Page 7 of Shelter for Tanna

When he didn’t say anything else, Tanna wondered what was next. “Yeah, well, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Okay. Sure.”

“I have two sons.”

“I love kids,” he answered.

“And my youngest has Oppositional Defiant Disorder.”

“Okay. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that information.”

“You’re supposed to run,” she answered.

She heard him sigh through the phone. “I’m not running. I think I just need to know what it is.”

She went through a lengthy explanation of the disorder and wondered if he’d hung up. When she was finished, she sighed loudly. “So what do you think?”

“About what?”

“Are you still interested in taking me to dinner?”

A snort came through the phone. “Well, yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Most guys run.”

“I told you, I don’t run. It’s my job to run into dangerous situations. This doesn’t even qualify as one of those. I guess I’m curious and I’d like to meet him. I’m sure he’s a very interesting young man.”

“That’s one way of putting it, I suppose. He has a lot of outbursts, and they’re not attractive.”

“That’s okay. I’m not afraid.”

She giggled. “Oh, you’re not afraid, huh?”

“Honestly, I was way more afraid you were married.”

“No. Widowed.”

“Oh! I’m sorry!”

“Result of injuries suffered in Afghanistan. It was rough. It’s been a couple of years and I’m still kind of reeling from it.”

“I bet. So you’ll have to get a sitter. Do you have somebody?”

“A couple of people. I’ll have to check with them, but I didn’t want to go to that trouble only to have you run away.”

“Not happening, doll.”

Doll. He called her doll. Michael had loved her, but he’d never really used terms of endearment. It was a struggle to get him to compliment a dinner she’d made or something she’d done for him. He’d just sort of expected it. And he’d never commented on her looks, not even to tell her an outfit looked nice or the new highlights in her hair looked good. He just wasn’t like that, and she’d known it going in, but having someone call her something like that seemed foreign to her. “Um, okay. So I’ll see what I can come up with.”

“My forty-eights are Tuesday morning to Thursday morning, so don’t try for Tuesday or Wednesday night. Otherwise, I’m usually free.”

God, the guy really did want to go out with her! “Okay. Sounds good. I’ll see what I can arrange. And thanks for saying something. Charlie’s not very reliable with messages.”

“No problem. Talk to you soon.”

“Sure thing. Bye.” She ended the call and clutched the phone to her chest.

A man wanted to take her to dinner, a really, really good-looking man, one with a good job, one who knew about Max. It was too much to hope for, but she was hoping.

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