Secrets in the Sand by Carolyn Brown

            He had barely sat back down when one of the caterers brought him a cordless phone. “For you, sir. The phone rang in the kitchen area, and one of my helpers answered it. The caller asked for you.”

            “Hello?” Clancy pushed the button and waited.

            His eyes suddenly filled with tears and his chin quivered. Angel looped her arm in his. “Is everything all right?”

            He shook his head. “We’ll be there as soon as we can get there,” he said. “Angel is right here beside me. I’ll bring her with me. Tell him we’re on our way.”

            “What’s wrong?” Angel asked.

            “That was Anna. Red’s had a heart attack. They’ve got him in the hospital in Denison, and he’s asking for the two of us. I was wondering why they weren’t here. Mama would have invited them for sure.”

            Tears ran down Angel’s cheeks, dripping off her jaw. “I’ll get my things together.”

            “Here, take this.” Clancy pressed a white hanky into her hands. “I’ll tell Mama and Tom and be right behind you.”





Chapter 15


            Red’s wife, Anna, met them at the hospital door. Her makeup was smeared from all the tears she had cried. Her trademark skintight jeans had long since lost their perfect crease from top to bottom.

            “How is he?” Angel hugged her old friend tightly and felt Anna’s thin shoulders shudder as she gave way to a whole new set of sobs.

            “Red’s goin’ to make it. The doctor’s said this heart attack was just a little one, but it sure scared me. While we were waiting for the ambulance, I realized that I didn’t even know how much I loved him until I nearly lost him. I thought he was gone, Angel. I really thought he was gone.” She wept even harder. “Oh, Clancy.” Anna broke one arm away and brought him into a three-way hug. “He started asking for you a couple of hours ago. I told him to wait until we saw the doctor, but Red said to call you right now. Only immediate family is allowed in intensive care, but he’s pitched such a fit, they said you two could go in if it will calm him down.”

            “Are you sure?” Angel drew back and looked at her. “We don’t want to upset or worry him. Most of all, we don’t want to excite him. Maybe we ought to wait till tomorrow morning.”

            “Nope. Red intends to see Clancy tonight,” Anna said. “I’ll go with you up to the floor where he is and wait in the lobby until he visits with you. The nurses sure wouldn’t allow all three of us in there at once. They said you could only stay five minutes. He’s done told me what he intends to say, and I agree with him, Clancy. So, listen to him. And besides, he’s afraid to go to sleep before he speaks his mind.”

            They found Red in a room at the end of the intensive care ward. An oxygen tube was stretched around his freckled face and attached under his nose. An IV dripped into his sinewy left arm, which had seen more hard work in its sixty years than most men could experience in two or three lifetimes. He looked so much smaller in a hospital bed than he did when Angel had wheeled and dealed with him over oil wells. When he sat across a conference table from her, haggling over the price of a well, he seemed to be ten feet tall and made of steel. Tonight, he looked like someone’s grandpa, with wispy red hair turning gray and deep wrinkles around his mouth.

            “Afternoon, you two kids.” Red smiled and a bit of color returned to his face. “Glad you are here. Saves me a trip up to your place, because I was determined to see you even if I had to crawl out of the bed and check myself out of this place.”

            “Red, you old devil.” Clancy bent over the bed and hugged him. “You’ve given us a scare. Angel cried all the way down here, and I couldn’t swallow the lump in my throat.”

            Angel had to tiptoe and then bend over to kiss him on the forehead. “The trip seemed like it took two days instead of a little over an hour.”

            “I’m glad y’all love me that much,” Red said. “It’ll make what I’ve got to say a lot easier. Now I’ve been asking—even begging—you to come to work for me, Clancy. You’ve always been like a son to me and Anna, the son we couldn’t have.”

            Red paused and took a deep breath. “Not that you’ve been around much lately. But you’re a grown man with your own life to live, and I know you have liked teaching high school kids. I’m too old for the stress of running an oil company. I’ve got to slow down. I don’t just want you to work for me. I need you to help me.”