We walked into her room, and she immediately froze. I knew she was thinking about the last time she and I had been in her room, alone together. I tried to lighten the mood. “I realize this probably isn’t the time to tell you this, but I need you to close your eyes.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you for real?”
“It takes me about five minutes to set this up. I practiced earlier and timed myself. But you have to trust me, Anabel. Can you do that?”
She looked like she was about to bolt, but she nodded, climbed onto her bed, and sat cross-legged with her eyes shut. “I better not regret this, Jared.”
“You won’t,” I promised her.
She sighed. “So what did you do this weekend?”
“I had dinner with Meghan last night.”
“So if I call Meghan she’ll verify that?”
“Ouch. Yes.” I grunted, snapping a lock into place.
“Don’t hurt yourself, whatever you’re doing,” she murmured.
“How was your trip?” I asked.
She groaned. “A total disaster. I don’t want to talk about it.”
I paused and stared at her. She’d gained some more baby weight, but as I watched her sit there, rubbing her belly, I really couldn’t help but think that I did truly love her.
I think she knew I was staring at her, because she inquired, “Is it done?”
“Almost.” I locked the top bar into place. “Open your eyes.”
She did, and they grew very wide. “Oh my goodness.”
“It’s a cosleeper,” I explained. “Meghan told me that you wanted to keep Emma in your room with you, so what this does is it attaches to the bed, and you can have her right there.”
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered. “Oh Jared, thank you.” She got herself off the bed—no small feat—and gave me a hug.
“You’re welcome,” I replied.
“And it’s pink,” she breathed.
“Yes, so that doctor of yours better not have screwed up. If that kid comes out with a penis, I am not putting him in that thing.”
She laughed. “It’s perfect.” She kept her arm around my waist as we admired my handiwork.
“You probably want to wash the sheet before she comes, you know. Do you have baby detergent?”
Anabel made a face. “No, not yet. But Meghan told me to hold off until after the baby shower she’s apparently throwing me.”
“She told me about that. Sounds like the exact sort of thing you love.”
“You got me there.” She was starting to warm up to me again. “Meghan’s been wonderful, but it does seem a little much. She invited Alexis, after all”
“What about Clara Moore? Did she invite her?”
Anabel’s jaw dropped. “I’m guessing your sister told you.”
“What did you do to her, Anabel?”
“You know, I don’t even know, but she seemed determined to not like me.” She dropped onto the bed. “She accused me of trying to get into Matt’s pants. Like I’m trying to get into anybody’s pants like this.”
I shook my head. “I’ve only met her a handful of times. She doesn’t care for me either, but she has a reason to despise me.”
Anabel nodded, looking at her bedspread.
“I hate myself for what happened to Nat,” I confided, coming to sit next to her. “I didn’t . . . I liked her and everything, but she wanted way more out of the relationship than I did.” I looked into her eyes. “I swear, Anabel, I never wanted to hurt her.”
“I believe you,” she whispered.
I changed the subject. “What did you think of Geoff?”
“Absolutely adored him,” she grinned.
“I imagine he enjoyed you as well.”
“I made him laugh,” she admitted.
“He’s the only one who doesn’t blame me,” I shared.
“Well he seems to be the only rational one in the bunch,” she commented. “Scott’s awful, too.”
“You met Scott, huh?”
Her mouth moved into a tight smile. “He thinks I’m sassy.” She stretched her legs. “He seems to hate you more than—”
“Than Matt does? I know.” I looked at her. “Look, we don’t exactly get along, but I don’t think Matt blames me. He just hates what I did to her.”
Anabel nodded. “Yeah, I don’t think he blames you either.”
We sat there for a few moments in silence, me watching her while she studied her bedspread. Finally she turned to me. “I sort of miss you.”
“I sort of miss you, too.”
“But I don’t know what to say to you anymore.” She leaned against me. “Remember when it used to be easy?”
“Was it ever?” I asked her.
“There used to not be consequences.”
“There were always consequences with you and me, baby.” I put my arm around her. “It was just which ones we were getting ourselves into.”
Anabel nodded. “If it wasn’t hurting my father or my brother, it was—”
“—hurting each other,” I finished.
“Yeah,” she said. “We’ve hurt each other a lot, haven’t we?”
“Me more so than you,” I acknowledged.
“Still, I haven’t exactly made things easy,” she admitted. “But I haven’t wanted to.”
“Yeah, but now there are consequences—very fitting word—that you hadn’t foreseen,” I sneered.
She picked up on my tone. “How’s that?”
“There’s the issue of your bodyguard.” I didn’t want it to be true, but somehow I knew it was.
She frowned. “Stop trying to bring Matt into this.”
“Why did he bring you to his parents’ house?” I needed to control my temper, and now I was standing up, facing her.
She shrugged, not meeting my eyes. “I needed out of here. It was somewhere not too far away, and I just about invited myself. I wanted to meet his family.”
“Don’t you find that a little odd? Wanting to meet your bodyguard’s family?” I was getting angry at her again. “You haven’t even met mine yet.”
“I know Meghan,” she was defensive. “I guess I thought that it might be nice to talk to Matt’s mom since we have similar interests. She’s a professor of English Lit.”
“Is that all?”
She nodded miserably. “Yes, and it turns out she despises me. So that’s lovely. Matt’s one of the few friends I have, Jared, and I don’t really expect him to hang out with me too much if his family hates me. And you, for that matter, seeing as how the baby is yours.”
I felt sorry for her. She really looked upset. “Hey, baby, I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I didn’t realize it meant that much to you.”
“I really like and respect Matt,” she declared. “He’s the only one out of you who doesn’t treat me like a crazy person.”
“And that’s all?”
Her eyes narrowed. “What are you getting at, Jared? I mean, he’s not the one who stares at me like I’m a piece of meat.”
“Are you saying I do?” I moved closer.
She took another step back. “I’m not about to play this game with you again.”
“I’m just curious what you think about me,” I kept my voice light. “That’s all.”
I was getting to her. Anabel gulped. “I think we should stay on opposite sides of the room for the moment,” she whispered.
“You keep fighting it,” I stepped closer.
She didn’t step away this time, but looked down. “I have to,” she stated. “I can’t keep it up.”
“Why?” I asked her.
“I can’t,” Anabel faltered. “I just can’t, okay? I care about you a lot. Isn’t that enough?”
“Not really, no,” I replied.
“What do you want from me?” she demanded.
I studied the face that looked pretty close to tears. She looked desperate, and I think at that moment she would’ve said whatever I wanted to hear.
Except for the fact that Matt
walked in right then. “You alright, Anabel?”
She nodded. “You should go, Jared.”
Without a word I left the room, and I made it almost to the top of the stairs before I heard her burst into tears. Fantastic way to end things. Just great.
Chapter 35—Jared
A week later, I was standing outside of the Capitol Building with my sister. “So let me get this straight. You’ve just left her alone? With Matt? For an entire week?”
“I think she needed some time away from me.”
“I’m sure,” she noted, and then pursed her lips. “From what little she’s told me, you did a number on her the other night. Matt probably looks really good right about now.”
I grimaced. “I am well aware of how perilous the situation is now.”
My sister took a sip of her latte and grinned. “I just tell it like it is. So anyway, Mom and I were thinking Cheesecake Factory. I think you’ll score points with Princess, as she said to me the other day that she loves fresh guacamole. Apparently she never had it on the island and now she can’t get enough of it.”
“Great. I’ll meet you there.” Meghan and I were standing just outside the hearing room. I had wanted to wait outside for Anabel, as we had been avoiding each other. She hadn’t been returning my calls or text messages, and on the rare occasion that she did communicate with me, she indicated that “now wasn’t a good time.” I also suspected that Matt may have had a hand in that. So here I was, lurking, even though Meghan had more than once commented that I looked “like a total stalker.”
“Yeah, I’m not exactly thrilled about driving all the way out to Tyson’s, but whatever.” She scanned the crowd. “Mom really wants to see her house. I’d like to see it again as well. I wonder what kind of property taxes that little beauty racks up.”
“Okay,” I told her. “I can’t deal with this anymore. I need you to be normal, okay?”
“I need you to stop behaving like a pedophile.”
“I am not—”
“I’m just saying, you don’t have to stick around. She’s not making you.”
“I love her,” I said.
“Then behave like it! Sweep her off her feet. Do something to make her realize you love her, because if I was Anabel, I would think you didn’t care about me at all.” Meghan looked serious. “If you had any sense whatsoever, you would throw yourself on her mercy and make her realize that despite everything, she wants to be with you and only you.”
“I don’t know who you are. This isn’t like you. Since when have you become such a sappy romantic?”
Meghan considered. “I guess it’s just her. I’ve never liked anyone you’ve been with, and I would love to see the two of you happy together.” She kissed me on the cheek. “I have a meeting. I love you.” And with a twist on her heel, my sister was clicking down the hall. I was left alone to wait.
As if on cue, Anabel showed up walking with Matt and smiling. When she saw me her eyes got bigger. “Hey!” she called. “I am so sorry I haven’t been in touch, we’ve been busy. Matt’s trying to get me to not make a complete idiot of myself. We’ll see if he’s succeeded.”
I laughed mirthlessly.
“Was that your sister, Sorensen?” Matt asked.
“Yeah, that was Meghan.”
“Oh, I missed Meghan!” Anabel looked disappointed. “Is she coming with us tonight?”
“Yeah, we were thinking Cheesecake Factory in Tyson’s, 7 o’clock?”
Anabel looked at Matt, and he nodded. “We’ll meet you there.”
“My mom actually wants to see Anabel’s house,” I hinted in what I hoped was a casual tone.
“Well why don’t you all come by around 6? We can all head over there together then.” She looked earnest.
“Sounds good,” I agreed. Matt’s face remained unperturbed, but I suspected he didn’t like that idea.
“We should go in,” he suggested to Anabel.
She nodded. “See you inside.”
They walked in together, and I realized Meghan was right. I definitely needed to do something about them.
It was a rather painless day for both Anabel and me, to the point where I caught her falling asleep on her brother’s shoulder. They were interrogating Major Briggs for his take on the day Jonathan was murdered. Charlie was also there, and he would probably be testifying tomorrow. And while I did not turn around, I often felt Matt’s eyes boring into the back of my skull. As Anabel let out a small sigh in her sleep, I wondered if he was staring at her as often as he was me.
“Of course, Charlie was there since we couldn’t get ahold of Jonathan. Before we were aware of his murder. We later discovered that Sorensen had discovered Jonathan Martin’s death and took Anabel out of the building before any harm could befall her,” continued the Major.
Sam gently shook Anabel awake. “Mm? What?” She sat up, blinking rapidly.
“So good of you to join us, Miss Martin,” Ms. Fischer said to her. There was a murmur of laughter around the room.
“I’m so sorry,” she exclaimed. “I haven’t been sleeping. Were we talking about me?”
More laughter.
As the hearing closed for the day, I walked over to her, but I was thwarted when I bumped into Charlie.
“Hello, Jared,” he said.
“Charlie, how are you? I’m sorry we haven’t gotten a chance to talk,” I replied, internally groaning.
“Well, you’ve been busy, I’m sure,” he acknowledged, nodding at Anabel. For some reason, I didn’t like the way he was staring at her. “How has she been?”
“Anabel? She’s fine, I guess, she just keeps having more nightmares.”
“What do you mean?” He sounded curious.
“She’s been having nightmares about the night her father was murdered.” I glanced at her; she was deep in conversation with her brother.
“Really?” He seemed interested in this. “Does she remember something?”
“No, it’s all fuzzy in her mind. I don’t really know, Charlie, I haven’t talked to her all that much.”
“Right,” he nodded. He looked at Marilyn. “Well, I’m sure I’ll see you later.”
I inclined my head and made my way over to where Anabel and Sam were seated.
“We miss you, you know,” I heard him say.
“Maybe you do,” she smiled. “I doubt Alexis does.”
“Perhaps we should change the subject.” Sam was always the diplomat. “I really like your house. Do you?”
“Yes!” she proclaimed. “I barely know what to do with it. Not that I’ve spent much waking time there, Matt and I went out to dinner again last night and it seems like the caretakers are doing an excellent job—Jared,” she interjected, noticing me. “How are you?”
“Fine, thank you,” I returned, noting that Matt was already taking her out to dinner. More than once. “Are we still on for tonight?”
“Yes!” She looked at Matt, who had materialized at her side. “We should probably go. I want to look nice for your mother.” She smiled at me again, and then they were gone.
I stared after her, and then I looked at Sam. He looked smug.
“I don’t care,” I told him. “We have a child together, and that’s a bond you can’t break.”
“I can’t, no,” he agreed. “She, however, is another story.”
“You know, I can’t believe you would do this to your own sister,” I retorted. “Don’t you care about her happiness at all?”
“I believe,” he commented, not bothering to look at me, “she would be much happier without you.”
“He doesn’t even care about her. So you want her to fall in love with someone who doesn’t love her?”
“It already happened once, and now she’s having a baby in a little over three months.” I started to protest, but Sam continued. “Besides, Jared, who’s to say that he doesn’t care about her? Matt’s not the type to string a girl along.”
That was the ugly truth that I wanted to put from my mi
nd. Staring at the door that they had just gone through, I vowed not to let that happen.
Chapter 36—Anabel
My belly was getting huge. I stood sideways and looked in the mirror, thankful that there was not a scale in sight. I pulled my dress over my head and sighed. It was nice, blue and demure, and did a good job minimizing my stomach. A white pearly sweater complemented it well, and my freshly washed curls were frizz-free. It was the best I could do.
There was a knock at my door. “Come in,” I called.
Charlotte stepped in. “Oh Miss Anabel, you look so lovely,” she gushed. We had become good friends in the weeks I had been at the house, and she was borderline maternal with me. I kept trying to get her to not call me “Miss Anabel,” but it didn’t seem to be working.
“Thanks. I’m trying to make a good first impression.”
“You’ll do fine, don’t you worry,” she admonished me. “I just wanted to check on you, you have a lot going on. Especially with that very nice young man across the hall from you,” she commented, and I caught her meaning.
“He’s my bodyguard. He’s being paid for that.” I bit my lip.
“Of course. I’ll see you later.” Charlotte left, and I smiled at myself in the mirror.
Okay, so being with Matt for the past month was enough time for me to realize that he was everything that Jared wasn’t, and I was falling for him, hard. I know. I know. This was ridiculous on more levels than I could even contemplate. I had flirted shamelessly with Jared back on the island, and now that he was interested in doing the right thing by me and helping raise our child, all I wanted to do was stare adoringly at my bodyguard who was only paying attention to me because my brother was paying him. Yes, I was aware of this new level of insanity that I had reached.
I had thought Jared was the hero of my story. But Matt was the one who took me for a picnic on my birthday. Matt was the one who burst into my room during my breakdown. He had made sure to set ground rules with Jared for my safety and security during our nightmarish date. He did a million little things for me every day—bringing me a glass of water, helping me prop my swollen feet up with a pillow, reading to me at night. Perhaps, I reflected, Jared was just a red herring.
Anabel Unraveled Page 26