Dealing with Annie Read online

Richards stared at him. “Look, I shouldn’t have given you a month. Now, get your ass back here. Get me a perp, McCall,” he growled, and left the room.

  “Only a month ago he couldn’t yell at me enough,” he muttered.

  His partner let out a breath. “Apparently he still can’t.”

  * * *

  ON THE WAY BACK TO Cooper’s Corner, Ian called home—

  No. Not home. Thomas’s home. His own home was in New York. Odd, how that line had started to blur.

  Annie answered, sounding breathless and adorable and sexy all at once.

  And his heart immediately lifted. “Hey there,” he said softly, ridiculously excited to hear her voice.

  “Hey there back. How was court? How’s the city? How’s your leg? Are you doing all right—”

  “Wait,” he said, and laughed. Laughed. “I’m the one with the questions. Has anything else happened?”

  “Hmm. Define happened.”

  That stopped him cold. “You’ve had more problems? Or worse, you—”

  “No,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry, no. I’m fine. Really.”

  “You know what? We’re officially erasing fine from our vocabulary.”

  “There’s been no threats,” she said with a weary smile in her voice. “No calls, no notes, no deliveries.”

  “So what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Everything.” She laughed a little. “I don’t know. Listen, forget me. Tell me about what’s going on there.”

  It never failed to set him back, having her want to talk about him. Wanting to know about him. “They want me back at work.”

  Silence.

  “Annie?”

  “Out in the field?”

  “Behind a desk for a while. I mean, I can’t even walk a block without needing a goddamn nap.”

  “Oh, Ian, you’ll get your strength back.”

  “I’m on my way back to Cooper’s right now,” he said.

  “To pack up,” she said.

  “I can’t leave you yet, Annie.”

  “Interesting word choice,” she said. “Not ‘I don’t want to,’ but ‘can’t.”’

  The words hung between them, hovering.

  “Annie—”

  “You know what? I’m not your responsibility. I won’t be your responsibility.”

  Ah, hell. “I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t,” he repeated when she made a rude noise.

  “Well, then how did you mean it?”

  “My life is in New York,” he said a little desperately.

  “Yes.” Her voice was brittle and somehow broke his heart. “Your entire life is in New York.”

  No. Not his entire life…

  “It’s okay, Ian. You leaving is inevitable. We both know that. I’ve always known.”

  Inevitable? No, what was inevitable was the fact he was really falling for her.

  And with that realization came another one. Everything he was, everything he ever would be, wasn’t necessarily tied into being the best possible DEA agent as he’d always believed.

  Instead, it was tied into one place, the small, single-horse town he’d thought was holding him back—Cooper’s Corner.

  And Annie.

  “I want to be with you,” he said. “I want—”

  “Don’t make me any promises,” she whispered, as always one step ahead of him. “Please, Ian. Don’t make me any promises you can’t keep.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  AUNT GERDIE PEEKED into a glass shop on Main Street. So pretty. With a guilty twinge, she glanced over her shoulder once, twice.

  But no sign of them, either of them.

  Them being Thomas and Annie, who’d made her promise to sit on the nice bench on Main Street. She’d crossed her fingers behind her back as she made the promise—wrong of her, she supposed, but even an old woman needed some freedom now and again.

  She was sure Thomas and Annie thought she was still happily eating her six-inch-long dill pickle from the deli, waiting for them.

  And granted, she’d tried. The bench was nice, and surrounded by the beauty of Cooper’s Corner, she might have easily sat there all day while Annie ran into the Coopers’ main store and Thomas into the feed store.

  But then she’d seen the new glass shop with all its pretty trinkets hanging so enticingly in the window, and she couldn’t help herself.

  The door had chimes on it, and she aahed in wonder at the beautiful sound they made as she entered, then sighed in delight at the myriad of shiny, precious things everywhere—a music box of blown glass, brilliant with colors that reflected the light just so, a collection of glass plates, handpainted with flowers from each season. Oh, the beauty, everywhere.

  “Can I help you, Gerdie?” asked a young woman she recognized as Tracy, the daughter of Beatrice, the woman who did Gerdie’s hair every week.

  “I’m just looking, thank you.” Happy, she wandered the aisles. The soft muted recorded sounds of the ocean filled the air, soothing and hauntingly beautiful. She found a brass earring stand, filled with handmade earrings, and she stopped, riveted to a pair in the shape of seashells.

  Annie loved seashells, always had. Oh, couldn’t she just see her beloved niece wearing these earrings, smiling up at her Ian, so breathtaking he’d want to marry her on the spot?

  Yes. Yes, she could. She pictured Annie walking down the aisle toward him, toward her happily ever after.

  Oh, how Gerdie wanted a happily ever after for her Annie.

  But the girl was bullheaded. So bullheaded she couldn’t see how much Ian cared about her.

  And that poor, poor man, he’d never had a chance, not from that first moment he’d looked into her niece’s eyes.

  Unfortunately, he was as stubborn as she, damn them both. What was wrong with those two, anyway? It was clear as the nose on her face they belonged together.

  The beautiful children they’d make! She couldn’t wait to see that, to hold them in her arms. That is, if Annie would ever slow down enough to see this was exactly what she needed in her life.

  It hurt Gerdie’s heart, it did, how hard the girl worked. It hurt her heart so much she put a hand to it.

  “Gerdie?” It was Tracy again. “You okay?”

  She’d be better if she could figure out what to do to get Annie and Ian together, as they belonged.

  “Gerdie?”

  Yes, yes, she was fine, if only her heart would ease up a little, and if Tracy would stop hovering. She was trying to think here, trying to plan. But odd, how searing the pain suddenly was. She put both hands to it now, but it only seemed to spread.

  Probably the pickle had been a bad idea, they always gave her incredible heartburn, and this was definitely incredible. Huffing and puffing, she sank to her knees with the earrings still in her hand. Now they’d probably think she was stealing them!

  “Gerdie!”

  She could hear the fear in Tracy’s voice, and tried to smile. Honestly, she’d have to give up pickles, just as she’d had to give up most of her other favorite foods because of her cholesterol level. Getting old was no fun at all.

  Now, where was she…? Oh, yes, planning on how to get Annie and Ian together…

  “Dr. Dorn? I think she’s having a heart attack,” Tracy said frantically into a phone, kneeling in front of Gerdie. “Hurry!”

  Oh, dear. That was going to panic Annie but good, and that poor, sweet child had so many other things to be worrying about—

  Hmm. Worrying. Terrible as it was to think it, worrying just might be the catalyst that would finally bring Annie and Ian together….

  * * *

  AUNT GERDIE LANDED HERSELF at Dr. Dorn’s emergency clinic. She snoozed through a few tests, then woke up some time later in a private room. From the hallway, she could hear Annie saying, “Is she awake? Can I see her?”

  “She’s sleeping, but you can go in” came Dr. Felix Dorn’s voice.

  Gerdie felt bad about Annie’s fear for her, but knew nothing was wrong with her. Her pickle had