Hacienda Moon (The Path Seekers) Read Online Free PDF Page B

goodbye. Tandie watched the girl bounce away, skipping down the driveway until she turned and disappeared behind the trees.
     
    “Do people around here not believe in cars?” Tandie wondered aloud. And then, she turned and walked back in to Chelby Rose. “What a strange girl.”
     
    Tandie walked into the hallway and paused. A drip-drop echoed through the house. It appeared to be coming from the kitchen, yet again. Rolling her eyes upward, she trudged toward the noise. Even though the tape she’d wrapped around the faucet was still in place, a steady drip still managed to escape through a slit at the bottom.
     
    “I don’t believe this,” Tandie said, fighting an urge to do some true damage to the valve.
     
    She spent about an hour trying a host of other solutions that the thick orange do-it-yourself repair book proposed. Saul still hadn’t returned either of the two messages she’d left for him about the issue. Maybe if she called and told him the house was floating away then he’d move faster.
     
    “All right. The book says I need some Stop Leak . So guess what you leaky little thing? It’s time for me to head into town,” Tandie said, feeling odd for scolding a faucet.
     
    Trudging through the hallway, she grabbed her handbag off the desk sitting beside the living room door. She headed toward the front door, yanked it open, and screamed. The woman she almost collided with screamed too—her best friend, Frieda Tyson.
     
     
     
    * * *
     
     
     
    “Girl, you scared the crap out of me. I thought you were a ghost or some crazy ass thing like that.” Frieda pulled Tandie into a tight embrace that winded her.
     
    At 5’9” tall, she was a healthy woman, with an equally strong embrace. The two women were opposites in both style and appearance. Frieda, with her exotic dark skin, made you think of the Nubian goddess statues found in the Harlem museums. She towered over Tandie’s pudgy 5’5” frame. Frieda was elected to the homecoming court twice and the guys flocked to her like bees. Tandie preferred the quiet calm of the library, the nerd in their group. Add to that oddness a pair of bi-colored eyes (one light brown and one green pupil) a mixture of races: an Egyptian mother and a Black mixed with Lumbee Indian father, and you have a girl that was nicknamed Miss Metropolitan Ice Cream in high school because of all of that. Her grandma used to say that her “curvy” body and reddish undertones were compliments of her heritage and that she should be proud of her buffalo butt.
     
    “Just look at you! Gorgeous as usual. I hate you so much right now,” Frieda mocked and then burst out in laughter.
     
    The perfume she’d doused herself with reminded Tandie of a flower garden just the way it always did. Frieda, a sex therapist, was a hippy woman. Still without kids, she and her tax attorney husband, Dom, travelled all over the world. Frieda always made sure she sent plenty of pictures back to Tandie, making her yearn for just a touch of the exciting lifestyle her friend had found. Being in Frieda’s presence ignited the ache in her chest. If there were one person Tandie could be herself with, then she was the one.
     
    Tandie clucked her teeth. “What about you with your designer duds? And look at those fingers filled with rings. I think that hater feeling is mutual.”
     
    “Let me get real, girlfriend. How are you, baby? Are you feeling all right?” She placed an arm across Tandie’s shoulders, staring deep into her eyes.
     
    Walking into her study, Tandie contemplated the best way to answer her friend’s question. “Let’s see, other than trying to accept my new status as plumber, I’m dealing with things.” She glanced at the picture of Breena sitting on her writing desk.
     
    “This house is ancient. What did you expect? I’m so mad you haven’t called me until now. Don’t you know how much I love you?” Frieda said. Before Tandie answered her she continued talking at a break