Tanyalee wasn’t sure where to focus her attention. Should she continue shooting evil stares at Aunt Viv in an effort to stop her from asking embarrassing questions of their visitor? Should she glare at Granddaddy Garland every time he started laughing? Or should she allow herself the guilty pleasure of simply watching Dante Cabrera eat?
She propped her chin in her hand and sighed. Good Lord, the man could pack it away. The room service overload back in that Washington hotel room hadn’t been a fluke. He was on his third serving of sweet potatoes. He’d eaten four biscuits with gravy, two helpings of ham, and a dinner plate full of string beans. Dante Cabrera was Aunt Viv’s wet dream of a dinner guest.
“More ham, Agent?” Viv asked.
“Oh, no, thank you, ma’am. I think I’ve hit the wall.”
“I’d say you done plowed through the wall, son,” Granddaddy said. “Maybe the floor, too.”
Dante smiled self-consciously.
“Garland!” Viv wagged a finger over the gravy boat. “Leave the young man be! I know your memory’s going but there was a time when you could eat just as much if not more.”
“I am not losing my memory, Vivienne,” he replied, sighing. “On the other hand, the cheese has most definitely started to slip off your cracker.”
Tanyalee squeezed her eyes closed to block out the ugly truth. She’d be turning thirty in a few months. She was a grown woman. She should have a career, a family, and a home of her own. And above all, she shouldn’t be sharing a house and a supper table with Aunt Viv and Graddaddy Garland. It was as unnatural as it was annoying.
A warm, strong hand touched hers under the table. Tanyalee jerked in surprise, then slowly opened her eyes to see Dante looking at her, one corner of his mouth tipped in a smile.
“Where is your family from, Agent? Any brothers and sisters? Are your parents still living?”
Dante answered Aunt Viv’s questions without giving any indication that he’d just laced his fingers with Tanyalee’s and squeezed. “New York City, ma’am. Brooklyn born and raised. I have a twin sister, Dayana, and my mother is going strong. My father died suddenly a few years ago.”
Her aunt shook her head and clucked. “So sorry to hear of his passing…” She paused, which Tanyalee knew was a clue that the next thing out of her mouth would be mortifying.
“Aunt Viv, would you please pass the—”
“New York City?” Viv said, ignoring Tanyalee’s attempt to change the subject. “That must be a very unsafe place to live, what with all the crime and drugs in the North.”
Dante started to respond, but Granddaddy saved him the trouble. “Nowhere is crime-free anymore, Vivienne, and I’d venture to guess that what’s going on in Cataloochee County these days is just as vicious as any big city, north or south. Am I right, Agent Cabrera?”
“Yes, sir. That’s correct, unfortunately.” Dante’s leg brushed up against Tanyalee’s. It took a great deal of restraint for her not to gasp in pleasure.
“I do read the Bugle, Garland,” Viv snapped. “I am well aware of what goes on in the world.”
“As the World Turns, maybe.”
Viv sucked in her breath, deeply offended. “You know my story’s not on the TV anymore. You know they canceled it a few years back. That was just plain mean to rub it in like that!”
Tanyalee dared look up into Dante’s face. When he turned toward her again, she saw the half smile was still in place but there was a new gentleness in his expression. He winked at her, squeezed her hand, and pushed his thigh harder into hers. Tanyalee was struck by how reassuring all that was. He was telling her not to be embarrassed by her bickering relatives, which was surely kind of him, but damn near impossible to comply with.
“No cheese on the cracker,” Granddaddy repeated, shaking his head.
“Crazy old man,” Viv snapped, beginning to gather up the dishes.
“Dinner was delicious,” Dante quickly interjected. “I appreciate you asking me to join you, but I should probably get going.”
“But you haven’t had any cobbler!”
“As much as I’d love to taste your—”
“Nonsense.” Viv used her foot to kick open the swinging door to the kitchen. “Your clothes are still in the dryer. Why don’t ya’ll go enjoy the beautiful evening on the porch swing while I get dessert together.”
“Sounds like a mighty fine idea,” Granddaddy said.
“Not you, you nosy old coot. I was talking to the young people!”
Tanyalee pulled on Dante’s hand as she stood. “Thank you for a lovely meal, Aunt Viv. We’ll be back in a little while.” She led him through the foyer, to the front door, and down the porch steps.
Dante looked over his shoulder at the porch swing. “I thought—”
“Shh. I need some air.”
Dante’s eyes widened. “In this?”
Tanyalee forgot that Dante was still dressed in selections from Granddaddy’s chifforobe—a pair of threadbare sweatpants, a hooded sweatshirt with paint splattered all over it, and old plastic flip-flops. “You’ll blend right in where we’re headed,” she said as they reached the sidewalk.
“We’re going to Walmart?”
Tanyalee laughed. “Next best thing, Mr. Yankee smart aleck. We’re gonna take a stroll through the neighborhood. I’ll show you around.”
She noticed how Dante looked down to where their fingers remained laced together. Her heart sank. She dropped his hand. “Sorry.”
“About what?” he asked.
“I’m sure you’d rather not have the neighbors see you holding my hand.”
“I don’t give a damn what anybody thinks,” Dante said, weaving his large fingers with hers again. “I thought you didn’t want them seeing me holding your hand.”
Tanyalee pretended to scan the trees like she found them fascinating and hadn’t been looking at them since the moment she’d been born. That way, Dante couldn’t see her smile like a goofy preteen.
“These old houses here are very pretty,” he said.
“They are. Most were built between the 1870s and the mid 1920s. Apparently, Bigler was rolling in money back then with a paper mill, mining, the railroad—most of it related to the effort to rebuild the economy after the war.”
Dante frowned. “But that was way before World War II.”
“I’m talking about the war, silly.”
“Ah.” One of Dante’s dark eyebrows arched. “The Civil War.”
“We prefer to call it the ‘War of Northern Aggression.’”
“Right. I think somebody warned me about that when I got transferred down here.”
“Warned you?”
“Yeah, you know, because it’s one of the quirky things about the South.”
“Quirky?” Tanyalee tipped her head and scowled at him. “Are you making fun of us?”
“What? No!” Dante pulled her close to his body, then slipped an arm around her waist. Tanyalee wasn’t all that certain she wanted to return the gesture of affection, so her arm just hung loose and banged against his leg. “It’s like a different world down here, is what I’m saying,” he continued. “Sometimes it feels like a foreign country to me, the way you talk, cook, the way the air smells. I’m sure you’d feel the same if you spent any time in Brooklyn.”
Tanyalee had begun to relax. The rhythm of his deep voice had that effect on her. She stopped fighting it and brought her arm to his waist. Dante felt so solid. She remembered the feel of his body against hers as he’d grabbed her bottom and yanked her tight, crushing his mouth to hers as he walked them out of the lake. Who knew what would have happened if Dante hadn’t lost his footing in the muck and landed on his ass, making them both laugh hysterically? They might be lying naked on the dock right now, lost in each other the way they’d been in the Washington hotel room.
“Maybe someday I’ll show you around Brooklyn. We’ll take the train into Manhattan.”
“Seriously?” Tanyalee was shocked.
“Why not?” Dante said with a shrug. “You said you’ve never been to New York, right? What better way to see it than with someone who grew up there.”
“I’m just…” Tanyalee stopped herself. She didn’t want to sound surprised that Dante liked her enough to talk about showing her his hometown one day. What was so unbelievable about that? After all, she was showing him around Bigler right this very minute, wasn’t she? “Tell me about Dayana.”
Dante let his hand slip lower on Tanyalee’s hip, and she snuggled into him. “She’s a psychiatrist. Lives in Chicago now and teaches at a med school in addition to having a private practice. She’s pretty cool, even though she busts my chops every chance she gets.”
Tanyalee giggled. “Maybe that’s what twin sisters are supposed to do, you know? There’s probably no one in the world who knows you as well as she does, right?”
“True,” Dante said, his voice thoughtful. He looked down at Tanyalee and smiled. “In fact, I was on my way back from visiting Daya the day you and I met.”
“Oh.”
“So.” Dante’s eyes were kind. “I know you and your sister have had your issues, but are you closer to her these days?”
Tanyalee took a moment to organize her thoughts. It would be a challenge to explain to Dante everything that had driven her and Cheri apart over the years—at least on a short walk around the block. “When Cheri gets back from her honeymoon, I plan to do whatever I can to make that happen. But there’s a lot I need to apologize for, I’m afraid. I spent about twenty-five years trying to make her life a living hell, to tell you the truth.”
“Yeah, I think you alluded to that on the plane. Something about stealing her true love.”
Tanyalee jerked back a bit, then loosened again. “Oh,” she said. “I forgot about that.”
“But why all the drama between the two of you?”
Tanyalee sighed. “It’s a long, long story, but it started when we were little, before our parents died. Cheri and I fought all the time about the stupidest stuff and it stressed out Mama and Daddy something awful, and that’s the reason they decided to take a little vacation from us, to get away from the bickering. They rented a beach house on the Outer Banks. Just the two of them.”
“I see.”
Tanyalee looked up past the trees, seeing the first stars peek through the veil of a darkening sky. When she was little, she’d tell herself the night’s first two stars were Mama and Daddy looking down on her. Sometimes, she still did. “They died on that trip. The police ruled it an accident, saying there was a faulty gas line in the beach house, but a couple months ago, Cheri and I learned they were killed to keep Daddy from printing a story in the Bugle. That’s the newspaper my family owns.”
Dante nodded, pulling his lips tight. “I have a confession to make, Tanyalee.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. “Oh?”
“What you just told me—I know about it. I know a lot about your family, because once I traced the Caddy to your aunt I was able to do a little research on the Newberrys.”
Anger began to well up in her. She felt her cheeks get hot.
“I know that must feel like an invasion of your privacy.”
“That’s because it is. You seem to invade my privacy a lot, Dante.”
“I…” Dante let go with a sigh of exasperation. “I’m sorry, Tanyalee. Look, I admit it. I’m a little paranoid. It comes with the territory in my line of work. If I’m interested in a woman, I need to know exactly who I’m dealing with. It’s a reflex.”
“That’s a little one-sided, wouldn’t you say?” She heard the sharpness in her own voice but didn’t care. “It would be nice to have all kinds of information about you, but I don’t have the same resources, do I? And I bet if I Googled you, nothing would even come up.”
“You’re right.”
“Well, now. That’s my point. It’s not fair.”
“Tanyalee.” Dante’s voice became so soft she barely heard him. “I have nothing to hide from you. I’ll tell you anything you ever want to know about me—well, except for the details of my work.”
They walked in silence for a few moments. Eventually, Tanyalee’s irritation subsided and she felt her body calm again. “Thank you, Dante.”
He came to a stop, which brought her to a halt as well. Slowly, Dante turned her toward him, tipped up her chin, and lowered his lips to hers in the sweetest of kisses. The touch of his mouth against hers didn’t last very long, but its tenderness lingered, leaving Tanyalee worried that her knees might buckle. She’d experienced a lot of sensations in Dante’s company—most of them outrageously carnal in nature—but nothing like this gentle affection.
It almost felt as if she were being wooed.
“I’m enjoying our walk,” Dante whispered, still cradling her chin in his hand.
“Me, too.”
Mrs. Wayne’s porch light suddenly flipped on, spilling light out onto the sidewalk where they stood. Tanyalee peeked around Dante’s wide shoulder, chuckling.
“Are we busted?” Dante asked.
“Yes, but it was only a matter of time.” Tanyalee linked her arm with his and started walking again. “Sippie Wayne is a nosy thing. I’ve known her since I was a baby, which is as long as I’ve known most everyone on this street. The house Aunt Viv and Granddaddy live in used to belong to their parents, and most of the houses get handed down through families like that. People tend to stay here forever. I guess that’s why—” Tanyalee gasped. She’d completely forgotten about Tater Wayne’s girlfriend! “Oh, my God!”
“What?” Dante stopped. “Is something wrong?”
“No. It’s just…” Tanyalee sputtered with laughter. “It’s about your boss.”
He scowled. “What about her?”
“Oh, it’s nothing bad. It’s just that Sippie Wayne—the woman who just turned on her porch light right there?”
Dante’s gaze followed where Tanyalee pointed. “Yeah?”
“Her son lives with her, or at least he did until very recently. His name is Tater. He’s dating your boss.”
Dante stilled. Tanyalee could see the tension in his jaw. “Did you just say Tater?”
“Well, now wait a second,” Tanyalee said, thinking. “I stand corrected. He goes by Thomas nowadays. That’s his given name. Everyone has always called him ‘Tater,’ but that was before he won the Mega Millions and got his eyeball and teeth fixed and moved out. Up until then, he was doing odd jobs for Aunt Viv and other people in town.”
Dante tilted his head side to side until his neck cracked. “Tater? As in potato?”
Tanyalee burst out laughing. She laughed so hard and long that her sides started to hurt. Dante led her to the stone wall in front of Judge Van der Rohe’s house, where she sat down. “Give me a minute,” she said, holding up a hand, trying to gain control of herself. “I’m sorry, but that was hilarious the way you just said ‘poh-tay-toh’ in your uptight New York accent, like it was some kind of horrible dirty word. God! Whew! Okay. I’m better now.”
When Dante didn’t say anything for a long moment, Tanyalee dared glance up at him. He looked deeply puzzled, his face lit under the streetlight that had just flickered on.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, catching her breath.
“I … it’s just … the Mega Millions? Are you sure? And this was recently? And what the hell was up with the dude’s eyeball?”
Tanyalee roared with laughter again, clutching her arms around her middle because she thought she’d split a gut. Somewhere in the distance she heard a screen door open and shut. Then she noticed that cutting through the noise of her own guffaws was Dante’s deep chuckle.
“Everything all right, Taffy Marie?” She straightened and looked behind her. Judge Van der Rohe was standing on the porch in his boxer shorts. Tanyalee waved. “Just fine. Sorry to disturb you, Judge. We were just leaving…” Oh, sweet Jesus! The judge is in his underwear! “Let’s go!” she whispered, yanking on Dante’s arm. “Honestly, if I wanted to see an old man in his boxers I coulda just stayed home!”
Dante broke out into a jog, but Tanyalee was still so out of breath she could only manage a stumble. She gave up trying to catch him. Suddenly, Granddaddy’s sweatpants began to slide south on Dante’s muscular, olive-skinned ass, leaving all that naked perfection glowing under the Willamette Road streetlights for everyone to see. He yanked them up, but not before they’d reached halfway down his thighs, and Tanyalee shrieked with laughter, figuring Aunt Viv’s phone was probably already ringing with an eyewitness report. Just then, one of Granddaddy’s flip-flops busted, forcing Dante to hop on one foot. He grabbed the broken plastic sandal with one hand and the back of the sweatpants with the other. Tanyalee thought for sure she was going to die from a lack of oxygen she was laughing so hard.
They staggered into the sloping front yard of Aunt Viv’s house, clutching at one another and tripping over each other’s feet, Tanyalee shushing Dante because he was now making as much noise as she was. If they were too loud, Viv would surely be outside in a flash, wanting to know what kind of nonsense they were up to.
“Quiet,” she hissed. “Come with me. Hurry.” She pulled Dante to the one corner of the yard she knew wasn’t visible from inside the house. When she was little, she and her friends used to hide there, protected by a curtain of willow branches, giggling as Viv would call for Tanyalee to come for supper. When she was in junior high, it was the spot where she’d go to sneak a cigarette or two. On those many occasions when she’d been grounded in high school, Tanyalee had made out with her share of boys there, all without violating the terms of a punishment that banned her from leaving the yard.
Tanyalee instructed Dante to duck under the branches and pushed him into the hiding spot. He collapsed onto the grass, still sputtering with laughter, then yanked her down into his lap.
“Shh!” Tanyalee landed with a thud on his thighs.
“Hold still, Taffy. I want to kiss you.” His hands were firm and hot as they moved from her back to her legs, bottom, and on to her belly. He tried to kiss her but she wouldn’t let him.
“I really wish you wouldn’t call me that.” She arranged one leg on either side of his waist and faced him, slipping her fingers into his thick hair. In the diffuse light, she could see the sparkle in his dark, smiling eyes, the strong lines of his handsome face. Tanyalee felt a tender tugging in her chest. It was a wonderful, warm feeling, but a little unexpected. She didn’t quite know what to make of it.
“I can’t help it.” Dante’s lips trailed along her forehead, nose, cheeks, chin, and when he reached the center of her throat, he added the tip of his tongue to the mix of sensation. “Here’s the thing,” he whispered, his lips still on her and his breath tickling her flesh. “They may not have realized it, but I think your family was on to something when they gave you that nickname.”
“What a silly thing to say.” Tanyalee tipped her head back and moaned softly, giving him better access to the tender flesh of her throat.
“Nope.” Dante dipped lower, his lips and tongue moving onto the swell of her breasts. “See, Taffy takes patience, right? When you unwrap a piece, it’s stiff as cardboard and cool on your tongue. Not a whole lot of payoff at first, and you’re almost tempted to spit it out and throw it away.”
She felt his hands cup her breasts and lift them toward his mouth. When he gently bit at her through her shirt and bra, Tanyalee instinctively arched her back. When he caught a nipple between his teeth she trembled with need.
Dante’s deep, rumbling chuckle returned. “But oh, baby, watch out, because after just a little while in my mouth…” He looked up at her once more. “Taffy starts to soften up, and the sweet juices flow. The effort is most definitely worth it.”
Tanyalee didn’t care if he thought she was a pushover, the kind of woman who would just melt in the heat of a little bit of sweet talk and some nipple nibbling. She didn’t care about anything but feeling his kiss once more, full and deep and just a little demanding. “Dante,” she breathed, lowering her lips to his.
Suddenly, Tanyalee found herself flipped onto her back in the grass, the weight of Dante’s big body forcing her to relinquish control, his mouth hot and slick and all over on hers. She couldn’t help herself. She grabbed onto that perfect butt of his and pulled him tighter to her body, all the while wondering, What is it with the two of us? Why does this happen every time we spend five minutes together?
“I want you, Taffy,” Dante said, sliding his hands into her hair as he continued to kiss her, lips sliding along hers, tongue sensuously exploring the inside of her mouth.
Tanyalee arched her back, gripping the steel-hard heft of Dante’s upper arms, his shoulders, his back. She threw her legs around his thighs and squeezed.
“Taffy Marie? Are you out there?”
She froze. He froze. Neither breathed.
“Taffy? I hear the two of you laughing out under the willow tree so you might as well come on in. Dessert and coffee are ready.”
Tanyalee shut her eyes and sighed with frustration. Maybe someday soon, once she’d been working for Candy for a while, she’d have enough money to find an apartment. A little privacy seemed like a mighty fine idea.
Dante popped to a stand as Tanyalee forced herself into a seated position. He looked down at her, a guilty smile on his face, Granddaddy’s sweatpants once again sagging dangerously low on his hips. This time he didn’t need to use a hand to hold them in place, though, since they were snagged on something big and hard.
“Sweet baby Jesus,” Tanyalee said under her breath, rubbing both hands over her face, trying her best to snap out of her sexual dream state. Eventually, she stretched out a hand and Dante pulled her to a stand.
“Well, this is a little embarrassing,” she said, avoiding eye contact. “Sorry.”
Dante laughed softly. “Nothing to be sorry about, and it’s sure as hell not embarrassing. Not to me.”
She looked up, feeling the smile on her lips. “What is it, then?”
“It’s fun, baby. You’re fun. I have fun with you—and I’m not just talking about all the…” Dante stopped himself. “Don’t get me wrong—that part’s awesome.”
Tanyalee giggled. He was right about that.
Dante brushed his fingertips down the side of her cheek. “What I’m saying is that my life hasn’t been all that fun for the last few years. I didn’t realize how much I needed to cut loose and laugh the way I did tonight. There’s not a damn thing to be embarrassed about. You gave me a gift. You give me a gift every time I’m with you.”
“All right,” Tanyalee said, still a little confused by how kind he was. How sweet. How understanding and patient. If she were completely honest with herself, she’d have to admit she never imagined that the sexual powerhouse from the hotel room would have a gentle side.
He kissed her softly, then took her hand and led her out of the willow branches. “If I can’t have Taffy, I’ll have to settle for some cobbler,” he whispered.
They walked hand in hand to the house, Dante adjusting the sweatpants on the way. When they reached the top step, a two-person welcoming committee waited for them on the porch swing.
“Well, lookie who decided to show up,” Granddaddy said, barely containing his laughter.
Aunt Viv crossed her arms over her chest in annoyance. “You have grass in your hair, Taffy Marie.”
When Tanyalee fluffed her hair and wiped at her shirt, blades of grass rained down onto the porch floor. She realized that between the dunk in the lake and the roll on the lawn she surely looked like a grass-stained muskrat. She took a quick peek at Dante and saw that he—with his tousled hair, broken flip-flop, and falling-down drawers—didn’t look so fresh himself.
“Ya’ll could use some dessert, no doubt,” Granddaddy said, hoisting himself from the swing with a grunt. He gestured for Tanyalee and Dante to go ahead of him through the front door. “I hear a body can work up quite an appetite going around flashing the neighbors.”
Tanyalee cursed under her breath.
“Uh, Miss Newberry?” Dante spoke politely to Aunt Viv, but Tanyalee could tell he was itching to get out of there. She couldn’t blame him. “Are my clothes dry yet?”
“Well, now, funny thing about that,” she said, smiling. “You’ll have to wear Garland’s ratty old rags home, I’m afraid. I put all your muddy things in a Hefty bag right there in the foyer. You can drop it off at the cleaners on Main.”
Dante was silent. He looked puzzled at first. Then his face said it all: The Newberrys are nuttier than squirrel food.
Aunt Viv put her hands on her hips. “Well, you didn’t want me to ruin those nice work trousers and tie by putting them in the dryer, now did you?”