Chance of a Lifetime (16 page)

Emily warmed him up two slices of corn bread and a bowl of stew while he filled in details. As he ate, she poured another serving into the pan to warm and pulled out the last of the corn bread. He pulled off his coat, sat at her tiny table, and ate what she’d planned for four days’ lunches.

“Thanks,” he finally said when all the food was gone. “You’re a good cook.”

“Will you take the flowers to your mom?”

“I will, only I don’t know if they’ll let her have them. I don’t know how long it will be until she’s out of ICU. Maybe tomorrow.” He looked down at his hands. “She wanted me to stay, but the doc said I’d only get to see her for fifteen minutes every two hours and she’d just be asleep. He told me to come on home.”

Tannon stood. “I was wondering if you’d go over to my mother’s house and pick out a few things she could use at the hospital. Maybe something she could wear once she’s allowed something other than the hospital gowns and whatever things women pack in overnight bags.” He pulled out a set of keys and handed them to her. “I don’t know what to get and whatever I bring will be the wrong thing. She likes you. She’ll like what you pick out.”

“But you know where—”

“If I know Mom, everything will be in order. You’ll know what to pick out. She loved the scarf you gave her. She wore it every day last week.” His smile looked sad. “I’ve got to work at the office a few hours in the morning, but I could drop by the library after and pick up whatever you choose.”

“Sure, I’ll help,” Emily said without further protest. “You look like you could use some rest.”

“I guess I could. The doc told me not to come see her until tomorrow afternoon. She’ll be having tests run and sleeping.” Tannon laughed. “He said I wasn’t a calming element for her. That’s an understatement.”

After a moment, Emily asked gently, “Want to watch the end of the movie with me? It’s a comedy about two people who trade houses.”

“Okay. It would be nice to relax. I feel like I’ve been in a dead run since five this morning.” He waited until she sat, then took the other side of the couch.

She floated the blanket over them both and hit the play button. When she passed him the popcorn, he finished off the bowl.

“Want a root beer?”

“No, water is fine.” He shoved the covers her way and stood. “I’ll get it.”

He went into her kitchen and brought back a bottle of water and a root beer as if he’d done so a hundred times. He opened hers before handing it to her, then crawled back beneath the quilt. “What’d I miss?” he asked as if he cared.

Emily laughed. “Nothing.”

He leaned back and stretched his legs. Within ten minutes he was sound asleep.

She watched the rest of the movie, pretending she had company enjoying it with her. Afterward, she hated to wake him, so she covered him with the blanket and left him there.

The next morning, she dressed and was ready to leave for work before she set foot outside her bedroom. The blanket they’d shared last night was folded on the couch. Tannon was gone.

She drove over to the Parker home.

Everything belonging to Mrs. Parker was in perfect order. She picked out a few comfortable robes and a sweater with pants the same color, then pulled some makeup and hand lotion from the bathroom counter. As she walked out of the room, she noticed a small framed picture of Tannon at about ten years old and decided to take it also.

She left the suitcase in her car, thinking she’d walk out with Tannon when he came to pick it up. But the morning passed without him dropping by. She’d almost thought he’d forgotten when he showed up with a grocery bag in his hand.

“I brought lunch,” he said. “Have you got a place where we could eat?”

Emily didn’t want to take him to the small break table
that was crammed into the storage room, and she wasn’t sure there was enough room in her office for him to move around. No one was in the library except a homeless man pretending to read in the corner, Pamela Sue at her usual perch by the front desk, and Sam sleeping his lunch hour away in the back.

“How about we eat in the alcove?” Emily whispered.

“Sounds great.”

As he followed her up the stairs, he whispered, “I called and checked on Mom. She’s resting and doing much better today. They should have more to tell me by the time I go in this afternoon.”

Emily walked into the sunny room where the writers’ group had met a few days ago. “I’m glad she’s better.” She pulled what had been the cookie table closer to the windows while Tannon set up two chairs.

“Perfect,” he said as he waited for her to sit. He pulled out sandwiches and added, “I didn’t know what you liked, so I told my secretary to get one of every kind the deli at the grocery store made. Ham and cheese, turkey, chicken salad—”

“Chicken salad,” she decided as she reached for the sandwich in his hand.

“Darn, that was the one I wanted.”

“Oh, in that case—”

He laughed and she realized he was teasing her.

“In that case, Mr. Parker, you are out of luck.”

He shrugged as if accepting defeat. “All right, but I get first choice on the chips and cookies.”

“We’ll negotiate.” She laughed.

He pulled out a root beer and a bottle of water as he set the bag aside. They shared the chips and cookies as they finished off their sandwiches. The window offered a great view of the old downtown still covered in snow, and the sun warmed them while they talked.

When they finished, she put the trash in the bag and he pushed the chairs back in place. “I enjoyed this,” he said with his back to her.

“Me too,” she answered. “I left my trunk unlocked, so you can pull your mother’s suitcase out.”

He moved a step closer to her and lowered his voice. “I like the way your hair curls as it dries.”

She touched her head. “It does that when it’s short. I’ve worn it this way for years.” She’d almost said “since the accident.”

“I noticed.” He bent down, lightly brushed her curls and kissed her on the cheek. “Thanks for everything.”

She was so surprised that for a moment she couldn’t move. “You’re welcome,” she finally managed to reply. She had no idea whether to be mad or flattered about the kiss and the fact that he’d taken the time to notice her hair.

To her surprise, Tannon swore under his breath. “I didn’t do that right. That wasn’t meant to be a thank-you kiss.”

Before she could ask any questions, he bent down again and pressed his lips to hers. He wasn’t holding her or touching her anywhere else. All she had to do was move a breath away to break the kiss, but she didn’t. She just stood there feeling his warm lips press against hers.

When he straightened, he stared at her as if trying to read her thoughts. “I’m out of practice,” he said. “I’ll get better.”

Before she could come up with anything to say, he turned and walked out of the alcove. She heard his boots thumping down the stairs.

Tannon Parker must have lost his mind.

M
ONDAY NIGHT

T
ANNON DIDN’T LET HIMSELF THINK ABOUT THE LITTLE
librarian until he left the hospital at midnight. While driving to Amarillo after their lunch, he’d spent his time on the phone dealing with problems at his company. His profits had tripled in the ten years he’d run the business. Unlike his father, Tannon was involved in every detail. He went over every report, every file, every log. He let nothing slide by, except maybe his life, but with any luck, that was about to change.

He’d almost fired the receptionist at the main desk in his office when she’d said, “Some candidate for a makeover left flowers for your mother.” The only thing that stopped him was how he’d like to see the girl’s face when he brought Emily through the office on the way to his apartment.

None of his staff, except the grocery delivery boy, had ever been in the elevator, much less his apartment. A few women had tried over the years, but Tannon never
considered employees as possible dates. Since he rarely talked to anyone else, that pretty much ended his love life.

The beautiful women like his receptionist always seemed overly made up and reminded him of his mother with their constant talk about their clothes and shoes.

As he drove to the hotel on Interstate 40, he let his mind fill with Emily. She’d been so adorable in her snowball of a robe last night. He liked that her hair was wet from a shower and curled around in no order. She hadn’t even tried to push it in place, and even better, she hadn’t apologized. He’d made her nervous, but she’d still been kind, offering him food and a rest. He had no idea what movie they’d watched, but in her little apartment he felt comfortable, at ease.

Dear God, how he’d missed her over the years. When they were kids she was the one person who always took the time to talk to him. She always made him smile. She’d been loved and cherished by her parents and that made him feel good inside. He’d been ignored by his, but when the families got together, a bit of the Tomlinson family rubbed off onto his parents, at least for a while. When his mother insisted on overplanning a party, it never mattered to him as long as Emily was invited. He knew they’d find each other sometime during all the noise and talk, just talk. When they’d been in grade school, it had been under a table draped with a linen tablecloth. Later, it had been the backyard swing or the attic at her house.

He pulled up into the hotel parking lot and cut his lights. In the darkness, he let another memory float over him. He was sixteen and the football team had just made the state finals. All the newspaper staff at the school paper had worked late, long after the game was over and the crowds had left. He’d promised he’d hike across the parking lot to where he’d left his car by the stadium and drive up to the school door to pick up Emily that night after the newspaper was “put to bed,” as their journalism teacher always said.

Only as he stepped out the side door, a girl stopped him with first one question, then another. He hadn’t realized
she was simply flirting for several minutes and he thought he would have to run to get away from her chatter. Finally, he’d said he had to go and ran for the stadium lot, knowing that Emily was probably already out front of the school waiting for him.

Only she hadn’t been. She’d walked to his car. He was ten feet away from her when he saw her on the ground between two cars. She was making a sound like an animal in terrible pain. Blood and her ripped clothes were everywhere.

Tannon forced the memory aside and got out of his car. He hadn’t thought of that night in years. He’d never spoken of it to anyone. Emily didn’t know that he’d held her until the ambulance came, then ridden with her as they worked on her. He’d seen it all that night with the flashing light blinking horror. Her clothes in shreds, her face muddy and bruised, her body twisted in pain. “And the cuts,” he whispered in the darkness. He’d never forget where they’d cut her.

The attack had changed her, made her even more shy and withdrawn. She’d never returned to school, instead opting to be schooled at home so she could graduate early and go away to college. His mother had tried to pull Emily’s mother out, but Shelley withdrew after the attack. A world that would hurt her only child wasn’t one she wanted to be seen in. It had taken her a year before she’d taken calls and another before Paulette had talked her into going out to lunch. His mother had her shortcomings, but being Shelley’s friend wasn’t one of them. Tannon would give her credit there.

He’d asked about Emily once when he saw her mother at the store. Shelley Tomlinson was always proud of her daughter. She told him all about how well Emily was doing in school. Mrs. Tomlinson had no idea that he’d ridden with Emily to the hospital or that he’d been the reason she’d been in the back parking lot alone. Emily must have closed what had happened away as he did. He’d heard she’d barely talked to the police about what had happened. The thugs who hurt her were never caught and the story faded
as others took its place in headlines and conversations. The attack of a shy girl few remembered from school was forgotten by most.

What had happened that night changed him also. He’d failed one more person in his life and the knowledge that he’d kept her secrets from that night didn’t matter. He’d gone as far away to school as his parents would let him, but the memory of that night haunted him for months. For a long time all he wanted to do was to find a way to say he was sorry, but what good would that do? It wouldn’t change the past. It wouldn’t erase the scars.

Tannon unlocked the hotel door and stepped into his room. The man in the mirror greeted him. “So why’d you kiss her?” he asked himself.

But there was no answer back. It was simply something he’d been thinking about doing for years. Every woman he’d spent any time with since he was sixteen had been compared to her and none had quite measured up.

Tannon tugged off his boots and decided to text her. She was probably already asleep, but she’d get the message in the morning.

Mom is better. Doctor’s optimistic about recovery. Moved her to private room. She loved the flowers.
He pressed Send. The last thing he wanted to do was mention the kiss. His timing had been all wrong. The place was all wrong. He should have asked her if it was okay. Hell, the fifteen-year-old kid named Franky who hung out at the library was better at this game than he was.