CHEF TELL

Time alone healed Tell’s earlier wound enough for him to realize that he wanted to love only Bunny. In his pursuit of her this time, he realized that she was his friend; that Bunny didn’t try to make sense of what was illogical about his behavior, only that she loved him without question.

For her part, Bunny allowed him back only after she felt that Tell, by his actions, had done more than what she normally would have expected.

She told him she would leave Pennsylvania and fly to Grand Cayman with him for the Christmas Holidays on one condition: if they agreed to get married forever right after New Year’s Day.

“When the chimes finish, begin. . . ” the words from High Noon drifted back into Tell’s head. It had taken his getting a taste of real blood in his mouth—the loss of the woman he really did care for—to accept that he would never find happiness in love and marriage unless he cared more for his woman than for himself.