Annie's Answer (17 page)

Mattie met her
in the foyer wearing a navy dress with a big white collar, not her usual
at-home outfit.

“We have so
much to do,” she said, sounding uncommonly eager. “I have to pick out
furnishings for my new house.”

“Have you
settled on the design you want?” Annie asked.

“Nathan and I
spent the weekend going over the possibilities. He favored one that reminded me
of a dentist’s office, but we finally settled on a more traditional one with
yellow siding and a steeply sloped roof. It’s small, only 900 square feet, but
except for the bedroom and bathroom, it’s all open, one big room.”

“It sounds
ideal,” Annie said. “What do you need to buy?”

“Not as much
as you might think. There are lots of built-in storage units, even drawers to
use as a dresser in the bedroom. But I need a comfy bed and a couch for the
living area. And a recliner. I like to watch television and read in a recliner.
And, of course, towels and sheets. I lost so much in the tornado.” A note of
sadness came into her voice, but she quickly rallied her spirits.

“Do you want
to look at furniture first?” Annie was glad to have a project for the day.

“Yes, but I’m
driving George’s wife’s car. I don’t trust that little bug of yours.”

By noon the
two of them had checked out every store in town that carried furniture, but
Mattie only purchased one lamp.

“It’s not that
I can’t make up my mind,” she explained. “I’m just having fun looking. Maybe
tomorrow we can go to the mall where Nathan took my watch.”

“Sure, we can
do that.”

“Now let’s go
have lunch—my treat.”

Not
surprisingly, Mattie drove them to the little teashop where they’d gone before.
She seemed absolutely delighted to see her new friend Grace sitting behind a
small counter where people paid for their meals and purchased tea, candy, and
other small items.

“Look at you,
Grace!” Mattie said. “Hard at work.”

“I love being
here,” her new friend said, sliding off her stool to show them to a table made
festive by a single red rose with a ribbon tied around the stem.

They both
ordered an assortment of finger sandwiches and topped the meal off with fresh
strawberry parfaits. Before they finished, people were lined up waiting for a
table.

“Wasn’t that a
lovely morning?” Mattie said as she drove home.

She took a nap
while Annie peeled potatoes and other vegetables for a pot roast Mattie was
going to make for dinner. When she woke up, she talked nonstop about her plans
for her little prefab house.

Nathan didn’t
come home before it was time for Annie to leave.

The week
dragged by, and Annie only saw him in brief intervals, usually before work when
he waved and was off. The weekend was even worse. Mattie came to church and
made a point of telling her Nathan was out of town, but she didn’t seem to know
why.

By the
following Monday Annie was beginning to believe he’d forgotten about asking her
to the country club party. She waited until the last possible moment to leave
for her restaurant job, hoping he’d come home and tell her what time he was
picking her up. He didn’t.

Marie lived up
to her word and quit, leaving Annie with the job of teaching a shy young girl
who couldn’t seem to remember which tables were hers. She left the dining area
in tears when bob Hoekstra yelled at her in front of customers, and Annie had
to wait on all the tables by herself.

She was
exhausted and grateful when the last diners left a few minutes before closing,
but not happy when the door opened again. Her boss would serve anyone who
showed up before ten, which meant unpaid overtime.

“Annie, are
you ready to leave?” Nathan stood near the door looking ready to take on Mr.
Hoekstra if he tried to delay her.

“Yes, I’ll
just get my purse.”

Her boss
glared at her but didn’t protest. She would be so glad when she was working for
herself—if it ever happened.

“I’m sorry I
didn’t get back to you sooner,” Nathan said, walking beside her in the parking
area with his hand on her shoulder. “I’m learning how hard it is to get a house
built in two months, even a prefab. I’ve had to call in favors right and left.
Just lining up a reliable plumber took half a day.”

“I can see
where it would be complicated, but Mattie couldn’t be happier.” She was sorry
when they got to her car and he took his hand off her shoulder.

“I can’t thank
you enough for shopping with her.” He opened the door for her.

“It’s been
fun. She’s so excited to have a place of her own again.”

“Sorry about
the party,” he said in a solemn voice.

Annie tensed,
expecting him to say he’d changed his mind.

“I should’ve
given you the details before this. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“It’s okay.”
She didn’t know what else to say.

“The dinner
starts at seven, but we’ll need to be there by six to be sure everything is
okay. I’m going to tee off with my foursome first thing in the morning so I’ll
have time to check some things and get ready myself. Can you be ready around
five forty-five?”

“Yes, that’s
fine.”

“Don’t worry
about working Thursday. Mattie has been invited to a Fourth of July picnic at a
church member’s house. I think she said her name was Grace.”

“That’s so
nice for her.”

“About your
dress—it completely slipped my mind.”

“I took care
of it.”

“Great. I’ll
see you Thursday if not before.”

He sounded
relieved, not exactly what a girl wanted from her date. Annie quickly reminded
herself she was only going because he needed a partner for the evening. She tried
to think of it as a casual event, but her heart was betraying her.

Nathan’s eyes
met hers for a moment, but she lowered her lashes, afraid he might read too
much into her longing expression. However the party went, she didn’t want him
to suspect how much it meant to her to spend an evening with him.

Nathan
struggled putting studs into the front of his heavily starched white dress
shirt and was all thumbs trying to get his tie right. He had ten minutes to get
to Annie’s house, and it was going to be close.

He combed his
hair one more time, regretting he’d let the barber cut it so short. Dad called
his usual shaggy style a mop-top, but tonight he had to represent his father
and the firm. He usually felt suffocated when he wore formal wear, but this
evening he had another concern: What would Annie think of him dressed up in a
penguin suit?

Busy as he’d
been doing the work of two attorneys and arranging for a prefab for his aunt,
he’d thought about Annie constantly. Her reluctance to go this evening
certainly hadn’t escaped his notice, but was it the party or him she wanted to
avoid? Had he been too highhanded when he invited her? Had he waited too long
before telling her what time he’d pick her up?

“Annie, I
avoided you because I was afraid you’d back out,” he explained to his own
mirror image.

Practicing his
little speech did nothing to ease his mind. His stomach was doing flip-flops
and his palms were damp, but his nervousness had nothing to do with cozying up
to the firm’s clients. As far as he was concerned, they worked with too many
tax dodgers and heirs squabbling over estates. Some day he was going to take
the firm in a totally different direction, offering affordable help to those
who needed it most.

Meanwhile, he
was determined to enjoy the evening in Annie’s company.

Driving at an
unusually sedate speed, he held an imaginary conversation with her.

“You look
exceptionally lovely this evening, Annie.”

He shuddered
at how ordinary and uninspired that sounded. Annie was always lovely in his eyes.
His challenge was to convince her she meant far more to him than a companion to
his aunt and a convenient date to the party.

When he got to
her house, her grandfather answered his ring.

“Good evening,
sir. Is Annie ready?”

“She is,”
Reverend Williams said in a somber voice.

Did her family
disapprove of their date? Before he could worry about it, Annie came into the
room.

“Wow!”

None of the
flowery speeches he’d rehearsed could do justice to the vision of loveliness
before him. He was momentarily speechless.

“Hi,” Annie
said. She invested the single word with hesitation and shyness.

Nathan spotted
her mother behind her and took a deep breath to break the spell.

“Good evening,
Mrs. Williams. Your daughter is beautiful this evening.”

As soon as the
words were out, he wanted to kick himself. How corny was it to compliment Annie
by talking to her mother? He’d had more social graces in middle school.

“I guess we’d
better be going,” he said.

“Would you
mind terribly if I snap a picture of the two of you?” her mom asked.

“Mother! This
isn’t the senior prom!” Annie blushed, making her even lovelier in his eyes.

“I think
that’s a great idea,” he said, stepping beside Annie and putting his hand on
her waist.

She was so
slender and petite he immediately felt protective. Could he insure she would
enjoy the evening? Would she be uncomfortable with so many older—and face
it, wealthy and successful—people?

“Have a nice
time,” her mother and grandfather said almost simultaneously as they left.
There was something sweet about her family seeing them off. He hadn’t had a
date like this in ages.

“I’m sorry
they made such a fuss,” she said as they walked to his car.

“There’s
nothing to apologize for. I never had hover parents, but sometimes I wished
they’d pay more attention to what I was doing.” He hadn’t meant to begin the
evening with this revelation, but something about Annie brought out his true
feelings.

Annie clutched
her great grandmother’s small beaded bag, and tried to feel positive about the
evening. Her knuckles were white, and moisture was forming in the hollow above
her upper lip, signs that she wasn’t calm in spite of her efforts. Her heart
had skipped a beat when she saw Nathan in his tuxedo, and she still couldn’t
believe she was sitting beside him on the way to a country club dance. Even
though she’d lived in Westover her whole life, she’d never been inside the
sprawl of tan bricks and sandstone, a clubhouse enlarged several times in the
span of her lifetime.

“Sorry to drag
you here so early,” Nathan said. “I have to check that everything is ready.”

“That’s okay.”
It made her a little less nervous to be reminded this was a work date for him.

“You look….”

He didn’t
finish his sentence as he pulled into a parking spot a row over from the
entrance.

“I should drop
you off,” he said belatedly. “I want to save the spots close up for elderly
guests.”

“It’s hardly a
hike in the woods.” She was rarely sarcastic, but then, she was never this ill
at ease.

Instead of
getting out of the car, Nathan turned toward her and smiled.

“You look
spectacular. I’m glad your mother thought to take a picture.”

“She’s stuck
in senior prom mode,” Annie said, practically squirming under his close
scrutiny.

“No, she’s
proud of her beautiful daughter. I’d think less of her if she wasn’t.”

Was Nathan
just being nice? Annie was so nervous she had to clench her teeth to stop them
from chattering.

“Let’s do
this,” he said, quickly exiting the car and coming to her side to open the
door.

Annie trailed
after him while he inspected tables, talked to the chef and the manager, and
generally made sure everything was exactly right. The dining room was large
with a high ceiling and paneled wainscoting. Whoever had designed it must have
had a thing for old English mansions, and she was tempted to giggle at the
replicas of pikes, swords, and shields hung on the walls.

“May I have
the first dance?” Nathan asked when he was satisfied with the arrangements.

“There’s no
music,” she pointed out as he led her to a small open space at one end of the
room.

“We’ll make
our own.”

Annie couldn’t
help smiling while he guided her around the slippery waxed floor, humming
something she vaguely recognized as a waltz. When she picked up the rhythm of
his lead, she felt like a princess at a wonderland ball.

Their magical
moments ended abruptly when a middle-aged man in a tux interrupted them.

“May an old
bachelor cut in on the lovely lady?” he asked.

“Certainly,
sir,” Nathan said politely, stepping away. “Harold, this is Annie Williams.”

Annie shuffled
twice around the floor before Harold released her. For one panicked moment she
didn’t see Nathan, but he quickly returned to her side.

“You’ll
probably get asked to dance a lot since you’ll be the most beautiful woman at
the party,” he said in a dry voice. “Think of it as taking one for the team,
but if you’re uncomfortable, just say you’re on the way to the ladies room.”

“I’m sure I
won’t need to do that,” Annie said, a little flattered by Nathan’s expression.
He didn’t seem to want her to dance with anyone but him.

When the
guests started arriving, all her insecurities returned in full force. She stood
beside Nathan near the entrance and was introduced to more people than she
would ever remember. Before the room was full, her hand felt bruised from all
the hearty handshakes and her lips were stiff from smiling.

Even more than
the guests, Nathan made her feel small and socially out of it. He greeted every
guest with small talk that made them smile or laugh. Not surprisingly, women
twice his age lingered over his handshake and chatted until their husbands
steered them to the tables.

Her feet hurt.
She’d tested the golden heels her mother had loaned her. They’d been stored at
the back of her closet for decades, a sentimental reminder of a special date
with Annie’s father. Unfortunately walking around the house and standing still
were totally different. One strap was cutting into her big toe, and the heels
were higher than any she owned. She felt off balance and just plain out of
place.