wished to discuss with me?”
Smathers rocked back in his office chair, surprised by the question. “No. Why do you ask?”
Tanyalee smiled again. “Because you’re behaving like the damn ass-end of a horse today. You are insulting and rude and I may be on probation but I don’t believe I deserve to be treated in such an outrageously impolite fashion.”
His mouth fell open.
“In fact, I have done everything you’ve asked me to do, and I’m truly happy to do it. I found a job. I found a young girl who’s been through hell and needs someone to talk to. I’m going to meetings. I’m living an honest life, trying to clean up the messes from my past. And do you know why? Because I want to change! I want to be a better person! I am sick and tired of wondering what people are saying behind my back and being afraid of who I’ll run into at the Piggly Wiggly. Now…” She tugged her bag onto her shoulder. “Unless there’s something else you need from me today, I would like to go to my job.”
Tanyalee turned on her heel, a sense of pride welling in her chest. It felt good to respectfully set boundaries for herself. She didn’t throw a tantrum. She wasn’t trying to get anything or manipulate anyone. She’d simply been honest and direct and taken care of herself, just as Dr. Leslie had taught her to do. Tanyalee strode out of the probation offices and down the hallway of the county courthouse, hearing her heels echo on the worn tile of the old building.
“Good afternoon, miss,” a bailiff said to her as he passed.
“Hello. Have a nice day, now.”
Tanyalee smiled the whole way out to the car. She got behind the wheel and took a big, deep breath of warm autumn air.
Now that felt mighty fine, she decided. And before she could put the Cadillac in drive, her cell phone rang. She grabbed it from her purse. It was Temple Smathers.
“Miss Newberry.” His voice was soft.
“Yes?”
“I apologize,” he said. A long silence followed, but Tanyalee decided to give him all the time he needed, because she knew it was hard sometimes to say you were sorry. “I … my wife left me last night. We’ve been together six years. It was unexpected. I took it out on you and—”
“Oh!” Tanyalee put a hand over her mouth. How awful for him! “That’s terrible, Mr. Smathers.” She got out of the car and practically ran back into the building, up the steps and down the second-floor hallway. She met the same bailiff on her return trip.
“We meet again,” he said, his eyebrows raised but a friendly smile on his face.
She waved at him while continuing her cell phone conversation. “Can you take a break, maybe go have a cup of coffee and talk?”
Temple Smathers sputtered out a reply she couldn’t quite make out. But it didn’t matter, since Tanyalee was already back in his doorway. She threw her cell phone into her bag and waved for him to get out from behind his desk. “Fifteen minutes isn’t going to matter one way or the other, especially since your mind obviously isn’t on your work. Let’s go to Lenny’s. It’s on me.”
“I couldn’t possibly … it’s not, well…”
Tanyalee crossed her arms over her chest and lowered her chin. “I think you need a friend.”
He laughed, taken aback. “Thank you, but you’re my probation client.”
“I can still be a friend.”
Mr. Smathers rubbed his face with an open palm, sighed, and grabbed his jacket. Within minutes they were the only customers in Lenny’s Diner, home of Bigler’s best grilled cheese and pimento on Wonder bread, the place where Candy Carmichael had resurrected her baking skills when she’d first come back to town. Tanyalee ordered two coffees and leaned against the red leatherette seating of a window booth. “Are you all right?”
Smathers shook his head silently, waiting until the coffees were placed on the tabletop and the waitress was out of earshot. “I’m not all right, Miss Newberry. I feel like the world’s off balance, like I don’t know where to put my feet in order to keep from falling over.”
She nodded. “Oh, I understand that feeling completely.” Tanyalee watched the small man methodically pour cream into his cup and add a precisely measured teaspoon of sugar, each movement dainty and reserved. She couldn’t help but smile, thinking how different he was from Dante, who was all masculine and muscular and could eat half