Sleepless Nights:The Donovans of the Delta 2(53)
“The past still being between us. I can’t let you go; I won’t let you go. But I believe the only way to keep you is to face Claude.”
“I’m scared.” She squeezed her arms around his chest. “You’re right. It’s the only way. I’ve known it for a long time and simply didn’t want to face it. Today I was miserable knowing I had chosen the coward’s way out. Oh, Lord, Tanner.” She buried her face in his neck. “I was going to let you go rather than face the past.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No. When I saw you standing in the doorway, I knew I had to have you. Forever.”
He eased her out of his arms far enough so that he could look into her eyes.
“Everything will be all right, Amanda. We’ll make it work.”
CHAPTER NINE
They decided to drive to Fulton, Missouri.
Amanda made arrangements for her Christmas clerks to come in and help Maxine with the shop, and Tanner talked with his business manager in Dallas. Because Tanner was so frequently out of town making personal appearances, his corporations were set up to operate with a minimum of his attention. Business matters ran smoothly for them.
It was the personal matters that got out of hand. Both of them dreaded the confrontation with Claude, and they had vastly different ideas about how to handle the situation.
The night of the storm, Amanda and Tanner were in the kitchen discussing their plans. She stood at the chopping block dicing vegetables to stir fry while he worked at the sink washing spinach for a salad. Rain still peppered against the windows.
“I think we should call him.” Amanda’s knife lopped off the head of a fat carrot. “Let him know we’re coming.”
“No. He might tell us not to come.” Tanner ripped into the spinach. “We have to see him in person in order to get all this out into the open.”
“What if he’s not there?” Her knife clicked rapidly against the chopping block. Severed vegetables rolled away as if in fright.
“Doesn’t he run a newspaper?” Tanner attacked the spinach as if it were a threat to world peace.
“Yes, but. . .”
“Dammit all, Amanda, if he’s not in Fulton, we’ll find him.”
“How?” She brandished a carrot stick in the air. “Wave a magic wand?”
Tanner reigned in his temper. He’d come too far to let a foolish argument over Claude spoil everything. “Businessmen simply can’t disappear,” he said more calmly. “Their secretaries always know where to find them.”
Amanda abandoned her vegetables and flung her arms around him. “I don’t know why I’m letting a little thing like this get me so upset. I’m sorry, Tanner,”
“That’s a relief. For a minute there I thought you were going to beat me with that carrot stick.”
She laughed, squeezing him harder. “You won’t let anything happen to us, will you?”
“Never. We’ve come this far. Only a few more hurdles to go and we’ll be walking down the aisle and living happily ever after.”
Amanda went back to her chopping block. “Tanner, do you think we can live happily ever after on this?” She held up the pitiful remains of the vegetables. They weren’t diced; they were mutilated. “I suppose we’ll have to depend on your salad tonight.”
He grinned sheepishly. “This poor stuff?” He held up shred of spinach no bigger than a toothpick. “I guess I got carried away.”
“Maybe I have some olives and cheese in the refrigerator.”
“I need something more substantial for the task ahead.”
“Facing Claude?”
“No. Kissing and making up.”
They made quick use of Aunt Emma’s rosewood table and ended up eating at Doe’s.
o0o
Later that night Tanner lay in bed staring at the ceiling. He was remembering Claude.
When they were six, they’d started school together. By the second week they were fast friends. It was an unlikely friendship: Tanner was big and brash and outgoing: Claude was small and studious and quiet. A frog was what brought them together. Tanner had caught the biggest bullfrog in his pond and brought it to school in his lunch pail. His intention was to take bets at recess on how far the frog could jump. He had his eye on a red wagon in Tudberry’s window. He could imagine himself sauntering up to Tudberry’s after school, his pockets full of money, buying the wagon. He knew just how it would feel when he whizzed down the hill in back of his barn in that new wagon.
But the frog had other ideas. Around midmorning it pushed open the lunch box lid and hopped out to investigate its new surroundings. Unfortunately it chose to investigate the underside of Miss Margaret Riley’s dress. When the teacher started screaming, nobody knew what it was all about except Tanner and Claude. Both of them had seen the frog leave the safety of the lunch pail.