Page 24 of Tied to Trouble

Randy leaned down, his hands on her hands on the wheelchair handles, to look her in the face. “Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed, Sara Merriweather. Because if you do, that means you’re fibbing to me. And you know how I feel about that.”

Sara laughed. “You know me too well, Randy. All right, yes. I’ve noticed that Az does seem unusually attached as a protector through the years. But that doesn’t mean they are in love.”

“True,” he conceded, then went behind her to take the handles of her wheelchair. “It doesn’t mean they aren’t either.”

She shrugged her shoulders and allowed Randy to push her back to their card game. No point in worrying about it. Mandy would tell her what was going on in her own good time. Secretly, she really hoped it was true.

***

WHEN AZ TURNED DOWNApple Street and saw Mandy’s red pickup truck in Beverly and Wiley’s driveway, he hesitated. Now that his anger had cooled, he wondered if he should pursue this or just let it go. It was obvious that she didn’t want to see him tonight, knowing she was in trouble with him.

He pulled over to the side of the road and put his truck in gear, letting the engine idle while he thought. The kisses they’d shared yesterday had changed everything. So had the spanking he’d given her last night. He was suddenly achingly, blazingly aware of her as a woman, and he wanted it all. He wanted to cherish her, protect her, bury himself deep within her, and make her his. But did he have the right to enter into a serious relationship with her this soon?

He sighed as he thought, his anger at her avoiding him seeping away. It mattered little if she were running from a spanking—he could catch her if he wanted to. If she was running fromhim, that bothered him. Did she care for him at all? Or was she just experimenting with that kiss? Was she playing with him as she had been with Sam Pickering? Worse yet, was he now a candidate in her silly quest to lose her virginity?

He didn’t like the thought of that.

Finally, making a decision, he flipped a U-turn and sent the pick-up back towards the Golden G. Maybe it was better this way. He was still in school. He and his brothers shared the ranch Gramps had left them with his mom. He wouldn’t be able to afford a home of his own for a while.

Feeling miserable, he turned onto Possum Lake Road and headed towards the dam. He used to go up there all the time when he was a kid, just to think. The moon was bright, and the stars twinkled, seeming to mock his loneliness as he parked in the shadows, seeking the darkness like a balm to his troubled thoughts.

If he were lucky, maybe a dumper would show up, and he could impress Evan with his stakeout skills. They were investigating the lake after all, but he didn’t see any sign of the sheriff or a deputy anywhere. With a sigh, he settled back in his seat.

In the vast wooded area surrounding the lake, the Whippoorwills chorused their three-syllable song. “Whip-por-WILL...whip-por-WILL.” Emphasis on the third syllable. He rolled down his window to listen. Whippoorwill County and Mockingbird Hollow were named after the full-throated little warblers.

Tonight, they reminded him of hisgranny, as he called his grandmother. She and his mom both liked to sing the old song, ‘Mockingbird Hill’, to him and his brothers, and basically, anyone who would listen when he was growing up. He hadn’t realized how much he missed hearing his granny belt it out.

The song was based on a Swedish song called‘Life in the Finnish Woods’. Popular fifties singers Patti Page, Les Paul, and Mary Ford made it popular around 1951, but his granny always preferred the Slim Whitman version with his yodeling included. Boy, could she yodel back in the day.

A grin curved his lips as memories of Mandy singing along with Granny on a hot summer day several years ago drifted into his thoughts.

Tra-la-la Tweedledee-dee-dee it gives me a thrill,

To wake up in the morning to the Mockingbirds' trill.

Tra-la-la, Tweedledee-dee-dee there's peace and goodwill,

You’re welcome as the flowers on Mockingbird Hill.

As he thought about her, he began to realize that a lot of his best memories centered around the young girl he had decided to protect and take care of. Maybe Evan was right, perhaps he had been in love with the little brat all along.

But was she in love with him? That was the 64-dollar question.

***

MANDY LISTENED WITHhalf an ear, expecting Az to knock on Beverly’s door at any time. That is, if he wanted to find her. The knot of apprehension in her stomach had been like a cold ball all evening, and she wished he would just come and get it over with.

The minutes ticked by like hours, and soon it was 9:00 p.m. Mandy put her cards down and went to the kitchen to get another soda, restlessly staring out the window as she drank. There wasn’t much to see. The night was quiet, and nothing moved in the moonlight.

“Do you think he will come?” Beverly walked in and stood beside her, looking out the window.

Mags put her paws up on the windowsill to survey the moonlit street, then woofed and hopped down. Nothing was going on out there that she could see.

“I could have sworn he would, but now I’m not sure. Maybe he was so mad when he went to my house and I wasn’t home, that he just left.”

“I don’t know what to think either,” Beverly replied, shaking her head. “I would have bet he would come.”

Mandy felt a painful tug at her heart, but she pushed it away. “I guess if he doesn’t care, he won’t bother,” she added wistfully.

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