Sleepless Nights (The Donovans of the Delta) Read Free

passion, the betrayal, the guilt, the hatred. Tanner was the first to break the spell. He knew that if he didn’t walk away now, he never would.
    “And I don’t want anything from you, Amanda.” He stood up swiftly, taking the check with him. “Consider this payment on an old debt, an apology for trying to steal you from Claude at the altar.”
    “Done.” She picked up her hat and set it on her head again at the same jaunty angle. “I suppose I could have demanded blood. You’re getting off lightly.”
    “The next time I’ll send diamonds. So long, Amanda.” Giving her a smart salute, he turned toward the cash register.
    “There won’t be a next time.”
    He heard her but kept walking. He decided it was better to let her have the last word than to risk turning back. If he looked into those aqua eyes one minute longer, he’d have her in his arms right in the middle of Jimmy’s, scandalizing half the population of the Delta.
    He paid for the chocolate and got into his car without looking back. Grimly he turned the key in the ignition and set a hell-bent-for-leather course across town. Tanner Donovan was going home, and nothing was going to spoil his homecoming. Not even Amanda Lassiter.
     o0o
    Amanda sat at the booth long after he had gone. She felt as if her heart had just been ripped out and stomped on. Pressing her knees together under the table, she forced herself, to sit still until she could calm down. Dear heaven, she’d had no idea that seeing Tanner again would affect her like this. It had been eleven years. Eleven years!
    Curious faces began to turn in her direction. She met their stares with her head up. She wasn’t going to let this encounter with Tanner Donovan get the best of her. She had to live in this town. Pasting a bright smile on her face, she stood up and walked across the room. She even managed to put a smart spring into her step and to call out a few cheerful greetings.
    Her car seemed a million miles away, but she was finally inside. While the engine was warming up, she turned and looked down the road. There was no sign of Tanner. Not even a lingering puff of dust marked his departure.
    Putting her car into gear, she headed home.
    “Out of sight, out of mind,” she said aloud, but even as she spoke, she knew she was lying.
     

 
     
    CHAPTER TWO
    Amanda could hear the music all the way out in the parking lot— White Christmas played by Greenville’s Jazz Combo with more enthusiasm and optimism than skill. Smiling, she locked her car and started toward the clubhouse alone. Her escort for the evening, Walter Cummings, had called the night before with fever, a hacking cough, and profuse apologies.
    It was just as well, she decided. Since the previous day’s encounter with Tanner Donovan, she’d been poor company for everybody. Her Friday night bridge party had been a disaster. She and Maxine had been set twice because of her crazy bidding. Once she’d bid four hearts with nothing in her hand except the queen and a jack—and all because she was thinking of the way Tanner Donovan’s pants fit. She wondered if five years of deprivation had warped her mind.
    She wasn’t going to dwell on it.
    Holding her head high in what she hoped was an elegant manner, she pushed open the door and entered the Greenville Country Club.
    Amanda’s entrance caused a stir. Though others, including Tanner, called her a head-turning beauty, she knew it wasn’t her looks that had people in a dither. Nor was it her dress—a twenties-style ivory satin gown that clung to her body like a lover. It was the anticipation. Greenville residents, who could remember the way Tanner Donovan had raged when Amanda Lassiter walked down the aisle with his best friend, wondered what would happen with the two of them in the same room all evening.
    They weren’t long in finding out.
    Amanda had barely cleared the doorway when she saw him coming. She felt a melting warmth all the way down to her toes. In a tuxedo, Tanner