“So what is this? Are you championing an underdog? Or maybe throwing things back in their faces? Proving they’re right about you, that you’re a screw-up by hanging around with the wrong kind of woman?”

“Ouch.”

A wrinkle formed between her eyebrows. “Sorry. That was me being superblunt again. I’m the first one to admit I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder.”

Despite the harshness of her words, he could tell she’d asked an honest question, and he thought hard about how he would answer. Was he doing this to prove a point? Because if he was befriending her in a way that was anything less than genuine, that made him no better than anyone else.

“No,” he said softly. “That’s not what I’m doing. But that was a really good question to ask, Laura.” Rowan dropped the keys on the floor. He leaned down, picked them up and handed them to her. He received a toothless grin as his reward. “It’s more that I know how it feels, and it’s wrong. I’m not afraid to be your friend if you need one. You and Rowan. I was there when she was born. It was a big moment.”

He didn’t expect tears to gather in her eyes. It made the blue depths even bluer, and his heart stuttered a little. He wondered what the heck he should do now.

“Sorry,” she murmured, and reached for a paper napkin to wipe her eyes. She took a few deep breaths. “Honestly, you’re the first person to say that since Gavin. That you’re my friend, that is.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, and he meant it.

She cuddled Rowan closer. “Tanner, I can trust you, right?”

A little ripple of warning slid through him. No one asked that sort of question unless they were planning on revealing something personal. But then, he’d just said he wasn’t afraid to be her friend. So he nodded, holding her gaze. “Yeah, you can trust me.”

“Because there are only two people in Gibson who know the truth besides my lawyer. One is your brother. The other is Maddy Wallace.”

Gavin’s widow.

“This has to do with Gavin?”

She nodded. “Okay, here goes. The baby’s not his, Tanner. Gavin was a good friend, but nothing more. He was married. I would never get involved with a married man. I’ve made a lot of bad decisions, but that’s not one of them.”

Tanner sat back in his chair. On one hand, he felt a surge of relief knowing she’d never slept with Gavin. But on the other, he was completely perplexed. If their relationship had been nothing more than friendship, then why didn’t she set the record straight?”

“I don’t understand,” he said.

“You want to know why I let everyone think otherwise.”

“Well, yes!” He frowned, leaning forward again and resting his elbows on the table. “Laura, you know that people think you two had an affair. That Rowan is his. You’re deliberately letting that happen, and letting them make you an outcast. Why would you do that?”

“Because the truth is worse than the lie,” she said quietly. “And as difficult as it is for me, it’s in Rowan’s best interest, and I have to put her first.”

Which really didn’t explain anything.

Rowan started fussing, so Laura got up and put her on her shoulder. Tanner noticed again the difference in coloring. Laura’s hair was wavy and a gorgeous auburn shade of red that he knew most women coveted and few came by naturally. Her skin was creamy white with a few light freckles, her eyes a clear summer blue. Rowan, while having the same pale skin tone, had perfectly straight dark brown hair, and her eyes were blue, but not the same vibrant shade as her mother’s. Gavin’s hair had been brown like that, too, but he couldn’t remember the man’s features well enough to know if there was any imagined resemblance.

To the townspeople, the implication was enough. He knew that people often saw what they wanted to. Such was the power of suggestion.

So if Gavin wasn’t the father, who was? And why was that truth so much worse than letting the world think Rowan was Gavin Wallace’s?

“Tanner? Let’s go into the living room. She’s got a bouncy seat in there that she loves. It’s almost nap time anyway, and I can explain a little better.”

He followed her into the living room and sat on the sofa while she settled Rowan in the little chair and gave it a bounce. The girl’s face lit up and she smacked at the toys on the activity bar in front of her.

“Best thing I bought for her,” Laura said, smiling. “She loves it and it’s saved my sanity more than once. Now that she’s awake longer through the day, she gets bored.” She sat in the chair to the right of him and let out a big breath. “I suppose I need to elaborate a bit, don’t I?”

Did she? Was it really any of his business? He thought about what it meant to be a good friend. He had friends, but Cole was really the guy he was closest to. And even then, there were things his brother didn’t know. Tanner totally understood how it felt to want to keep the darkest parts hidden away. Curious as he was, he knew how he had to answer. “Tell me only if you want to,” he said. “You don’t owe me any sort of an explanation at all.”

“And that’s very generous of you. And surprising.”

“Like I told you before, I’ve had a few moments that are not my finest. I don’t judge.”

She smiled at him then, a soft curving of her lips that reached in and grabbed him right by the heart. It was sweet, and perhaps a bit vulnerable—something he hadn’t seen in her up to this point. Except for one moment, last December. When she’d had a particularly nasty contraction and she’d reached out for his hand in the ambulance. She’d looked so scared and yet so trusting.

“You know, I’m starting to believe that’s true,” she whispered.

There was a long pause, and then she put her hands on her knees. “You’ve been nothing but kind to me, and I trust you. So here’s the truth, leaving out some names if that’s okay with you.”

“You can tell me as much or as little as you like.”

She looked relieved. “The truth is, up until last spring I lived in Nevada, in Reno. I was working for a small graphic design company and my roommate tended bar. Through her, I met this guy and we went out a few times. He was really handsome and charming, and he said he was in sales.” She laughed bitterly. “Pharmaceutical sales. God, I was so dumb, so naive,” she said, giving a bitter laugh. “Anyway, it was a bit of a whirlwind thing. But then he said he was being transferred to a new territory for a few months and he ended it. A few months later, he came back, and he was still handsome, still charming...but something felt off. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was an edginess to him that hadn’t been there before. A...hardness. I think I knew I should end things, but I told myself I was imagining it. I ignored all my instincts.”

Tanner didn’t like where this was going. At all. “Did he hurt you?” he asked gently.

Her eyes clashed with his, but she shook her head a little. “No, not like that. He never laid a hand on me. He came into my work and wanted to start up where we left off, and I fell for his charms all over again. I let him stay with me at my apartment until he found a new job. But after a few weeks back together, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t feel safe, though I couldn’t explain why. A few times, some guys showed up at my door, and I knew he wasn’t honest about who they were. All my internal alarms were ringing and so I decided I needed to break it off.”

Tanner hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath until she paused and he let it out. “And then what happened?”

“The day before I was going to do it, the cops came and arrested him. He totally lost it when they showed up, and God, it was so ugly. He was charged with violating his parole, assault and battery and possession of a controlled substance. I had no idea about the drugs. Turns out that transfer? He wasn’t working. He was in prison.” Her normally sparkly eyes had dimmed, her lips thinned to a straight, disapproving line. “He wasn’t a pharmaceutical rep at all. He was dealing. To kids. And I was too blind to see the signs. By then it was too late.”