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He flipped his hand, dismissing his concerns. “Don’t worry about it. I told Ryan we were just tryin’ to be neighborly and that if she ever needed anything, she should give us a shout. He was okay by the time I left.”
“Good. I shouldn’t have pushed. Sorry.” Tom took a gulp of his beer. “Does kind of jive with everything we thought, though.”
“Yeah, that it does.” Dad shook his head.
They both picked up their spoons. His obsession had caused problems for his dad and hadn’t helped him at all. He’d have to put up with the dreams of sad gray eyes until they faded. Eventually, they would; everything did.
They finished eating and moved to the living room. Tom put his foot up; the ankle was essentially healed, but it ached a bit tonight. His cell phone rang. The local number wasn’t familiar but wasn’t marked as potential spam. “Hi, this is Tom.”
“Hi, Tom, this is Erin Moore. How are you?”
What a surprise. “Good, Erin. And you?”
“Just great, thanks. Hey, Ryan told me your dad was asking about Wiz today.”
“Yes. I’m sorry if I stirred up any bad feelings. That wasn’t my intention.”
“No, it’s okay. We’re just very...cautious about our friends. So, why do you want to know?”
“First of all, I’d really like to say thank you for her rescue.”
“She’s more than aware of your gratitude,” Erin snapped. “As a matter of fact, it seems to be annoying her a bit.”
His heart thudded. It was one thing to suspect, another to be slapped in the face with the unpleasant fact he was making Wiz uncomfortable. “Oh. Sorry. I’ll stop.”
“You said first. What else?” Erin’s voice softened a little but was still steely.
“Well, she’s our neighbor, and she’s got a big spread up there. If there’s some emergency, we’d like to be able to help.”
Erin chuckled. “I hate to tell you this, but it’s far more likely that she’d be able to help you. You met her. Do you really think she hasn’t considered every possible contingency?”
“She does seem a mite...careful. So, no, she’s probably covered for just about anything and everything. Still, she’s a neighbor.”
She sighed. “If you really want to talk to her, maybe you should stop with the pretty excuses and tell me why. I asked Sam about you, and she said you’re a good guy. That’s the only reason we’re having this conversation. Otherwise, you’d be getting a letter from lawyer Samantha Kerr telling you to cease and desist.”
Tom closed his eyes and echoed her sigh. Opening up was hard. Opening up to a stranger, with his dad listening was almost impossible. But he had to, or forget the whole thing. “Sorry, you’re right. You hold all the cards. Look, I don’t really know why, but I just can’t seem to forget her. She looked up at me once with those sad eyes, and I just can’t get her out of my head. Guess I’ll have to. Tell her I won’t bug her anymore. She obviously needs to feel safe, and I’m making her feel less safe, so I’ll quit. Tell her I’m sorry too, please.”
“Hold on a minute. You said sad eyes. Did you mean sad or scared?”
“Sad. She was obviously worried about me being behind her, and a little jumpy, but her eyes are sad. She reminds me of the horses we take in from abusers. I really hate that look.” He stared at his foot, ignoring his dad’s presence.
“You’re a rescue ranch?”
“Not truly. Sometimes we foster horses for the local organizations, try to get them back to trusting again, enough that they can be safely handled. Doesn’t always work.” Sadly, not everything could be fixed. Including his obsession.
“No, sometimes you can’t bring them back.” She went silent, long enough that Tom looked to see if the connection dropped, but it hadn’t. Erin said, “Let me see what I can do. Please stop contacting her; it really isn’t helping. Don’t expect anything for a while, if at all. She’s...well, she’s special.”
She was special. “Yeah. Figured that out. Thanks, Erin. Please tell her I’m sorry to make her nervous. And if she does need help at some point, she can always call my dad, Pete. He might make her less nervous than I do. I think I sent her his number a while ago.”
“Sure, Tom,” she said, her voice soft. She followed with a more cheerful offer. “Hey, by the way, next time you’re down on the highway, stop in at Coffee & Cars. I can’t believe I’ve never met you. Marcus isn’t that big of a place.”
He laughed. “I said the same thing to my dad. I can’t believe I’ve missed you or your big silver hotrod.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, Smoky’s hard to miss. He’s a real looker.”
“Next time I’m in the area, I will stop in. Not sure when that will be, but I will. Thanks.”
“No problem. Take care.” The call disconnected.
