About That Man by Sherryl Woods

it.
    â€œNo,” she said at once. “I’m not telling you anything. It’s for you to decide.”
    â€œDo you think he’d be better off here with Daisy?” he asked, trying to get a clear-cut answer from her one way or the other.
    â€œI know she loves him,” Anna-Louise conceded, clearly choosing her words carefully.
    â€œI thought I heard a but in there.”
    â€œDid you?”
    He shook his head at the deliberate evasiveness. “I could find you extremely annoying, Mrs. Walton.”
    â€œAnna-Louise will do. And you only find me annoying because I won’t make your decision for you.”
    â€œI thought your job was to point people along the path to righteousness.”
    â€œThat puts them in good standing with God. This decision is about you and your family. A private matter.”
    â€œWhat if I ask for your advice?”
    She laughed. “I’ll answer with a question. What do you think is right and best for Tommy?”
    He dragged a hand through his damp hair. “I wish to hell I knew,” he said without thinking, then immediately apologized. “Sorry.”
    â€œNo problem. I will give you this much advice. Give it time, Walker. You don’t have to decide today or even tomorrow.”
    â€œTell Frances Jackson that. She’s chomping at the bit to get Tommy off her plate and onto mine.”
    â€œNo, she’s just trying to make sure he’s with someone who loves him. Every child deserves that, especially one who’s just been through the trauma of losing the only parent he’s ever known.”
    â€œYes,” Walker said slowly. “Yes, they do.”
    But was he in any position to give Tommy the kind of love he needed? Did he even have any love left to give? The three people who’d been closest to him in his life certainly didn’t think so.
    Â 
    Daisy’s gaze kept straying toward the back door. She’d expected Walker to show up by now. It was after eight, and there was still no sign of him. Fortunately Tommy didn’t seem to care one way or another. He hadn’t glanced at the door once.
    Still, she was disappointed. It wasn’t that she’d expected him, exactly. After all, wasn’t she the one who’d anticipated that he might bolt straight back to Washington? She’d merely hoped that he would keep his promise and be here this morning—for Tommy’s sake.
    â€œHow come you keep looking out the door?” Tommy asked eventually. “You’ve already burned one wafflebecause you weren’t paying attention. Looks to me like the next one is going to go any second now.”
    She whirled around just in time to see the steam coming from the waffle iron turn to something that looked suspiciously like smoke. “Blast it,” she said, yanking it open to reveal a waffle almost beyond edible.
    â€œIt’s okay. I’ll take it,” Tommy said, holding out his plate. “Looks like it’s the best I’m going to get this morning.”
    â€œVery funny, young man,” she said as she tossed it into the trash instead. “The next one will be perfect. You’ll see.”
    â€œI hope so,” Tommy told her, “’Cause I’m about starved to death.”
    Daisy carefully spooned more batter onto the waffle iron and closed it, then faced Tommy. “Now that you’ve had some time to sleep on everything that happened yesterday, what did you think of your uncle?”
    Tommy’s face scrunched up. He shrugged. “He was okay, I guess.”
    â€œYou weren’t very nice to him.”
    Tommy frowned. “Why should I be? I just said what you were thinking. We talked about it, remember? You don’t know why he abandoned my mom either.”
    â€œMaybe I didn’t understand it before he and I talked, but I do now,” Daisy told the boy. “He deserves a chance to explain it so you’ll understand it, too. He