“Oh.” Her temper quickly defused. “I went to visit Vivian. She still isn’t awake, but she looks better. The doctor said he expects her to wake up any time.”
“That’s wonderful.” Should he admit that he was checking on Billy, that he was trying to see if there was anything he could do for the boy? No. He shouldn’t, not yet, at least. He’d hold that card to his chest and bring it out when it would play to his best advantage. If he helped the kid — an act of boredom, of course — wouldn’t that make him more appealing to Kyla? Weren’t girls a sucker for a man coming to the rescue? Yes, they were. He was only helping the kid to get back into her pants. That thought made him feel better, and he refused to even think to himself that he was lying, even in his own head.
“I tried to get information on Billy, but they won’t tell me anything. Did you know the process to become a foster parent is long and drawn out? By the time I could do anything, his grandmother will be fully recovered. I’ve still started the paperwork. I just hate the thought of him being all alone and scared.”
“I know you hated handing him over, but if you hadn’t done that, you would have been considered a kidnapper. You did the right thing, Kyla.”
“It doesn’t matter if I did the right thing or not. I feel like I’ve betrayed him, and he’s already been through so much. It’s just…it’s not right,” she said, her shoulders sagging.
“Why don’t you come over? I’ll make you some dinner and we can talk about it…” Nice offer, he thought.
“I can’t tonight, Tanner. I’m so tired. I want a hot bath and to go to sleep. It’s pathetic, but it is what it is. And I am what I am.”
Before he was able to argue with her, or maybe persuade her, she turned and walked way from him. He was so surprised that he’d been rejected, and by a woman who knew all his best bedroom tricks — okay, not all of them — that by the time he realized she was getting away, she was already at her apartment and her door was shutting. Maybe he’d just go pound on it.
“Ouch. That looked like it hurt.”
Tanner turned around, fury rolling through him.
“Who in the hell are you?”
“Hey, don’t take your bad mood out on me. I’m Wayne, one of the guards here.”
“Well, I’d appreciate it if you keep your comments to yourself,” Tanner told him as he turned to leave.
“I’m just saying that she’s not the warmest cookie in the batch. The lady up on three-twelve heats up a whole lot faster,” Wayne said with a sly look.
“Go to hell,” Tanner said, and he slammed his door in the guard’s face.
It looked as if Wayne wouldn’t have a job come morning.
Tanner flopped down on the couch and made two more phone calls. This insane restlessness really pissed him off. He didn’t need Kyla to be with him to make him happy. It had to be this place. As soon as he got out of here, he would go back to being himself.
And that’s just what he wanted.
Chapter Twenty-One
“…and a Buzz Lightyear, and Megatron, and…”
The kid wanted a million presents for Christmas, and Tanner tuned him out. He didn’t care. If anything, this job had shown him that the majority of people were just plain greedy.
Not one child had touched him like Billy had almost three weeks before. He’d gotten the information back that he’d requested, but he almost wished he could erase from his mind what the report said.
Billy’s father had been a soldier, had been deployed for a year, and he’d just gotten home for leave. His wife, Billy’s mother, had picked him up from the airport and they’d gone over a bridge. Billy hadn’t even gotten to see his father again.
One minute he was asleep in bed with no idea that his father was coming home, and the next he’d been awakened to see his grandmother’s sad face, and to hear her telling him he was going to come live with her now.
The two of them had a lot of healing to do, and now Billy blamed himself for his grandmother getting hurt. She was awake, but it would have almost been better if she hadn’t come out of the coma.
When the doctors had gone in to fix the hip, they’d found bone cancer. It was too far gone for them — or anyone — to do anything about it. So Billy was not only not going to not get his Christmas wish of having his parents come home again, but he was going to lose his only other living relative.
Tanner was trying desperately not to dwell on it, but as he looked out at the line of kids still waiting to sit on his lap, have a picture taken and tell him how many toys they wanted, all he could think about was one small boy. But he did his best to shake Billy’s image from his mind. The boy wasn’t his responsibility. Kyla wasn’t either. He was almost done with this place, and once his stint was over, he was done forever, so how could these two people occupy so much of his time?
Shaking his head, he practically pushed away the little boy who was actually on his lap. Still, he wasn’t wholly in Scrooge mode. A semblance of a smile touched his lips as a little blond girl with big brown eyes and rosy cheeks took the boy’s place on Tanner’s lap.
“What can Santa bring you for Christmas?” he asked.
She flashed him a precious little grin. “I want a purple pony,” she giggled.
“A purple pony?” Did they even make things like that?
“Yes, Santa, with sparkles.”
“Santa will have to talk to his elves and see if we can get you one of those,” he told her. At least she wasn’t reading off a list from a yard-long scroll. The twinkle in her eyes was just plain adorable.
“Thanks, Santa. I love you,” the little girl said.
“Santa loves you too,” he told her, and accepted her hug. All right, this wasn’t so bad. He was just feeling grumpy about humanity earlier.
Then she leaned back and the color washed from her face. “Uh oh.” That was his only warning before her mouth opened and a stream of nastiness came shooting out right at him.
Tanner froze as the smell of vomit invaded his nostrils and chunks of food got stuck in his fake beard. His so-called helpers all took a few steps back; the best they could do for him, it seemed, was give him wide-eyed looks of horror.
“Sorry, Santa,” the little girl said before she quickly climbed off his lap and ran to her mother, tears now pouring from her eyes.
“It’s okay, sweetie. You didn’t mean to throw up on Santa,” her mother told her.