Page 51 of Loved By Tandy

“Mucking stalls. I’ve been keeping the horses in the barn this week.”

She glances around the kitchen, then opens a cabinet and pulls out plates. How she guessed where they were, I’m not sure, but she seems pleased. “I think you’re right.”

“About what?”

“I would’ve liked Catherine. The house is gorgeous. She had impeccable taste.” She opens a drawer and gets out silverware. “And her kitchen is arranged properly. Assuming you haven’t moved everything around since… you know.”

“This is how she had it arranged. It’s very functional, and I had no reason to change it.”

“So what’s on task for today?”

I plate up the food. “We’ll give the horses clean water, feed them concentrates, muck the stalls, and put down clean straw. I also groom them and pick out their hooves. Later today, I’ll come back and exercise them some.”

“It’s been years since I’ve seen you on a horse.” She winks, then carries her plate to the table. “Is the coffee still hot?”

“Made it a few minutes ago.”

She pours herself a cup. “What happened to the old house? It was on the other side of the property if I remember correctly.”

“You are correct. It’s still there. Mario and his family have been living in the old place. Not sure what I’ll do with it when they leave.”

She rubs my shoulder. “I’ll be sure to stay far away from that spot. I’ve embarrassed myself enough there for multiple lifetimes.”

I take the coffee out of her hand and set it on the counter before pulling her into my arms. “You did not embarrassyourself. We were young. We didn’t know what we wanted. We only knew that we loved each other. If you’d crawled in that window on a night my parents were out of town, I might have made a different choice, but honestly, I’m not even sure of that. You were leaving. In my heart, I knew that. It’s a big part of why I reacted that way. In hindsight, I should’ve used my words. But in my defense, what I saw had me pretty tongue-tied.”

She kisses me and taps my chest. “My timing was crap. And I wasn’t thinking about your parents. My mind was on other things. And I was ready to give up my plans. To stay, but?—”

I slide a hand down her back and pat her hip. “You would’ve been unhappy if you’d stayed. You needed someplace bigger to be able to spread your wings.”

“I don’t regret leaving. But I do regret spending all those years upset with you. But that anger and hurt was the final push for me to leave.”

“You’re welcome. Now let’s eat before everything gets cold.” I pull out her chair and we sit down to breakfast.

Since we’ve now reached the stage where we aren’t filtering questions or avoiding certain topics, I ask, “What brought you back? I was surprised when I heard you bought the house. What happened to your parents’ place?”

“Mandy and I decided to sell it. I sometimes wish I hadn’t, but there were no happy memories there for me. Mandy had a gift of seeing the best in people and remembering the good things. Not me. I remember the drunken tantrums, the screaming matches, and the façade they’d put on for the public.” She sets her fork down. “But as for coming back, I never thought I would. After Mandy and Louis died, I stopped coming. Poor Dallas. I wasn’t a great aunt.”

“He’s done okay for himself.”

She nods. “In New York City, I had two close friends. We spent hours together every week talking, laughing, trying newrecipes, talking about men. Just before I decided to retire, one of them—Julie—met a man while we were all in Europe. He was maybe fifteen years younger than she was, and she didn’t think he was serious at first. Convincing her took a bit of work, but he did. The man dripped charm, and Julie fell head over heels for the first time in her life. She returned home only long enough to apply for a visa and pack her bags. Now, they are happily married and living in a villa. Nora and I were so happy for Julie. With her gone, we continued getting together, sharing life. We talked about what to do. She was my age and also planning to retire. One of the ideas was to move to Europe. But all our plans fell apart the day of my retirement party.” Tandy dabs her eyes with a napkin. “At the party, I waited for Nora to show, and she didn’t, which concerned me. I texted and called, but her phone was off, and she never texted back. After several hours, I was divided between fear for her well-being and anger at her missing the celebration. But the concern won out, and I called her son. He was a mess. Nora had died unexpectedly. Brain aneurysm.”

I press a kiss to her temple. “I’m sorry.”

“I remember how alone I felt that day. And I missed my sister more than ever. That’s when I decided to move back. Money wasn’t an issue because I’d been a saver, and Mandy and I ended up inheriting a substantial amount of family money. So I came back to Stadtburg.”

“Are you happy, Tandy?”

“I am. Even more now that we are kissing friends. For a long time, I didn’t want to talk to you because I feared that I’d regret leaving. It was hard to reconcile missing you, missing what could have been, and living a life away from here that I genuinely loved. I regret hating you, but I don’t regret leaving.” She quietly finishes her food. “That was a whole lot of honesty early in the morning. Tomorrow, you can tell me what you plan to do about this place.”

“Deal.” I set the plates in the sink. “Let’s get out there.”

She laces her fingers with mine as we walk out the door, and I feel guilty because her cute little outfit is going to be gross very soon.

I slide open the barn and introduce her to the horses. “This is Coffee. And over here we have Cream and Sugar.”

“I love them already.” She strokes Sugar’s nose. “We’ll be great friends, won’t we?”

I hand her gloves and a bandana, then explain what needs to be done. She eagerly picks up the manure fork, and that thing is longer than she is tall. I’m not sure how this will go, but I appreciate her trying.

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