by Arlene James
“Maybe I can call you sometime anyway,” Reeves said after a bit. “Just to hear an adult voice, you know? I mean, it won’t be long now before we’ll be back in our own place, just the two of us, Gilli and me.”
“Sure,” Anna answered brightly. “Anytime you need to hear an adult voice.” She waited two seconds. “I can always turn on the television and lay the phone next to it.”
He laughed, finally. “I’ll remember that.”
“Great, and do a favor for me, will you? Tell your aunts that I’ll be around with the final print run tomorrow.”
“They’ll be happy to hear it.”
“Tell them to expect me around noon,” she said, thinking that it wouldn’t hurt her cause with Dennis any if she made the delivery on her lunch hour rather than during the workday.
“I’ll tell them,” he said softly.
“Thanks.” She rang off with a cheery, “Later, alligator,” but then she hugged herself, wondering just how long she’d have to wait for that next call.
Reeves hung up the phone and leaned back in his desk chair, regret weighing heavily in his chest. Well, that answered that. Whether she’d had a crush on him all those years ago or not, Anna obviously didn’t think of him that way any longer. If she did, she’d have accepted his invitation. Not a morning person, she’d basically said. Yet, she’d been out there once already, and she’d put forth a fine performance, too. Apparently, the company had not been worth the effort, however.
Well, what was a high school crush, anyway? They never lasted, rarely turned into anything real. Had he not been stupid as a fence post all those years ago—and all those between then and now, for that matter—he might have treated her a little more kindly. They might have come away friends, at least. Instead, in his judgmental mind they’d been enemies. He finally saw her for who and what she was, someone admirable, strong and true, clever, beautiful, giving…She saw him as…what? Unworthy of her time and effort. Never let it be said that his was not a just God.
“Okay, Lord,” he prayed aloud, “if that’s how You want it. You know best.”
Didn’t mean he liked it, of course, but he couldn’t help thinking that if he’d had that attitude about Marissa, he most likely wouldn’t have married her. Of course, then he wouldn’t have Gilli. It occurred to him that he hadn’t heard from Marissa lately. Maybe she’d finally figured out that he wasn’t going to offer her money to stay away, not that he wouldn’t prefer that. As long as she was Gilli’s mother, though, Gilli needed to see her.
Right now he was more likely to pay Marissa to make Gilli think she cared. Of course, if he did give Marissa money, she could use it to make his life miserable by hiring a lawyer and petitioning the court for physical custody. She wouldn’t win, but it would it be a huge headache, which she undoubtedly knew, one he might be willing to pay to avoid. No doubt that was her game. On the other hand…
He shook his head. What did it say, he wondered, that he’d rather fill his head with useless speculation about Marissa than admit how much it hurt for Anna to refuse to go running with him? Nothing good. He very much feared that it said nothing good. Regret, it seemed, was to be his companion, one way or another, for the rest of his days.
Sunshine as clear as glass picked out bits of green in the straw-brown lawn in front of Chatam House. The heady scent of spring kissed the slight breeze that chilled the warming air. It was about time, Anna remarked to herself, scooping the stacked boxes on the backseat of her car into her arms. In true Texas fashion, the change in the weather had actually been startling. Only two days had passed since she’d met Reeves in the park for their run, but those two days had seemed like weeks.
She carried the boxes of auction catalogs to the front door, where she managed to hit the doorbell button with an elbow. It opened almost instantly. Magnolia said not a word in greeting, just turned back into the house and called, “Anna’s here!”
Anna stepped into the foyer behind her and kicked the door closed with her foot. Odelia appeared, garbed in a flowered shirtwaist and pearl white cardigan, with what looked like yellow tennis balls sprouting from her earlobes. She clasped her hands together beneath her chubby, cleft chin and cried out, “Anna Miranda, how lovely!”
Hypatia arrived on the scene next, rushing and murmuring, “Excellent. Excellent.” The three of them quickly divested Anna of the boxes, which they deposited on the foyer table. “You’re just in time for lunch.”
“Oh, no,” Anna said. She should have realized when she’d chosen to deliver the material during her lunch hour that the Chatams would have a meal waiting on her. Suddenly, Gilli flew down the hall and barreled into her, arms outstretched.
“Anna, Anna!”
She staggered back, catching the girl in a crouching hug. “Hey, munchkin.”
“Do you like fishy salad?” Gilli asked excitedly.
“Tuna salad,” Magnolia corrected.
Actually, Anna loathed tuna salad. Tuna itself she had no problem with, but any fish mixed up with mayonnaise and whatever else, no, thanks.
“I’m afraid I grabbed a hot dog on the way over here,” she said evasively. A chili cheese dog, in fact, eaten behind the wheel of her car.
The Chatams murmured regrets, but those got lost in Gilli’s announcement.
“Special loves fishy salad!”
Hypatia gasped, and Magnolia moaned as Odelia hurried down the hall and through the dining room door, screeching, “No, cat! No! Get off that table!”
Magnolia looked at Hypatia, her cheeks rather pale. “Hot dogs sound good. I wonder if Hilda has any.” She quickly trundled off toward the kitchen.
Anna cleared her throat to keep from laughing, as Hypatia was clearly not amused. Hypatia looked down at Gilli and instructed smartly, “I want you to take that cat upstairs and lock it in your suite, Gilli Leland, and I don’t care if it howls its head off.”
Gilli’s lip puffed out, and for an instant Anna feared she was going to argue, but even a child could tell when Hypatia Chatam had reached her limit. “Kay, Auntie ’Patia,” Gilli murmured, running off to the dining room.
Hypatia sighed. “The adventures of housing a cat,” she said with a strained smile.
“Sorry about lunch,” Anna ventured.
“It’s not lunch I’m really concerned about,” Hypatia said staunchly. “We were wondering if you’d come to dinner on Friday evening?”
Anna smiled. “Of course. I’d love to. Thank you for asking.”
The cat yowled, and Hypatia put a hand to her head. “We’ve, ah, become so fond of you,” she said, “and you’ve done such wonderful work for us.”
“It was my pleasure,” Anna told her honestly, “and I was paid. You don’t have to go out of your way to thank me, you know.”
“Well, it’s not that exactly,” Hypatia began, over the sounds of scrambling from the dining room. “Although we are very grateful, you understand. It’s more of a…” Odelia yelped, and Hypatia floundered. “That is, well, Reeves and…” She cast a worried glance at the dining room door.
“Reeves will be here at dinner on Friday?” Anna pressed hopefully.
Hypatia glanced at her, “Yes, yes. Didn’t I just say so?”
Clearing her throat, Anna did her best not to beam. “What time should I arrive?”
Suddenly the most awful caterwauling came from the dining room. Hypatia winced and replied succinctly, “Six-thirty.”
Assuming that a cat fight, in the truest sense of the term, was about to break out, Anna reached for the scrolled doorknob. “I’ll see you then.”
“Wonderful,” Hypatia said, turning away. “Do excuse me.”
Anna danced out onto the veranda, pulling the door closed behind her. Looked like she wouldn’t have to sit home indefinitely waiting for that phone call, after all. She could, in fact, just tell Reeves on Friday that she’d changed her mind about those early morning runs. What was a job compared to spending time with Reeves Leland, anyway? If she stuck to her plan, he migh
t well get busy and never call her. It wouldn’t be the first time that had happened. And who knew where those morning runs might one day lead? This, after all, was not high school any longer.
She never dreamed that she might soon wish otherwise.
Chapter Twelve
Tansy showed up on Anna’s doorstep at eight o’clock the next evening.
“I just want to be sure that you understand the significance of tomorrow’s dinner,” she announced, practically pushing her way inside the apartment.
Puzzled, Anna closed the door and turned to stand in front of it, her arms folded. “What would you know about it?”
“I know that you need a husband, and Reeves Leland is the ideal candidate,” Tansy said, lifting her chin and smiling slyly.
Anna’s jaw dropped. “I don’t need a husband!” And if she did, Reeves would not be applying for the position.
“As if your job isn’t hanging by a thread this very instant,” Tansy scoffed.
“I can always get another job.” In fact, she’d been thumbing through that dossier Reeves had given her. There were work-from-home positions that would allow her to concentrate on a new project she’d started, a project also inspired by Reeves.
“You wouldn’t need a job if you had a husband,” Tansy proclaimed.
Anna gaped, boggled by this new interest in her marital status. “That’s nonsense. Husbands are more than paychecks, and lots of wives work. Besides, do you think I’d marry just so I could quit my job?”
“I think you’d marry for any reason at all if the right man asked you.”
“The right man,” Anna stressed, “not any man who could support me.”
Tansy threw up her hands. “That’s what I said! Why are you always arguing about nothing? You live to argue about nothing!”
“And you live to dictate to me!” Anna shot back. She slashed her arms down angrily. “I’m not going to debate this. You don’t know what you’re talking about anyway. Reeves isn’t interested in me like that.” It pained her to say it, but it was the truth. Even if he had kissed her that one time.
Gratitude, she reminded herself. Simple gratitude.
Still, he had invited her to go running. That wasn’t exactly a date, but it could change, given time—and provided Tansy didn’t get involved.
“He could be,” Tansy was saying, “if you played your cards right.” She swept a scathing glance over Anna’s comfy sweats. “Wear something feminine. Like that dress you wore to church.”
Anna rolled her eyes. That day had been a special case. She’d feel like a complete fool waltzing in there Friday evening in heels and nylons. That was not her usual style, and everyone at Chatam House well knew it by now.
“And don’t worry,” Tansy went on. “The rest of us will be there to smooth over any gaffes.”
“The rest of us?” Anna yelped. “You won’t be there.”
“Oh, but I will.” Tansy gave her a long look. “We’re in agreement on this.”
“We?” Anna stared at Tansy’s smug smile, feeling the blood drain out of her head.
“Me and the Chatam sisters. They agree that Reeves could be the best thing to ever happen to you.”
Anna actually felt light-headed. “You got the Chatams to set this up?”
“Dinner was actually Hypatia’s idea,” Tansy said, looking away, “but I believe that it’s a wise course of action, especially if you take my advice to heart. For pity’s sake, just try to fix the man’s interest, will you? I’ve done my best to pave the way, give you a real opportunity with him.”
“Opportunity,” Anna echoed, horrified.
“It’s what you’ve always wanted, isn’t it? Since high school you’ve been dreamy-eyed over him.”
Anna gasped. Please, God, no. That had been her secret, her one real secret. She couldn’t bear it if her grandmother knew about her idiotic crush. And yet, she seemed to.
“Opportunity?” Anna repeated in angry disbelief. “You think you’ve engineered an opportunity to get me and Reeves together? What you’ve really done is ruined it! Even if he might have one day looked at me as someone he could love, I would never give you the satisfaction of falling in with your plans!”
Tansy reared back. “You can’t be so idiotic as to not take what you want just to thwart me!”
“Can’t I?” Anna cried, teetering on the edge of self-control. “Thwarting you has been my lifelong ambition! Isn’t that what you’ve always said?” She reached behind her and yanked open the door. “Get out of my apartment!”
Something flashed across Tansy’s face, not disappointment precisely or even sadness but something close to both. “I thought you’d be pleased,” she said in a strange voice. “For once I actually thought you’d be pleased.”
Anna refused to even think about what that look and that voice meant. All she wanted was for Tansy to leave before she dissolved into blubbering tears. To her relief, Tansy did just that, trudging through the door with her head down. Anna slammed it closed behind her and threw the deadbolt for good measure, then she collapsed into the chair in the corner.
Tansy and the Chatam sisters had plotted to bring her and Reeves together? Anna had always known, of course, that the Chatams were friends with her grandmother, but she’d never dreamed that they would stoop to Tansy’s level of manipulation. She thought of all those late afternoon appointments when Reeves just happened to arrive home from work. Tansy must have put the idea in their heads. Oh, good grief. Had Tansy told them about that ridiculous crush? She clapped her hands over her ears as if that alone could undo their hearing of it.
“Dear God,” she whispered, “Oh, dear God, please.” But she already knew.
It really was ruined. She could never show her face at Chatam House or to Reeves Leland again.
The last thing Reeves wanted to do after a long Friday at work was stop by the grocery store to pick up tea bags, but he had his reasons. For one, it was the least he could do for his poor, put-upon aunts. The cat raid on the tuna salad the previous day had resulted in banishment—for both Special and Gilli, who had adamantly refused to leave their suite without her beloved pet. Everyone had been so upset that he’d thought it best to take dinner with her and Special in their rooms last evening. Today, fortunately, had offered no repeat of the previous day’s events. He’d called home half a dozen times to make sure of it.
Cars jammed the parking lot of the aunties’ preferred grocery. It was rush hour at the supermarket, with everyone just off work and trying to stock up for the weekend. Reeves consoled himself with the expectation of seeing Anna again over dinner in less than two hours. He’d been disappointed to be rebuffed when he’d called to ask her to go running again, so he’d been glad to learn on his way out the door this morning that the aunties had invited her to dinner tonight.
He wasn’t sure what had occasioned the invitation, but he was grateful that they’d issued it. He wanted a chance to change Anna’s mind about him. An apology might even be in order, if he could manage to explain his regretful behavior without revealing Tansy’s deplorable tactics. Anna would no doubt be hurt by her grandmother’s thoughtless, heavy-handed actions. Hopefully tonight’s dinner would give him a perfect opportunity to make amends. Therefore, stop for tea bags, he would.
If he could somehow also find time to get by his house before dinner, he’d have his whole evening free, and his meeting tomorrow morning with the remodeling contractor would go much more quickly. Then maybe he and Gilli could actually do something fun this weekend to stay out of the aunties’ hair. He wondered if they might find a movie that they could both enjoy. And if Anna might want to enjoy it with them. After his dealings with Tansy, his admiration for Anna had grown. He felt strongly that she deserved whatever enjoyment he and Gilli could give her.
Reeves found a parking spot far back in the lot and hiked in. He fought his way through a crowd gathered around the carts and another at the deli counter then cut through a side aisle to the correct section of the store.
Finding the right brand required some minutes. The aunties were particular about their tea, but after living in their house these past weeks, even he was beginning to note the subtle differences in blends.
Finally, with the nearly weightless packet firmly in hand, he started toward the checkout, only to find one aisle after another clogged with shoppers pushing carts. He decided to cut all the way across to the frozen food section and skirt around the busy center of the store. Passing by the ice cream, he quickly turned down the frozen food aisle—and bumped smack into Anna.
They collided hard enough to knock the frozen entrée that she was examining out of her hand, and both instantly went down to retrieve it. Reeves snagged it first, owing to his longer arms.
“Glad to have run into you,” he quipped.
“Sorry,” she muttered, reaching for the small cardboard carton.
“Here you go.” He returned it to her with a chuckle and drew her up to her feet, his hand beneath her elbow. “Not that you need it,” he told her with a grin. “I hear Hilda’s cooking a pork loin for our dinner.”
“Your dinner,” Anna retorted. Turning toward the freezer, she yanked open the glass door and practically tossed the frozen entrée inside before reaching for another.
Reeves felt a thunk inside his chest, and several things occurred to him at once. First, she was angry, and not because he had bumped into her. Second, she was shopping for her dinner. Third, she wouldn’t even look at him. Obviously, had she ever intended to come to Chatam House that evening, it would not have been to see him. That last stood out with painful clarity, but it all culminated in one conclusion.