force her to refuse it.
At least if she lost the horse farm to Barker and his dream team of lawyers--more like nightmare team--she'd have the means to start over. The question was, would she have the heart to make a new beginning?
"Dad?" Sophie asked. "Are you still there?"
"I'm here," Tanner said, looking around at the night-shrouded landscape surrounding him. There must have been a foot of snow on the ground already, with more coming down. Hell, November wasn't even over yet.
"Couldn't I at least come home for Christmas?"
"Soph, we don't have a home, remember?"
She was sniffling again. "Sure we do," she said very softly. "Home is where you and Butterpie are."
Tanner's eyes stung all of a sudden. He told himself it was the bitterly cold weather. When he'd finally agreed to take the job, he'd thought, Arizona. Cacti. Sweeping desert vistas. Eighty-degree winters.
But Stone Creek was in northern Arizona, near Flagstaff, a place of timber and red rock--and the occasional blizzard.
It wasn't like him to overlook that kind of geographical detail, but he had. He'd signed on the dotted line because the money was good and because Brad was a good friend.
"How about if I come back there? We'll spend Christmas in New York--skate at Rockefeller Center, see the Rockettes--"
Sophie loved New York. She planned to attend college there, and then medical school, and eventually set up a practice as a neurosurgeon. No small-time goals for his kid, but then, the doctor gene had come from Kat, not him. Kat. As beautiful as a model and as smart as they come, she'd been a surgeon, specializing in pediatric cardiology. She'd given all that up, swearing it was only temporary, to have Sophie. To travel the world with her footloose husband...
"But then I wouldn't get to see Butterpie," Sophie protested. A raw giggle escaped her. "I don't thinkthey'd let her stay at the Waldorf with us, even if we paid a pet deposit."
Tanner pictured the pony nibbling on the ubiquitous mongo flower arrangement in the hotel's sedate lobby, with its Cole Porter piano, dropping a few road apples on the venerable old carpets. And he grinned. "Probably not."
"Don't you want me with you, Dad?" Sophie spoke in a small voice. "Is that it? My friend Cleta says her mom won't let her come home for Christmas because she's got a new boyfriend and she doesn't want a kid throwing a wet blanket on the action."
Cleta. Who named a poor, defenseless kid Cleta?
And what kind of person put "action" before their own child, especially at Christmas?
Tanner closed his eyes, walking toward the dark house he didn't know his way around in yet, since he'd spent the first couple of nights at Brad's, waiting for the power to be turned on and the phones hooked up. Guilt stabbed through his middle. "I love you more than anything or anybody else in the world," he said gruffly, and he meant it. Practically everything he did was geared to provide for Sophie, to protect her from the nameless, faceless forces who hated him. "Trust me, there's no action going on around here."
"I'm going to run away, then," she said resolutely.
"Good luck," Tanner replied after sucking in a deep breath. "That school is hermetically sealed, kiddo. You know that as well as I do."
"What are you so afraid of?"
Losing you. The kid had no way of knowing how big, and how dangerous, the world was. She'd been just seven years old when Kat was killed, and barely remembered the long flight home from northern Africa, private bodyguards occupying the seats around them, the sealed coffin, the media blitz.
"U.S. Contractor Targeted by Insurgent Group," one headline had read. "Wife of American Businessman Killed in Possible Revenge Shooting."
"I'm not afraid of anything," Tanner lied.
"It's because of what happened to Mom," Sophie insisted. "That's what Aunt Tessa says."
"Aunt Tessa ought to mind her own business."
"If you don't come and get me, I'm breaking out of here. And there's no telling where I'll go."
Tanner
At least if she lost the horse farm to Barker and his dream team of lawyers--more like nightmare team--she'd have the means to start over. The question was, would she have the heart to make a new beginning?
"Dad?" Sophie asked. "Are you still there?"
"I'm here," Tanner said, looking around at the night-shrouded landscape surrounding him. There must have been a foot of snow on the ground already, with more coming down. Hell, November wasn't even over yet.
"Couldn't I at least come home for Christmas?"
"Soph, we don't have a home, remember?"
She was sniffling again. "Sure we do," she said very softly. "Home is where you and Butterpie are."
Tanner's eyes stung all of a sudden. He told himself it was the bitterly cold weather. When he'd finally agreed to take the job, he'd thought, Arizona. Cacti. Sweeping desert vistas. Eighty-degree winters.
But Stone Creek was in northern Arizona, near Flagstaff, a place of timber and red rock--and the occasional blizzard.
It wasn't like him to overlook that kind of geographical detail, but he had. He'd signed on the dotted line because the money was good and because Brad was a good friend.
"How about if I come back there? We'll spend Christmas in New York--skate at Rockefeller Center, see the Rockettes--"
Sophie loved New York. She planned to attend college there, and then medical school, and eventually set up a practice as a neurosurgeon. No small-time goals for his kid, but then, the doctor gene had come from Kat, not him. Kat. As beautiful as a model and as smart as they come, she'd been a surgeon, specializing in pediatric cardiology. She'd given all that up, swearing it was only temporary, to have Sophie. To travel the world with her footloose husband...
"But then I wouldn't get to see Butterpie," Sophie protested. A raw giggle escaped her. "I don't thinkthey'd let her stay at the Waldorf with us, even if we paid a pet deposit."
Tanner pictured the pony nibbling on the ubiquitous mongo flower arrangement in the hotel's sedate lobby, with its Cole Porter piano, dropping a few road apples on the venerable old carpets. And he grinned. "Probably not."
"Don't you want me with you, Dad?" Sophie spoke in a small voice. "Is that it? My friend Cleta says her mom won't let her come home for Christmas because she's got a new boyfriend and she doesn't want a kid throwing a wet blanket on the action."
Cleta. Who named a poor, defenseless kid Cleta?
And what kind of person put "action" before their own child, especially at Christmas?
Tanner closed his eyes, walking toward the dark house he didn't know his way around in yet, since he'd spent the first couple of nights at Brad's, waiting for the power to be turned on and the phones hooked up. Guilt stabbed through his middle. "I love you more than anything or anybody else in the world," he said gruffly, and he meant it. Practically everything he did was geared to provide for Sophie, to protect her from the nameless, faceless forces who hated him. "Trust me, there's no action going on around here."
"I'm going to run away, then," she said resolutely.
"Good luck," Tanner replied after sucking in a deep breath. "That school is hermetically sealed, kiddo. You know that as well as I do."
"What are you so afraid of?"
Losing you. The kid had no way of knowing how big, and how dangerous, the world was. She'd been just seven years old when Kat was killed, and barely remembered the long flight home from northern Africa, private bodyguards occupying the seats around them, the sealed coffin, the media blitz.
"U.S. Contractor Targeted by Insurgent Group," one headline had read. "Wife of American Businessman Killed in Possible Revenge Shooting."
"I'm not afraid of anything," Tanner lied.
"It's because of what happened to Mom," Sophie insisted. "That's what Aunt Tessa says."
"Aunt Tessa ought to mind her own business."
"If you don't come and get me, I'm breaking out of here. And there's no telling where I'll go."
Tanner
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