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  “I’ll keep an ear out for you.” Marsha leaned forward. “The dragon is smiling today. Whenever she does that, I know she’s scored a satisfying victory.”

  Remembering how she had allowed herself to be pushed around by Patricia last night, Crystal cringed. “She definitely won the round last night, but only because she had me over a barrel.”

  Marsha caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Then she said, “I don’t start my shift until late afternoon. I’d be happy to stay with Tuck at the house until you find someone permanent. From almost three until you get home from the salon, he would have to be alone, but he wouldn’t the rest of the time.” She shrugged. “And I’m cheap. I get ten an hour here. I wouldn’t expect more from you.”

  Crystal felt as if a thousand pounds had been lifted from her shoulders. She trusted Marsha. “Oh, wow, that’s a fabulous solution! I could schedule my clients and leave most of my late afternoons free. Are you sure you really want to do this?”

  “If I weren’t sure, I wouldn’t have offered.”

  Crystal felt like skipping, she was so happy. But instead of going straight to Tuck’s suite, she went out onto the back deck, found an unoccupied corner, and dialed a number on her phone. It was a call that she’d been wanting to make ever since last night.

  When she was patched through to the individual she wanted to speak with, she said, “This is Crystal Malloy, the woman who called in last night. I want to withdraw my complaint against Tanner Richards.”

  * * *

  Dusk had descended by the time Tanner parked in the driveway of his suburban home. It wasn’t a fancy house, more homey and utilitarian, but the ranch-style rambler suited his family’s needs. After buying it, he had updated the kitchen and three bathrooms, painted it inside and out, and put in all new flooring. Each of his kids had a separate bedroom, he had the master suite, and the fourth room was used as a study, which had a futon for a guest bed, no television allowed. He and the kids each had a desk in there with a computer. He’d set up a small table where the three of them could play board games. Beanbag chairs provided lounging spots.

  No lights shone from inside. He texted his mom to let her know he was home, and then just sat in the truck to unwind after his stressful day. Guilt weighed on his chest like a boulder. Because he’d made one bad decision, both Tori and Michael would suffer. Tanner wouldn’t get home early enough to throw balls with his son every evening. Bike rides with Tori, one of her favorite activities with Daddy, might become only weekend treats. Dinner would reach the table later, and the domino effect would leave less time afterward for kitchen cleanup, study time, movie or reading time, and baths. He was the only parent his kids had, and he should have made them his first priority.

  He glimpsed their approach in the rearview mirror. They always took a shortcut from his mother’s place one block over and walked between two houses to reach the sidewalk across the street from their home. Michael had taken after Carolyn with his midnight blue eyes and shiny hair the color of coffee beans. Tori had Tanner’s coloring, her eyes sky blue and her curls resembling a swirl of melted milk chocolate and butterscotch. Today they both wore jeans, Michael’s topped by a University of Oregon T-shirt, Tori’s by a sleeveless pink thing with ruffles around the armholes and elastic gathers over the midriff.

  He exited the truck. Tori squealed when she saw him. He yelled, “Look both ways!”

  Her head swiveled back and forth, flinging her curly locks over her tiny shoulders. Then she raced across the ribbon of asphalt bracketed by parked cars. Tanner squatted down to catch her when she threw herself into his arms. Her small book bag, clutched in one hand, whacked him on the ear. He buried his face in her hair and breathed in her scent: little-girl sweetness laced with traces of bubble-bath soap, tearless shampoo, and cafeteria aromas.

  Tanner growled ferociously. “I smell nacho-cheese corn chips, and that makes me hungry!”

  Tori giggled and squirmed in his embrace. Tanner released her and stood to loop his arm over Michael’s shoulders. The youth stiffened, resisting the hug. He kept telling Tanner he was getting too old for mushy stuff. “How was school, sport?”

  “Boring. I can’t wait for summer.”

  Tanner nodded, thinking of yet another count against him. Over summer break, his kids would see a lot less of him than they would if he hadn’t gotten in trouble. “I need to tell you both something.”

  Michael’s gaze sharpened on Tanner’s face. “I just saw Nana, so I know she’s okay. Is it Grandma or Grandpa Hampton?”

  It saddened Tanner that his son’s first thought was that someone he loved had died or been hurt. But he guessed that was to be expected. Michael was five when his mother’s car collided head-on with an eighteen-wheeler truck, and he still remembered how things changed after her death.

  “It’s nothing like that,” Tanner assured the boy.

  “But I can tell by your voice that it’s something pretty bad.”

  Tanner led the way to the front porch, low profile with only two steps. Each of the kids took a seat beside him, Michael retying his Nike running shoe before settling and Tori fussing with her bag to make it balance on the lower step.

  “I lost my route in Crystal Falls,” Tanner said. He’d never been good at small talk. “I did something wrong and could have lost my job, but instead of firing me, my super gave me the rural route in Mystic Creek for a year.”

  Michael looked startled, then curious. Tori was still messing with her book bag. “What did you do wrong?”

  Tanner studied the palms of his hands. He had no idea why. He didn’t know the meaning of one line from another, except for his life line, which had a wide break in the middle just above where it began the gradual curve downward to the base of his thumb. He’d often wondered if that meant he’d have two lives: the one he’d had with Carolyn and another with someone else. So far he’d met no one who’d interested him enough to draw him into a serious relationship. Probably a good thing. His kids came first. They always would.

  “I broke the rules to do a favor for an old man who’s a friend of mine,” he settled for saying.

  “Why was that breaking the rules?” Tori finally got her lopsided bag balanced and frowned up at him. “You and Nana say we should always be nice to old people.”

  “True, and I hope you always will be, but sometimes you need to wait until you’re off work to do nice things, and I didn’t do that. When we’re on a job, we’re being paid to do only what our employer expects us to. We should save personal errands for later.” Tanner saw no point in giving his kids the details. It was enough to let them know he’d made a mistake and what the ramifications would be. He hoped his confession would be a good learning experience for them, an example of the consequences that could result from one bad decision. “My punishment is to drive an hour longer each day back and forth to work. That means I’ll be at home with you a whole hour less every night for a year.”

  Tori’s already large eyes went rounder. “Will I miss you a lot, Daddy?”

  Michael said, “Don’t be dumb, Tori. We’ll still see him all the time.”

  Tanner intervened before more shots were fired. “It isn’t a dumb question, Michael. Tori may miss me, and you may as well. I won’t have as much time at night to do fun things with each of you.” He leveled his gaze on Michael and then looked out over the yard. “The way it’s been, I could mow the lawn and tidy the flower beds and still have time to do fun stuff. Now that may change quite a lot.”

  “That sucks. My friend Bobby over on Nana’s street can’t help me with my pitching arm.”

  Tanner stood. “I’m sorry, Michael. I’ll throw balls with you as much as I can. But right now, it’s time for me to start dinner while you do homework.”

  “We already did it at Nana’s,” Michael said.

  “Fine. You two can watch something educational on TV while I cook.”

&
nbsp; “I got five happy faces on my paper today!” Tori cried.

  “Good for you,” Tanner told her.

  Once inside, Tanner ignored the socks Michael had left on the living room floor last night and the pajamas Tori had shed in the hallway that morning. He’d tidy up after he got the kids tucked in for the night. He opened the fridge and studied the contents, a nightly pastime. He could never think what to make for dinner. Carolyn had always planned ahead.

  Hands planted on her narrow hips, Tori joined him in staring at the fridge shelves. Then she frowned up at him. “Daddy, the play is tomorrow. Where’s my wolf costume?”

  Tanner stared down at his daughter, sensing a mini disaster in the making. “Your what?”

  “My wolf costume. You remember. Wolves are wild dogs, and that’s what Mrs. Walker said I could be, because I really like dogs.”

  Tanner vaguely remembered Tori talking about a play. The school was doing a wildlife-awareness month. But he had no recollection of seeing a note that Tori needed a wolf outfit. He had assumed that any necessary attire would be provided by the school. “You need a costume tomorrow?”

  The dreaded reply came, accompanied by tears springing to Tori’s eyes. “Yes. I’m supposed to take it to school in the morning.”

  Tanner had no clue how to create a wolf costume. He closed the refrigerator, decided fast food was on the menu for dinner, and did the only thing a smart man could in emergencies like this.

  He called his mother.

  Chapter Four

  Armed with a map and struggling to wake up, Tanner penciled in his route the next morning, numbered the roads he had highlighted, and then organized the parcels in his truck accordingly. Since he had decided to work the south section of his route first, anything to be delivered at the north end had to be at the bottom of the stacks.

  As he drove the road toward Mystic Creek a few minutes later, he rolled the van window down to enjoy the sun-scented morning air, even though it was still chilly in the mountains. Right after the turnoff to the waterfall, Tanner’s cell phone chirped on the dashboard. He saw a wide spot where he could pull over and answer.

  It was his supervisor. “Hey, I didn’t have time to find you before you left the building. That Malloy woman called in yesterday and withdrew her complaint against you. It won’t change the outcome for you, but I thought you should know.”

  Crystal had dropped her complaint? Tanner was mystified. “I wonder why she did that.”

  “Beats me. Maybe a change of heart.”

  “Well, it was a nice gesture. Thanks for letting me know.”

  After the call ended Tanner resumed driving the curvy mountain road. What had prompted Crystal to withdraw the grievance? Maybe, he decided, Tuck had raised so much sand, she’d felt pressured into it. Or maybe she realized three months without one’s simple pleasures was a long time to an old man who considered green bananas to be a risky investment. Every day was a gift to someone like Tuck, and sometimes tomorrow never came.

  Tanner had learned that the hard way. The day before Carolyn was killed was their wedding anniversary. Both of them had had busy careers, so they’d decided not to celebrate on the actual date in favor of waiting until the following day, a Friday. Carolyn had arranged for a sitter. Tanner had gotten reservations at a five-star restaurant. They had planned to end their evening at a swank hotel, making love and lying in each other’s arms. Instead Carolyn had ended up lying on a stainless-steel slab at the morgue.

  If Tanner could avoid it, he no longer put off things for tomorrow. He knew now that a man’s whole world could change in a blink and there were no second chances.

  * * *

  Crystal got up earlier than usual so she would have time to visit Tuck before heading for the salon. She was hoping a night’s sleep might see him relent a bit, but experience told her that probably wouldn’t happen. Experience won. Tuck just glared at her when she entered his apartment. For so long Crystal had counted on him to love her no matter what. Dealing with his anger was a new experience for her.

  “How are you, Tuck?” Her voice was high-pitched.

  No answer.

  “How was dinner last night?” She glanced at her watch to see if he’d already eaten breakfast. “And how was the food this morning?”

  She expected more silence, but Tuck exploded. It was so sudden and loud that she actually dropped her purse and had to pick it back up.

  “Dinner last night sucked!” he roared. “I ain’t had proper food since I been in this jail. The only time they cook decent is on Sunday when most folks’ families come to visit. The rest of the time, breakfast is plastic, lunch is plastic, and so is dinner. Fake eggs. Turkey bacon. Sugar-free and fat-free yogurt. Artificially sweetened syrup. Soggy cereal that tastes like cardboard. We get watered-down juice only at breakfast. God forbid that we might get a sugar rush and kill ourselves!”

  “What do you want?” Crystal tried. “I could bring you food, and then you could—”

  “Just shut up!”

  Shock rooted Crystal’s feet to the carpeting. Tuck had never spoken to her this way.

  Anger glittered like ice in the depths of his blue eyes. “I don’t want you bringin’ me nothin’ right now. You betrayed my only true friend in Oregon. His wife’s dead, and he’s raisin’ two kids alone. He got taken off the Crystal Falls rural route and reassigned to drive over here! So he’ll get a lot less time with his children at night. And you grabbed my cell phone, damn it! Did it make you feel powerful to hold it out of my reach while you looked at my personal stuff? Was it satisfyin’ to best me, just because you could?”

  Crystal’s heart jerked. She had grabbed Tuck’s phone, but she’d never meant to make him think it was a power play. “No!” she cried. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

  “How else did you mean it? It’s my phone, and the stuff on it is private.”

  “Oh, Tuck. All I wanted was to find your order for the beer and chew! I never intended to invade your privacy.”

  “So why did you do it, then? There was a time when I was way stronger than you. Did I ever once treat you like your feelin’s didn’t matter to me?”

  “No,” Crystal admitted, her throat aching with an urge to sob. “Never even once, Tuck.”

  “When you was a teenage girl with secrets you didn’t want me to know about, did I ever once snoop in your room? Or ever once pick up another phone in the house to listen in when you talked to a friend?”

  “No.” She flung out her hands in a helpless gesture.

  “I’m a broken old man now. My strength is pert near gone. But that don’t give you no right to snoop on my phone and then rat out my friend. No right!”

  Every word he spoke cut into Crystal like a machete. “I’m sorry, Tuck. What can I do to earn your forgiveness? Maybe I handled everything wrong, but my heart was in the right place. I only wanted to protect you and take care of you. I love you.”

  “Maybe I don’t wanna be protected. Maybe I don’t wanna be taken care of. Maybe all I want is to be treated with respect. You need to think on that, long and hard, and until you have, stay away from me. I can’t bear to look at you!”

  Memories crashed over her like brutal ocean waves. “Murderer! I’ll never forgive you. I can’t even bear to look at you!” She could almost hear her mother screaming those words. And her father, yelling at her to stay in her room so he didn’t have to see her and be reminded of the horrible thing she’d done. For months, Crystal had felt unwelcome and completely unloved in her own home. Then Tuck had come to take her away to his ranch. Tuck, who’d told her she had done nothing wrong. Tuck, who had helped her heal and given her unconditional love. Tuck, who’d never yelled at her.

  Until now. And suddenly Crystal realized that she’d never really healed. Tuck’s love had been a protective bandage over the wounds deep within her, and now he had ripped it away. Her body felt pa
ralyzed and ice-cold. Pressure built inside her chest.

  She retreated a step, and then her feet seemed to move of their own accord to carry her backward. At the doorway leading out to the hall, she swung around, grappled with the knob, and finally escaped.

  Tuck yelled after her, “Crystal! Wait! Don’t go! I got somethin’ more I need to say!”

  Crystal had heard enough. More than enough. She needed to be alone until she could shove away the old memories and try to sort out the mess she’d created with her grandfather.

  She rushed from the building, her stomach roiling. Would he ever forgive her? She’d meant to tell him all the many reasons she was sorry for how she’d handled Patricia. She’d hoped to tell him that she’d withdrawn her complaint against Tanner Richards. She had wanted so badly to mend fences with him. She needed to be in his good graces again. Needed to know that he still loved her and that nothing she ever did would make him stop. He was the only family she had.

  But he hadn’t given her a chance to say much of anything. She’d had no idea how dearly Tuck treasured Tanner’s friendship—or how much he cared about the younger man’s kids. She also hadn’t known two motherless children would suffer if she filed a complaint. And, oh, God, what had she been thinking when she’d taken his cell phone and held it beyond his reach?

  She had wanted Tuck to talk to her again. Now she almost wished he’d clung to his angry silence. She felt as if he’d flailed her with a whip. Outside her car, the nausea struck with more vengeance. She ran to the edge of the parking lot, doubled over, and purged her stomach.

  * * *

  By the time Crystal reached the salon, the nausea had subsided a little, replaced by an awful headache. She had an appointment with Ma Thomas, so nicknamed because she signed documents with only her first two initials, M for Mary and A for Alice. At some point in time, someone had started calling her Ma, and the handle had stuck. Crystal just hoped her hands would stop shaking so she could cut the woman’s hair properly. Ma was one of her favorite clients.