“I didn’t mean to upset you.” He held the key out in the palm of his hand. “Please, take the key if it makes you uncomfortable. I would never enter your home without your permission to fix a leaky pipe under the sink. But I knew how important today was for you. I didn’t want you coming home to an empty house.”
She turned to him, staring into his warm chocolate eyes. What are you thinking, Heidi? She mentally chastised herself. Having this sexy man—with his salt-and-pepper hair and easy smile, wearing his faded jeans and workman’s boots—greet her upon her return was the best thing that had happened to her all day. Although the jury was still out—she needed a little more time to deliberate, another month to be certain that this lovely man was for real, that a Dr. Hyde personality wasn’t waiting in the wings for the right moment to reveal itself—it was possible that he was the best thing that had happened to her in her whole life. Aside from Annie.
She folded his fingers around the key. “Keep it.” She took his scruffy face in her hands and kissed him hard on the lips. “You can welcome me home anytime.”
“If you greet me like this, I will.” He kissed her back with more urgency. “I’d love to sweep you off your feet and carry you into the bedroom right now. But first, I want to hear about your meeting with Annie.”
She drew away from him. “It didn’t go well.” Her voice quivered and she willed herself not to cry.
“I was afraid of that. Come with me.” He took her by the hand and led her across the room to the fireplace, where the flames from the gas logs flickered. He’d set a tray with two espressos and a plate of her favorite almond chocolate biscotti biscuits on the coffee table in front of her turquoise sofa.
“Sit down and tell me everything.” They sat down side by side on the sofa, the closeness of his body offering her comfort.
“There’s not much to tell actually. Annie flat out refuses to talk to me. She and I were getting along so well when I was Heidi the Caterer planning Sam’s wedding. I wish we could go back to the way things were before.”
She sipped her espresso while she thought back to December when she’d first met Annie. Relatively speaking of course, considering she’d known her for a brief time as a baby. Heidi had done her homework when she moved to Charleston last August. She’d hired a private investigator who’d discovered that Annie’s father, Allen, had died from liver cancer, and Annie was living with the Sweeney family in Prospect. Networking her way from one family member to the next, she managed to land a job catering Sam Sweeney’s wedding reception, a small sit-down luncheon for family and a few friends on Christmas Eve. Heidi used the opportunity to get close to her daughter. She never dreamed she’d end up working with her side by side planning the reception. Much to Heidi’s delight, she and Annie had gotten along swimmingly from the start. They had a lot in common, and not just about food. They talked for hours about everything and nothing. She’d planned to wait until things settled down after the holidays to reveal her true identity to Annie. Truth be told, she was terrified of breaking the news for obvious reasons. But that bit of unpleasantness took care of itself.
They woke on Christmas Eve to snowfall, a rare phenomenon for the Lowcountry. The snow added to the already-festive mood, and the wedding luncheon went off without a hitch. Annie was helping Heidi clean up afterward when that mood soured. On her way from the dining room with a stack of dirty plates, Annie collided with one of the chairs at the kitchen table, sending Heidi’s handbag tumbling to the floor.
“Oh my gosh,” Annie said, staring down at the pocketbook’s paraphernalia spilled out across the hardwood. “I’m so sorry.”
“No worries. I’ll get it.” Heidi was elbow-deep in soapy water. Before she could dry her hands, Annie had set the stack of plates on the counter and bent down to gather up the contents of her bag.
“What’s this?” Annie asked, holding up Heidi’s California driver’s license. Heidi hadn’t taken the time to get a new one since moving to South Carolina. “Says here that your name is Sandra Bethune. I don’t understand. I thought your name was Heidi Butler.”
“Heidi is my stage name. I was once an actress. Not a very good one obviously, since I’m catering wedding luncheons instead of starring in movies,” she said, trying to make light of the situation while hoping Annie wouldn’t connect the dots.
“My last name is Bethune,” Annie said, her voice no more than a whisper. “And my real mother’s name is Sandra. Are you…?”
Heidi could still remember the hurt on Annie’s face when she realized she’d been betrayed.
“Try not to worry about it, sweetheart.” Hugh massaged Heidi’s neck, his contractor’s hands callused and rough against her skin. “Annie is a confused teenager whose biological mother has suddenly reappeared in her life after sixteen years. She needs time to adjust.”
Heidi rubbed her tired eyes, smearing her mascara in the process. “If only she’d give me a chance to explain, I think I could get her to understand why I made the choices I did.”
He pulled her close. “You’ve told me very little about that time in your life. You can talk to me. I won’t judge you. I promise.”
Heidi and Hugh had talked about everything. He knew she wore a neon-pink shade of lipstick called Candy Yum-Yum, and she knew he ate ketchup on his grits and snored when he drank whiskey. But neither of them had shared too much about their pasts. What scared her most about her relationship with Hugh was that he would dump her once he discovered the truth.
But she couldn’t keep it from him forever.
She drew in an unsteady breath. “I’m so ashamed of the way I behaved back then. I can justify abandoning my six-month-old daughter by blaming it on my age and lack of maturity. All the other bad decisions are what keep me awake at night. It only took a couple of years for me to figure out I wasn’t going to be the next Reese Witherspoon. I should have come home to my family then. I never sent her a single birthday card or Christmas present. I’ve never once tried to call her, or my husband for that matter, in all these years. We were still married when he died.”
“I’m confused. Why didn’t you get in touch with them?” Despite his promise not to judge her, Heidi detected criticism in his voice.
“Pride. It was easier to hide out in California, pretending all those glamorous movie stars were my friends. Sad thing is, I was never good enough to be anything but their cook. Some mark I made on Hollywood.”
“Here. Eat this.” He held a biscotti biscuit in front of her nose. “Chocolate always makes you feel better.” She smiled and crunched off a bite. He placed the rest of the biscuit on a napkin and handed it to her. “You’re a good person who lost her way. It happens to the best of us. You’ll have to work hard, but you’ll get back on the right path.”
Heidi shook her head, her messy bun flopping around on top. “I’m not sure I can handle the rejection.”
“Sure you can.” Hugh tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “You know what you want. You just need to figure out how to get it.”
“What if she never forgives me?”
“Then she never forgives you. But you can’t give up without trying.”
“I don’t know, Hugh. I was so hopeful about today. I’ve daydreamed about our reconciliation a thousand times.” A smile spread across Heidi’s lips as she imagined it. “Me offering my heartfelt apology, and her forgiving me for leaving. Me inviting her to come live here, and her jumping at the opportunity for us to be together as mother and daughter—or as friends. I’ll take either.” She set her biscuit down on the table. “It was nothing but a foolish fantasy. I see that now.”
“Nothing about your dream is foolish. Being reunited with your daughter is your end goal. But you can’t just waltz into town and demand to be a part of Annie’s life. Right now she doesn’t care what prompted you to run off to Hollywood. All she knows is that you abandoned her as a baby. Back off and give her some space. Let her come to you. When she does, be a good listener. Let her talk about her feeling
s. But you’d better prepare yourself, because what she says may not be easy for you to hear. This is about her. This is not about you.”
Tears stung Heidi’s clear green eyes. “Are you calling me self-centered?” She looked away from him. “Never mind. Don’t answer that. I know it’s true.” Annie had accused her of that very thing. Because you never bothered to find out. “I stink at relationships. I’m better off moving to Alaska and living the life of an Eskimo.”
“Look who’s feeling sorry for herself,” Hugh said, running his finger down her cheek. “Please don’t move to Alaska. I’d be sad to see you go. I haven’t been this happy in twenty years.”
“We’ve only been dating six weeks, Hugh. I don’t usually screw things up with a man before the two-month mark,” she said, settling back against the soft velvet cushions. “Okay, so now that I’ve told you all my darkest secrets, it’s your turn to talk about that thing you never talk about.”
“What thing is that?”
She kicked off her booties and tucked her legs up beneath her. “That invisible elephant in the room. If I knew what it was, I wouldn’t have to ask. But I know you’re hiding something, Hugh Kelley.”
“All right. I guess it’s time I tell you about my wife.” He shifted away from her, facing forward, staring into the fire. “In the beginning, I was so head over heels in love with April, and naive to human nature, to recognize her neediness as narcissism. We were well into our second year of marriage when I realized I was the only one in the relationship doing any giving. Her fertility problems only made matters worse. When none of the procedures worked, she sunk into deep depression. She stopped working. Stopped seeing friends. Refused to consider adoption or seek therapy for her depression. Out of desperation, in an attempt to save our marriage, I started seeing a counselor. But nothing I tried, and I tried everything, improved our relationship. After she died, I needed more therapy to deal with the guilt.”
Heidi ran her finger across the dark stubble on his cheek. “Why should you feel guilty when you did everything you could to try and help her?”
He got up and went to the window, peeling back the sheer curtain. “My wife didn’t die in a car accident like I led you to believe. April took her own life.”
Heidi experienced a sinking feeling in her gut, like she’d swallowed a bowling ball. She left the sofa and went to him. “I’m so sorry, Hugh. That must have been awful for you.”
Hugh nodded. “It was a difficult time, but I didn’t mean to make this conversation about me.”
“I asked, remember?” She hooked her arm around his neck and pulled his lips to hers. “Now we don’t have any secrets from one another.”
The distant ringing of her phone interrupted their kiss. She pushed away from him and retrieved the phone from her bag. Her stomach lurched when she saw Sam Sweeney’s name on the screen.
She punched the green button and accepted the call. “Sam? Is everything okay?”
“I’m afraid not. Annie has been in an accident.”
SIX
Annie
Annie drifted in and out of her drug-induced sleep. Bit by bit she became aware of her surroundings. The television mounted on the wall opposite her. Daylight streaming through the metal blinds in the window to her right. The IV stand dripping liquids through a clear tube to the needle in her arm. The beep of the heart monitor somewhere behind her head. Thea, stretched out in the recliner in the corner, staring at her phone. She was wearing Annie’s favorite outfit—a red turtleneck sweater and pleated plaid skirt, her brown legs showing above her taupe suede boots. Her friend’s wardrobe was limited, but the clothes she owned, she wore with style.
Annie tried to sit up. “Where am I?”
Thea brought her chair upright and walked the short distance to the bed. “You’re in the hospital. Do you remember what happened?”
Annie winced at the pain in her head. She recalled bits and pieces. The van cutting in front of her. She was driving too fast to stop. The terrified expression on the other driver’s face. Being in the emergency room with Mike. There was something important she was supposed to remember about that—about her encounter with Mike in the emergency room—dancing on the periphery of her mind, taunting her to remember but escaping her when she tried.
“Where’s Mike?” she murmured. Her throat was so dry, her lips parched.
Thea shrugged. “I haven’t seen anyone since I got here twenty minutes ago.”
She licked her lips. “No one? Not Faith or Sam?”
“Nope. They were here last night with Eli when I stopped by the emergency room during my break.”
She searched the walls for a clock. Seven thirty. “I guess it’s still early. How did you know? About the accident, I mean.”
“I was working at the time, waiting on a table over by the window. I saw the accident happen.”
Annie felt like she was floating in a warm bathtub. She watched the blanket as she wiggled her toes. She lifted her right arm, but the tape from the IV pinched, and she lay it back down. She couldn’t move her left arm at all. “I feel numb all over. How bad are my injuries?”
“I don’t know. They were still waiting to hear from the doctors when I was here last night. Sam texted me around eleven to tell me you were okay and that they were admitting you, but she didn’t say anything about how bad you were hurt. You got a big bandage on your forehead, near your temple. Other than that, you look pretty good to me for someone whose car turned over at forty-five miles an hour.”
Annie experienced a sudden flash of memory—of her being pinned against the seat by the air bag and the searing pain in her neck and shoulder. “I remember some of that. I can’t believe my car turned over. Was I really driving that fast?”
Thea sat down gingerly on the edge of the mattress. “I can’t say for sure how fast you were driving, but you were going at a pretty good clip when you passed by The Grill. The speed limit is only thirty-five on that section of Main Street. You usually drive slower than my mama. Did something happen with Heidi that got you so worked up?”
The confrontation with Heidi rushed back to Annie like a hot gust of wind on a still summer day. “Yes! And it’s all her fault. We got in a big fight.”
“You texted me about that, right before the accident happened.” Thea located the text on her phone and showed it to Annie: “Heidi ambushed me at home. Why won’t she leave me alone?”
“I remember. I was at the stoplight. When the light turned green, instead of going straight to the market, I took a left onto Main Street. I was crying. I didn’t want Sam to see me upset.”
“What did Heidi say that made you so upset?”
“More of the same of her sorry excuses and pleas for forgiveness. She’s a broken record.” Imitating a sickly sweet voice, Annie said, “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. Give me a chance to explain. Blah, blah, blah. How can she expect me to just forget that she abandoned me as a baby? I have a good life now with Faith and Mike. What if she screws that up for me?”
“You’ll be seventeen in May. One more year and you’re free to do anything you want.”
“Ha. Those fifteen months feel like an eternity to me.” She licked her lips again. “Could you get me some water, please?”
Thea retrieved a Styrofoam cup of ice chips from the rolling bed table. “Here.” She spooned some chips onto Annie’s tongue.
“Aren’t you gonna be late for school?” Annie asked, crunching the ice with her teeth.
“I’ll leave in a minute. Mrs. Robinson won’t mind if I’m late for homeroom.” Thea continued to feed Annie small spoonfuls of chips. “Do you think anyone called Cooper?”
“Why would anyone call Cooper? I don’t want him here.” No sooner had she spoken than that important thing Annie was supposed to remember about Mike and the ER popped into her head, gripping her chest and taking her breath away. She pushed Thea’s hand away. “That’s enough. Thanks.”
Thea found the remote and clicked on the morning news. “I hea
rd someone in the lobby say it might snow this weekend. I’d be down with not having school on Monday.”
While the meteorologist discussed the possibility of winter precipitation, Annie thought back to the last time it had snowed in Prospect. During Sam’s wedding on Christmas Eve. When everything had still been right in her world. The same day she discovered that Heidi was her mother. One week before her relationship with Cooper had taken a sharp turn south on New Year’s Eve.
She rolled her head toward Thea. “Do you remember what I told you about New Year’s Eve, about what happened between Cooper and me out at the farm?”
Thea shifted her attention from the weather forecast back to Annie. “Of course I remember. I never forget the sex parts.”
Annie’s lips hurt when she smiled. “I don’t know as much about these things as you. But remember I told you how awkward the sex had been, and that I wasn’t even sure we’d done it right.”
Thea nodded. “Go on.”
“Do you think there’s any chance I could have gotten pregnant?”
“Girl!” Thea said, her amber eyes widening. “Please tell me you used protection.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “We weren’t planning on having sex that night.”
Thea clicked the weeks off on her fingers. “That was almost six weeks ago. Did you skip your monthly?”
“I guess. I’d forgotten all about it until last night when Mike asked me if there was any chance I might be pregnant. They always ask you that before they do X-rays.”
“What did you tell him?”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “I told him the truth. And I asked him not to tell Faith.”
“Tell me what?” Faith asked from the doorway. She entered the room, and set a duffel bag on the bed at Annie’s feet. “If you’re talking about your run-in with Heidi yesterday, I already know about it.” She dipped her head at Thea. “It’s nice to see you again so soon.”
When Faith bent over to kiss Annie’s cheek, Thea crossed her eyes and swiped at her forehead in relief.
Tangle of Strings Page 3