Route 66 Reunions (6 page)

“I’ll make an offer, but I’ll want an inspection,” Blake said. “See what needs to be done to bring it up to code.”

The two men discussed an offer and shook hands; then Blake headed toward his SUV. From there he took a last look at the old building and gave a quick decisive nod. Yep, this was just what he needed. Located on the corner of two busy streets in the business part of town with ample parking on three sides, the property should have been snatched up long ago. Either there was something wrong that he couldn’t see and Charles Carter wasn’t telling, or no one else had recognized the potential. Of course, the asking price was a tad high, but Blake didn’t mind haggling. Maybe the inspection would show no major renovations were needed. He hoped that would be the case.

He turned east at the next light and drove to his parents’ house, letting his mind shift from business to concern for his dad. The test results should be back anytime now. The doctor suspected cancer, but they didn’t know how severe and wouldn’t until the lab finished their job. Blake hit the steering wheel with his fist. He felt so helpless. Sitting back and waiting just wasn’t his style, but what else could he do? If he could take the worry out of his mom’s eyes, he would. He’d continue letting her know he cared and would be here for her just in case.

Blake took a right, drove a couple of blocks, and turned into the driveway of his parents’ two-story brick house. He found his mother in the kitchen, furiously stirring a batch of cookie batter.

“Hey Mom.” Blake slipped one arm around her shoulders and with his other hand took the bowl from her and set it on the counter. She turned into his arms as he patted her back. “It’s going to be all right.”

“Oh Blake.” She hugged him around the waist and buried her face in his shoulder. He barely heard her muffled voice. “They got the results back. It isn’t good.”

Blake’s muscles tensed. He pulled away and led his mother to the table. “Let’s sit down so you can tell me what’s going on. Where’s Dad?”

His mom sank into the chair Blake pulled out. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then sent a faint smile to Blake. She would get through this just as he would, no matter what the outcome. Still, he wished the waiting and worry didn’t have to be so hard. And that wasn’t the half of it. The pure frustration and anger that tore through his heart because he could do nothing to stop the disease were the worst. He couldn’t accept his dad’s death. Surely there was something more he could do.

“He’s taking a nap.” She shook her head. “I don’t know how he can be so calm. I want to destroy something.”

She glanced toward her bowl of cookie dough and gave a short laugh. “Or, at the very least, beat the living daylights out of something.”

Blake forced a smile for his mom and nodded. “Yeah, I know how you feel. Maybe I should take up baking something besides pizza. Smashing brick walls is a little too drastic, not to mention painful, although the thought has occurred to me.”

His mom sighed. “Dr. Greenleaf called.” Her eyes teared up. “He does have colon cancer. The good news is they caught it early enough to operate. After that, he may have a chance.”

She reached across the table and covered Blake’s hand with hers. “It could be worse, Blake. He may not make it, but he does have a chance.”

At her words of encouragement, the vise that had gripped Blake’s heart since his dad’s diagnosis eased. Maybe he would be all right. Maybe he had been worrying for no reason.

“I’m glad, Mom. We need to hold on to that. Let’s think positive thoughts, and maybe Dad will pull through this.” He turned his hand over and gave hers a gentle squeeze. “I looked at a building today that I’m thinking about buying.”

“Are you going through with it, Blake?” Mom stood and crossed to the counter and her cookie dough. She pulled a cookie sheet from the lower cabinet and started plopping mounds of dough onto it.

“Moving back here, you mean?” Blake thought of Tessa and wondered how much she figured into his desire to be close to his parents. He watched his mom and saw the vulnerability in her eyes that she tried hard to hide from him and nodded. “Yeah, if I can find a place for another restaurant, I’ll move here. Dave can run Pizza Playground in his sleep. I’ll give him a raise in salary, and he’ll be happy to have me out of the way. You need me here right now, and maybe I need to be here for myself, too.”

“You always were my favorite son.” His mom tossed a teasing smile toward Blake. “Now I know why.”

Blake laughed. “Yeah, well, you’ve always been my favorite mom, too.”

He stood. “I need to get back to Oklahoma tonight. It’s a long drive and it’s getting late. Do you think Dad would mind if I wake him and tell him bye?”

After a quick glance at the clock, Mom shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. He’s been sleeping awhile, and he’d be upset if you left without him seeing you.”

Blake gave his mother a quick hug. “Hey, hang in there, Mom. We’ll get through this either way. Somehow.”

“Yes, with you here. Just talking has helped.” She stepped back and slid her cookie sheet in the oven. “Now go see your dad and stop back in here for some cookies to take with you. They should be ready by then.”

Blake found his dad awake and in better spirits than he expected. He sat on the edge of the bed while they talked for several minutes, carefully avoiding what dominated Blake’s mind.

Finally Dad asked, “So, are you really moving back home?”

Blake winced at the thought. He didn’t mind the idea of moving to Amarillo, especially knowing Tessa lived within a short drive from his folks. He’d looked up her address in the phone book and had already memorized her phone number after almost calling her more times than he wanted to admit. But he’d been on his own for too long now to move back into his parents’ house. Occasionally when he visited, he stayed in his old room that hadn’t changed in the last eleven years, but he didn’t want to take up permanent residence down the hall from his parents. As an only child, he sometimes felt the weight of his parents’ love and a responsibility for them he couldn’t share. Being an only child, like everything else, had its pros and cons.

Now he shrugged. “I don’t know, Dad. I looked at an old building today, and I’m thinking about buying it. At one time there were offices upstairs that could be turned into a nice apartment. The downstairs is roomy enough for a restaurant and a small dance floor. The front could be partitioned off for an arcade, maybe even a video rental. What do you think?”

“Not enough room for bumper cars or go-carts?” his dad asked.

“No.” Blake shook his head. “Gonna have to use my imagination and make this one a little different.”

“Nothing wrong with that.” His dad smiled. “If anyone can do it, you can.”

Blake’s smile matched his dad’s. “Now we just need to get you well so you can apply for a job. I’ll need help, you know.”

“Count me in, son.” He met Blake’s gaze head-on. “I plan to beat this thing, and I can wash dishes with the best of them.”

“I’ll bet you can.” Blake swallowed the lump that formed in his throat. “I’ll hold you to it, too.” He stood. “I’ve got to get back to Oklahoma tonight though. Mom’s baking cookies, and I plan to snack on some while I drive.”

“You can’t beat your mom’s cookies. Drive carefully, and call when you get home.”

“I will, Dad.” Blake stopped in the doorway. “I’ll be back in a few days. I’ll probably need a place to stay until I get an apartment fixed up.”

His dad nodded. “Your room’s always ready. You know that.”

“Yeah, I know. Thanks, Dad. I’ll see you later.” Blake walked away before his father saw the moisture gather in his eyes. He wanted to cry out and beat his fists into something, anything that would release his dad from this sickness. But he couldn’t, because they faced an unseen adversary. Cancer. How did you fight something so destructive even the doctors couldn’t stop it? How could you make your loved one well again? He had no answers, only the frustration of wanting with all his heart something that he could not have.

Blake spent another ten minutes with his mother before he took the pie tin of cookies she fixed for him and set it on the front seat of his SUV. He backed out of the driveway then turned toward Tessa’s house. Last week she hadn’t been home when he stopped. She said she wouldn’t be, but he hadn’t believed her. Was she avoiding him? He longed to share his fears for his father with Tessa. If he could just see her for a few minutes, maybe some of the heaviness in his heart would lift.

He thought of the last time they were together. They’d driven to a motel on old Highway 66 several miles out of town and spent the weekend together. That was so long ago. So many memories were gone now, but he remembered how they’d talked and then talked some more. He felt he could tell her anything. He’d never opened his heart and soul to anyone that way before or since. That’s when he knew how much he loved Tessa.

She loved him, too. And that scared him. Tessa in those days had few boundaries. No rules to follow. Tessa did whatever Tessa wanted to do. Her mother had ignored her for years, and she took advantage of the resulting freedom. Her two oldest sons were evidence of that. As much as she loved Robbie and Seth, she left them with her mother for days at a time while she sought fulfillment and release from the fears and hurts that haunted her life by using alcohol or men and usually both.

He shook his head, trying to reconcile the woman he’d met two weeks ago with the old Tessa he remembered. She’d changed. There was no doubt about that. He turned onto the street where she lived and drove slowly, watching for her house. A block away he saw her car in the driveway of a neat ranch-style home. The two youngest boys were tossing a ball between them in the front yard. He recognized Seth and. . . He couldn’t remember if he’d heard the youngest one’s name. He’d been born later, after he and Tessa broke up. Or more accurately, after he’d run from the one woman he couldn’t forget, but who scared him more than any commanding officer he ever had in the navy. So much he’d stayed away even after his discharge. Oklahoma City was far enough from Amarillo to avoid Tessa but close enough to visit his folks. So when his navy buddy Dave suggested he open the restaurant in his hometown and hire him as manager, he’d jumped at the chance.

Even now, as much as he wanted to talk to Tessa, he knew he shouldn’t. He watched the boys playing as he drove past, and neither looked his way. He reached for one of his mother’s peanut butter cookies and took a bite. Maybe on his next trip to town, he’d get his nerve up. Then he’d stop and see what had happened in Tessa’s life to cause such a drastic change. This new Tessa might not be as easy to run from, and that thought didn’t scare him as much as he expected. He’d be back in a few days, and he’d look her up then.

“Lunchtime.” A week after her vacation ended, Tessa pushed away from her desk at the county offices and stood, stretching the kinks from her back. She had been typing reports all morning and was ready for a break.

Two other women followed her from the room. “We’ve decided on pizza today. Sure you won’t join us?”

At the mention of pizza, Tessa’s heart jumped while Blake’s image filled her mind. She shook her head and smiled at Judy. “I need to check on the boys. Robbie may be fifteen, but I always feel more secure if I can see that the house is still standing at noon after three boys have been in it all morning.”

Judy laughed, and Barb agreed with her. “I know how you feel. I was the same way with my kids. Now they’re all grown up and away from home.”

Tessa pushed the outside door open and walked through, holding it for the other women. They separated in the parking lot, and she turned toward her car but stopped. She stared at a man striding toward her. What on earth was Blake Donovan doing here?

Tessa’s heart set up a regular drumbeat. She placed a hand over her chest as if to calm her reaction to Blake. He fell into step with her while his grin drove all coherent thought from her brain.

“Hey, I don’t have to go through every office looking for you after all.”

She struggled to make sense of his presence and the fact that he would be looking for her. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I found out you work here. Not which office you work in.”

“Oh.” She shook her head. “No, I mean why are you looking for me?”

He shrugged. “Isn’t this your lunch break? I thought I’d take you out. Treat you to lunch wherever you want to go.”

“I can’t go eat, Blake. I’m sorry.” Tessa unlocked her car.

“You mean this isn’t your lunchtime?”

“No, it is, but I have to go home and check on the boys. During the summer when they aren’t in school, I warm up something quick for us to eat together. I have an hour, so there’s plenty of time. Besides, it gives me a chance to check on the house.”

“On the house?” Blake sent her a puzzled look. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing, I hope.” She laughed. “It’s just that three boys can do more than you might think to a house in four hours, even when they are asleep the first half of that time.”

“Ah, I understand.”

Blake looked disappointed, but Tessa refused to back down. When the thought crossed her mind to invite him home with her for lunch, she clamped her lips together.