My foot slammed onto the brakes just before my car collided with…Tanner? Where the hell had he even come from so quickly? Had he jilted the waiter with the check instead of me?
Tanner patted the front of the car and shook his head. He ran his fingers down the front of his peacoat and straightened the to-go containers in his hands that somehow hadn’t ended up on my windshield.
He walked around and opened the passenger’s side door. “Mechanical beasts,” he huffed. “I got our food to-go. Very fast service.”
Crazy fast. Our main courses hadn’t even arrived at the table yet. But I guess maybe that had saved them time.
“We can warm it up after we go air out all our dirty laundry with James. If he’s well behaved I’ll let him eat some of your lobster.”
“I’m not talking to him about Brooklyn.”
“We’ll just see how the night progresses.”
“You don’t need to come,” I said.
“I’m already committed to this.” Tanner pulled on his seat belt. “What are you waiting for? Gun it.”
Chapter 21
Monday
As each minute ticked by, I started to panic more and more. What if I was too late? What if something had happened to Scarlett? Why the fuck had I taken so long to tell James about Poppy’s visit?
“It’s going to be fine,” Tanner said as the elevator doors closed. “I’m pretty sure you would have heard if Scarlett had been abducted by one of Richard’s crazed relatives.”
“I wouldn’t exactly be the first person James called if something went wrong.”
Tanner frowned. “Of course you would be. You’ve been friends for forever.”
Fine. If I was in trouble I wouldn’t go to James first. Which is how I wound up not telling him this very important information for a week. What was wrong with me? First I’d been flirting with his wife. Now I was trying to get his children offed? And how long did this elevator take to get to the top floor? I hit the button again.
“This is exactly why I think it would be good for you to talk to James about Brooklyn. Secrets have a way of festering until they tear one apart.”
I didn’t need pretend-psychologist Tanner right now. He was making me feel worse not better. “I should have told him right after Poppy stopped by my office.”
“You really should have.”
“You’re not helping!”
“Hm. Maybe you’ll be singing a different tune when James tries to kill you and I make sure that doesn’t happen. You’re welcome.”
I winced. “He’s going to try to kill me, isn’t he?”
Tanner shrugged.
The doors dinged open on James and Penny’s floor. I ran over to their door and banged on it with my fist. Again and again until it opened. But no one was there. A chill ran down my spine. Why the hell was their door just open like that? Fuck, I was too late.
“Hi, Uncle Matt! Hi, Mr. Tanner.”
I looked down and saw Scarlett smiling up at us. Oh thank God. “Kiddo, you’re not supposed to answer the door. How many times do your parents have to tell you that?” What if I’d been Poppy? Or my stalker? Or Mr. Pruitt himself? Scarlett could have easily been snatched. Or worse.
She pressed her lips together. “Maybe they need to tell me one more time.” She smiled but the corners of her lips instantly fell when I didn’t smile back. “Please don’t tell them, Uncle Matt. I didn’t mean to do it. But you knocked. So I answered the door.”
How was that not meaning to do it? “Where are your parents?”
“Mommy’s putting Liam to bed and Daddy’s in his office.”
I sighed and ran my hand down my face. Scarlett was okay. That was the important thing. But she was going to give me a heart attack at this rate.
“Am I in trouble?” she asked.
“Nonsense, why would you be?” Tanner said.
I glared at him. We weren’t playing good cop, bad cop here. And even if we were, I didn’t want to be the bad cop. “You’re a little in trouble.”
“I am?” She blinked up at me.
“That depends.” I crouched down to look her in the eyes. “Do you promise not to answer the door again?”
“Yes?”
“Scarlett, you’re going to have to sound a little more affirmative than that.”
“But I don’t know what affima…formitative…I don’t know what that word means.”
“Say it with conviction,” Tanner said.
She shook her head, not knowing what that word meant either.
“Kiddo, I just need you to promise me. For real this time. Promise me you won’t answer the door by yourself ever again.”
She looked down at her socks. “Okay. I’m sorry.” She sounded like she was going to cry. “I didn’t mean to, Uncle Matt. It was an accident.”
She was such a dirty little liar. But I hated when she was upset. I put my arms out. “It’s alright.”
She ran into my arms and hugged me. I stood, lifting her up with me. “Where did you say your dad was?”
“In his office.” She pointed toward the hall as if I’d never been here before.
The three of us walked to James’ office. I knocked on the door before opening it. “Hey.”
“Matt. What are you…oh, hi, Tanner. What are you guys doing here?”
James usually only wore his glasses when he wasn’t getting enough sleep. He looked tired and stressed. He looked how I felt. And clearly Tanner was wrong about my friendship with James. Because something was clearly wrong and he hadn’t come to me for help.
“I need to talk to you,” I said.
James nodded and then his eyes fell to Scarlett in my arms. “Scarlett, you’re supposed to be in bed. What are you doing down here?”
“I got thirsty.”
“Give me one second,” he said to me and lifted Scarlett out of my arms. “Pumpkin, it’s called bedtime for a reason.”
“I don’t know what bedtime means,” she said.
He laughed. “Yes you do.” He disappeared down the hall.
Tanner stepped into James’ office and started wandering around. He stopped at a picture of Mason, Rob, James, and me while we were at Harvard together. He picked it up and laughed. “That haircut is no good.”
“That surfer shaggy kind of style was in.”
He looked over at me. “But you’re not a surfer. Have you ever even been out on a wave?”
I hadn’t. And I was pretty sure he knew that.
He put the framed picture back down. “I’ve been through many a bad haircut as well. You wouldn’t believe how frequently popular haircuts come and go. It’s impossible to keep up with the times.”
Okay. I was pretty sure Tanner hadn’t changed his hairstyle once since I’d known him. Unless you counted the fake sightings Rob had of Tanner prancing around the city in fluorescent suits and a man bun. There was no way his hair was long enough for a man bun. I think. I shook my head.
“Scarlett opened the door for you guys, didn’t she?” James asked as he came back into the room.
I didn’t want to betray Scarlett’s confidence. But her safety was more important. “Yeah, she did.”