“He can tell you how harmless I am. When do you get off cake duty?”
“You just bought the last one. How about now?”
“Now sounds just right.”
ANNIE CHANGED BACK into her clothes in the ladies’ room of the high school gymnasium. She stood in front of the mirror drying her hair with the dryer she had thankfully brought with her. She couldn’t get ready fast enough. Not another hour would pass where she let J.D. think they were getting back together. She had done nothing but insult herself for not standing up to him, for not telling him she would fight him tooth and nail for Tommy, and that he did not deserve either one of them.
No more games. She had put her heart into making a new life for Tommy and her. She liked her life. Wanted to keep it. J. D. McCabe was not going to take it away from her. Not a single piece of it.
Determination roared up from that place inside her where she had put away all the unaired slights accumulated during her marriage to J.D. It was time to pull them out again.
And just as soon as she’d done that, she intended to find Jack. She had some things to tell him, too.
A few minutes later, Annie hurried across the gymnasium parking lot. At the edge of the asphalt, J.D. was standing under an old maple tree talking to three members of the town council. His back was to her. She slowed several yards away from the group, and then stopped altogether.
J.D.’s voice carried clearly. “No doubt I couldn’t bat my eyelashes at Corbin with near the effectiveness my wife did. But is that the sole talent you expect from the mayor of this town? Eyelash batting?”
Uneasy laughter rippled out from the three men.
“Now, J.D., that might be a tad—” Earnest Holt began.
Annie didn’t wait to hear the response. She shot across the pavement with fury as a propellant. “And you consider that my sole talent, J.D.?”
J.D. whirled around. “Annie.”
All three council members looked as if they’d rather be anywhere else in the world at that moment.
“I know you may find this hard to believe, J.D. But there are some things in this world that people actually work for. Put their hearts into. Things that a new toy or a new dog just won’t fix. The hard stuff has to be earned, J.D. You have to earn it.”
J.D.’s mouth twisted to one side. He started to speak, stopped, then with serious agitation said, “Annie, can’t this wait until we get home?”
“No, it can’t. Because you don’t have a home here. You gave that up. I have a home here. A place where I belong. Where I matter. It’s one I intend to keep. And I’m not going to give any of it up just because you were hit with a temporary itch you needed to scratch. I’m staying here, J.D. Tommy is staying with me. And if it suits this council, I intend to finish out my term as mayor of this town. If you try to change any of that, I will give you a fight like nothing you’ve ever imagined. I will drag out every single rotten thing you ever did as a husband and father, J.D. And I will be ruthless.”
For once in his life, J.D. was speechless. He stood there, staring at Annie as if he had no idea who she was. As if she’d just dropped into the parking lot via a hole in the sky, species unidentifiable. He jerked and swung a glance at the three men standing behind him, all of whom were suddenly busy studying their shoes.
“You know what, Annie,” J.D. poked a finger in her direction, his words stumbling out on a sputter. “A woman like you does not deserve a man like me.”
“She most certainly does not.”
Jack stood a few feet to their right, his expression cold enough to instantly freeze boiling water.
Annie’s heart fluttered, spun a circle like a top set in motion by something outside of its own ability to control.
J.D. slicked a hand across his hair, anchored it at the back of his neck, then blew out a whoosh of indignation. “Do you people have any idea what my name alone can do for this town—”
“A name doesn’t count for much without a person behind it who’s willing to get in the trenches for the things they believe in.” Jack again.
Annie set her gaze on him, and for the life of her could not pull it away.
“That’s who Annie is, you know. Or maybe you never did know. And that, in my opinion, is an unimaginable shame. To think that a man could have a woman like her and not have any idea what he has.”
A wave of pure emotion hit Annie so hard she had to lock her knees to keep standing.
Jack looked at her then, really looked at her, his eyes clearly inviting her to see what he felt.
“If it weren’t for Annie, Corbin Manufacturing would have already closed its doors. It took her love for this town and its people to make me see the effect that action would have had. How could Macon’s Point have a better mayor than one who thinks its people are its greatest asset?”
J.D. puffed up as if he’d suddenly been injected with hot air. “You know, Annie, this town has always been too small for me. But it’s exactly right for you.” He turned around and stomped off across the parking lot.
“I can’t think of a nicer compliment,” Annie said, turning to face Jack.
“Did I just overstep my bounds?” he asked.
“A lady likes having her honor defended.”
Jack smiled. “I like defending your honor. But you don’t need me riding in on a white horse. You were doing just fine yourself.”
“This would be our cue to leave,” Earnest said, waving for the other two council members to follow.
And suddenly, it was just the two of them, alone, or at least as alone as they could be with half the county on the other side of the parking lot.
Jack took her hand and pulled her around to the other side of the maple tree. She stood with her back against the wide old trunk, unable to say a word, to do anything, in fact, other than pray that he would kiss her.
He kissed her.
Quickly, deeply, as if he, too, could think of little else.
Annie sighed and kissed him back, wrapped her arms around his neck and put heart and soul into it. “Jack,” she said, her voice not sounding like her own.
He pulled back and looked down at her.
“Thank you. For everything you said.”
“It was all true, Annie. When my dad married someone else so soon after my mom died, I looked at what he did as proof that he couldn’t have loved her like I’d always thought. I think I was wrong about that. And wrong, too, that there would never be anyone who would make me feel that way.”
Annie’s eyes filled with tears. She reached up, touched a finger to his lips.
“It’s like I had this sensor in my heart,” he said, “and it never made a sound until I met you. You’re the one. It’s been telling me that from the first moment I saw you.”
“Jack.”
He put his arms around her waist, pulled her close to him and kissed her again. “Will you marry me, Annie?”
Not so very long ago, the question would have sent her into a whirlwind of self-doubt. How could she know this was right? How could she be sure this time wouldn’t be like the last time? That Jack was the man he seemed to be. The difference was that she knew it in the deepest part of her, in her heart. That this was the man with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life. And that his feelings mirrored her own. She had to believe that this was how a person knew. “You know I come with a seven-year-old son, a very large St. Bernard and a sister who spends as much time at my house as she does her own?” Her voice broke a little at the end.
“Couldn’t have designed a better package,” he said, smiling and then gathering her against him for the kind of kiss that would have made any answer other than yes impossible.
EPILOGUE
Three Months Later
IF IT WERE possible for two people to die of waiting, both Jack and Annie would be long gone.
But the waiting was about to end, and Annie stood at the window of their hotel room, looking out at the full moon resting high over the water off St. John in the U.S. Virgin Is
lands. She looked down at the simple nightgown she’d chosen to wear, off-white with skinny straps and a scooped neckline. Clarice had helped her pick it out on a pre-honeymoon shopping spree to D.C. Annie hoped it wasn’t too boring, hoped it appealed to Jack.
They’d gotten married that morning at the First Baptist Church in Macon’s Point. A beautiful, snowy Saturday, it seemed as if most of the town had turned out for the wedding. Tommy served as ring bearer, Clarice as maid of honor and Pete as best man. Essie had sat on the front row with a tear-soaked tissue clutched in one hand.
J.D. had actually sent flowers and a respectful note saying he hoped Annie would allow Tommy to visit him in L.A. soon. He’d dropped the custody suit, and surprised Annie the last few months with regular phone calls to their son. Annie was glad. For Tommy’s sake, she wanted there to be peace between them.
For Jack and her, these past three months had felt like three years. But Annie had thought they needed a stretch of time to make sure their feelings for one another didn’t change. To not let their very well-proven physical attraction dictate their actions. And she was now. Sure. Jack loved her. She had seen it in his eyes numerous times these past few months, quiet, anchored love, each glimpse of which deepened her own acceptance of it.
Her husband loved her.
The bathroom door opened, light slicing the darkened room in half. Annie turned around and looked at him. Cliché that it was, he took her breath away. His hair was damp from the shower. He wore dark blue cotton pajama bottoms that hung low on his hips. His chest was bare, and he was lean and muscled, fit. There was something in the immediate intimacy of the moment that made Annie mute with shyness.
Jack crossed the room, stopped just inches from her, reached out and touched the back of his hand to her face. “Hi, wife.”
“Hi, husband.”
“Sure do like the sound of that.”
“I like it, too.”
“Did you call home?”
Annie nodded. “Everything’s fine. Clarice said Tommy was already asleep. She and Pete were making popcorn.”
“Kind of interesting that he postponed his trip back to London for a few days.”
“Uh-huh. And Clarice happened to mention that she’s always wanted to see Big Ben. I have a feeling she’ll be going over for a visit.”
“You all right with that?”
“Pete’s great.”
Jack put his arms around her, pulled her close. “You are so beautiful, Annie.”
He leaned down and kissed her then, his hand slipping to the back of her neck, inviting her closer. Annie stepped in, wrapped her arms around his waist and opened her mouth to his in an invitation of her own.
They’d done a lot of kissing these past few months, on her front porch, under the maple tree in Sam and Ned’s pasture, in Jack’s office at C.M. Long, deep, taking-their-time kisses that were so decadently skillful that Annie never failed to sink against him with longing.
Now was no exception.
He dropped an arm to the back of her knees, picked her up and carried her over to the enormous bed in the center of the room.
He laid her down, gently, her head sinking onto soft pillows. Jack stood there for a moment, just looking at her, but Annie felt no shyness now. She believed in Jack’s love for her, wanted to show him with heart and body.
She held a hand out. He took it, entwining his fingers with hers and stretching out alongside her.
The moon lent the room soft light, and they lay there in bed, smiling at one another, husband and wife. He ran the back of his hand across her cheek and hair and said, “I never knew what this could be like. Belonging to someone and having someone who belongs to me. It changes the way everything feels. Just the thought of making love to you, Annie, is…it’s exactly that. Love.”
He kissed her again then. Annie arched her back and settled her hands on his very nice shoulders. “Did anyone ever tell you you’re awfully good at that?”
“I think you did once or twice,” he said with a smile in his voice.
“I did, didn’t I?”
“I kind of like hearing it, though.”
“I probably won’t get tired of saying it.”
“I definitely won’t get tired of kissing you.”
“Promise?”
“Promise,” he said, his leg slipping between hers, the closeness both longed-for and welcome.
The sound of the ocean dipped through the room’s open windows, and the two of them watched each other while their bodies made their own greetings.
Annie ran her fingers through his hair, cupped her hand at the back of his neck. “If this was all there was, I’d be happy with it.”
“Oh, but there’s more,” he said, smiling down at her, his hand finding the hem of her nightgown, then sliding from thigh to waist, his palm curving round her hipbone and the flat of her abdomen. “All right if I show you now?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-3226-6
A WOMAN LIKE ANNIE
Copyright © 2003 by Inglath Cooper.
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A Woman Like Annie Page 21