taco carefully so as not to make a mess, he took a big bite, relishing the spicy meat sauce. “Mmm. This is good.”
Tanya smiled. “Thanks.”
She and Crystal bowed their heads while Tanya said a prayer.
When she glanced up at Chance, he’d put his taco back on his plate, a look of unease in his expression. “I don’t have the time to cook like I want to, but I do enjoy getting into the kitchen when I can,” she said, hoping to make him feel comfortable.
“I’m glad you invited me.” Chance caught her gaze and held it for a long moment. He realized he meant what he had just said. The warmth emanating from both the mother and daughter spoke to a part of him that he thought had died in prison.
Finally Tanya dropped her regard and ran her finger around the rim of her glass. “What kind of job are you applying for with Nick?”
“As an assistant for his office in Sweetwater.”
“Nick said something to me about expanding his company’s presence in Sweetwater. I guess this must be the beginning. Since he and Jesse got married, I know he doesn’t like to travel to Chicago as much as he used to. What have you done before?”
Tension knifed through Chance. He should have expected questions about his past. That was the last thing he wanted to discuss. “I was a financial advisor.”
“Was? Not anymore?”
“I’m looking for something different. That’s why this assistant’s job interests me.” That and the fact Samuel paved the way for him with Nick Blackburn. But even with Samuel’s reference, the job wasn’t a sure thing. He would have to convince Mr. Blackburn he could do the work, definitely a step down from what he’d done in the past where he’d had his own assistant.
“What happens if you don’t get the job?”
“I’m still staying for a while. I’ll just look for another one,” he quickly said to ease the worry he heard in her voice.
He needed the conversation focused on someone else. Angling around toward Crystal, he asked, “Besides Foods and Nutrition, what else are you taking?”
The teenager downed a swallow of tea. “I’m taking the usual—U.S. history, English, algebra and biology. I’m also in the girls’ choir.”
“In high school I was in the show choir. I enjoyed it.” Chance felt Tanya’s puzzled gaze on him and shifted in his chair, feeling uncomfortable under her scrutiny as though she could see into his heart and soul. Their emptiness wasn’t something he wanted exposed to the world. He busied himself by taking another bite.
“I sing in the choir at church. We can always use another man to sing.”
He heard Tanya’s words of encouragement and gritted his teeth so hard that pain streaked down his neck. Church. Religion. God wasn’t for him. He’d believed once, and his whole life, his family, had been taken away from him. He stuffed the rest of the taco into his mouth and occupied himself with chewing—slowly. Averting his gaze, he stared out the window at the backyard and hoped the woman didn’t pursue the topic of conversation.
“I thought about auditioning for the show choir, but I didn’t. I can’t dance very well in this thing,” Crystal slapped the arm of her wheelchair, “and you have to be able to sing and dance to be in it. If I can’t do it right, I don’t want to do it at all.”
The teenager’s words cut through the tension gripping Chance. He looked back at her and managed to smile, hearing the need in the child’s voice that twisted his heart. “Besides singing, what else do you like to do?”
“I like to draw.”
“Why aren’t you taking art in school?”
“I can’t take everything. I’ll probably take it next year.” Crystal shrugged. “Besides, Mom’s teaching me. She’s very good.”
Chance swung his attention to Tanya who looked away when his gaze fell on her. “What do you like to draw?”
A hint of red tinged her cheeks. “People mostly.”
“Portraits?”
“Nothing formal like that.”
“I’d love to see your work sometime.”
Tanya started to say something when Crystal chimed in, “I’ll go get her sketchbook. It’s in the dining room.” She backed up her wheelchair, made a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn, and headed for the door with her service dog following.
“I get the impression you don’t show many people your drawings.”
She shook her head, swallowing hard. “I’m not very good. I draw for myself.”
When Crystal came back into the kitchen with the sketchbook in her lap, Chance wanted to make Tanya feel at ease so he said, “I don’t want to intrude on—”
“Mom, doesn’t think she’s good. I do. Here, see for yourself.” Crystal opened the book and showed Chance.
He wasn’t sure what to expect after Tanya’s reluctant reaction, but what he saw was an exquisite portrait of Crystal sketching something. The drawing captured the teenager’s love for art in the detailed expression on her face. The pen-and-ink picture was as good as any professional artist would have done. “I’m impressed, Tanya. This is beautiful.”
“You think so?”
All the woman’s doubts were evident in her wrinkled forehead, the hesitant expression in her eyes and the hidden hope that he might really be telling her the truth. As before it was important to Chance to make Tanya feel comfortable. “Yes. I’m honored to have seen this. You should show your drawings more often.”
Tanya straightened in her chair, her head cocked. “Samuel tried to get me to have one in the Fourth of July auction this year at church. I told him I would donate my time or something else.”
Chance captured Tanya’s regard. “Next year take him up on the offer.”
She slid her gaze away and started gathering up her plate and utensils. “I’ll think about it.”
“Which means she won’t do it,” Crystal interjected and put her dishes in her lap then wheeled herself toward the sink.
Chance followed them with his place setting. “I hope you’ll let me help you clean up after being gracious enough to invite me to dinner. I might not cook very well, but I can rinse and put them in the dishwasher.”
“Yeah, Mom. Let him.”
Tanya laughed. “You’re agreeing because you’ll get out of your part of cleaning up.”
“I’ve got homework to do.”
“On Friday night?”
Crystal lifted her shoulders. “What else is there to do?”
“Fine.” Tanya watched her frowning daughter and the black Lab
