Free One From The Heart by Cinda Richards, Cheryl Reavis Page B

being attracted to another. It was his sense of honor and decency that kept him from doing anything about it, and John Ernest Watson, if last night was any example, was a decent, honorable man.
    She began cleaning up the rest of the spilled oatmeal, wiping up places she’d already wiped because Ernie had followed her to the kitchen.
    “She hasn’t had any breakfast,” she said after a time. She wanted to tell him how good she thought he was with Petey, but she didn’t want him to think she was trying to compromise him—again.
    “I think she’ll be asleep in a minute. She’s pretty worn out,” he answered, his eyes trying to hold hers. “What happened?”
    “She … spilled her oatmeal.” Hannah looked away and kept wiping the table. “It was all downhill from there.”
    “I should have told her I was leaving. What did you tell her?”
    “I told her the truth. I told her you wouldn’t be here today and that I didn’t know where you were.”
    “I was standing by a damn pay telephone trying not to call you, that’s where I was,” he said testily.
    “Look! You didn’t have to come back here. We would have been all right—and what are you mad at me for? I haven’t done anything!”
    “Oh, no? You’ve just upset my whole damn life, that’s all!”
    “I beg your pardon!” Hannah said indignantly.
    “You heard me! But neither one of us has got the time to worry about that now. I called my aunt Mim in Tahlequah right after I talked to you. She wants you to bring Petey to her as soon as you can. Today—”
    “I can’t do that,” Hannah interrupted. “I have to work, and Lord knows we don’t want me to upset your life anymore.”
    “You have to take her,” he said stubbornly. “Mim’s heard from Libby.”

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    “W HERE IS SHE ?”
    “Mim doesn’t know.”
    “She doesn’t know ! Then why am I supposed to take Petey to her?” Hannah said, whispering so that Petey wouldn’t hear them. But the trouble with whispering was that Ernie had to come closer to hear her.
    Maybe he really had been standing by a pay telephone, she thought as she looked up at him. He looked so tired. She could see the fatigue in his eyes, and she suppressed the urge to touch him, trying hard not to look away. The morning had been awful, and the rest of the day was showing no signs of improvement. Lord, she wanted him to put his arms around her!
    “This is Libby we’re talking about here, Hannah, not a Greyhound bus. She wouldn’t keep a schedule—even if she did happen to make one. All she told Mim was that she’d be there sometime tomorrow. With Libby, that could mean any time—night or day.”
    “What did Elizabeth say about Petey?”
    “Nothing.”
    “ Nothing! I’m supposed to take Petey there when Elizabeth obviously still doesn’t want her?”
    “Hannah, look. Neither one of us knows what’s going on, and we’re not about to find out until we talk to Libby. You don’t have anybody to leave Petey with, so we’re going to have to take her along.”
    “We?”
    “Yes, we . You and me.”
    “You’re not coming with me,” Hannah said stubbornly. And she meant it. How could she go to Oklahoma with him and not make a bigger fool of herself than she already had? And what was the matter with him anyway? They couldn’t be together and not get into trouble— his words.
    “Have you ever been to Tahlequah?”
    “No, but I can read a map like nobody’s business. I had to all those years I traveled around with my mother.”
    “Maybe so. But you don’t know all the shortcuts I know. We want to get mere ahead of Libby, in case she won’t wait. Now, you know she’s as apt to go as she is to stay and wait for us, Petey or no Petey.”
    Hannah pulled out a chair and sat down at the kitchen table. She had no argument for that. None. She took a deep breath and tried to think.
    “Hannah, I want to go with you. I don’t want to worry about you and Petey on the road alone when you don’t know