“I’ve got homework.”
“Which you don’t give a shit about,” Tanner said. “Talk to me. Grandma loves you from your head to your fifteen-year-old punk smartass. Your mom loves you. I love you—and for the record, I always have, always will. And what the hell does the color purple have to do with anything?”
Troy sighed and let his head fall back against the seat. “Don’t try to tell me that the football thing didn’t hurt.”
“We already discussed this.” Tanner looked around to see if he’d stepped into some weird time warp, but nope, it was just him and the kid. And the kid was…well, it was a little bit like looking in a mirror circa his high school years. Still, he was definitely missing a couple of pieces to this puzzle. “Okay,” he said, “because I’m feeling a little out of the loop and a whole lot behind, we’re going to do this slowly. Football first. Go.”
“I suck at it. Okay? Is that what you want to know? I’m not Tanner Riggs, and I never will be.”
“Well, thank God for that,” Tanner said fervently, then let out a mirthless laugh when Troy just stared at him. “Jesus. Do you really think I want you to be me?” he asked. “I made a boatload of mistakes, Troy. I hope to God you don’t follow my path and make as many as I did.”
“Like get your girl knocked up?” Troy asked.
Well, yeah. That. Tanner was pretty sure he shouldn’t be craving a drink just to have this discussion with his teenager, but again, more proof he was about as far from a perfect dad as a guy could get. The most important thing he had to do here was walk slowly through the minefield, and not just because Elisa had never really been his girl but because he’d grown up knowing his dad had been able to walk away from him. And that shit…that had done a number on his head for a lot of years.
No way was he going to ever let Troy go through the same thing. “My actions were the mistake,” Tanner said carefully. “Sleeping with a girl before I understood the ramifications enough to protect us both was the mistake. You’re not a mistake. Never you, Troy.” He felt his throat tighten and his eyes burn. “In fact, you’re the very best part of my life.”
Troy stared at him, obviously a little blown back by Tanner’s vehemence.
“Now if we’re straight in that department,” Tanner finally said, “let’s move on to the other points. Are you sexually active with this girl? Are you using protection?”
Troy blinked. “I told you it’s not what you think.”
“I don’t know what that means, Troy.”
Troy looked out the window, jaw tight.
“Okay,” Tanner said, knowing pushing right now wasn’t the answer. “Next point. No one, and I mean no one, wants or expects you to live up to whatever dubious distinction the name Tanner Riggs brings.”
Troy snorted. “Everyone here expects me to live up to you, Dad.”
Tanner went still. Troy had used the word “dad” several times now, but it was never going to get old. He wanted to treasure it, wanted to demand Troy say it again. “Well, then,” he said instead, “what I really want you to know is that you shouldn’t give a shit what anyone thinks.”
“Easy for the football star to say. You’re not going to put on a pair of tights and get on stage.”
Tanner hid his grimace. “But you get to kiss the girl.”
The kid tried to hold back a smile and failed. “Yeah. And I get to die. It’s awesome.”
“So see, it’s what you think that matters,” Troy said. “Not anyone else.”
Troy nodded. “That’s what Callie said you’d say.”
“You discussed this with Callie?”
“Yeah, and I don’t know what’s up with girls but they have a way of making you talk.”
Troy sounded so baffled that Tanner nearly laughed. “Get used to it,” he muttered, but a part of his brain was back on Callie. Was he actually jealous of what she and Troy had?
Yeah, he decided. He was.
“You can’t be mad at her,” Troy said, reading his mind with startling ease.
Since this was sounding like a repeat of a conversation he’d had with Callie in reverse, when she’d told him he couldn’t be mad at Troy, Tanner shook off his annoyance. “And the color purple?” he asked. “You hate it since before or after you painted your entire room purple?”
Troy winced.
“Since before then,” Tanner muttered. He leaned back. “Jesus. It’s really true.”
“What’s true?”
“We’re a lot alike.”
Troy did not look any more thrilled at this knowledge than Tanner felt. He shook his head. “Think we can have a cease-fire?” he asked the kid.
Troy went wary. “What would that involve?”
Tanner slid him a look. “You talking more than you have, for one.”
Troy made a face.
“You continuing to make yourself at home here in Lucky Harbor with things like doing the play for another,” Tanner said.
Troy just stared at him.
“And most especially,” Tanner added, “you picking out a color for your walls that you like.”
“And what about you?” Troy asked.
“What about me?”
“Well, if I have to do all this stuff like talk and crap,” Troy said, “seems like you should have to do something.”