The Best of Me - Nicholas Sparks [46]
“I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Are there storms like that when you’re on the oil rig?”
“Less often than you’d think. If we’re in the projected path, we usually get evacuated.”
“Usually?”
He shrugged. “Meteorologists get it wrong sometimes. I’ve been on the fringe of some hurricanes and it’s unnerving. You’re really at the mercy of the weather, and you just have to hunker down while the rig sways, knowing that no one’s coming to the rescue if it goes over. I’ve seen some guys completely lose it.”
“I think I’d be like one of those guys who lost it.”
“You were fine when Hurricane Diana was coming in,” he pointed out.
“That’s because you were there.” Amanda slowed her pace. Her voice was earnest. “I knew you wouldn’t let anything happen to me. I always felt safe when you were around.”
“Even when my dad and my cousins came by Tuck’s? To get their money?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Even then. Your family never bothered me.”
“You were lucky.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “When we were together, I’d see Ted or Abee in town sometimes, and every now and then I’d see your father. Oh, they’d have those little smirks on their faces if our paths happened to cross, but they never made me nervous. And then later, when I’d come back here in the summers, after Ted had been sent away, Abee and your dad kept their distance. I think they knew what you’d do if anything ever happened to me.” She came to a full stop under the shade of a tree and faced him. “So no, I’ve never been afraid of them. Not once. Because I had you.”
“You’re giving me too much credit.”
“Really? You mean you would have let them hurt me?”
He didn’t have to answer. She could tell by his expression that she was right.
“They were always afraid of you, you know. Even Ted. Because they knew you as well as I did.”
“You were afraid of me?”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said. “I knew you loved me and that you’d do anything for me. And that was one of the reasons it hurt so much when you ended it, Dawson. Because I knew even then how rare that kind of love is. Only the luckiest people get to experience it at all.”
For a moment Dawson seemed unable to speak. “I’m sorry,” he finally said.
“So am I,” she said, not bothering to hide the old sadness. “I was one of the lucky ones, remember?”
After reaching Morgan Tanner’s office, Dawson and Amanda sat in the small reception area replete with scuffed pine floors, end tables stacked with outdated magazines, and fraying upholstered chairs. The receptionist, who looked old enough to have been drawing social security for years, was reading a paperback novel. Then again, there wasn’t much else for her to do. In the ten minutes they waited, the phone never rang.
Finally, the door swung open, revealing an elderly man with a shock of white hair, gray caterpillars for eyebrows, and a rumpled suit. He waved them into his office. “Amanda Ridley and Dawson Cole, I presume?” He shook their hands. “I’m Morgan Tanner, and I’d like to express my sympathies to both of you. I know this must be hard.”
“Thank you,” Amanda said. Dawson simply nodded.
Tanner ushered them to a pair high-backed leather chairs. “Please sit down. This shouldn’t take long.”
Tanner’s office was nothing like the reception area, with mahogany shelving neatly stacked with hundreds of law books and a window that overlooked the street. The desk, an ornate antique with detailed molding on the corners, was topped with what appeared to be a Tiffany lamp. A walnut box sat in the center of the desk, which faced the leather armchairs.
“I want to apologize for being late. I was tied up on the phone, taking care of some last-minute details.” He kept talking as he shuffled around the desk. “I suppose you’re wondering why all the secrecy about the arrangements, but that was the way Tuck wanted it. He was rather insistent and had his own ideas about things.” He inspected them from beneath his bushy eyebrows. “But I suppose you two already know that.”