Fuck it.
She opened her mouth, and the word that was about to change her life forever just fell out of her mouth:
“Yes.”
Chapter Three
“Wait a second.” Talia Ross’ voice was awe-struck. “A doctor? A hot younger doctor?”
“Yep.” Annie scrubbed at a particularly-stubborn stain on the counter. Goddamn coffee, the bane of her working existence. That and grease from the cooker. “The doctor who first saw Sarah when she landed in the E.R. three years ago… remember?”
“I thought his name was Mac The Blond Sex God.”
“That was the other hot young doctor,” Annie explained. “Jax’s friend. This is Sam. The trauma guy.”
“Oh, yeah. OK. Can’t keep ‘em all straight.” Talia twisted a blonde curl around her finger. “So many damn hot young doctors roaming in and out of your life, girl.”
“One or two, and believe me, it’s not a great thing, seeing what brings them into my life in the first place,” Annie said, moving on to a table, starting to sweep off the toast crumbs. “Hey, you want to help me out here?”
“I’m on break,” Talia said. “And I’m gonna spend it wandering around after you asking questions.”
“Knock yourself out,” Annie said dryly. “I don’t really have anything else to say.”
“Wait… what are you going to wear?” Talia said suddenly. “Chorus is high-end, and I mean sincerely. What do you have hidden away in your closet?”
“Nothing.” Annie stared at her shoes. “Not one damn thing.”
“Shit.” Talia looked horrified. “Girl, you cannot show up at one of Joe Carlisle’s places looking anything less than drop-dead amazing. You know this.”
“I know,” Annie said in a small voice. “Maybe I should cancel?”
“Oh, hell no. No cancelling. We’re gonna figure this out.”
“How?” Annie exhaled, suddenly feeling like this was all a huge mistake. “We going to rob a bank? Win the lottery? Earn buckets of money cleaning up hamburger juice on the floor?”
“No.” Talia’s green eyes narrowed in thought. “We’re going to get creative.”
“OK.” Annie shook her head. “How?”
“I have no goddamn idea!” Talia exclaimed. “But I’m not letting you cancel, babe, so I’d better think fast.”
“Maybe I should – should ask Sam to pick another place?”
Just then, her cell phone rang in her uniform pocket. Noah always called her at ten o’clock every morning, bang on the hour, so she had her phone on her. But it was still eight minutes to ten, and no way he’d call early.
Annie took her phone out, almost threw it across the diner when she saw the caller ID.
“Argh!” she said, suddenly seriously considering ducking under a table and hiding, for some reason that made zero sense. “It’s him!”
“Hot young doctor?” Talia was delighted. “Answer, you fool!”
“What if he’s come to his senses and he’s cancelling?”
“Then I’ll kill him,” Talia announced darkly. “I’ll be really nice and do it in the E.R., though, so he’ll be close to the hospital morgue. Now answer.”
“Argh,” Annie muttered and swiped ‘accept’ as gingerly as if she was replacing the pin in a live grenade. “Hello?”
“Annie?” Sam’s sexy-as-all-hell voice was in her ear, and had the sudden urge to squirm where she stood. Oh, man… she had it bad for this guy. “It’s Sam.”
“Yes. Hi, Sam.” She caught Talia’s eye, and Annie’s friend gave her the ‘thumbs up!’ sign. “How are you?”
“Actually, Annie…” She felt his hesitation even through the phone, and she tightened her grip on the cell. He was cancelling, and even though she’d considered doing that exact same thing not even five minutes before, her stomach plummeted. He regretted asking her; he’d found someone younger and smarter and hotter; he’d finally had a nap and been horrified about what he’d done in a sleep-deprived manic episode. “Actually, I need to apologize to you.”
“It’s fine,” she said in her briskest tone, the ‘lalala’ one that she used when she truly didn’t give a flying fuck, or was trying very hard not to. “I totally understand and I don’t blame you for backing out. Take care.”
“Wait! Annie, wait!”
“What?” She shifted her weight onto her right hip, a habit started when carrying both screaming babies for hours and hours on end, and perfected after years and years of waiting for customers to decide on their order. “What is it?”
“I’m not backing out,” he said, sounding perplexed. “Why on earth would you think that?”
“I – well…” she floundered. “You’re not? Not backing out?”
“Of course I’m not.”
“Oh.” Annie wanted to ram both feet into her stupid mouth. “Oh… so then… erm. How are you?”
He laughed, and she melted a bit more. “I’m a bit confused, but besides that, I’m good. How’s your day?”
“Good.” She cleared her throat. “So – what do you need to apologize for?”
“Well…” Again with the hesitation, but this time she waited patiently. “Well, I wonder how you feel about Chorus? Like, do you want to go there?”
“Uh,” she said, now totally befuddled about just what the actual hell this phone call was all about. “Well, sure. I mean, unless there’s some reason that you don’t want to go there? Did it get shut down for a food poisoning violation, or something?”
“God, never. But… well.” Sam sighed a bit. “It’s very – it’s crazy high-end.”
“Oh. Right.” Annie narrowed her eyes. Was he saying that he didn’t want to splash out on her? “You want to take me for pizza instead?”
“I want to take you someplace fit for a princess, Annie, because you deserve to be spoiled and pampered. But –” He stopped again.
“But what?”
“But – I didn’t think for one minute that maybe you’d be worried about your clothes. And I wanted to apologize for that, because I don’t want to cause you one damn second of stress, not ever. So are you? Worried?”
“Oh, Sam.” Annie felt tears prickle her eyes, and Talia frowned. Annie shook her head at her friend, quickly wiped her eyes. “Well… yes. Yes, I was worried about that. I don’t – I don’t have many nice things. Nothing that would be OK to go to Chorus, for sure.”
“And I should have thought. I’m so sorry.”
“No, it’s OK.” Annie was back in control of herself now, and her voice had resumed its usual briskness. “I mean, I’m sure that you’re used to being able to ask women to go there, no problems. I’m sure the women you usually take out to dinner have a few designer gowns hanging in their closets.”
“I don’t usually take anyone out for dinner,” he said dryly. “I don’t really date.”
“No?” Her heart leapt in her chest.
“No. So… maybe we can do something that makes you comfortable? Why don’t you propose a place for me to take you?”
“Any place?” she said, a teasing note creeping into her voice. “Any place at all?”
“Yep. Hit me with it, princess.”
She paused, startled at the way her stomach clenched at the soft, sweet names that he called her. She’d like ‘honey’ just fine, but ‘princess’ was a whole different thing. It made her feel… special. Really special. But more than that, it made her feel – elegant. Sophisticated. Beautiful.
Glamorous.
“Maybe we can go for Chinese food?” she asked, a bit hesitantly, trying to think of something unusual and almost treat-like for her; God knows when she’d get a decent meal bought for her, ever again, and certainly never again by a hot young doctor. “There’s a good place not far from the hospital.”
“God, I want to get as far from the hospital as I human
ly can without leaving the city,” Sam said. “Let’s find another Chinese place, OK? Clear on the other side of Denver, if at all possible? Is there one way the hell up in the Rockies, by any chance?”
“But… aren’t you on call on Friday?” she asked, remembering him saying something three years ago about always being on call, since he was an E.R. doctor. “Don’t you have to stay close, just in case?”
“No. I took a day off work.”
“Like… an official day?”
“Yep. Took one of my vacation days.”
“You – you did?”
“Yep. I wasn’t about to be interrupted on my date with you.” She heard his smile even through the phone, and she found herself smiling too. “Besides, I have about a year’s worth of vacation days banked up, and the hospital administrator keeps bugging me to take some of them already. But I have no good reason to take any, so I just keep racking ‘em up.”
“And… and dinner with me is a good reason?” Annie asked. “A good reason to take one of your days?”
“Princess.” His voice was low and sultry and warm. “Dinner with you is the best reason that I can think of.”
“Oh.” Annie wasn’t sure if she wanted to drop to the floor in a boneless swoon, or in the painful throes of a lethal goddamn heart attack. “Oh…”
“Yes. Oh. Now – I’ll pick you up at seven. OK?”
“OK,” she whispered. “That’s perfect.”
“I know it is, princess. It will all be perfect.”
And for the first time since he’d asked her out, Annie really, truly believed that it all would be.
All of it.
**
“OK, hold up.” Sarah Matthews shook her head, her auburn curls shining in the weak winter sunlight. She carefully set down her cup of coffee on the kitchen table. “Why are you working Friday night? I thought you’d sworn to never work nights again… especially at the weekends.”
“Yes,” Annie said reluctantly, suddenly wondering what the hell she’d been thinking when she’d answered Sarah’s casual question of so what are you doing this weekend, Mom? with a bald-faced lie.
The logical thing to do, of course, would have been to say oh, nothing much, hon just as she always did, instead of panicking like a teenager and blurting out an easily-refuted lie. But then, of course, her daughter would have invited her over for dinner, or to watch a movie, or to go for lunch and then shopping, and then Annie would have had to accept, then on the day in question, she’d have had to get on the phone and fake a cough and babble about being sick.
So really, it was lie to Sarah now, or lie to Sarah later… because the one thing that Annie was not going to do was tell her daughter that she was going for Chinese food with a hot young doctor.
No way. No how.
Nuh-uh.
Why she wasn’t about to break her neck telling Sarah – and Jax, who was standing right over there making a fresh pot of coffee – about Sam was blindingly obvious. Why tell them about one pathetic little pity date? Annie had no damn illusions about where this was going – it was going precisely nowhere, and that’s where it was going, because it couldn’t go anyplace else. She and Sam had no future; they were totally incompatible; they had zero things in common.
She reminded herself that this date was just a sweet distraction from the grind and loneliness of her day-to-day life. A lovely evening that she’d revisit in her mind when she felt fat and undesirable and over-the-hill.
It was destined to be a memory, something that she looked at in the rearview mirror as she moved farther away from it every day, every hour, every minute. It was never going to be anything to look forward to, or plan a future with.
She reminded herself that she was OK with this. Or, if she wasn’t right this second, she soon would be, because she had no choice.
For now, though, she had to get Sarah and Jax off the whole damn topic, mostly because she swore that her daughter and future son-in-law had psychic powers… mostly Jax. The man might lack school smarts by his own admission, but Annie had learned fast and early that he was smart as all hell in many, many other ways. Mostly in reading people; mostly when they were evading or hiding something.
“Yes,” Annie repeated now, with more confidence. “I did say that I’d never work a weekend night-shift again, honey. But Christmas is coming, and I want to save up a bit extra this year.”
“Why?’ Sarah asked. “Have you got something special planned?”
“Maybe,” Annie said, trying to sound mysterious, even as she realized that she now had to come up with a special Christmas present or event. Goddammit, lying was a spiral, wasn’t it, one that just kept going south – fast. “But I can’t say too much about that.”
“Ohhh-kaaay.” Sarah narrowed her blue eyes, the same clear shining eyes that her mother had, the ones that always saw way more than people wanted to show. “Unless you’re not telling us the truth?”
“About what?” Annie faltered, terrified of what she’d given away just by breathing.
“About why you really need the money.”
“Uh… why else would I?”
“You hurting for cash, Mom?” Sarah said softly. “You need a hand?”
“What?” Jax snapped to attention even as he poured some milk into Sarah’s second coffee. “You need some money, Annie?”
Oh, Lord. Now he’s in on it.
“No.” She tried to infuse as much firm conviction as she could into the word. “I’m fine for money, Jax. Don’t you worry.”
“Why wouldn’t I worry?” he demanded, his voice gruff and his dark-green eyes flashing. “I don’t want you working nights at that place, not if it’s a matter of a fucking loan that I won’t even feel, Annie. C’mon now, we’re family. Just tell me what you need, and I’ll give it to you, no questions asked. You know that.”
“I do know that, Jax.”
And she really did, she knew it with every inch of her body and being: Jax Hamill was a rough man with a rougher past – he’d beaten a man to death, after all, although it had been the man who had killed Jax’s mother, so Annie kind of supported what in done, in parts – and he had shady and violent connections through his bar, Dangerous Curves. But when it came to Sarah, Noah, Annie, and his friends, the man was nothing but fiercely loyal and protective. He’d paid for all of Sarah’s care when she’d been beaten into a coma, he’d paid for her months and months of physical therapy, he’d supported Annie and Noah during Sarah’s recovery, he still kicked in for Noah’s stay at Carly’s Place.
But his generosity with money wasn’t the main reason that Annie had grown to adore Jax… it wasn’t even how he took care of and cherished Sarah, though that was amazing. No, if Annie had to pick just one reason to admire and love this hard, harsh man, it was because of how Jax was with Noah.
Despite the fact that Jax looked about as sensitive as a bulldozer, he’d shown himself to be compassionate, caring and careful with Annie’s son. Jax had never pushed, never made Noah feel ‘other’, never treated Noah like a stupid, backward child, never talked down to Noah.
No, from the word go, Jax had treated Noah like an intelligent man, albeit one with challenges, and he’d never resented Sarah’s dedication to her twin brother. If anything, Jax had bent over backwards to make sure that Noah was safe and cared for, and Sarah had been free to handle her responsibilities without being snowed under with guilt. Jax had always joked gently with Noah, and he’d been amazing the night that Sarah had been beaten up and Noah had called Jax for help.
That had spoken volumes to Annie; it had screamed at her, full in her face. Noah had turned to Jax for help. That implied trust, belief, faith. And if Noah had had that in Jax, then Annie sure as hell did too, even though she’d been unsure about Jax had first. He’d reminded her of Billy Matthews in lots of ways, in far too many ways – his rugged good looks, his easy, natural ch
arm, his womanizing prowess, his swaggering sexual confidence – and Annie had genuinely feared for Sarah’s good, sweet, naive heart.
Ever since that night that Noah had turned to Jax for help and Jax had answered the call with calm and heroism, Annie had allowed herself to open up to Jax. She’d really given him a chance to show her the heart and soul that lay beneath that hard, muscled, dangerous exterior.
And every day since that night, she’d been glad that she’d done so – because Jax Hamill was a damn good man. One of the best men that Annie had ever had present in her life, to be honest, and she was thrilled that her daughter was marrying such a fierce, tender protector.
He was gazing at her from across the kitchen now, in that totally unnerving way that he had, and she fought to not give away too much. Damn him and those clever, burning, x-ray eyes.
“So you don’t need some help?” he demanded. He strode across the floor in three long steps, set Sarah’s coffee in front of her, never took his gaze off Annie’s face. God, being the focus of Jax’s intensity was always an experience, and Annie wondered how her daughter survived it. “Really?”
“Really.” Annie took a shaky sip of her own coffee. “I promise.”
“Hmmmmm.” Jax sat next to his fiancée, lifted Sarah’s hand to his lips and brushed a soft kiss against her palm, studying Annie all the while. “OK, then. If you say so.”
“I do.” Annie felt her breath coming more freely, though she was a bit surprised that Jax had just dropped it so quickly; that was unusual for him, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. “I’m fine financially, guys. I swear.”
“OK, well, I’ll ask one of the guys to hang out in the diner this Friday night, then,” Jax announced almost placidly, like he was casually looking out the window and commenting on the gorgeous sunset over the mountains, but stopping Annie’s heart dead in her chest all the same. “Just to keep an eye on things.”
“What?” Annie choked out, stunned and horrified. “You – what?”
Lush Curves (Dangerous Curves Book 8) Page 5