I made Dev’s drink. I got Tony his.
Then Tanner caught my attention by coming close to the bar where the altercation happened and not going back to his seat where Devin had returned.
I looked up at him. “Need another one, Tanner?”
“Need you to call Merry, Cher,” he said quietly, then slightly lifted a hand. “I get you roll with life, darlin’, take your hits and keep on rollin’.” He tipped his head to the door. “But that shit’s gonna hit his phone and fast, it hasn’t already done it. And he’s not gonna be real happy if one of the first calls doesn’t come direct from you.”
My brows shot up. “Relationship advice from shit-hot PI Tanner Layne?”
His lips curled up. “I get it regular, Cher. You want some a’ that for you, listen to a man who’s got it goin’ on.”
He had a point.
And he was totally good with me being with Merry.
I nodded with my lips curling up too and reached to my back pocket to get my phone.
“And I’ll take a fresh one,” Tanner finished.
I got his fresh one, then I got Darryl to take the bar while me and my phone hit the office and I hit go on Merry’s contact.
I barely had my cell to my ear before Merry answered.
“You okay?”
He’d heard.
“Who called?” I asked.
“Lore,” he told me. “Man didn’t hear what went down, just knew Mia showed and threw down.”
Loren Smithfield. Resident player. He was right then playing pool at the same time scanning the joint for ass to tap.
“I’m okay,” I assured.
“Got some things I gotta finish up with Mike, then I’ll be in for a drink.”
I’d take that because we’d been texting since lunch at Frank’s two days before, but I hadn’t seen him.
Though, I didn’t want him to think he had to come in for me.
“I’m really okay, Merry,” I told him.
“I know you are. That’s you. You’re not okay, you find a way to be. That doesn’t mean I’m not pissed as shit my ex is bein’ a stupid bitch and draggin’ you into that. So I’m gonna be in to make sure you’re okay, and I’m gonna be in so I can be with you and not go find her and rip her a new asshole.”
“Best play you got, seein’ as I’m not sure she’d feel a new asshole,” I muttered.
Merry’s next sounded disbelieving. “Lore said Tanner waded in. He didn’t set her straight?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think like her, but I got the impression she’s all in and Tanner mighta delivered a few hits, but she’s feelin’ the need to prove something, so she’s gonna get back up and keep fighting.”
“Fuck,” Merry muttered.
I had no response because I didn’t know what to say. Not only had I never been in a situation like this, it was true, I didn’t think like Mia. I had no idea what she was planning and how those plans would be carried out.
And worse, if they might wear Merry down.
“Somethin’ you should know,” he said in a way that told me it was something I should know, but it was something I didn’t want to know.
“Hit me,” I replied, even though I wasn’t big on taking another hit that evening.
“Drew and Sean had the occasion to be in her development yesterday. Said the for sale sign on her house is down.”
“She sell?” I asked hopefully, knowing that was stupid.
It was always stupid for me to hope.
“Don’t know. Don’t care and don’t wanna give the impression I do.”
That was a good play.
I again said nothing.
“She doesn’t have it in her,” he said quietly.
“Mm-hmm,” I replied.
“Babe, not feelin’ dick about this except supremely pissed she had a go at you and equally pissed my hands are tied. I got no moves except ignoring her ass. Not a man who likes to be cornered, but there’s nothin’ I can do. I confront her, she’ll take that as attention and time I’m givin’ her and read it wrong. There’s no move but wait it out, play it smart, and give her nothing. She doesn’t have it in her to stay the course. She’s gonna give up.”
“Merry, I’m at work,” I reminded him. “Darryl’s back of the bar. He can pull beers and uncap bottles but a mixed drink is a crapshoot. I gotta get back out there.”
“Cherie,” his tone was now soft, “sorry as fuck she did what she did, but I’ll be sorrier, her doin’ that shit puts thoughts in your head that I’m not where I’m at with you, which, it’s important to note, is where I wanna be.”
I drew in breath.
He kept talking.
“I’ll be there in an hour. If you’re down with it, follow you home and hang with you until Ethan goes to bed.”
That’d work for me.
“That’s a deal.”
“Right, lettin’ you go. See you soon.”
“See you soon, Merry.”
I was about to hang up when he called, “Cher?”
“Still here,” I told him.
“Last coupla days, slowed things down,” he stated. “You were right, we hit hyperdrive. But you need to settle into this in a way you believe. And you also got a kid. He’s had you and he’s had all of you for eleven years. He digs me and doesn’t hide it. I like that. But I don’t need to all of a sudden be in your space and in his face every second of the day. Once, I went about winnin’ a woman. Never tackled the feat of winnin’ a family. Need you to know I’m in this with you and it’s a place I wanna be. Same time, need your boy to know that, you got me, he doesn’t lose you. He just gets me too. We take that time to do this smart, which means I give you and Ethan space along the way, I don’t want you to use that space to let shit fuck with your head.”