Behind her, he cleared his throat once, twice.
She sighed inwardly. Sooner or later, she’d have to meet his eyes again. Slowly, she turned. To her relief, he had backed a step away.
He shrugged and shoved his hands into his back pockets—in another attempt to keep from reaching for her?
“If I stuck my foot in it just now, that’s because I’m feeling out of touch with you. So to speak.” He cleared his throat again. “I mean, nobody’s said much to me about you. You haven’t said much about yourself. Me, either, if it comes down to it. Guess we’ve got a lot to catch up on.”
Not if she could help it.
“So, what happened to your husband, Sarah? Where is he now? What’s he doing?”
He asked the questions so casually, each one causing her a twinge of anxiety. She wasn’t ready for this conversation.
Would she ever be?
She swallowed hard. “That’s really none of your business.”
“It was, once. You were my girl, Sarah. Nothing was going to change that.”
“Then you walked away. Left town. Joined the army. What did you expect, that I would just sit home and wait for you?”
She hadn’t expected Tanner to leave her. Or Daddy to die. Or herself having to do…anything that had come afterward.
“Don’t know what I thought.”
“Well, I—” The familiar squeal of brakes outside choked off her words. The school bus.
At the sound, Tanner looked toward the door.
She closed her eyes for a moment, making him disappear from her sight, wishing she could cause him to go away permanently.
The front doorbell gave the usual exuberant clang that meant her son had made contact with it. To her dismay, Kevin’s voice rang out, too.
“Hey, Mom, I’m home.”
His sneakers slapped against the wooden floor as he came toward the back of the store.
“In here, honey.”
Tanner, standing closer to the office door, shifted into the opening.
Kevin’s sneakers squeaked to a halt. “Hey—”
She hurried to step beside Tanner. “Hi, Kev.”
He had stopped halfway down the center aisle. His eyes widened, his lips trembled in obvious shock and a hint of fear. Still, his small fists crept up to rest on his hips. He looked more uncertain than she’d ever seen him, and twice as protective. Her heart lurched.
“What’re you doin’?” he demanded.
“Hush, Kevin. That’s not—”
“Watch it, kid,” Tanner cut in, “that’s your mom you’re talking to.”
“I’m not—”
“Kevin.”
“But, Mom, I was talking to him.”
“That’s not the way we act with guests, is it?”
She pushed past Tanner. He had no right to discipline her son in front of her. No call to speak to him that way at all.
Tanner followed her into the store, then stood looking at her, one eyebrow raised.
Did he think she’d let such rudeness slide? Did he really think she couldn’t manage her own son?
Egging the sheriff’s car had been wrong. She had already taken Kevin to task for it and given him a list of extra chores, as well. And she would reprimand him for his backtalk now. But, oh, how she wished she could avoid this whole issue, when it only prolonged having Kevin and Tanner together.
“We were just visiting, honey,” she told her son. “And you need to apologize to Deputy Jones for your tone.”
“But, Mom—”
She shook her head, caught between feeling proud of him and needing to behave like a concerned parent. The prideful part wanted her to excuse her son, as she suspected he’d only meant to defend her. The parent knew she had to teach him to take responsibility for his actions.
Besides, she couldn’t let him think he could back-talk a deputy sheriff!
“Kevin…”
After a long pause, he glowered at Tanner and muttered, “Sorry.” Immediately, he looked back to Sarah. “Can I have my cookies now?”
She nodded. “Don’t spoil your supper.”
Kevin dodged down a side aisle, and a moment later they heard him pounding up the stairs.
With a firm hold on her emotions, she turned to Tanner. Instead of the angry look she’d expected, she found him gazing at her thoughtfully, a smile touching his lips.
She could have dealt better with anger.
“Supper…” His smile widened. “It’s Thursday, isn’t it? Still barbecue night at Delia’s?”
She nodded shortly. The one indulgence she allowed herself and Kevin. Because she could run up a tab at the diner.
“Mm-mmm,” Tanner growled. “About the only thing I like better than your pecan loaf is a plateful of Delia’s barbecue.”
“Really?” She wasn’t about to take the bait for an invitation. “If you don’t mind getting back on task here…As you can see, I have taught my son some manners. Still, I apologize for him, too.”
To her shock, Tanner just shrugged. “To me, seemed like the kid was only looking out for you.”
“To me, too.” For a moment, that feeling of pride pushed her to smile.
He shook his head. “Must be hard, him not having a dad around. Maybe I should talk to him. Teach him a little respect.”
Her smile slid away. “I’m teaching him—”
“Coddling’s not always the best way.”
“You don’t know a thing about it,” she snapped. What had she been thinking, sharing the tiniest moment of understanding with Tanner? He was the enemy, the man who could bring her life tumbling down around her, if he ever found out the truth. “And I can handle my own problems.”
One eyebrow slowly went up. “So, you admit you’ve got trouble with him.”
“Right now, the only trouble I’ve got is with you.” She stalked around him to pick up the clipboard with the team rosters. “Why don’t we settle our business, so you can be on your way?”
TANNER CHECKED OUT the roads around Dillon for a while, then turned back to town just near suppertime. It had been a depressing trip, for more than one reason, and he needed food. Company. And answers.
The reminder of Thursday and barbecue night headed him in the direction of Main Street. Even before he’d left, there hadn’t been much to the town of Dillon, just a couple blocks of businesses. And now there were a lot of vacant properties between Delia’s Diner at one end and The Book Cellar down near the other.
Thinking about the bookstore set him off again. He still fumed from Sarah’s quick run-through of the duty rosters, followed by her cold dismissal. He couldn’t understand her reaction. A single mother, with a young boy running wild. Things couldn’t be easy. He’d only tried to help.
Why had she bothered to co-chair the committee with him?
Maybe she’d caught on at last, made the connection between her kid and his mischief and the other problems going on about town. Of course, Kevin couldn’t account for all the complaints, but Tanner suspected that he was one of several kids involved in