Anna Meets Her Match (15 page)

“What difference does it make?” Anna asked, shrugging his hands away with thoughtless impatience. “It’s not like you care about that.”

“No,” he said rather cheerfully, “I don’t.” Grinning, he leaned forward and said, “And neither do you.”

She looked up at him, tired of this runaround. She had to know. “What did Tansy say to you?”

Reeves smiled sympathetically. “About the, um, crush, you mean?”

Wincing, Anna squeezed her eyes closed. Maybe she didn’t want to know, after all. Maybe she ought to just crawl under the car and stay there until he either went away or she died of starvation, whichever came first. Too late.

“She said she found notebook paper,” he told her softly, “that you’d written some names on. Anna Leland. Anna and Reeves Leland.”

“Oh-oh-oh.” Anna reeled, coming up hard against the side of her car.

Talk about stupid! How many sheets of paper had she filled with that drivel?
Mrs. Anna Leland. Mrs. Reeves Leland. Anna Miranda Leland. Reeves and Anna Leland
…
And she’d thought she’d been so clever, tearing the pages into tiny pieces, hiding them in closets and under floorboards, while Tansy undoubtedly had known all along.

And now Reeves knew. Probably his aunts, too.

Moaning, Anna covered her face with her hands and did her best to disappear. After a long moment, she heard shoe soles scrape against the pavement, and then something brushed against her hair.

“Anna?” he queried softly.

“Go away,” she choked out.

“No.”

She balled her hands into fists. “Please just go away.”

“Not until you listen to me.”

Here it comes, she thought, the useless dismissals. She could already hear them.
It wouldn’t have worked out. We’re too different. I was heading off to college. It wasn’t real love, just a silly schoolgirl crush.
All the things she’d told herself a countless number of times, he would now tell her. Maybe they would finally work. Maybe, after all these years, she could finally just get over it.

She dropped her hands and opened her eyes, ready for the volley, ready to take the truth right in the heart.

“I can’t have you thinking ill of my aunts,” he said. “They only wanted to try to derail your grandmother. I think they feel responsible for having discussed among themselves that you would be a wonderful mother for Gilli.”

Anna blinked, a rush of warm surprise flowing through her. “They said that?”

One corner of his lips quirked. “A number of times. That seems to have given Tansy the idea to get us together, and we may have added fuel to the fire ourselves.”

“Last Sunday at church.”

“Mmm. Hypatia hoped that they and I and you together could make Tansy see that…” He seemed momentarily at a loss for words, but he shifted his stance slightly and went on.
“That she’s driven you away with her obsessive need to control your life.”

“Fat chance!” Anna huffed, folding her arms.

“Yeah,” Reeves said, “she’s nothing if not determined, this grandmother of yours, and she obviously has her own agenda for this dinner.
Her
agenda,” he reiterated, “not ours. I propose that we just don’t play her game.”

“As if I ever have.”

He grinned and tapped her on the end of the nose. “Exactly.”

Narrowing her eyes at him, she cut him an incisive glance. “What are you suggesting?”

“For starters, that neither of us show up for dinner. The aunties will understand, and it’ll throw a spoke in Tansy’s wheel. Then…” He shrugged. “We’ll figure it out.”

Anna wondered what was left to figure out, but she didn’t ask. She was still trying to reason through Reeves’s behavior. He hadn’t said a word about her ridiculous crush. Maybe he figured it was too silly to bother about, water under the bridge, over and done with years and years ago.

Suddenly he asked, “Do you know where my house is?”

Taken off guard, she simply nodded.

“Good. I’ll meet you there in an hour, less if I can manage it. Okay?”

She opened her mouth, but so many questions crowded her tongue that she couldn’t sort through them to get at the right one.

He shook her gently. “Okay?”

She blinked and gave him the answer he seemed to want. “Okay.”

Beaming a smile at her, he hurried back toward the store. “Less than an hour, I promise. Then we’ll talk.”

Anna hugged herself, watching him dart through traffic back toward the building, his tie flapping in beat to his movements. Even after he disappeared through the automatic
sliding doors, she stood there, slightly dazed by the emotional upheaval of the past few minutes. Finally, she pulled her keys from her pocket and let herself into the car. Slumping down behind the steering wheel, she tried to gather her thoughts.

What, she wondered, did he expect to talk about? Her embarrassment at Tansy’s highhandedness?
His
embarrassment at Tansy’s high-handedness?
Not high school and all that, please God
.

On the other hand, what if he wanted to just talk, period, about…whatever normal people talk about? Was that possible?

He’d apologized for judging her. If she apologized for having made his life a misery all those years ago, that would be a start toward…friendship, at least. Wouldn’t it?

There was only one way to find out.

Reeves let himself into Chatam House via the side door, as usual, carrying the retrieved packet of tea in one hand. The sound of running footsteps greeted him perhaps two seconds before his daughter launched herself at him out of the gloom of the hallway.

“Daddy!”

He caught her up and parked her on his hip, hugging her close. “Hi, sugar.” She smelled fresh and sweet and wore clean clothes, a matching set of royal blue knit top and pants. “You look pretty.”

“Anna’s coming.”

“Ooh, I don’t think so,” he told her, carrying her through the house, “but you and I are going to see her, instead.”

She tilted her head, caramel curls bouncing. “Can Special come?”

“Uh, no. Special will have to stay here.”

Sighing, Gilli spread her hands in a gesture of helplessness. “I ha’fa stay wif her.”

“Gilli, you can’t stay with that cat all the time.”

“I promise her, Daddy, ’cause Aunt ’Patia say she gots to stay in the kitchen for our dinner party.”

“Yes, I know about the aunts’ dinner party,” Reeves said absently, turning down the central hall.

“No, I mean in the kitchen, me and Chester and Hilda and Carol and Special.”

Ah, so that was Hyaptia’s plan, a very clever one that would effectively keep Gilli and the cat out of the way. “I see. Well, if that’s what you want to do, then I’ll give Anna your regrets.”

Gilli screwed up her face. “What’s grets?”

“
Re
grets. It means that I’m sorry I won’t be able to join you.”

“Oh. That’s ’kay.” She patted him as if accepting his apology.

Reeves grinned and carried her into the parlor, where he paused to set her on her feet before addressing the others gathered there.

“Hello, everyone.” He moved from spot to spot, kissing cheeks until all three of his aunts had been greeted, then stood before Tansy and acknowledged her with a nod that was almost a bow. Ignoring Tansy’s wide smile, he turned back to Hypatia and dropped the box of tea into her lap. “As requested.”

“Thank you, dear.”

“You’re welcome. Unfortunately, I won’t be around to enjoy your special tea this evening. In fact, I’m afraid I won’t be able to stay for dinner, either.”

Behind him, Tansy barked, “What?”

Hypatia looked troubled. “That is a shame.”

He grinned. “Sorry, I have other plans.” He bent to hug her in sheer gratitude for the lovely, godly woman that she was. “Don’t count on Anna, either,” he whispered.

“Oh?”

He straightened with a wink. “Mmm-hmm. I hope that’s all right with you.”

Hypatia smiled. “Of course. God’s plans always supercede our own.”

He grinned at her. “Couldn’t agree more.” Maybe this was all part of God’s plan. Maybe God had been the real matchmaker all along. If so, He wouldn’t let Tansy scuttle things. “I hope it’s okay if Gilli stays here. I understand there’s a dinner party in the kitchen that she doesn’t want to miss.”

Hypatia lifted her eyebrows. “I insist that Gilli stay. She’s our only hope for a peaceful meal.”

Laughing, Reeves turned with an expansive sweep of his arm to take his leave of the others. “Enjoy, my lovelies!” With that he bounded from the room, feeling ridiculously pleased. He couldn’t have arranged things better himself.

As he moved toward the stairs, he heard Tansy hiss, “Make him stay!”

“He’s an adult,” Hypatia returned firmly. “We can’t and wouldn’t try to
make
him do anything.”

Grinning, Reeves climbed the stairs two at a time. He didn’t know why he felt so ebullient, and just now he didn’t care. Thinking of Anna, he quickly changed into jeans, a black long-sleeved T-shirt and casual shoes before grabbing a denim jacket and heading back downstairs, where he kissed his little girl—and at her insistence, her cat—goodbye. He figured he came away with his face intact merely because Gilli was holding the vicious thing at the time.

Ten minutes later, he pulled up in front of his house to find Anna waiting for him, dressed exactly as before in jeans and a double T-shirt but with the addition of a snug little cardigan. Leaning against the fender of her pathetic coupe with her arms folded, she frowned solemnly; yet he smiled, absolutely delighted to see her.

This woman, he realized, was not just his friend, she was his best friend, someone to be admired, someone who
deserved regard and kindness. She had enriched his life and that of his daughter in ways that he could not have imagined. He shook his head, hardly able to believe it.

The brat had become one of his greatest blessings, and very possibly, he realized with a jolt, the answer to his prayers.

T
hey dined on pizza at Gilli’s favorite restaurant, though Gilli had elected to stay at home with her cat. Anna smiled at Reeves’s animated account of Gilli’s dedication to her pet and Tansy’s outraged disappointment as his defection. She listened carefully to his frank description of his encounters—two, as it turned out—with Tansy, and felt a certain sense of vindication at what he said afterward.

“I knew she was difficult, but I figured it was just a quirk of her personality, a first impulse sort of thing. I never realized how far she would go to try to dictate to you or why you would rebel so blatantly. I just want you to know, I get it now.”

Anna nodded then shrugged, still troubled by a sense of Tansy controlling her. “She always manages to set it up so she gets her way. Like right now.”

“How do you mean?”

Spreading her hands, Anna stated the obvious. “She wanted to get us together, and here we are.”

“On our terms,” Reeves pointed out, “not hers.”

“Still, Tansy gets what Tansy wants.”

He reached across the table and captured one of her hands.
“Anna, you’ve got to stop this,” he said. “It’s about what you want and what’s best for you, not what Tansy wants or thinks is best. If the two should happen to be one and the same, you can’t let the fact that it pleases Tansy mess up everything. I thought you got that when you showed up at church. Don’t confuse standing up for yourself with displeasing your grandmother. They aren’t mutually exclusive ideas. If we want to be friends, we’ll be friends. It’s up to us, not Tansy.”

Anna glanced at him, sitting there with his dark hair rakishly tousled, looking so handsome and solid and good, every woman’s dream. Well, not every woman’s, obviously, but hers. Definitely her dream. And he had just offered her some sort of friendship. That was better than nothing. Was she going to let Tansy take it away from her? Reeves was right about doing what was best for herself, and she would, just on her own terms. As soon as she figured out how exactly to accomplish that.

In the meantime, this evening was the closest thing she’d ever had to a date with Reeves, and it might be as close as she ever got to one. She intended to enjoy it.

They talked for hours. When they finally discussed the dossier he had given her, she found herself admitting that she was a bit uncertain about sticking her neck out.

“Dennis is at least a known quantity,” she pointed out. “How do I know the next situation will be any better?”

“You just have to have faith.”

He told her about the disaster of his marriage, bringing Anna to conclude, “Marissa wasn’t who you thought she was.”

“Believe me, I realize that,” he said. “The thing is, how do you trust your own judgment again after you’ve made such a mistake?”

“Someone recently told me that you just have to have faith,” Anna answered.

“Ouch. Coming back to bite me.” He grinned and slid
toward the edge of the booth. “Well, now that we’ve cleared that up, I have a house to inspect tonight. Come on, I’ll give you the ten-dollar tour.”

“You’ll have to put it on my account,” Anna quipped.

Reeves laughed as he stood. Curious and reluctant to let the evening end, she followed suit. She just hoped Tansy didn’t find out that she’d spent this time with Reeves; otherwise, she’d never hear the end of it. Tansy would forever remind her how she’d blown her one chance, however remote, to have her dreams fulfilled. She would never understand that it was as much her own fault as Anna’s. Then again, what did it matter? Her relationship with her grandmother had never been what she’d wanted it to be anyway. It was too late, surely, to do anything about that now.

It was nearing ten o’clock when Reeves once again pulled into the driveway of his house. A motion detector set off a light that illuminated the drive and walkway out front, all the way to the mailbox on the street, reminding him that he hadn’t checked the mail yet. Having called Chatam House earlier to say good-night to Gilli and been assured by Aunt Mags that all was well on their end, he felt no need to rush. In fact, he felt a great reluctance to let the evening end.

He had never talked so easily with anyone else or felt so…not comfortable exactly. Some of his thoughts and impulses about Anna were becoming increasingly uncomfortable. Yet, tonight with her he’d felt a certain rightness, a kind of confidence about himself and his personal life that had been missing previously.

Funny, he’d never had any trouble when it came to business and his career, but when it came to his personal relationships, he’d always been somewhat uncertain. That ought to come as no surprise, considering his parents’ history. He realized now that he couldn’t know what he hadn’t been
taught, but God had provided some very valuable lessons of late, and he meant to put them to good use.

Punching the button overhead, he waited for the garage door to lift, then pulled the sedan inside before hurrying around to hand Anna out on her side.

“Hang on a minute, will you?” he said by way of excusing himself.

Leaving Anna standing, he loped out to the curb, where he drew a handful of papers from the dark interior of the mailbox. He glanced over them on his way back up the drive, finding an electric bill among the advertising circulars, along with a letter. Looking at Marissa’s name on the return address, he sighed inwardly, but the old familiar burn of failure did not come.

He didn’t realize that he’d halted his steps until the motion detector clicked off the decorative lamp affixed to the brick on the corner of the house, leaving only the light from the garage to illuminate the envelope in his hand. This, he told himself with surprising serenity, was his past. Looking up at Anna, the thought occurred to him that there might well stand his future, and suddenly he wanted to run toward it. Her. Them. Yes, them. Him and Anna. Together. If only she didn’t let Tansy get in the way.

Setting off with long, sure strides, he slid Marissa’s letter and the other mail into his jacket pocket. Anna had been studying the bare, half-empty interior of his garage with probing intensity, as if the trash cans, tools and lawnmower in the corner might tell her what she would find inside the house. As he drew near, she looked around at him.

He’d kissed her before and had wanted to since then. Something must have warned her, for she drew back a step, asking, “What?”

“This,” he said. Taking her beautiful face in his hands, he drew her to him even as he stepped closer to her and bent his head.

He risked everything on that kiss, blending his lips with hers in gentle urgency banked with a need far deeper than he’d realized and a joy he had not even suspected.

Yes, he thought. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Oh, but he could be a slow, foolish man! All these years, not to realize who and what he had in her.

He did a very thorough job with the kiss. When he had made all of it that he could, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to his heart, while it pounded and he got his breath back.

“Thank You,” he whispered, eyes shut tight.

“What for?”

The light had gone off, the timer having run out, so that they stood in the dark now. He chuckled and turned her face up with a hand spread beneath her chin, trying to make out her expression.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” The whites of her eyes gleamed, widening. He felt the urge to kiss her again but didn’t, knowing that it would not be wise, and he wanted to be wise this time, very, very wise. He loosened his embrace, turning her toward the door in the back wall. “Come on.”

Turning on lights as they went, they entered the house through a short passageway open on one side to the kitchen, with the laundry room off the other and the master bedroom at the end. He led her there by the hand. Moving swiftly in through one side of the room, they peeked into the spacious master bath and large closets, then went out the other door into another hallway that soon opened onto the large living area of the great room. She admired the free-standing fireplace that separated living and dining spaces, as well as the study that opened off the opposite wall through glass-fronted French doors. Nearly everything had been covered and taped in preparation for painting, giving the place a ghostly, unreal quality.

He showed her Gilli’s frilly pink gingham room and the
nanny’s room, along with two other bedrooms before pulling down the attic stairs and climbing up to poke his upper body through the opening and take a look around. The place looked clean and new. The ceilings had all been replaced, along with the insulation atop them, and everything below had at last been taped, bedded and plastered. Only some sanding and the painting remained to be done. It was as if the honeybees had never invaded.

They walked around past the dining area, with its gleaming brass chandelier hanging shrouded over the center of the canvas-draped table and on to the formal entry. It was nothing so grand as Chatam House, of course, but the architect had carved out space enough for an exquisite Louis XVI console table, along with a matching bench and framed mirror, which had been the aunties’ wedding gifts to him and Marissa. It was only here, in this forward space, where the ceiling had not had to come down, so the furnishings remained uncovered.

Anna ran a hand over the marble top of the table, sighing with pleasure. “I’ve always loved old things. Guess it has to do with growing up in an old house.”

He considered a moment then asked the question now uppermost in his mind. “Think you’d like living in a new house, say, this house?”

She shot him an uncertain look, folding her cardigan close. “This is a wonderful house,” she answered carefully. “You can’t imagine how far beyond my dinky old apartment it is or you wouldn’t even ask me that.”

“We both know that’s not what I’m asking.”

He leaned a hip against the table and pressed his hands to his thighs. Why wasn’t his heart pounding? he wondered. It had pounded like a big brass drum every time he’d broached, however obliquely, the subject of a possible future with Marissa. How could he now feel so calm, after the spectacular failure of his marriage to Marissa and his initial opinion of Anna?

Anna-Miranda-the-Brat-Burdett.

The old refrain sang through his head, childish voices chanting. As if she’d heard them, too, her head came up, her gaze meeting his. Wide and troubled, her sky-blue eyes had never seemed so sad. She shook her head.

“If you’d said anything like that even a couple days ago, I think I’d have jumped over the moon.”

He didn’t know if that was a good start or a bad one. Draping an arm across her shoulders, he pulled her around to lean beside him. “And now?” She shook her head again, looking away. “It’s not Tansy, is it?” he asked.

“You tell me.”

“You can’t think this is about her money.”

“No, but something’s put this in your head.”

“You,” he said. “It’s you.

Sighing, she let him see her worry. “That’s just it, Reeves. I’m not sure I know how to live a normal life. My whole life’s been about fighting Tansy. I don’t know how to do anything else.”

He tugged her closer. She leaned her head on his shoulder. It was a nice feeling, a good feeling, a
right
feeling.

“We’ve been living normal lives, Anna, both of us. This is what the world offers. I think it’s time we started living the lives God means for us to have.” He laid his cheek against the top of her head. “Let’s give it some time, see what He has in store for us. The auction is weekend after next. Let’s get through that and see where we are then? Okay.”

For answer, Anna shifted and slid both of her arms around his waist. They stayed there like that for several long, sweet moments, until at last she whispered, “Why couldn’t Tansy stay out of it?”

“Just put Tansy out of your mind,” he told her with some exasperation. “Now, about the auction. Parking’s going to be a premium. I could send the aunties’ car for you, but I have the feeling Chester is going to have his hands full. Why don’t I—”

She pulled back, frowning. “What are you talking about? Why would you send a car? I’m not going to the auction.”

“Of course, you’re going. How could you not go?”

“I’m not on the guest list.”

“That doesn’t matter. I didn’t get an invitation, either, but I’ve already had my tux dry-cleaned because I know that my aunts would never forgive me if I wasn’t there.”

“That’s different.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“You’re family,” she pointed out.

He couldn’t believe this. Surely she realized how much his aunts adored her. They would definitely want her there. He wanted her there. He had, in fact, intended to take her as his date, but he could see that would not do. Tansy would undoubtedly be in attendance, and that in itself would give Anna enough reason not to accompany him. Folding his arms, he took the only tack available to him.

“I can’t believe you would intentionally offend my aunts this way.”

“You know that’s not—”

“Hypatia in particular will be very hurt. She already thinks you blame her and the other aunts for Tansy’s manipulations.”

“I never said that.”

“What else are they to think?” He demanded, throwing up his hands for good measure.

Looking resigned, she sighed. “If you really believe I should go…”

“I know it.”

She made a face. “All right. I’ll put in an appearance, at least.”

“That would be best,” he told her, somehow managing to keep a straight face and not break out in a relieved grin.

“But I’ll get there under my own power,” she informed him smartly. Shooting him a resentful glare, she muttered, “Now I have to find something to wear.”

He almost told her to be sure to wear those classy heels but bit back the words at the last moment.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she said, acid dripping from every syllable, “I have to go look through my closet now.”

Hiding a smile, he let her out through the front door and walked with her to her coupe at the curb, where he offered her the briefest of goodbyes. Standing back, he watched her get in and drive away. Only when the red glow of her taillights disappeared from sight did he turn back to the house, grinning widely.