Page 11 of Loved By Tandy

Me:Thanks for the marker board.

Matthew:I hope we won’t need it much longer.

CHAPTER 6

MATTHEW

Ispot Tandy’s car as soon as I round the corner. When Zach invited me, I accepted because my grandson makes one heck of a brisket. Tandy’s presence is just a huge bonus.

The whole town knows Tandy avoids me. Well, she’s made it obvious, and before now, I’ve mostly stayed out of her way. Not anymore.

Having people mad at me makes sleeping peacefully impossible. And at my age, I need all the beauty sleep I can get.

My grandson Eli meets me at the front door. “Granddad, hi, you made it.” He gives me a hug and whispers, “Just a warning. Tandy is here. Cami invited her. Don’t blame me.”

I pat his back. “Thanks for letting me know.”

Genetics is not my area of expertise, but I take pride in having two handsome grandsons who look a lot like me. And not just because of our green eyes. And I love that they look out for me and choose to include me when they have backyard get-togethers. But my grandsons don’t know the reason Tandy won’t speak to me. In fact, only Tandy and I know about that. And I’m fuzzy on why she’s still mad after all this time. Maybe she’s toldsomeone else. But I doubt it. It was embarrassing for me, so I hope not.

After scanning the living room and not seeing Tandy, I snag a beer from the cooler and slip out the back door. She’s leaning against the wall, watching the littles play.

I ease up beside her and tip my bottle in greeting. There is no marker board here today, so it’s an opportunity to push a few buttons and get her to use her voice. I start with something I know she won’t ignore. Since offering candy hasn’t gotten me conversation, I’m trying a different tactic. I nod toward the guys playing with their children. “They’re all happily married. You’ll have to find someone else to play cougar with.”

She mutters a bad word.

After biting back a laugh, I touch a finger to my lips. “You don’t want the little ones hearing that kind of talk.”

“Shut up.” She points a finger at my nose, a warning flashing in her eyes. It’s clear she’s unhappy about giving up the silent treatment.

“Since we—well, you—haven’t chatted in a while, I thought I’d say hello and make conversation. You know, the kind whereboth of ustalk.”

“A while? It’s been decades.” She folds her arms and blows out a frustrated breath.

“I know how long it’s been, Tandy.” Back then, it took me a long while before I wasn’t spending every waking minute thinking about her, but I moved on. Eventually. Now that she’s back, the memories are too.

“I talked. Do you feel better now?”

“Not yet.” I tipped my cowboy hat. “Nice to see you.”

“You saw me yesterday and the day before that.” She takes a sip of her wine cooler. “What do you want, Matthew?”

I’m taking a risk with my honesty, but nothing ventured; nothing gained. “I miss you.”

She snaps her head around and stares at me. “When you crawled out that window, you crushed me. I was humiliated. And you have the audacity to say that you miss me? What about Catherine?” Her chest heaves, and she shifts the grip on her bottle.

This is not the reaction I expected. And I certainly didn’t think my late wife would be part of the conversation.

“I miss her too. We were married for a long time, and for ages after she died, it was hard to force myself out of bed in the morning. But it’s possible to miss more than one person, I think. And if people knew what happened with us in my bedroom that night so long ago, it would be me that they’d laugh at. Not you. And I never meant to humiliate you. You just surprised me.”

Caught up in our heated whispers, I don’t see Jeremy, one of my great-grandsons, until he’s tugging on my pant leg.

“Well, hello there, fella.” I scoop him up, and he grins while eyeing Tandy. “Jeremy, this is Miss Tandy. Can you say hello?”

The little tike isn’t even two yet, so his words are limited, but he wiggles his chubby fingers. “Hi.” Then he turns and meets my gaze. “Grampy, ball.”

“Okay, buddy. We can play with the ball.” I lean close to Tandy. “I’d like to resume this conversation later. But in the meantime, please know that I’m sorry I made you feel that way.”

She shrugs. “Life worked out like it was meant to. You have a nice family.”

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