Secrets in the Sand - Carolyn Brown Page 0,48

me carry those bags for you. We’ve got dinner reservations at some place over in Ardmore. You two have to go with us.” He skirted the pool and opened the west door of the guest cottage.

Meredith was behind him, shaking her head. Tom couldn’t see it, but Clancy and Angel could.

“Thanks, Tom,” Angel said. “But it’s been a long day, and all I want is a hamburger from the Dairy Queen. Then I want to come back here and sit in one of those lounge chairs by the pool until the stars come out. Airplanes were meant to get a person from one end of this country to the other, not automobiles!”

“I heard that.” Tom set the suitcases inside the guesthouse and then backed out the door. “Y’all make yourselves at home. I’ll go on in the house and get ready to go, and you kids can fend for yourselves. And, Angel, it’s mighty good to have you back for a while. We missed you and your granny when you left.”

“Thank you.” She flashed a bright, honest smile toward him.

“Not that I don’t want you,” Meredith whispered, “but this is a special evening I had planned for the two of us…”

“We understand,” Angel said.

“You are going to church with us in the morning, aren’t you? The service begins at eleven,” she said.

“Sure.” Clancy nodded. “We’ll be up and ready, Mama.”

Meredith closed the door behind her, and Clancy turned to Angel, wrapped her in his arms, and kissed her. “See, I told you,” he whispered.

“Okay, you win,” Angel said. But that doesn’t mean this whole experience is going to be one, big happy ending to our love story, she thought.

An hour later, Clancy held open the door of the local Dairy Queen for her, then chose a table for two right in the middle of the restaurant. While he went to the counter to order hamburgers, she remembered what she’d thought about on the beach. She had expected to be impressed if he took her to the Dairy Queen on Main Street in Tishomingo, and here she was, but the sun hadn’t fallen from the sky, and she didn’t feel like a queen who had just been given the Hope Diamond. The event that would have made her swoon at the age of eighteen wasn’t such a big deal at the age of twenty-eight!

“Hey, Clancy!” The voice of Jim Moore, an old classmate of theirs, boomed from two tables over. “Where you been, man? We got up a fishing trip last night down on the river and caught a ton of suckers. Larry fried them on the riverbank and brought the beer. You missed a good time.”

“We were busy outrunning that tropical storm down in Florida.” Clancy grinned at his old friend.

“We?” Jim raised an eyebrow. “You and Melissa getting back together?”

“Hell no!” Clancy exclaimed.

“Oh, hi, Clancy.” Janie came through the side door and walked up beside her husband. “You didn’t order for me, did you?” she asked. “You seen Melissa?”

“Yep, and I don’t ever want to see her again,” he answered. He motioned to his friends. “Get your food and come sit with us.” Clancy nodded toward the center of the room.

“Sure,” Jim said. “What do you want, Janie? Bacon cheeseburger with extra cheese?”

“Not with all those fat grams!” She slapped his arm. “Give me a chef’s salad and a Diet Coke.”

Angel smiled up at Clancy when he set a tray with their burgers in the middle of the table. “Since you’ve provided our supper, I’ll wash the dishes when we finish, just to show you I’m all for equality.”

He threw back his head and laughed. “Does that mean you’ll tote the paper to the trash can and put the tray on the shelf above it?”

“Yep, and don’t take it lightly, sir. I don’t offer to do dishes very often.” Angel unwrapped her burger. “I love junk food. Beats cooking any day.”

“Clancy, have you heard about Melissa?” Janie pulled up a chair and sat down, then turned to focus on Angel. “I don’t think we’ve met, but you sure look familiar.” She squinted until the crow’s-feet around her blue eyes deepened. “Good God! You’re Angela Conrad.”

“Yes, I am,” Angel said. “We graduated from high school together.”

Janie looked like she’d been hit with a crowbar right between the eyes. “Are you and Clancy… But Melissa is…” Her words came out one at a time, and she kept looking from Clancy to Angel. “When did this happen?”

“We dated in high school between