Chapter Seventeen #2
“Hey.” She looked up at him from the desk when he walked past the door on Tuesday morning.
He stopped and peeked inside the room. “Do you need something?”
She motioned to one of the chairs on the other side of the desk. “Come on in and have a seat. I have something important to ask you about.”
His hands got clammy, and his heart began to thump around like it was trying to jump out of his chest. He eased down into a chair, prepared to have to talk about their relationship. “What’s on your mind?”
“For one thing, the internet is blowing up about Gracie and Dakota, and me and you. Rumor has it that we’re having a double wedding. That I came back to Benson to hoodwink you into marrying me, that the baby I’m carrying isn’t yours, and that I’ll leave you after six months,” she said.
“Are you pregnant?”
“If I am, it’s an immaculate conception, and I don’t think God intended to let us have another Jesus,” she answered with a razor-sharp edge to her voice. “I have never liked social media. For the most part, it’s got a grade-school mentality.”
“How do you figure that?” Walker asked.
“I’ll unfriend you and block you if you don’t agree with me,” she said in a whiny little-girl tone, then changed to her normal voice. “People hide behind it like cowards.”
“Then why are you looking at it?”
“Not me!” Her voice was back to normal. “Cleo just called me and told me. She couldn’t wait until we got home.
I guess Sabrina, Faith, and Reesa are very vocal, as well as Iris.
I’m surprised that Iris even knows how to get around on a computer.
And of course, she’s lumped me in with Cleo and Mae.
She drags up things I did, and even things I didn’t do but got the blame for.
I have to give her some credit, though. She does have the nerve to tell me to my face instead of hiding behind social media. ”
“With the arrival of automatic washers and especially dryers, Iris didn’t have clotheslines,” Walker chuckled.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Tina asked.
“Women used to gossip over the fence while they hung up clothes to dry or take them down to iron once the sun did its duty. Now they have washers and dryers, so they have to use the internet for their gossip,” he replied, and started to stand up.
“Ignore them. They want to rile you up. Don’t let them. We both know better.”
“How did you get so smart?” Tina asked.
“Age,” he grinned. “Was there something else?”
“Not right now,” Tina answered. “Like you said, ‘we know better,’ but sometimes I worry that all this will make you regret hiring me, or even that I came back to Benson.”
“That’ll never happen.”
The bell above the door rang, and he hurried to the front of the store to find Lyle’s grandad, Herman, coming inside. The old guy wore bibbed overalls with a blue bandanna hanging from his hip pocket and a very worried expression on his face.
“Got time to visit a spell?” Herman asked.
“Always.” Walker pulled a couple of lawn chairs away from outside of the dressing room. “Have a seat. Can I get you a bottle of cold water or sweet tea?”
Herman slumped down into one. “No, I’m all right.
Lyle talked to me this morning. He’s heartbroken because his girlfriend broke it off with him.
He told her that he didn’t want to get married at his age, no matter if he went to college or settled down on the farm to learn the business.
He said he talked to you and that you told him he had to make up his own mind so he wouldn’t look back with regrets.
Can you visit with him again and maybe help him through this tough time?
” Herman asked. “I don’t give a damn what the boy does, just so long as it makes him happy. ”
“I’m glad to hear him out,” Walker said.
“Just tell him to come around anytime. Matter of fact, I could use him all day tomorrow to straighten up the back room. It’s gotten to be a mess these last few days.
I’d appreciate the help, and then after work, we can start rebuilding Cleo and Mae’s greenhouse. ”
Herman stood up with a groan. “Thanks, Walker. I appreciate you. Bull didn’t have the spirit that you have. I’m glad that you got that from your mama.”
Walker walked him to the door. “I think I got it from the other side.”
“I don’t give a tin hoot where it came from. You’ve helped my boy. I sure didn’t want him to get tied down to that girl. She’s controlling, and so damn bossy that it scared the bejesus out of me,” Herman said and closed the door behind him.
On Wednesday, Lyle was waiting on the bench outside the store when Walker and Tina showed up. Sitting there with his head hanging low and his shoulders rolled forward, he looked like he had lost his last friend.
“You ready to go to work?” Walker asked.
Lyle raised his head up and attempted to smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Yes, sir. Want the storeroom straightened, right?”
“There’s no air-conditioning in that place, so you can do that before the day gets sweltering hot,” Tina said.
“But after lunch, if you are any good at computer work, you belong to me in the office. I’m trying to get everything entered so that next month we can print the bills rather than do them by hand. ”
“I don’t know how good I am at that, but I can input data.
I got Grandma set up on the internet, and she sure likes it.
But who would have thought the older generation would be so gossipy on social media?
She’s always bringing the latest rumors—a lot of which have been about me and Alisha—to the supper table.
’Course, Grandpa hates her laptop, but he eats up all the crap she tells him about,” Lyle said.
Tina smiled. “I understand. Seems like the gossip vines are on fire these days.”
“Alisha kind of laid down the law, and I couldn’t—” His voice broke. “Guess you’ve already seen all the mean things her friends are saying.”
“No, but the mean girls I went to high school with are doing the same thing,” Tina said, “so we’re paddling the same canoe up shit creek.”
“Thanks for that,” Lyle said. “I’ll get on back to the storeroom and get with it. See you at noon.”
Walker grabbed a dust mop and began pushing it around the area where the clothing was located, and Tina went on back to the office.
The stack of paper on her desk was far smaller than it had been a couple of weeks before, but it would still take until the last day of the month to get it all ready for the change.
Beginning the first day of July, Walker would bring all the tickets for the day to her, and she would scan them into the computer.
“Walker is going to love me when he sees how easy this is,” she said.
“Yes, he is, but he hopes that he never has to work with the computer.”
She looked up to see him leaning against the door and smiling.
“Did I say that out loud?”
“You did and you were right,” he said.
“Is helping you go modern in the business the only reason you love me?”
“Nope, I love you because you are the best friend I’ve ever had,” he said.
She didn’t want to hear that, but if it was all he had to give, she would have to take it and be satisfied.
“Tina, we need to talk,” he said.
“About?”
“Hello, is anybody home?” Gracie’s voice echoed through the store.
“Later,” Walker said.
“At the tree this evening.”
“I’ll be the one with the long hair and blue eyes,” Walker said, and followed Tina to the front.
Dusk had settled over the town, making silhouettes out of houses and trees.
Even the Tomorrow Tree looked less sad in the semi-darkness.
Tina sat down at the picnic table rather than on the ground that evening.
She was wearing white shorts and didn’t want to have to get grass stains out of the butt of them.
Walker sat beside her instead of across the table. “I’ve been wanting to get something off my chest for a while, but you had so much going on in your life that I didn’t want to burden you with my stuff.”
“I’m your best friend, remember, so whatever you are carrying around, I’m willing to help you with. After all you’ve gotten me through, I owe you.”
He clasped his hands together and laid them on top of the table. “Okay, as you know, I don’t like to talk about feelings.”
She put her palms to her cheeks in mock horror. “I would have never guessed such a thing.”
“I had a big crush on you in high school,” he said without looking at her.
There. He’d finally admitted what had been on his heart for years.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Tina whispered.
“I’m half Navajo. Your dad was a big wheel in the oil business, and Irish Catholic. I figured he would make it hard for you if I asked you for a date. Look at what happened to Gracie with her parents,” Walker said.
“I have a confession,” Tina said. “I had a crush on you, too, but I was terrified of Bull.”
“So, here we are more than ten years later, with no one to be afraid of,” Walker said, “and I still feel the same way about you as I did back then.”
“And so do I. So what are we going to do about it?” Tina finally admitted out loud for the first time, glad that he had made the first move.
He moved over closer to her and took her hand in his. “Tina, would you go to dinner with me on Saturday night and then maybe catch a movie?”
“Yes, I will,” she answered without a single pause.
“Will you come with me right now?”
“Depends on where we are going,” she answered.
“Not far. Trust me,” he said and led her over to the Tomorrow Tree. “This is where I first figured out that I had feelings for you and wanted to kiss you.” He backed her up to the tree trunk and lowered his head just slightly.
She barely had time to moisten her lips before he kissed her with so much passion that the whole world, including the tree, disappeared. She was so close to him that she could feel his heart pounding in unison with hers. Then, as suddenly as the kiss began, it was over.
“You don’t know how long I’ve dreamed of this moment,” he whispered.
His warm breath on her neck made her whole body tingle. “We’ve waited too long to stop at just one,” she said, and brought his mouth to hers for another long kiss.