Tippy Shores was in her robe when the doorbell rang. She made sure she was properly covered and looked out of the curtain to see who was ringing the bell this late.
“Oh, my.” She said as she hurried to undo the deadbolts and open the front door.
“I’m sorry. I know it’s late…” Saxon Allen was trembling.
“Honey, it’s okay.” Tippy held the door open and allowed her entrance. “Come on in.”
“Ian…” she said. “He’s not home. I was hoping he was here…”
“No, honey, we went to…”
Saxon hung her head. “Lost Mountain.” She took a deep breath.
“Come over here and sit down, Saxon.”
The woman said “Thank you” and sat uncomfortably on the edge of the sofa.
“Honey,” Tippy patted her on the knee. “He’ll be back tomorrow. Reese flew him down yesterday.”
“I got a message from my mother. She told me Ian’s Aunt Hil had died. I didn’t know if he’d gone back or what…”
“I’d have called you myself, but I didn’t know how to contact you. Ian said you were out of town.”
Saxon nodded her head. “In Australia, I came back early. I had turned my phone off. When I landed, I finally turned it back on to see if that…jerk tried to call.”
“Romantic holiday didn’t work out so well?” Tippy rubbed Saxon’s shoulder.
“The first few days were wonderful, but Rudy started getting the 72 hour itch and next thing I knew he was chasing around waitresses and beach bunnies. I finally had enough and hopped the next plane home.” Saxon looked up at Tippy. “Is he okay? Have you talked to him?”
Tippy took her hand. “Come on, sweetie, let’s go in the kitchen and have some tea and cheese cake.” They stood up and Saxon followed Tippy through the house. “He’s shook up, Saxon, but he seemed to be holding together well.” She pulled a stool out from the kitchen counter and patted it. “Have a seat. You hungry? I’ve got some left over fried chicken?”
“No, thank you. Tea and cheesecake sounds good, though.” Saxon smiled.
Tippy opened the fridge door. “We all wanted to go with him, but Ian insisted he do it alone.” She pulled a pan from the fridge and put it on the counter. “I did manage to talk him into letting Reese fly him down.” She reached over her head putting two mugs of water in the microwave and then grabbed two plates.
“Good.” Saxon said. “At least he’s not alone. Just a small piece.”
Tippy looked up from the knife she was about to slice with. “Ian made it.”
Saxon grinned. “Okay, a big piece…”
“They are staying at a motel, but they went to the Osbourne’s this morning and they were all going to the service together.”
Panic was written all over Saxon’s face. “The Osbournes?”
“Yes.” Tippy smiled placing a large chunk of cake in front of Saxon. “Janie and Kyle, is that right?” The microwave alarmed and Tippy opened the door and took out two mugs of steamy water. “They bought his old place, next door to his aunt?”
“Yes.” Saxon opened two tea bags and dunked one in each cup. “He’s okay with that?”
“I guess so. He didn’t really say.” Tippy pulled open a drawer and got out two forks and two spoons.
Saxon let out a breath. “It was going to be hard enough without that. It never crossed my mind.” She put her hand on her forehead and her elbow on the counter and forked the cheesecake a little.
“Honey, is something wrong? I mean, why would that be a problem?” Tippy pulled her stool right up beside Saxon, and shoved the sugar bowl toward her.
“Has Ian talked much about his past?”
“Not a whole lot.” Tippy swirled her sugar into her tea. “It seems to make him uncomfortable, so as hard as that is for me, I don’t press it. Eat your cheesecake, honey.”
Saxon nodded her head. “He has tried so hard to put it all behind him, and it keeps just coming back and smacking him in the face.”
“Darlin’, I knew he was raised so poor there’s not a word for it, and I understand that he was abused, but whenever you bring up Lost Mountain, or if it even slips off his tongue, you can see this glaze just take him over and he shuts completely down.”
“So he has told you about it?”
“Just bits and pieces.”
“Ian’s a survivor, but there are a lot of deep scars. It seems every time he’s gotten hold of some kind of happiness and managed to get the past to stay down, something comes along a rips those old wounds right back open.” Saxon washed down a bite with tea.
“You care for him a lot.” Tippy smiled and sipped her own cup. “You don’t have to say anything. I can see it.” She forked off another bite of cheesecake. “Why haven’t the two of you ever gotten together?”
Saxon half smiled, half frowned. “Oh, timing, all wrong. It’s something that was just never meant to be.”
“But now that that Clare thing is out of the picture?”
“Oh, Tippy.” Saxon shook her head. “Let it go. Ian and I are close, but there are just…bridges neither one of us can get across.” She smiled. “Even though we haven’t seen each other in years, last weekend we picked right up where we left off as dear, dear friends with that little ache there of just enough memory of the past that will never let us be anything more than that.”
Tippy put her fork down on the plate. “Now, you see, I don’t understand. First of all, why would he choose that hellion over you to begin with? As I see it she swooped right in and took him away from you. He never loved her, and I know his heart…and every time you mention your name…”
“Tippy Ian loved Clare, in his own way, but I don’t think it’s possible for Ian to be in love. It might happen someday, but there’s…let’s just let that go.”
Tippy picked up her empty plate. “You want some more?” Saxon shook her head and scooted her plate toward Tippy. “Of course, I’ve only pieced it together, and no matter what you both say I will never understand how he could choose her over you.”
“I was never in the running, Tippy. I was always just the friend on the side lines, watching him struggle.”
Tippy smiled at her as she shut the dishwasher door. “That’s not what I heard. Ian told me that on the first day of that class the two of you just clicked. It was like you’d known each other all your life.”
“We had a very common bond.” Tippy noticed that sad smile Ian got when he talked about Saxon creep across her face as she spoke of him. “We were both poor kids in a school filled with rich kids. It was easy to spot each other and feed off that support. It never crossed our minds that it was ever anything more than a kinship.”
“Oh…I see.” Tippy said as she seated herself back beside Saxon. “You had a boyfriend.”
“No. No I didn’t.”
“Then?”
Saxon cocked her head and looked at Tippy. “You don’t know?”
“Know what, child?”
“About Taylor?”
“Whose Taylor?” Tippy asked.
“Ian’s wife.” Saxon read the shocked look on Tippy’s face.
“Mama!” Jesse yelled from up the stairs. “Mama, turn on the TV!” He screamed as he bounded down and into sight.
“What on earth!” Tippy shouted back.
Jesse raced to the little television sitting on the counter. Colton walked up behind Tippy and put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s all over the 11 o’clock news.”
“What is?” she said.
Colton nodded his head toward the set, now blazing into action. The HRT news anchor talked into the camera with a picture of Ian behind him.
“That’s Ian.” Saxon bolted up. “Turn it up, turn it up!”
Jesse pointed the remote and the sound got louder…
“HRT Executive Ian Justyn narrowly escaped death this afternoon…” the man read.
“Oh my God!” Tippy said quietly.
“For more details we go now to Barton Dennison, live in Virginia. Barton, what’s going on?”
The screen split, Barton Dennison popping into view. “Details are sketchy at the moment, Carl, but what we have managed to put together is that Ian Justyn was in his hometown for the burial of an old friend.”
“Is that a house on fire behind him?” Colton asked.
“Justyn and an unidentified companion had returned when at some point a tank used for heating exploded. Dry conditions and heavy winds caused the fire to spread quickly.” Dennison said to the camera. “Preliminary investigations report that Justyn pulled two people from the flames.”
“Was anyone seriously injured, Barton?”
“Justyn, his companion and the two people rescued were taken to the hospital but treated and released with minor injuries. The owners of the home behind me, sadly, perished in either the flames or as a result of the explosion.”
The Shores and Saxon watched the screen in horror. The phone rang. Tippy immediately snatched it up.
“Hello…?” She said as she kept glued to the screen.
“Mom? It’s Reese…”
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