Page 85 of Well Played

“Mom, can we go out and get marshmallows? Dad and I are going to make a campfire when we camp tonight.”

“Umm… Sure, sweetheart. Let me just load the dishwasher, and we can run to the store. Why don’t you go wash your hands in the meantime.”

“Okay, Mom!”

As Alex ran off, Tanner walked up behind Presley at the sink. He put his hands on her shoulders, and I felt heat rise from my toes to the top of my forehead. “Levi and I will take care of all this, babe. You did all the cooking.”

Presley turned around, effectively forcing his hands from her shoulders. “Tanner, please stop calling me that.”

“Sorry. I guess it just feels so good to be living with you again, I forget we have a ways to go.”

Presley shook her head. “We’renotliving together. You’re staying in one of the rooms—same as any stranger might be doing once the inn is open again.” She lowered her voice. “You need to stop giving Alex the wrong impression, Tanner.”

He wrinkled his forehead. “What, that I love his mother? That’s not a wrong impression. It’s a fact.”

“You’re making him think we’re a couple.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes,you are.”

“He’s a smart kid. Maybe he just sees what’s meant to be.”

Presley shook her head again. “I’m going to take Alex to the store. Do you need anything else for tonight while I’m out?”

“Nope.”

She glanced over at me before grabbing her keys and yelling for Alex.

Once it was just Tanner and me, another shot of scotch was necessary. I poured to the brim and sucked it back, enjoying the burn as it washed down my pipes.

Tanner rinsed a plate and loaded it into the dishwasher. “You drink more these days than I remember…”

“Not usually.”

“Something bothering you?”

“Nothing I feel like talking about.”

Tanner chuckled. “Woman problems, huh?”

I said nothing, which made my brother assume he’d hit the nail on the head.

“It was easier when we were eighteen, wasn’t it? Now a Ouija board has more answers about what a woman wants than I do.”

I poured another shot. “It’s not that complicated.”

“For you, maybe. What are you pulling down? Twenty, thirty million a year? You just have to flash that Super Bowl ring, and the panties fall to the ground. Us working stiffs have to actuallyworkfor it.”

The muscle in my jaw ticked. “You might want to pull out your Ouija board and have a heart to heart if you think all women only give a shit about money.”

Tanner turned off the water. He leaned a hip against the counter and folded his arms across his chest, facing me. “Alright, big brother. If you know so much about women, tell me what Presley wants.”

I looked back and forth between my brother’s eyes. “Trust, loyalty, and dependability are important to Presley.”

Tanner shrugged. “I can give her all those things.”

I wanted to say ‘Nowyou can give them to her?Where the hell were you seven years ago?’But instead I just gritted my teeth and motioned to the sink with my eyes. “You got this? I have something I have to do.”

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