by Sally John
She imagined he had quite a number of ex-girlfriends. Besides being symmetrically proportioned, the guy projected a depth. With a start she realized she’d just described the perfect catch: Adonis with a soul. And she was, at that very moment, by his invitation, sitting next to him.
A highly unusual situation.
Tanner watched Kate from a distance at the banquet. As he suspected, she wasn’t a needy companion who required his constant attention. Which was why he had offered to escort her there in the first place.
The affair was held in the commons, now furnished with long tables. Girls from the three basketball teams sat together while their families settled in elsewhere. As one of the coaches, he sat at the head table, leaving Kate to her own devices. She was remarkably self-sufficient. Truly one of the guys.
She easily made new acquaintances, slipping into an empty chair beside the Andersons near the back, introducing herself. Who could resist her quirky friendliness? She posed no threat in her too-large coat and one mitten, camera dangling from her shoulder, glasses often sliding down her lightly freckled nose. Her red hair was held in a ponytail by elastic, but still stray ends stuck out. He noted as he had at the Rib House that she was left-handed. It was so apropos for a quirky character.
She caught his eye and smiled. He gave her a thumbs-up and turned his attention back to Britte, who was now speaking into the microphone. Anne Sutton, the sophomore coach and Britte’s assistant, was off on a Valentine’s trip to California with her husband. Rotten timing. Tanner would have to do her presentations as well as his own. Not that he minded the exercise itself of calling names and handing out awards. It was knowing he would let down the ladies. The evening was always an emotional event for every female in the house as they reminisced over the season. Tearful discourses were addressed to the seniors. Tonight would be even more significant with the once-in-a-lifetime third-place trophy from the state tournament. He, on the other hand, would tell one too many jokes and, in general, be a disappointment.
Almost two hours later the crowd had thinned, but Kate wasn’t quite finished. Tanner joined her as she photographed a group of varsity award winners. From behind her, he made faces at the girls. They burst into laughter just as she clicked.
She glanced over her shoulder at him, and then she put her eye back to the camera. “Ladies, puh-lease. Try to ignore Coach Adonis.”
They roared, breaking rank from the posed lineup, and Kate snapped their picture again.
He leaned over and whispered in her ear, “You’ll pay for that one, Kilpatrick.”
She laughed and waited for the girls to settle down. “Why don’t you go pose with them? Imagine all the future college dorm rooms displaying your photo. You’ll be famous!”
He shook his head and backed away. “I think I’ll go warm up the car. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll wait for you.”
Adele twirled the pizza platter around until the last piece lined up with Graham’s plate across the table. “This is yours.”
“You’re sure you’ve had enough?”
The waistband of her skirt was decidedly more snug than when they had entered the Pizza Parlor. She nodded.
He helped himself to it. “Thanks. It is excellent, isn’t it?”
She heard his astonished tone and grinned. “Surprise!”
He laughed. “Well, I never would have expected it in such a small, out-of-the-way place. Did you grow up here in Valley Oaks?”
“No, I’ve only been here since shortly before Chelsea was born. I immediately developed a craving for this pizza.”
He returned her smile. They had spent the evening primarily talking business. Naturally, he was deeply interested in the day-to-day operations of Fox Meadow, how he and his close friend would be affected, what his role was. Now, at last, she sensed him loosening up.
“Adele—”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For dropping the ‘Ms.’”
He lowered his eyes and fiddled with a fork. “I was resisting this afternoon. Resisting the fact that you and Fox Meadow are now part of my life.”
“I know.”
He looked at her again. “You must see it often.”
“Often enough. Watching a loved one grow old and die is not something any of us would choose to do. Institutionalizing them is a heartbreaking decision.”
“Have you had to do it? Oh, probably not. Your parents must be much younger.”
She shook head. “They were forty when I was born. My mother passed away about twelve years ago.”
“And your father?”
How odd. Like Kate, he was a fairly new acquaintance, a stranger really. Like with Kate last night, she was about to unwrap her past in front of him. At least it was clean now. Long ago she had asked her heavenly Father to forgive her.
But there was a mystique about Graham Logan. Safety radiated from him. Was it his gentleness? His overpowering physical presence? Or the fact that he ate vegetarian pizza with gusto and without snide remark? She didn’t know. Whatever it was, she felt secure with him.
“Adele, I’m getting too personal.”
“No, it’s all right. I was just thinking how we’re practically strangers, yet you don’t seem like one. You’re rather easy to be with.”
“You’re rather easy to be with. I figured this must be a familiar routine for you, that all your clients take you to dinner.” There was a definite twinkle in the steel blue eyes that held hers.
“Um, not quite. As a matter of fact, you’re the first.” She tried to ignore a peculiar tingling feeling now forming at the base of her throat.
“I have a confession to make.”
“Oh?” She touched the hollow of her neck. Her beaded choker necklace felt snug, like her waistband, but it wasn’t from eating too much pizza. It was from her heart throwing chaotic beats against it.
“Truthfully, it wasn’t a simple business invitation. I deliberately took note that you don’t wear a wedding band.”
She lowered her left hand and studied it. “Uh, no I don’t. Because I’m not. Married, that is.”
“But that photo on your desk suggests you’re…involved?”
“Oh, that’s, um, Will. He’s a friend. Just a friend. Not like…involved. No, I’m not involved. Nor engaged.” Her voice sounded strange to her own ears. Breathy. Highpitched. “So, what you’re saying is, you picked me up? At Fox Meadow?”
He laughed. It was a deep, rich sound. “I wouldn’t have phrased it quite so crassly.”
“But if the shoe fits…”
He still smiled, the crow’s feet around his eyes crinkling. “Touché. Are you always this direct?”
Now it was she who broke eye contact and fiddled with a fork.
He went on. “The past six months have been…difficult. I felt like I couldn’t take a breath. Until today. You welcomed Rand, and suddenly I could breathe again.” As if to demonstrate, he inhaled deeply and let it out. “You were like this great gulp of fresh air.”
She was a gulp of fresh air? Then he must be a great gulp of sweet spring water because suddenly her thirst was quenched. And she hadn’t even known she was in the desert.
Nine
“Oh, Tanner!” Kate giggled as she climbed into his warm car idling at the curb just outside the high school. “You missed more accolades— Fiddlesticks!” She reopened the door and jumped down.
“You forgot your coat.”
“Sorry. I’ll be right back.” She slammed the door shut and raced up the wide walkway and into the building.
He grinned to himself. She would forget her head. He waited, wondering if she had been as much fun in high school. Of course in high school he wouldn’t have noticed her. Girls didn’t exist unless they were fashion model material—very tall and preferably blonde—with a bubble for brains. What a jerk he’d been. No doubt still was.
He noticed someone meet her at the door with the jacket. She hustled back out to the car.
“Tanner.” Her
voice was breathless. “Check me. I’ve got my camera. Coat.” She patted her pockets. “Program, notepad, pen.”
“Head?”
“Funny.”
He pulled away from the curb. “Are you hungry?”
“Ravenous!”
“Potlucks have that effect. How about a pizza?”
“Sounds great. So anyway, you missed a dozen more accolades from parents, not just the starry-eyed teenagers. They love you.”
“You’re kind. You seemed to have enjoyed yourself.”
“It was such a trip! I didn’t think Mayberry existed. My goodness! They opened with a prayer!”
“Is that legal, by the way?”
“Who cares, if nobody’s complaining and the students did it themselves? I think the latest ruling said it was all right.”
They chatted more about the evening. She was full of questions, nonstop. She even carried her notepad into the crowded, noisy Pizza Parlor where she made a beeline to a table occupied by a couple.
“Adele! Hi. This is Adonis—I mean, Tanner Carlucci.”
He glared at her, only half teasing.
“Tanner, be nice. This is Adele Chandler.”
“How do you do?” He shook her hand. The woman resembled Chelsea, though her curly hair was shorter. She appeared rather youthful-looking for a junior student’s mother. “You must be Chelsea’s mom.”
“That’s right. And this is Graham Logan. Newcomer to Valley Oaks.”
Tanner recognized the man from his earlier flight to Maryland. “Hello, again.”
“Hi.” He smiled hesitantly, and then recognition registered. “You’re the pilot.”
“Small world.”
Graham explained to Adele, “We flew. Much easier on Rand than driving.” He turned back to Tanner and Kate. “Adele got him all moved into her home. Well, not her own home.”
Kate smiled. “She took me in. I’m sure he’d be welcome there too.”
They laughed. Kate declined Adele’s invitation to join them, noting they were finished eating and that she was still interviewing Tanner. He followed her down the aisle to a window booth.
“You’re interviewing me?”
“I’m always interviewing, Tanner. And besides that, Adele looked a bit off. Flushed and flustered. That’s curious, but I didn’t want to interfere.”
A college-age waitress set water glasses before them. “Need a menu?”
He looked at Kate and intuitively knew her tastes matched his own. “The works? Extra cheese?”
She smiled. “Extra large?”
He turned to the waitress. “That’ll do it.”
“And coffee,” Kate added.
“Make mine root beer.”
“Okay. Coming right out.” She left.
“I don’t know that waitress,” Kate said. “Did I mention I eat here all the time? The owner, Mrs. Posateri, lets me work and drink coffee in the middle of the afternoon when they’re closed.”
“Well, Kate, I’d say you’re fitting right in at Valley Oaks.”
“I don’t know. I’m viewed as a gossip columnist. Everyone is nice to me. They think maybe they’ll see their name in print.” A frown crossed her face. “I don’t mean that. Well, yes I do, but I’m trying to get over it. As Rusty says, it ain’t DC. And that’s okay.”
“Remember it’s temporary. For now you just need to relax and let the magic take over.”
“You obviously have. You fit right in here, Tanner. Like I said, the parents love you. And you were so at home up front tonight. Why don’t you choose one of your hobbies full time and move out here?”
He tipped his water glass back and forth.
“Sorry. You can stop me when I’m being too much of a snoop.”
He looked at her. “You’re not. It’s just that…” He glanced out the window before meeting her gaze. Could he tell her? Could he trust her with the vague notion of a dream?
“Hey, Tanner, forget I asked. It’s none of my business.”
“It’s all right.” He reached over and swooped up her notepad. “But you can’t breathe a word to anyone. Not a soul.”
“I smell a story.” Her tone was singsong, and then she sobered, solemnly handing him her pen. “But I promise.”
“I’m in the process of buying the video store next to the pharmacy.”
Her eyes widened. “The one that’s shut down?”
“Yeah. The owner’s in prison. He tried to kill Cal Huntington, the deputy sherriff.”
“I know. I read about that in those old Times. Congratulations!”
“Thanks. It’s a small place. I can still fly and sub. Another hobby!”
“But it’s a start of something. When do you get possession?”
“In a couple of weeks, if I decide to go through with it. And if my dad doesn’t back out of the deal. He’s giving— make that loaning—me part of the money.” Loaning. He was done accepting money from his old man.
“Is your dad a doctor? I think I know him.”
“Yeah, he’s a surgeon. How do you know him?”
“He operated on my mom about eight years ago. She had breast cancer.”
“Is she…” He hesitated. So much death accompanied his father. Sidney Carlucci had the touch of death. It was unavoidable baggage with his professional life. In his personal life…well, suffice it to say that too reeked of it.
“She’s doing great. She liked your dad a lot.”
Patients. What did they know?
“Tanner?”
“Hmm?”
“Your eyes are at half-mast. Where’d you go?”
He gave her a cockeyed smile. “You don’t want to know.”
Graham followed Adele into her house. On the drive home from the restaurant she had invited him to come in for tea, and he had accepted without hesitation. Even if no extenuating circumstances tied their destinies together, if he had simply met her on the street…still he would have said yes. From the first three minutes in her office, the woman had captivated him.
Which was why he should have declined.
Not to mention those extenuating circumstances would most likely work against them, reason enough to not even be making eye contact, let alone—
“Graham.” She hung her coat on a hall tree beside the door, twirled a half circle, and headed through an arched doorway. Avoiding eye contact herself?
Waving a hand toward the right, she called over her shoulder, “Go on into the living room and make yourself at home. I’ll be right there.”
He concluded she was avoiding eye contact. She was quite obviously flustered.
Which was the basis for reason number three. He had no business being in her home.
Shrugging out of his coat, he looked around. It was an old house. The small entryway opened to arched doorways on the left and right, leading to the dining room and living room. Straight ahead was an enclosed staircase.
He hung up his coat and went into the living room, doing as he was told.
Reason number four…
The furnishings were old and worn, but everything appeared tidy and clean. That and a comfortably warm temperature after the frigid winter night created a cozy atmosphere. A scent of spiced apples permeated the air.
The décor was of the homegrown variety. Candles. Pottery. Healthy green plants. Photos of Chelsea and other young people. None of what’s-his-name.
Graham sat in an armchair. He heard kitchen clanging noises. There was a fireplace, too clean to have contained burning wood in recent history.
What was going on? She had caught him completely by surprise. The plan had simply been to fulfill the wishes of old Rand: check him into the home and wait for God to finish things.
In whatever way He wants.
Hadn’t Graham learned that truth yet? Why did he still insist on reaching for the reins, wanting to do it his way?
Adele entered the room, carrying a wooden tray. “I hope you like peppermint?”
He did. He also liked watching her move.
There was a fluidity in her motions that only women confident in their own skin possessed. She was of medium height and build, not tall the way his wife had been.
She poured tea from a ceramic pot and handed him a mug. Brief eye contact, fingertips brushing.
“Thank you. Where were we?”
Adele slipped her stockinged feet out of her clogs and sat on the couch, tucking her legs underneath herself. “My sordid past.”
“It gets sordid?”
She smiled. “Graham, we only got to high school graduation from a Connecticut boarding school.”
“And your decision to quit college after a semester.”
“I was rebelling against my dad. He directed everything. He was a large man, tall, two hundred and fifty pounds. Overbearing. Loud, gruff voice. It wasn’t easy to disagree with him face-to-face. I followed his decree that I study business, but one semester of that and no art was all I could handle. He allowed me to go to Italy for the January term. I didn’t come home. I had enough money saved to pay my way.” Her face was down as if she sought words in the cup of tea.
“And?”
“This is where it gets sordid.” She glanced up and then off to the side. “I met a guy. We parted ways in August. I found out I was pregnant. I came home. My father disowned me. Literally lock, stock, and barrel. He ordered the maid to help me pack, and then he escorted me to the door and said, ‘I always knew you’d amount to nothing.’” She bit her bottom lip. “He locked the door behind me, and that was the last time I ever saw him.”
He waited for her to continue.
“I stayed at a friend’s for a while, foolishly thinking he’d change his mind. I gave up and got on a bus headed for San Francisco. A snowstorm stopped us in Valley Oaks. Naomi Sommers befriended me and I stayed.” Adele looked at him. “She taught me about Jesus and loved me unconditionally.”
“Thank God for those people in our lives, huh?”