Chance of a Lifetime (12 page)

“Her cat sitter called and said one of Pamela Sue’s cats ate an earring. Pamela Sue had to run home. Since it was a matter of life or death, I offered to take over. It was me, the janitor, or that kissing kid upstairs. Sam said he wouldn’t
do it because he used to date Martha Q in high school and he didn’t want to see her when she came down. I couldn’t ask the kid, so that left me no option.”

“Thanks.” Emily smiled as she began turning off lights. “I should tell Sam not to worry about Martha Q. Half the town used to date her from what I understand.”

Tannon followed her. “No, you don’t understand, Emily. I think the old guy still has a crush on her. I watched him stand out of sight and watch her leave before he left. I think he’s still sweet on her.”

Emily laughed. “You sound like Pamela Sue. She’s always thinking people are daydreaming about lives they wish they had.”

“Speaking of Pamela Sue”—here he furrowed his brow—“you should fire her. If I hadn’t been here, I think she would have simply left.”

“She’s a volunteer.”

“In her case, you got what you paid for.” He waited for Emily to collect the grocery bag she carried as a briefcase. “Can we go? I’m starving.”

“Of course. Where are we going?”

“We could drive out to the mall and try one of the fast-food places, or over to the highway for the truck stop, or we could go to the diner. It’s open for another hour or so.”

“The diner.” She smiled. “I haven’t been there in years. Do they still have chili fries with cheese?”

“Of course.” As they locked up, he added, “Where do you usually go?”

“I never eat out. When I was in college, money was tight and I got in the habit of cooking. My only eating out is the bakery for a muffin.” She didn’t add that people always gave her sad looks when they saw her eating alone. Men could ask for a table for one and have a meal in peace, but the public seemed to think women should travel in groups.

“You live a wild life, Emily Tomlinson,” Tanner commented as they walked out. “You want me to follow you home?”

“Would you mind?”

“Not at all.”

A
HALF HOUR LATER, THEY WERE WALKING INTO THE
B
LUE
Moon Diner.

They found a table by the windows and he held her chair for her as if they were in a fancy restaurant that had starched white tablecloths. When they ordered, she noticed he didn’t even glance at the menu.

“You’ve been here before.”

“A few times.”

He looked happier than she’d ever seen him.

When he ordered a cup of coffee she reminded him that it was late for caffeine.

“You worried about my sleeping habits, Emily?” he asked.

“No,” she answered, thinking that it had been so long since she’d had a date she didn’t know how to have a conversation with a man. Only this wasn’t a date. It was simple payback for a meal.

The waitress returned with their drinks and took their orders. Emily tried to settle into conversation with Tannon, but it didn’t come easy. At one point she felt more like she was giving an accounting of how the meeting went than simply discussing it. To her surprise, he seemed interested in every detail.

When the food arrived, they ate in silence. When they finished, he ordered another cup of coffee. Apparently he wasn’t in as much hurry for the evening to be over as she was.

She’d run out of anything to say. She wanted to ask about his mother, but she thought she’d let him bring it up first.

Through the window they saw the sheriff’s car pass by, and Tannon told her that the diner had been robbed a few mornings ago. Someone must have been hiding in the place. Cass had come in, opened the diner, then stepped out back
to dump some trash. When he came back inside he saw a man running for the front door with his cash drawer.

“How much did the guy get?”

Tannon shrugged. “Not much. A few hundred. Cass is mad because he’s going to have to buy a new drawer.”

When they left the diner, Tannon rested his hand on the small of her back. It seemed a little thing but it was all she thought about as they hurried to the truck. Tannon was almost a head taller than she was and his touch felt comforting and solid.

He turned on the engine but didn’t put the truck in gear. Instead, he sat there for a moment, waiting for the heater to warm the air between them. They watched the lights go out in the diner, and then he turned slightly toward her.

“Emily. Thanks for having dinner with me. I don’t get out much with people. I guess I’m not great company. I usually stop by and pick up something on the way home.”

She watched him knowing his words didn’t come easy. “You were fine.” She looked away, relieved that they were both in shadows. “I’m surprised you’re not married with a couple of kids by now. Most of the people we graduated with are.” She thought of adding that he wasn’t bad-looking. She’d heard two women in the bakery talking about him once. One said he was walking, breathing sex appeal, but he was hard to work for. He expected everyone in the office to put in forty hours of work a week and everyone knows that no one in an office works every minute. The other added that receptionists didn’t stay around long once they learned there would be no sleeping with the boss, but he kept hiring lookers for the front desk.

“I guess your business takes up a lot of time.” She couldn’t help but wonder if the gossip she’d heard was true. Folks said he was a workaholic who never took a day off. The shy boy she’d known had morphed into a machine.

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “Not much time for dating.”

“Me neither,” she admitted. “In truth, I was never any good at it anyway.”

“Me neither. I gave it my best effort in college, but not
one girl I took out felt right.” He spread his arm over the seat back, almost touching her shoulder.

She didn’t move. He was closer than anyone had been to her in a long time, but Tannon didn’t make her uncomfortable.

“I used to have a group of friends I’d run with now and then after I was settled back here. We’d play poker and go out to the deer blinds and drink beer without bothering to even try to shoot anything. We even went down to the Fort Worth Stockyards for a rodeo a few years. I thought we were having some great times. Then, one by one, they were roped and dragged off to the altar.”

She grinned. “You don’t have a very high opinion of marriage.”

“It’s like selling yourself into slavery. I don’t think I ever want to be responsible for making someone else happy. Hell, most days I can’t even make myself happy.”

“You made me happy tonight.” She managed a slight smile. “I haven’t had chili cheese fries in years.”

He straightened up and got to work backing up the truck. “Then we’ll have to do it again.”

She sat in silence as they drove back to her place. Part of her didn’t want to be friends. There was too much between them neither could talk about. The few weeks after she’d been attacked in the school parking lot all those years ago, she’d cried, wishing he’d come up to the hospital. If he’d just said he was sorry or explained why he hadn’t been there, she might have forgiven him. Only now it was too late. She’d finished high school at home and gone off to college without ever seeing Tannon Parker again until he’d started dropping by the library after she took the job. He’d probably been in a dozen times before she ever spoke to him.

She knew the attack in the parking lot that night hadn’t been his fault, but every time she thought about it, she remembered. He wasn’t there. He hadn’t shown up as he’d promised to.

He parked his truck in front of her apartment and walked around to open her door.

“You don’t need—”

“I’ll walk you to your door,” he answered before she could finish.

She punched the code and the security door opened. Neither one of them had anything to say on the way up to her apartment. When she turned the key and pushed her door open, she looked up at him. “Thank you for dinner.”

“You’re welcome. I know I might not have acted like it, but I enjoyed tonight.”

“Me too,” she said uncertainly.

After he left, she crossed into her apartment already bright with light from timers plugged into every outlet. She moved to the window and watched him striding toward his truck. The memory of their friendship when they were young floated back to her. He’d never been unkind or rude. He treated her more like a kid sister than a girl his age.

She smiled, thinking about the summer before they entered high school. She’d made him let her practice kissing on him. He’d been more interested in baseball than girls, but he’d agreed. After she’d spent thirty minutes practicing, he’d wanted to continue, but she’d said she’d learned enough.

She knew she’d hurt his feelings by stopping. When he’d walked away that day, he swore that she’d make some man miserable someday and it wouldn’t be him.

Emily watched Tannon drive away now. Maybe she owed him one. She might not ever call him friend again, but it wouldn’t hurt to go out to eat with him now and then.

S
ATURDAY

R
ICK GLARED ACROSS THE TABLE IN THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE
at the dozen relatives who’d decided to hold an intervention on his behalf. “I love you all,” he began, trying to sound calm, “but I repeat: I am not going to have a bodyguard following me around. I’m related to half the people in this town—that should be enough watching over me.” Just for Alex’s benefit, he added, “No safe house, no off-the-map farm, no disappearing. I’ve got work to do.” He did have two cases to get ready for even if they were over a month away.

No one in the room looked like they wanted to hear his argument.

Alex, the town sheriff, and Liz, his law partner, had presented all the evidence. One letter, two sawed boards formerly from the stairs, and a picture of the remains of a car he’d driven since his freshman year in college.

Hank showed him a report from an arson expert who said there was no doubt the fire in the car had been set after the backseat had been stuffed with trash.

His mother had even cried, but Rick didn’t budge. Deep down, he felt he had to figure this out himself and he had no intention of someone bunking in with him until the crimes were solved. He’d played football through college and no one had taken hits for him then. He wasn’t about to let them stand in the way of trouble now.

Finally, the meeting ended with him promising to stay at the bed-and-breakfast. Martha Q had made it plain when she left at six that morning that he’d better do his job.

Since he no longer had a car, he wasn’t likely to be traveling far. Under threat of torture from his sister, Rick promised to let one of his cousins know when he left Winter’s Inn for work or a date or, of course, the next writers’ group meeting at the library. He planned to continue to at least look like he was working, but a date wasn’t likely. Not many women wanted to date a homeless, carless lawyer, who apparently had a contract out on his life. With his luck, even the county library wouldn’t be safe.

Rick knew he was hurting them by not letting them stand guard over him, but the fear that whoever was after him might go through them frightened him more than being alone. He also wasn’t convinced someone wanted to kill him. There was the possibility that whoever sawed the steps and lit the fire in his car might just be trying to take him out of the game. He had two trials coming up. Maybe this was some druggie who wanted the court date delayed.

When the meeting was over, Gabe Leary, Liz’s husband, looked at him as if he thought Rick was an idiot. Alex frowned at him as if she were considering locking him up. The rest of the family hugged him as they fought back tears. Rick felt like he was attending his own wake.

Hank drove him back to Winter’s Inn with a never-ending list of precautions Rick should take. He didn’t get out, since Rick no longer needed help walking, but he waited to leave until Rick stepped inside and closed the door.

Leaning against the frame, Rick wondered how long this nightmare would last. Tomorrow it would be a week since the accident. His body was healing, but he felt like his mind was shattering piece by piece.

“Mr. Matheson?” Mrs. Biggs whispered. “Are you all right?”

“Don’t ask,” he whispered back, as if saying anything out loud might be the last straw to shatter his reason.

“All right, sir.” Mrs. Biggs moved closer and lowered her voice even more. “But we got a problem.”

“I’ll be glad to help. That’s why I’m here, so no matter what’s come up, I’ll handle it.” Stepping into his innkeeper role cheered him for a moment.

He was thinking the problem would involve a call to the plumber, moving some furniture, or changing a lightbulb. It would feel good to do something physical.

“The problem is not an it, sir. It’s a woman. She says she’s Mrs. Patterson’s niece, but I never heard Martha Q mention her. I asked her to wait in the parlor until you came back. I told her you were in charge until Martha Q got back.”

“Have you tried to call Martha Q?”

“No, sir. She left her phone with me, saying she didn’t want to be bothered. Whatever came up, I was to go to you with the problem.”

He should have known a free room and a hundred a day would come with some strings. “I’ll take care of it, Mrs. Biggs. Don’t worry.”