Stealing Taffy (Bigler, North Carolina #3) - Susan Donovan Page 0,66
in her eyes, and, for an instant, her guard dropped. It was long enough for Tanyalee to see that Fern might actually like being with her, even just a little. It was a start.
Just then, Tanyalee’s cell phone rang, and she rooted around in her bag to catch it before it went to voice mail. She stared at the number on the screen, puzzled. She didn’t recognize it.
“Ain’t you gonna answer?”
The ringtone looped over and over again, the Spice Girls telling everyone in the salon what they really, really wanted.
“’Cause seriously, I don’t think I can stand that sound for another second.”
“Oh, Lord-eee!” Tanyalee brought the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“What shade of pink are you wearing today?”
Tanyalee’s whole body began to hum. Just hearing his voice made her vibrate from head to toe. Oh, for heaven’s sake! She’d spent the last few days trying everything she could to keep her mind off this man, to no avail. And now he was calling her? She hadn’t even given him her number. It was infuriating!
“I can’t talk.”
“Then why did you answer?”
Why, indeed? Her head was spinning. “What I meant was … oh, hell … hello. Can I call you back?”
“Are you on a hot date or something?”
Tanyalee turned her face away from Fern’s stare and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m with Fern at the Asheville Mall.”
“Ahhh.”
Tanyalee detected the amusement in his one-word comment. Two things about that concerned her. One, that he would find her charitable work amusing. And two, that she was able to detect subtle undertones in his voice. How was that possible? They hardly knew each other!
“I want you to have dinner with me tonight. I want to talk to you.”
“Tonight?” Tanyalee glanced over her shoulder to see Fern’s chin tipped down and her eyebrows arched high as she stared in fascination. Tanyalee immediately looked away again. “Well, that sounds nice, but … really, can I call you back?”
“I take it she’s right next to you.”
“Yes.”
“I have one more meeting here at the office today but I should be free by six. Call me then?”
“Of course. No wait—I can’t! I have to drive Fern home and I won’t be able to call until well after seven.”
“That’s fine. So I get to have you for dinner?”
The dual meaning of that question sent a jolt of lust through her. Tanyalee’s brain suddenly filled with all sorts of inappropriate images—Dante holding her up against the hotel-room wall, Dante panting as he lay next to her on the hotel bed, his face when she jumped him and they fell into the lake, his hand on hers under Aunt Viv’s table, his hard butt under the Willamette Road streetlights, his lips locked on hers as he had her pinned in the grass under the willow tree …
What was wrong with her? She daintily cleared her throat. “That would be lovely. Thankyousoverymuch.” Click. Tanyalee turned in her chair, slid the phone into her bag, and gathered her composure. When she looked at Fern again, the girl’s eyes were huge.
“So what’s his name?”
“Who?”
“Your boyfriend.”
“What?” Tanyalee sniffed. “I do not have a boyfriend.”
“Right.”
“That was my aunt Viv, if you must know.”
“Oh, yeah?” Fern twisted her mouth into a shape that indicated she knew Tanyalee was full of it. “Well, tell your aunt Viv she might want to get her glands checked, since I don’t think old ladies are supposed to sound like Darth Vader.”
Tanyalee was truly stumped. She didn’t have a clue as to how to answer. Were mentors permitted to discuss their love lives? That was one issue not included in the handbook. Also, Tanyalee was aware that Dante and Fern had met at that terrible drug place the Spiveys were running out in Preston Valley. She knew Dante wanted to talk with Fern again but Gladys wouldn’t allow it. So if Tanyalee admitted she had just received a call from DEA Special Agent Dante Cabrera, would Fern be alarmed? Frightened?
“Oh, hell, Tanyalee.” Fern rolled her eyes. “I know all about the hot deee-eee-aaye agent.”
Tanyalee heard herself gasp. “What? Who? But how—”
“For crying out loud! Gladys has worked at the paper for fifty years and she knows everything. Plus, your aunt Viv told her.”
Tanyalee felt her eyes widen. “Told her what, exactly?”
“Oh, you know.” Fern scrunched up her nose in disgust. “How the two of you were swappin’ spit under the willow tree. The whole town knows.”
“Fern Bisbee?”
Tanyalee jumped to her feet. “Here! Here she is!” She waved her hand with enthusiasm, grateful