About That Man

by Sherryl Woods

  Walker nodded as recognition dawned. “You’re that Richard Walton. You wrote some damn fine pieces from some pretty awful war zones. Won quite a few awards, too, as I recall. I thought your byline had been missing for a while now.”

  “Fours years. I took a leave of absence when my grandmother got sick. Then Anna-Louise and I got married and I bought the paper in my hometown. When she got the transfer here, I bought this one and brought an old buddy in as editor of the one over there.”

  “Now he’s a media mogul,” Anna-Louise teased.

  “Two weeklies do not an empire make,” Richard retorted. “Besides, I like it here.” He gave his wife another kiss. “Don’t lose this job. I don’t want another paper to worry about.”

  She laughed. “I didn’t lose the last job. I just got an irresistible offer. King Spencer can be very persuasive.”

  “So I’ve heard,” Walker said.

  “Oh, good, then we can talk about him, too,” she said. “See you later, honey.”

  “Should I be bothered by the fact that you’re suddenly so eager to be rid of me and spend time with another man?” Richard teased. “Is the honeymoon finally over?”

  “You’ll have to decide that for yourself,” she said, then led Walker off in the opposite direction.

  On the walk to the small riverside restaurant, which sat next to a weeping willow just beginning to get its pale green leaves, silence fell. At first Walker felt the need to fill it, but he realized very quickly that Anna-Louise was one of those rare women who didn’t expect conversation. She seemed perfectly content with the quiet.

  The restaurant’s windows were shaded by blue and white awnings. Pots of just watered flowers sat beneath. Bicycles were propped against the building.

  Inside Earlene’s, there was indeed a last booth available. The gray-haired waitress had their coffee cups filled practically before they’d slid into their seats. She gave Walker a thorough once-over, but didn’t ask any questions. Either she’d already guessed who he was, or she was the only person in town who kept her curiosity in check.

  Instead of asking about him, she turned to Anna-Louise. “Honey, you look plumb worn-out. Has Richard been making you run again?”

  The minister grinned. “He doesn’t make me. I’m trying to get healthy.”

  “If you ask me, there is nothing healthy about working up a sweat on a day God just meant to be enjoyed.”

  Anna-Louise’s expression grew thoughtful. “You know, Earlene, you could be right. Maybe there’s a sermon in that.”

  Earlene patted her hand. “Honey, that’s why you’re so popular. You find sermons in all the everyday things people can relate to.”

  When the woman had taken their orders and moved on to other new arrivals, Walker studied the woman opposite him. Funny, now that he knew what she did for a living, he thought he could detect an unusual serenity in her eyes that should have tipped him off. He’d seen the same thing in the eyes of police chaplains and other clergy he dealt with after a crime had taken a terrible toll on a family. He always wished he could grasp what it was they knew that lesser mortals didn’t. Even the other faithful didn’t seem to have it to the same degree. Men like him didn’t have it at all. And he couldn’t help wondering if a man like Richard Walton, who’d seen some of the worst the world had to offer, still believed in anything whatsoever.

  “I can see your mind’s working overtime,” Anna-Louise said, cutting into his thoughts. “What are you grappling with? What to do about Tommy?”

  “Actually, I was wondering what it takes to be a minister, especially a woman minister.”

  “The same thing it takes a man,” she said at once. “Just a little more of it. Dedication. Faith. Compassion. And in my case, a healthy supply of grit and determination.”

  “Something tells me it’s not as simple as you make it sound. Otherwise more people would answer the calling.”

  “Okay, for a woman, maybe it takes the ability to withstand a few shocked looks, a lot of doubting remarks and occasionally an organized campaign to have us banished.”

  “There,” he said. “That sounds more like it. Did anybody ever try to banish you?”

  Her expression clouded over. “All the time at first.”

  “But you were tough enough to take it,” he said approvingly.

  “I had a strong backer,” she replied.

  “Richard?”

  “God.”

  Walker was taken aback by the quick retort, but then a smile spread across his face. “Yes, He would be a help, wouldn’t He?”

  “He usually is, if we listen.”

  “I’m not sure I can hear what He’s saying about me and Tommy,” Walker confided.

  She gave him a serene smile. “Oh, I think you can. Maybe you’re just not ready to listen.”

  “You’re telling me I should pack Tommy up and take him with me,” he said, a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. He almost regretted asking her opinion, because she was right. He wasn’t ready to hear it.

  “No,” she said at once. “I’m not telling you anything. It’s for you to decide.”

  “Do you think he’d be better off here with Daisy?” he asked, trying to get a clear-cut answer from her one way or the other.

  “I know she loves him,” Anna-Louise conceded, clearly choosing her words carefully.

  “I thought I heard a but in there.”

  “Did you?”

  He shook his head at the deliberate evasiveness. “I could find you extremely annoying, Mrs. Walton.”

  “Anna-Louise will do. And you only find me annoying because I won’t make your decision for you.”

  “I thought your job was to point people along the path to righteousness.”

  “That puts them in good standing with God. This decision is about you and your family. A private matter.”

  “What if I ask for your advice?”

  She laughed. “I’ll answer with a question. What do you think is right and best for Tommy?”

  He dragged a hand through his damp hair. “I wish to hell I knew,” he said without thinking, then immediately apologized. “Sorry.”

  “No problem. I will give you this much advice. Give it time, Walker. You don’t have to decide today or even tomorrow.”

  “Tell Frances Jackson that. She’s chomping at the bit to get Tommy off her plate and onto mine.”

  “No, she’s just trying to make sure he’s with someone who loves him. Every child deserves that, especially one who’s just been through the trauma of losing the only parent he’s ever known.”

  “Yes,” Walker said slowly. “Yes, they do.”

  But was he in any position to give Tommy the kind of love he needed? Did he even have any love left to give? The three people who’d been closest to him in his life certainly didn’t think so.

  Daisy’s gaze kept straying toward the back door. She’d expected Walker to show up by now. It was after eight, and there was still no sign of him. Fortunately Tommy didn’t seem to care one way or another. He hadn’t glanced at the door once.

  Still, she was disappointed. It wasn’t that she’d expected him, exactly. After all, wasn’t she the one who’d anticipated that he might bolt straight back to Washington? She’d merely hoped that he would keep his promise and be here this morning—for Tommy’s sake.

  “How come you keep looking out the door?” Tommy asked eventually. “You’ve already burned one waffle because you weren’t paying attention. Looks to me like the next one is going to go any second now.”

  She whirled around just in time to see the steam coming from the waffle iron turn to something that looked suspiciously like smoke. “Blast it,” she said, yanking it open to reveal a waffle almost beyond edible.

  “It’s okay. I’ll take it,” Tommy said, holding out his plate. “Looks like it’s the best I’m going to get this morning.”

  “Very funny, young man,” she said as she tossed it into the trash instead. “The next one will be perfect. You’ll see
.”

  “I hope so,” Tommy told her, “’Cause I’m about starved to death.”

  Daisy carefully spooned more batter onto the waffle iron and closed it, then faced Tommy. “Now that you’ve had some time to sleep on everything that happened yesterday, what did you think of your uncle?”

  Tommy’s face scrunched up. He shrugged. “He was okay, I guess.”

  “You weren’t very nice to him.”

  Tommy frowned. “Why should I be? I just said what you were thinking. We talked about it, remember? You don’t know why he abandoned my mom either.”

  “Maybe I didn’t understand it before he and I talked, but I do now,” Daisy told the boy. “He deserves a chance to explain it so you’ll understand it, too. He told you yesterday that he tried really, really hard to find her.”

  “And you bought that?” Tommy said scathingly.

  She nodded slowly. “He sounded sincere. And it is true that your mom didn’t have a lot of the identification papers that most adults have, like a driver’s license and car registration. She always rode a bike.”

  “Because she liked the exercise,” Tommy said defensively.

  “True, but she didn’t have a Social Security number, either.”

  “I don’t even know what that is,” Tommy said. “But if she didn’t have it, it was ’cause she didn’t want it.”

  Daisy grinned. “I know that, but most grown-ups do have one. Some kids, too, if they want to get jobs. All of those things would have helped your uncle to find her.”

  “He should have tried harder. He must be a really lousy cop,” Tommy said stubbornly.

  Daisy sighed. She knew better than to push too hard. Even in just a few days, she had seen that Tommy didn’t respond well to pressure. He had a definite mind of his own, and she was a big believer in a child’s right to his own opinions. She could only try to shape them a little at a time. Besides, how much of her faith in Walker’s sincerity was because she wanted to believe he was a good man for her own reasons? If she lost Tommy, she needed to believe he was with someone who could love him the way he deserved to be loved.

  Well, the proof would come soon enough. If Walker didn’t show up this morning, it would pretty much confirm Tommy’s low opinion of him. She sighed again and opened the waffle iron just in the nick of time, finally managing one that was golden brown and steaming hot.

  She put it on Tommy’s plate, then sat across from him.

  “You ain’t gonna have one?” he asked as he slathered butter into every little nook, then poured maple syrup over it.

  “Not yet.”

  “How come?”

  “I thought I’d wait.”

  “Wait for what?”

  Because she didn’t want to bring up Walker’s name again, she said, “Until I’ve had another cup of coffee. I’m still half-asleep.”

  The answer seemed to satisfy him. “Yeah, Mom used to say the same thing, except sometimes I thought it was because she knew we only had enough for one person and she wanted me to have it.”

  Daisy felt her eyes sting for this little boy who saw too much, and for the mother who’d tried so hard to give him a better life. Beth Flanagan had worn clothes until they were practically threadbare, but she’d brought Tommy to church every Sunday in slacks that had been neatly pressed and a white shirt and tie. His shoes had been polished and his hair combed. She would have been horrified to see him dressed the way Daisy had found him.

  “Your mom was very special,” she told Tommy.

  He nodded. “She was the best. I just wish she hadn’t had to work so much. That’s why she got sick, ’cause she was so tired all the time.” His expression turned serious. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Anything.”

  “Where do you think she is now?” he asked, his lip quivering. “Is she really in heaven like Anna-Louise says? Am I ever gonna get to see her again?” As if a dam had burst, his tears began to flow unchecked.

  Daisy opened her arms and Tommy scrambled into them. “Oh, sweetheart, I know that’s where she is, and she’s up there looking out for you every single second. It’s like having your own private angel.”

  “That’s good, isn’t it?” Tommy asked, swiping impatiently at his face with a napkin.

  “Very good.”

  A sigh shuddered through him. “I just wish I could see her.”

  “You will someday,” Daisy told him.

  “But I mean now. What if I forget what she looked like?”

  “You won’t, I promise you. And you have pictures, don’t you?”

  He shook his head. “She took lots and lots of pictures of me, but we never took any of her.”

  Daisy heard a sound at the back door and looked up to see Walker standing there, his expression unreadable.

  “I have some photos you could have,” he said to Tommy as he came inside. “Of course, they were taken when Beth was just a girl.”

  Excitement and wariness warred on Tommy’s face. “You mean I could have ’em, like, forever?”

  “Absolutely,” Walker said, still standing just inside the door as if he were uncertain of his welcome.

  “When?”

  “The minute I go home I’ll find them for you.”

  Tommy hung back, still tucked against Daisy’s side. “Am I gonna have to go away with you?”

  Walker cast a desperate look toward Daisy, then said, “That’s something we’ll have to talk about.”

  “I don’t want to,” Tommy said, his expression belligerent.

  “I can understand that,” Walker said.

  Tommy’s expression faltered. “You can?”

  “Sure. You don’t really know me. And I don’t know you. That makes it a pretty scary prospect for both of us.”

  “I ain’t scared,” Tommy insisted.

  Walker barely managed to hide a smile. Daisy caught the quick twitch of his lips and admired the fact that he didn’t want Tommy to detect his amusement.

  “Then we’ll just leave it that I am,” he told Tommy.

  “Do you got any kids?”

  “Two,” Walker told him, his expression sad. “They don’t live with me, though. They live with their mother in North Carolina.”

  “You live by yourself?” Tommy asked. “Or do you have a girlfriend?”

  This time Walker did grin. “No girlfriend.”

  “How come? You’re not too bad-looking.”

  Daisy chuckled at the massive understatement, then blushed when she caught Walker’s speculative gaze on her.

  “No time,” Walker said. “That’s why my wife took the kids and moved away, because my job took up too much of my time.”

  Tommy seemed to be trying to absorb this, his expression intense. “Then you wouldn’t really have any time for a kid like me, either, would you?”

  Walker looked startled by his insight. “I’d make time, if that’s what we decide is best,” he promised.

  “Would you take me to a baseball game sometimes?” Tommy asked. “I like the Orioles a lot, but I’ve never been to see a game.”

  “We could do that,” Walker said. “I like baseball, too.”

  “How about fishing? Do you like to fish?”

  Walker nodded. “Do you?”

  “A whole lot,” Tommy said. “Mom didn’t. She thought the worms were disgusting. Sometimes she’d go with me, though, as long as I put the bait on her hook.”

  Walker nodded. “Sounds like a fair arrangement.”

  “I’ve got a boat,” Tommy announced. “It’s not much to look at. It’s just an old rowboat I found washed up on the beach, you know, before…”

  “Before what?”

  “Before my mom died. I haven’t had much time to work on it yet, but it don’t sink or nothing. I’m saving up to buy some paint for it.”

  He inched away from Daisy and approached Walker with caution. “I could take you to see it,” he said hesitantly. “If you wanted. Daisy and her brothers helped me bring it over here a couple of days ago. It�
�s down by the river.”

  “I’d like that,” Walker said.

  Tommy nodded solemnly, then turned to Daisy. “You want to come, too?” His expression brightened. “Maybe we could have a picnic. I’ll make the sandwiches, so it won’t be too much work for you.”

  Daisy chuckled at his enthusiasm. “Why don’t you and Walker go on ahead? I’ll make the sandwiches and bring everything with me in a little while.”

  “Are you sure?” Tommy asked. “I don’t mind helping.”

  “I’m sure,” she said, and sent them on their way.

  She wanted time to compose herself. Seeing the fragile bond blossoming between Tommy and his uncle had shaken her. So had seeing Walker, for that matter. He was entirely too appealing, entirely too masculine. She liked the way his sun-streaked brown hair curled a little at the nape of his neck, the lines that fanned out from the corners of his eyes.

  And his cautious, sensitive handling of Tommy had unsettled her. Daisy wanted desperately to hate him, wanted to believe he was unfit to take Tommy away from her, but he was destroying all of her illusions about that.

  He might not want Tommy yet. He might be uncertain how he was going to fit a ten-year-old into his bachelor life, but suitable? Oh, yes, he was father material. He might doubt it, but she didn’t. It had become very clear to her in the last few minutes.

  Once he realized it, too, then what? She hated the empty feeling that settled inside her as she thought about letting Tommy go. She was pretty sure the sensation had a lot to do with her heart breaking.

  7

  Tommy was a chatterbox. Somehow that surprised Walker. After the boy’s distance the night before and his caution earlier, Walker had expected a lot of uncomfortable silence when they went to look at this rowboat Tommy had rescued from the beach.

  Instead, it was as if something inside of Tommy had been unleashed. Not that Walker thought the boy had decided to trust him. He suspected Tommy had just been longing for a male to talk to about all the things he didn’t feel he could share with his mom. He’d been glad to learn that Tommy had never gotten to know his father. Maybe it was stubbornness or selfishness on his part, but he didn’t think Ryan Flanagan could possibly have given anything positive to this boy beyond the donation of his sperm to give him life.