Page 77 of Tangled Memories
“Tyler has offered to treat us all to pizza,” Noreen said. “We were just waiting for you. You don’t have to go, of course, but I’m not passing up a meal I don’t have to cook.”
“What about me and Tommy?” asked Davie, fearful of being left out.
“You boys have to come,” Tyler told him. “You can’t leave me all alone with these women. I’d be massacred.”
“You mean all alone with me, don’t you?” Stormy said near his ear as they were filing out the door.
“Not at all,” he said out the corner of his mouth. “I’m saving you for the last.”
Tyler was the Pied Piper of the evening. All four children scrambled into his car.
“Do we really want to do that to him?” Noreen asked.
“Yes,” said Stormy, sailing imperiously past Tyler to place herself in the front seat of Noreen’s car.
“Now, why do I sense this is going to be an interesting evening?” Noreen cast into the night air.
“After the day we’ve had,” Sandy said, leaning forward from the back seat, “it can’t possibly be more than a footnote. But don’t follow too closely in case he tosses one of them out the window.”
“Nina stole my money,” Stormy said, giving an abbreviated version of what had happened in the living room. She ended with how much like a statue Tyler had been.
“You could hardly expect him to cuddle and coo in front of Lowery,” Noreen admonished. “Knowing her, she probably laid down ground rules before she agreed to his being there at all.”
“You’re taking Tyler’s side,” Stormy accused.
Noreen grinned. “I like him. If you don’t, pass him on.” They drove a quarter mile in silence. Noreen chuckled. “Thought that’d shut you up.”
“Speaking of passing,” Sandy said. “We just passed them. Tyler pulled into the parking lot of that fancy pizza place my kids always wanna go.”
By the time Noreen found a break in traffic to make a U-turn, Tyler had ushered the children into the restaurant and had them seated at a table, where they were pretending to read the menu. He looked wan and shell-shocked.
Stormy pulled Tyler into a nearby booth and slid in beside him. Noreen and Sandy joined theadulttable.
“Were the kids unruly?” she asked.
“They weren’t unruly, no. But the conversation was very…scientific.”
“Uh-oh,” Noreen groaned.
“We’ll explain everything to them,” Stormy said. “But a mission like that can’t be done on an empty stomach. Let’s order.”
She felt Tyler’s hand on her knee, and a spring of delight bubbled up within her. And while adrenaline still coursed through her veins, for the moment, she could put aside her sorrow over Nina.
She smiled at Tyler. “Don’t take too much on faith,” she warned feistily. “You may have helped, but you haven’t exactly been forgiven.”
“You’re upset because I admitted to Lowery you came to my motel room.”
“Stormy!” Noreen crowed. “You didn’t tell us that.”
“It was…just to…talk about my case.”
Prudently, Tyler said nothing but, “Cheese and mushrooms for me,” to the waitress.
“Could I just say one tiny thing?” Sandy put in after everyone’s order was taken.
“Not now,” Noreen begged. “Yourone tiny thingalways ends up a speech.”
“I just wanted to tell Stormy I read H. B. Foley’s résumé while I was making tea.”