ANNIE TUGGED AT the waist of her pantyhose just before she climbed back into the passenger side of Brandon’s car. She breathed with a sigh of accomplishment. Glancing at her face in the vanity mirror, mascara-coated eyelashes and a sleek French-twist hairstyle greeted her. In a borrowed suit dress from Karrin and nylons she’d scrounged up in a hurry, she had to admit she cleaned up pretty well, even on short notice.
“How’d it go?” Brandon asked, steering out of the parking lot and onto the main drag.
Annie grabbed a granola bar from her purse and tore it open. Her mounting nerves had distracted her from eating lunch, but now in the safety of Brandon’s car, they had instantly downshifted into a ravenous hunger.
“As good as can be expected. Thanks so much for driving me.”
“I had the vacation time and needed to get out of the office. No worries.”
“Are you positive the lawyer doesn’t know Sean?” she asked. The hour-long drive to the next town didn’t feel far enough from Sean’s grasp, but she had limited options unless she wanted to travel several hours to Green Bay or Duluth.
“I’m not 100 percent positive, but he moved here from San Antonio and has only been practicing law a few years. Didn’t you ask him?”
“Not...directly.” It had been an awkward meeting of sorts, considering Annie wanted to hire Kenneth Bailey to represent her for crimes she hadn’t yet committed. She’d talked in circles long enough for him to get the gist that she was up to something, but he didn’t seem to have the faintest clue as to what. She needed him to be her personal safety deposit box, but could she trust him to do what she needed when the time came?
“Does he have any experience in family law?”
Annie chomped down on a bite of granola and shook her head.
“Annie, you might not want to waste your time with someone lacking experience in custody hearings.”
“Sean knows every lawyer in Chinoodin. He has his sleazy paws in everything. I can’t hire anybody there.”
“But you need someone specializing in family law. Right?”
Annie shoved another chunk of granola bar into her mouth and managed a nod. It was wise for Brandon to assume she had met with Kenneth Bailey to maintain full custody of James, but it wasn’t correct. She had her sights set on the horizon. No more sleepless nights worrying about Sean creeping up her walk. No more watching the clock, dreading the minutes until Sean picked up James or finally returned him home. She and her family weren’t going to live like this anymore. They deserved better.
“I know what I’m doing, Brandon.”
He squinted at her as his gaze shifted from her to the road and back again. “Why do I have the feeling that you’re not giving me the whole truth?”
Annie grunted under her breath. “You wouldn’t want the whole truth.”
Brandon swung off MI-28 and onto a gravel driveway. It led to a little house with a sign that read EAT secured in front. He put the car in Park and faced her.
“Try me.”
She sighed. “It’s best not to involve you, Brandon.”
“It’s that kind of talk that has me worried. You’re not trying to win sole custody of the children...are you?”
“I need this to be over, Brandon. For James’s sake. I’m making other...arrangements.”
“James needs his mother, Annie. Promise me you aren’t planning anything reckless.”
“Me? Reckless?” Annie smirked, fumbling in her purse for her cell phone.
“You’ve been known to elicit raised eyebrows a time or two.”
Annie scowled at her phone. She’d mistakenly set it to silent mode and had four missed calls from Marjorie.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, phone sandwiched between her ear and shoulder as she motioned to Brandon to keep driving.
“Honey, James is missing,” Marjorie said, her normally calm, buttery voice frantic on the other end of the line.
“Missing?” Annie sputtered.
“Yes. I can’t find him anywhere.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know, Annie. I am so sorry. I put the children down for naps, and when I went to check on them a little bit ago, the bedroom window was open and James was gone. Betsy is as worried as I am. I’ve called the police and neighbors and searched all over the house.”
“Sean? Did you call Sean?”
“No, not yet. I wanted to get in touch with you first.”
“Faster, Brandon,” Annie demanded, grateful when he punched his foot on the gas without needing an explanation. “Marjorie, we’ll be home in forty minutes.”
* * *
WILLIAM SCANNED THE streets for any sign of Denver as he diligently instructed his cabdriver where to turn. Slouched in the back seat, his hood pulled up over his head, he eyed each parked car and stranger they passed.
“Slow down here,” he said. “But don’t stop.”
As the cab crawled past his mother’s house, William spotted Joyce pacing the driveway, clutching her cell phone in her hands. Her lips were moving, her body fidgety. She might as well have been holding a neon sign stating she was waiting to meet her outlaw son. William’s eyes sharpened, searching for Denver or anyone else awaiting his arrival. Although nothing seemed amiss, he couldn’t chance it.
As the cab continued to the far side of Lakeshore, William could practically hear the minutes ticking away and his dollars along with them.
“Keep driving?” the large fellow with a disc-shaped bald spot on the back of his head called from the front seat.
“Cruise along the lake and then circle back,” William replied. He knew it was time to leave, time to get lost and put distance between all the complications people came with. He’d gotten used to living alone and taking care of himself, and that was exactly the kind of life he intended to return to. Life would be better again once he was alone.
Except for Annie.
Even once he staked a new life for himself, he wouldn’t be the same person who had arrived in Chinoodin Falls. Annie’s influence had seen to changing him, and he recognized it was for the better.
William squeezed his eyes shut, but all he could picture was her sweet, adoring face gazing back at him. He strained to remember the last time he had felt such an attraction to a woman, such a willingness to devote himself to one. As he cracked his window, desperate for fresh lake air to snap him alert again, he surrendered to the truth that his heart would most likely always belong to her.
But she didn’t need him. Wasn’t that basically what she had told him? No, it was even worse. She had made him promise to get out of her life, not because she didn’t want him, but because he was a hindrance to her and the children. As much as he longed to protect her, all of them, she found him a liability. I don’t want you to leave. I want you to leave me alone. Her words had been a sucker punch to the gut. The initial strike surprised, but since then the pain pulsed farther and deeper like ripples fanning out from him.
When he opened his eyes again, he concluded that the pain was exactly the reason why he didn’t want to get involved with people. You couldn’t get hurt if you were never really attached.
But the inconvenient truth was that he had become attached to Annie again. He hadn’t been prepared for it, believing it was only their old flame reigniting before quickly fizzling. But as he tracked a lone seagull cutting lazy circles in the sky, he knew leaving Annie again might nearly break him. He’d survived some heavy blows in his life, but getting over her would prove nearly impossible. It was best to get out before he was pulled in any deeper.
The lake horizon blurred outside his window, a wash of dazzling blue glittering like diamonds on the surface under a cloudless sky. He’d sought refuge in the water before, staring out over a midnight blue mass as far as the eye could see while a million twinkling stars illuminated it from above. Nights spent on deck with no
light pollution, no sound pollution, had hinted that this was the life he had been cut out for. Focus on the job at hand. Don’t let anyone tie you down. Live for yourself. Take what’s yours and get on with it. He’d return to that life. Perhaps not in the Navy again, but he’d carve out a life of solitude somewhere. He’d move past this short, confusing phase and return to normal. His normal.
A sight on the beach caught his eye. “Pull in here, driver.”
“Here?”
“Yes!” The cabdriver had barely slowed to a stop along Lakeshore Boulevard when William had one foot out the door. He’d spotted the tiny frame and moppy brown hair through the tall grass that covered the slight ridge between road and beach. Was it the hair? The stance? If pressed he couldn’t put a description on what exactly had snagged his attention. But it was something familiar. Something he knew. It had only been a flash, but as he jogged back down the beach, the sight of the little boy confirmed he’d been right.
William paused to glance in all directions for Annie or Sean. Once he was sure the little boy was alone, he quietly approached, watching the boy’s weary walk along the sand.
“James?” he called softly, dropping to one knee. James startled and spun around at the sound of his name. His cheeks were red-hot and streamed with salty tears. He sprang toward William and collapsed into his waiting arms.
“Can I go home now?” he asked, relief clear in his tone and how he tightened his arms around William’s neck. “I want Mom.”
William kissed him on the head and tenderly stroked his back, an instinct he vaguely associated with his father. A faint memory of being held lovingly by a workingman’s hands, his father’s hands, had him holding the little boy the same way. As he carried Annie’s son to the cab, he could feel his own heart emphatically whispering, It’s too late. You’re already involved.
* * *
ANNIE SPRANG FROM Brandon’s car and raced to Joyce and James, who were cuddling on Joyce’s front step. The churning pit in her stomach had only grown worse with each passing mile to Chinoodin Falls, but now that she could see James, see her child, she couldn’t contain her relief.
“James!” she called, her heart pounding in her throat. She couldn’t get to him quickly enough. Her legs felt like lead weights running through water. He was there. He was safe. He was hers. When she finally reached the steps and dropped to the ground in front of him, James buried his head in Joyce’s side.
Joyce offered an apologetic wince, her eyes silently conveying she understood the pang of Annie’s hurt.
“James?” Annie whispered, wrapping her arms around his hot, sweaty body in a desperate attempt to convince herself he was okay. “Come to me...please?”
James’s body shuddered before he released his grip on Joyce and dove into his mother’s tight squeeze. How was it that his body felt smaller than she remembered? She nuzzled her nose against the top of his head and couldn’t let him go.
“He hasn’t said where he’s been,” Joyce explained quietly as Annie rocked him back and forth. “William found him wandering the beach alone.”
“William?”
“He brought him here. I guess Marjorie is at the police station with Betsy.”
Annie paused to consider that William had been the one to find James. She had been so cold toward him before, and now all she wanted to do was fall over herself with thanks.
“Mom?” James asked, face buried in her shoulder. “I don’t want to live with Dad.”
“I know.” She leaned back to get a better angle on his puppy-dog eyes.
“Promise me I can stay with you forever.”
“You don’t need to worry about such a thing.”
“But I heard you talking yesterday about Dad taking me. Then you came home from work early, got dressed up and I thought...”
Annie held her breath. It was her only defense against the flood of guilt she could feel mounting up like a tsunami. “What?”
“I thought you left so Dad could come get me and take me to live with him. I don’t want to.”
“Oh, James.”
James’s face scrunched up as the tears fell hard like rain. “I didn’t know where to go.”
“Home,” Annie whispered. “We’re going home.” She pulled herself to her feet with James still clinging to her. “Joyce, please tell William thank you.”
Joyce’s eyes shifted to the garage before sorrowfully shaking her head. “He’s gone, sweetie. He won’t be back now.”
He’d left all right, but perhaps finding James was a goodbye gift of sorts. A last love song penned to her heart, even if he hadn’t intended it to be. Circumstances had presented them with an intersection, fate crossing their paths for one last time. But Annie couldn’t dwell on the hole he’d left in her heart. She had to focus on the future. She had toyed all day with doing the unthinkable, building up her confidence for her meeting with Kenneth Bailey, all the while not sure she had the guts to pull off her plan. But as she snuggled James against her, his teary smile building the longer she held him, she was ready to settle this situation with Sean—for good.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ANNIE PACED ACROSS the kitchen linoleum, the warm light from the fixture dimly illuminating all but the darkest corners of the room as Sean hollered through the phone receiver. Several times she had checked to make sure the children were still soundly sleeping through the ruckus.
“Where were you? And why didn’t I hear about this when it happened?”
“He’s safe and sound now, Sean. His boyhood fantasies of striking out on his own were short-lived, and he made his way home.” Annie could barely get the lie from her lips with enough conviction to make it believable.
“Striking out on his own? Are you kidding me?”
“I know it’s somewhat out of character for him—”
“That kid doesn’t wander across the yard without you or Betsy, but I’m supposed to believe he ran away from home on his own?”
“Are you calling me a liar?” Annie stopped herself.
She knew she had to bide her time if she were going to rectify things perfectly. “I’m as surprised as you are.”
“Are you? I’m not so sure.”
“What does that mean?”
“You know what I think? I think you lost him, and you’re afraid of the implications in court. That kid is going to be all mine before you can even blink.”
“I didn’t lose him, Sean. Marjorie had put them down for early naps when James snuck out.”
“And another thing. You’re his mother. Why is that old lady always watching the kids? Where were you? I checked at the diner, you know. You didn’t finish your shift this morning and left without a viable excuse.”
“Now you’re checking up on me?”
“Somebody has to.”
“It’s none of your business where I was.”
“When you lose my kid, it is my business. Something fishy is going on here, and I’m going to sniff it out.”
“I can’t do this now, Sean—”
Before she could finish, the line went dead. Annie gently placed her phone on the kitchen table and took a few calming breaths. She reminded herself that soon she and the children would begin a new life and a fresh start out from under Sean’s thumb. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pictured the life she wanted—happy and peaceful, a little yellow house with white gingerbread trim, a tire swing swaying from a century-old oak tree, a golden retriever that answered to the name Honey. Simple pleasures, simple joys. She’d build a new future for her family...
But as hard as she tried to limit her vision to just Betsy and James, it was William’s face that kept appearing before her. He was there, walking ahead of her, holding the children’s hands and smiling at them. His face brightened as he turned back to grin at her, eyes wrinkling in satisfaction. He was kind and understanding and the addition to the
ir family she yearned for. As her shoulders sank, her heart ached for what they might have had together so many years ago.
It was a creak on her back porch that dissolved the fantasy in an instant. She had assumed Sean had been at the office when they spoke, but as her nerves jolted, she second-guessed herself. Easing slowly to the back door, she flicked the kitchen light off. She hadn’t heard anyone pull into the drive, but as a shadow moved past the door, it confirmed she wasn’t alone. The ding signaling a text message on her phone startled her for only a moment. It was William. He was outside.
“William,” she breathed after pulling open the door. Dressed in a black hoodie and blue jeans, his eyes rose slowly to hers. She hesitated in the doorway for a moment, all the while aching to pull him into the kitchen. As she eased the door open wider, he stepped inside and glanced around. “They’re sleeping,” she whispered, quietly latching the door.
He pushed off his hood and stood in the middle of her kitchen with the commanding presence of an oak tree, her imagined oak tree, with muscled roots sunk through the floor. Her heart had leaped at the sight of him, but now, alone with him in her dark kitchen, she found herself searching for the right words.
She wanted to tell him she could never repay him for finding her son and bringing him back to her. If only she could explain that she wanted him to be a part of her life again. Could she admit how most thoughts she had over the course of the day were of him, and how they drove her mad? She wanted to confess she was scared of what she was going to do about Sean, but she loved James so much, she’d do anything at this point to look out for him. If William would only say he’d done terrible things in his past, too, and understood how she felt, all the while convincing her it didn’t make her a terrible person, perhaps it would give her the nerve to carry on. But mostly she wanted to tell him to stay.
“You’re here,” was all she could whisper.
“I needed to know you were okay.”
Her breath hitched as she found his eyes beneath knitted brows. “I’m not okay.”
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