want to go get her? Do you not want me to meet her or something?”
She slung her bag over her shoulder and turned to face me. “Look, it’s nothing personal. A lot of things happened once my family figured out I was pregnant, and it’s all so convoluted and I just—”
She breathed a heavy sigh, so I took her bag from her shoulder. “Let me help, you look exhausted.”
She shot me a look. “Just what every woman wants to hear.”
I rolled my eyes. “I see you still like to twist my words.”
“Then, maybe you shouldn’t make such stupid comments.”
I walked out of her room. “Why do you not want to go get Cheyenne?”
She kept gathering things as we made our way for her front door. “Because it’s her eleventh birthday today. She’s at a sleepover, and she’s gonna be so disappointed when we have to go get her.”
I whipped around. “She’s eleven today?”
Her eyes met mine. “Yeah. Today.”
I licked my lips. “You don’t want me to tell her who I am, do you?”
“If you could just keep it to ‘I’m a friend’ for now until I can get sorted through things, I’d really appreciate it.”
I turned my back to her and reached for the doorknob. “I’d make a good father, you know. Even now.”
“Trust me,” she said with a heavy sigh, “that’s not the issue.”
I wasn’t sure what the issue was, and it angered me that there was even an issue. She was the one that ditched me after my graduation ceremony, not the other way around. She was the one that stood me up when we were supposed to run away together, not the other way around. And now, I had to stand back and watch while my own daughter thought I was nothing more than a family friend?
She’s still the woman raising your child. Be kind.
“About damn time,” Brooks said.
He ripped the bag away from me and dropped it onto the back of his bike. He started strapping it down as much as he could while I quickly introduced Summer to the guys. She shook their hands and I tried to communicate to them to talk as absolutely little as possible.
