Annie's Answer

by Hanson, Pam Andrews

  When she went into the house, Mattie met her in the foyer, lightly leaning on one crutch.

  “I found moldy cheese in the refrigerator,” she said, sounding scandalized. “Cleaning it has to be our next project.”

  Annie mumbled agreement, her mind still too occupied with thoughts of Nathan to care what Mattie had planned for her.

  At least the morning went quickly. Mattie didn’t insist she scrub the fridge with a toothbrush, but she was almost that meticulous. No germ could survive her crusade for cleanliness.

  Annie followed instructions, but her mind kept wandering. Fortunately she’d learned Mattie didn’t require much in the way of conversation. It was enough if she threw in an occasional word or two to show she was listening.

  “Isn’t that lovely,” Mattie said admiring the sparkling clean fridge. “Now what should we have for lunch?”

  “I could get takeout,” Annie said, wondering if she could squeeze a quick visit to the flower shop into a run for food.

  Before Mattie could accept or decline, the front door chimes sounded. Annie hurried to answer with Mattie meandering after her.

  “Gramps!” She’d completely forgotten he might call on Mattie.

  “Well, if it isn’t Reverend Williams,” Mattie said. “Do come in. You’re just in time for lunch.”

  “You needn’t trouble yourself,” Gramps said. “I just thought it was high time I called to welcome you to Westover and our congregation. And I’m just plain Dwight now that I’m retired.”

  As long as Annie had known her grandfather, she still marveled at his gift for putting people at ease. In moments he and Mattie were chatting like old friends.

  “Why don’t I run out to get lunch while you visit?” she suggested hopefully.

  “That sounds fine,” Mattie agreed. “Reverend, please come into the kitchen. I always say that’s the place for friends, the heart of the home. The living room here looks ready for one of my nephew’s society parties.”

  Before Annie could ask what Mattie would like for lunch, the front door opened and Nathan walked in carrying a large white paper bag.

  “Nice to see you, Reverend,” he said, handing Annie the bag and shaking her grandfather’s hand. “You’re just in time for lunch.”

  As they walked to the kitchen, Annie caught a whiff of something so delicious it couldn’t possibly be fast food.

  “I discovered a great new restaurant,” Nathan said, giving her a significant look. “Hard to believe I’d never been there before, but I think this is the kind of cooking you love, Aunt Mattie. And please join us, Reverend Williams.”

  He didn’t need to tell Annie the food came from Mama’s. He’d outdone himself, bringing four large Styrofoam cartons including one with nearly half an apple pie and cheese slices.

  Mattie played hostess, instructing Annie to get out the everyday plates, colorful Fiesta ware.

  “None of those,” she said, telling her to put one back. “I can’t abide food on purple plates. I don’t know why George’s wife didn’t pick a nice color like yellow to go with the others.”

  It seemed surreal to sit down for a meal with her grandfather, Nathan, and Mattie. At least there was no reason for her to keep up a conversation. Mattie and Gramps talked nonstop while Nathan watched with a bemused expression, frequently looking in her direction as though they shared a secret. Neither of the older people asked where the food came from.

  “How about I challenge you to a game of checkers, Mattie?” Gramps asked when they’d finished eating. “I have a set in my car.”

  “Checkers are for old people,” she protested, sounding more like the taskmaster Annie knew.

  “I have to get back to the office,” Nathan said. “It was nice seeing you, Reverend. Annie, why don’t you walk me to my car?”

  She left her grandfather and Mattie debating about the merits of checkers as a way to keep a person’s brain nimble and followed Nathan outside.

  “You went back to Mama’s.”

  “I had Bonnie pick it up for me,” he admitted. “I don’t usually send her on personal errands, but I couldn’t get away in time.”

  “Do you have to go back to court?”

  “No, the judge called a recess. I have to give my summation tomorrow morning.” He’d left his suit jacket in the car, but he still looked warm as the sun beat down on their heads. “How did your morning go?”

  “Fine. I cleaned the fridge.”

  “I’ll tell Aunt Mattie to leave something for the cleaning crew. You’re not the maid.”

  “No, please, I don’t mind. It gives me something to do to pass the time, and it’s Mattie’s idea of fun.”

  “If you’re sure….”

  The concern on his face made him seem even more appealing.

  “Yes, it’s not a problem,” she assured him.

  “That’s not why I wanted a word with you.” He sounded hesitant, and her first thought was she was going to be fired.

  “I’m doing my best.…”

  “Of course you are. I enjoyed our dinner last night—well, you saw I brought lunch from Mama’s.”

  “People do get hooked on his cooking.” She was teasing, but it didn’t come out that way.

  “It wasn’t the food. I haven’t had much time for fun with Dad gone. I wonder whether you ever get an evening off from the pancake place.”

  Was he asking her out? He must have something other than a date in mind. Did he want her to take Mattie to some evening event?

  “I have Thursday evenings off,” she said in a hesitant voice.

  “How about dinner with me?” he asked. “And maybe the summer theatre north of town is doing a production you’d like to see. I haven’t been there in ages, but they have an equity cast.”

  “Leave your aunt home alone?”

  “She doesn’t need a babysitter,” he said a bit impatiently. “Anyway, she’s an early-to-bed, early-to-rise farm wife.”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, you’d like to go?”

  “If you’re sure—I mean, we’d just be going as friends, wouldn’t we?” She wasn’t sure what she was doing. The last thing she wanted was to talk him out of it.

  “Friends, of course. I have an appointment, but I’ll get back to you on the time.”

  As soon as he left, she panicked. What could she wear? Her newest date dress was the one she’d worn to the senior prom. Her feet were a half size larger since she’d started waiting tables, and.…

  And nothing! Every girl should be Cinderella at least once in her life. Maybe Nathan was only rewarding her for being a good companion to his great aunt, but she couldn’t deny herself a brief interlude of sheer happiness. She didn’t know how to act or what to say on a date with a Sawyer, but it would give her a memory to cherish for a long time.

  Chapter 11

  He never acted on impulse, but this time he had. Nathan didn’t know what had come over him at lunch when he’d asked Annie to go out with him. Now he worried she might read too much into it. He didn’t have the time or the inclination for a long-time commitment, but his instinct told him Annie was a woman who took things seriously. The thought of misleading or hurting her warred with his expectation of a pleasant evening in her company.

  Whatever his reservations, he wanted to spend time with her. She was funny and earnest, hardworking and kind. In fact, no one could have made his aunt happier, and that alone earned his deep respect.

  He woke up Wednesday morning wishing it were Thursday. At least he would be through with the court case by this afternoon and could catch up on the huge load of work his father had left for him. Spending the summer in Europe had been his mother’s idea. She was outspoken about how boring Westover could be, but he was surprised his dad had agreed to be away from the office that long. Maybe it was his trial by fire to see if he could manage on his own.

  Before he could get to the shower, there was an insistent pounding on his bedroom door.

  “Just a minute.” Roused to full w
akefulness, he threw on a robe and went to answer it.

  “Aunt Mattie.”

  “Sorry if I woke you, but my sink isn’t draining properly. Should I call a plumber?”

  She was wrapped up in an oversized blue terrycloth robe he recognized as an old one of his father’s. Since she’d left with very few things of her own, the family had scrambled to give her a temporary wardrobe, soon replaced by mail order clothes she picked out online. Apparently she had a fondness for the secondhand robe.

  “Maybe we have some of that stuff that clears drains,” he said. “You didn’t drop anything down it, did you?”

  “Certainly not!” Mattie indignantly denied.

  “I’ll take a look,” he said, padding barefooted to her part of the house.

  By the time he checked out the sluggish drain, found something to unstop it, and convinced Mattie he had to get ready for work, he was half an hour behind schedule.

  It was a bad start to an impossibly busy day, but he did get to his car just as Annie was pulling into the drive, her car making a racket seldom heard in this part of town. He could make time to say hello to her.

  “I’m sorry I’m late,” she said with beguiling breathlessness. “I had to stop at the flower shop to tell them I’ll be able to buy it, then I picked up ad copy from two of my regulars. I’ve spent the last hour knocking on back doors, hoping people have gone to work early.”

  “You’re all of seven minutes late,” he teased, checking his watch. “Remember, I said your hours are flexible. If you need to do something during the day, it’s not a problem.”

  “No, but Mattie expects me.” She looked especially appealing in tan shorts and a bright yellow tank top, practical for whatever jobs his great aunt had planned on a day promising to be a scorcher.

  “She’s puttering around in her room. There’s no hurry.” He forgot he was in a big rush.

  “Well, have a nice day,” Annie said, sidestepping to get past him.

  “I’m looking forward to the theatre tomorrow evening.” The truth was he didn’t care where he went as long as it was with Annie.

  He was on dangerous territory here. Annie was sweet and adorable but unlike any woman he’d ever been attracted to. Breaking up with her would be an emotional jolt, but then, one date didn’t constitute a relationship. They would go out, and he would have a chance to figure out why he liked her so much. One date, and that would be the end of it.

  “If you still want to go….” She sounded uncertain.

  That stung. Did she think he wanted to back out of his invitation?

  “Of course,” he said abruptly, a little hurt she doubted his word. “I’d better get going.”

  “Well, have a nice day.”

  “You already said that.” He felt like a jerk when she blushed at his reminder.

  The way this day was going, he’d probably have a thousand- word e-mail from his father reminding him of all the things he hadn’t had time to do.

  Was Nathan angry at her for doubting whether he really wanted to go out with her? It was one more worry to add to her growing list. Although Bill Polk had been congenial when she told him she’d have the down payment on his shop, his wife, Shirley, had been reserved, as though she’d just heard bad news. Did they have another buyer in mind, one who might pay more?

  Although she’d dropped off ad copy in the mail slot at the newspaper, Annie knew it wasn’t nearly as much as usual. She hated letting Marge down, especially when the paper was facing hard times. The deadline was noon today, and there was no way she could make more calls before then.

  Tomorrow morning was her usual day to help out in the church office. Would she have to let them down too? Nathan said she could leave whenever she needed to, but that didn’t mean leaving Mattie alone for half a day or more.

  “Mattie!” she called out when she didn’t find the older woman in her favorite room, the kitchen.

  Her first thought was she might have fallen, but before she could search for her, Mattie came into the kitchen.

  “You’re walking without your crutches,” Annie said, pleased to see it but hoping she wasn’t rushing her recovery.

  “I’m tired of those silly sticks. Now, what should we do today?” It was a rhetorical question. Mattie was the one who made the work lists.

  “Would you like to get out? Maybe have lunch in the park?” Annie asked optimistically.

  “Too hot. I thought maybe we could clean the oven and do those cupboards up high. The gardener comes on Wednesday. Maybe he knows where there’s a step ladder. You’ll need one to reach the ones over the fridge.”

  “Is he here? I’ll go ask him.”

  “He’s been puttering around since dawn, no doubt trying to get a jump on the heat. At least he wasn’t running the lawn mower. I can’t believe George has a lawn service just to mow. My Tom would’ve made fast work of it with his rider mower.”

  It was rare for Mattie to mention her husband. Annie was reminded of how much the older woman had lost. She deserved respect for the way she was coping.

  Following Mattie’s instructions, Annie made iced tea for lunch and boiled eggs to make a favorite of the older woman’s: pickled beets and eggs.

  “We’ll have to use canned beets,” Mattie complained. “I put beets on the shopping list for Nathan last weekend, and that’s what he bought. I always use fresh if they’re available.”

  Annie did convince her not to run the self-cleaning feature of the oven, using the one argument Mattie would accept: It would be a waste of energy when the oven looked as though it had hardly been used.

  “That would be George’s wife,” Mattie said. “She has the best oven money can buy but doesn’t turn it on more than once a year.”

  When Mattie sent her to find the gardener, an older man she vaguely knew as one of her friend’s grandfather, Annie lingered and watched him weeding one of the beds. The fragrance of the flowers and the bright splashes of color enchanted her, but after a few minutes her conscience prompted her to ask about a ladder.

  When he carried it into the kitchen for her, Mattie beamed with pleasure and offered him iced tea. She obviously took pleasure talking to someone closer to her age, and Annie wondered if Nathan had made a mistake not finding an older woman as her companion.

  While they talked about things ‘back in the day,’ Annie eyed the small ladder with misgivings. In order to reach the high cupboards over the fridge, she would have to stand on the top. The rungs wouldn’t allow her to reach high enough. She wasn’t exactly afraid of heights—but she had a healthy respect for them. Maybe it was more accurate to say she was afraid of falling.

  The gardener, Mr. Baines, left with a smile on his face matched by Mattie’s, and Annie resolutely climbed the ladder.

  “You can hand me the things you find,” Mattie said, hovering beside the creaky ladder. “We’ll give then a good wash and line the shelve with nice contact paper.”

  Annie’s knees trembled as she leaned over the top of the fridge, hoping there was nothing behind the first small door she opened.

  “It looks like things they never use,” she said, hoping Mattie would decide to forget it.

  “George’s wife never uses anything in the kitchen, but that doesn’t mean the cupboards shouldn’t get a good cleaning.”

  Annie handed down the first item, a heavy mixer that required both hands to lift. If she fell, all her hopes for a business of her own could be ruined. She clutched at the fridge as soon as Mattie took the mixer and tried to see what else was in the cupboard. There seemed to be a collection of empty glass canning jars. She reached for one with an unsteady hand.

  “Sakes alive!” Mattie said. “This stuff should go to a charity shop, but it’s not mine to give away. I guess we’ll have to wash it and put it back.”

  We’ll have to? Annie wanted to say. Mattie wasn’t the one risking life and limb to clean a cupboard that Nathan’s mother might never open.

  Did she only imagine she heard the sound of a door open
ing and closing? She peered into the depths of the cupboard, hoping it was empty. Unfortunately there was something at the very back, almost too far away to reach. She stretched forward, tempted to pretend nothing else was there. How on earth was she going to line it with contact paper when she could barely reach it?

  The ladder wobbled under her feet as she attempted to grab whatever it was. Just as her fingers touched the elusive object, Nathan came into the kitchen calling out in a loud voice.

  “What on earth are you doing?”

  She could feel her precarious perch giving way, the ladder slipping away from her feet. She tried to clutch at the fridge to keep from falling, but it was too slippery. Time seemed to stop as she desperately treaded air, crying out in distress.

  Instead of landing on the floor in a bone-breaking heap, she felt strong arms around her, lowering her gently to her feet on solid ground.

  “Why would you climb a ladder that should have been put in the trash years ago? What was so important you had to get into those cupboards?”

  It was the first time Annie had seen Nathan angry, and even Mattie seemed to cower for a moment.

  “You startled me!” Annie said. “I was perfectly all right until you came barging in.”

  His face was pale, and he seemed genuinely frightened. She wanted to reassure him, but Mattie didn’t give her a chance.

  “For goodness sake, Nathan! Annie had a bad enough fright without you hollering at her. It was my idea and my fault she was on the ladder.”

  Annie started to breath normally after her scare, but she didn’t want her fall to cause trouble between Nathan and his great aunt.

  “I wasn’t doing anything I didn’t want to do,” she insisted.

  “Can’t I leave the two of you here alone?” he asked in a weary tone. “It’s only common sense not to stand on the top of a shaky ladder.”

  “Annie was fine until you came in,” Mattie said in a subdued voice, apparently cowed by her nephew’s disapproval.

  “What was so important you had to climb up there?” he asked, picking up one of the old canning jars. “This stuff isn’t even worth taking to the thrift store. I’m putting it in the trash right now. You can’t seriously think my mother would ever use any of it.”