“Annie?” He said her name softly.
She glanced up at him. “Yes?”
“Don’t be sorry. Please. ”
She swallowed hard. For a few moments, Nick had made her feel beautiful and desirable. How could she feel sorry about that? She wanted to reach out for him again, anything to stave off the cold loneliness that would engulf her again the moment she climbed into her rented car and closed the door. “Lurlene told me you were looking for a nanny . . . for Isabella. I could watch her . . . during the day . . . if that would help you out. . . . ”
He frowned. “Why would you do that for me?”
The question saddened her; it was full of mistrust and steeped in a lifetime’s disappointments. “It would help me out, Nick. Really. Let me help you. ”
He stared at her a long time, that wary cop’s look again. Then slowly, pointedly, he took hold of her hand and lifted it. In the pale moonlight, the three-carat diamond glittered with cold fire. “Don’t you belong somewhere else?”
Now he would know what a failure she was, why she’d come running back to Mystic after all these years. “My husband and I have recently separated. . . . ” She wanted to say more, tack a lighthearted excuse on the end of the glaring, ugly statement, but her throat closed up and tears stung her eyes.
He dropped her hand as if it had burned him. “Jesus, Annie. You shouldn’t have let me act like such a whiny asshole, as if no one else in the world had a problem. You should have—”
“I really do not want to talk about it. ” She saw him flinch, and was immediately sorry for her tone of voice. “Sorry. But I think we’ve had enough shoulder-crying for one night. ”
He nodded, looking away for a minute. He stared at his house. “Izzy could use a friend right now. I’m sure as hell not doing her any good. ”
“It would help me ou
t, too. I’m a little . . . lost right now. It would be nice to be needed. ”
“Okay,” he said at last. “Lurlene could use a break from baby-sitting. She and Buddy wanted to go to Branson, and since Izzy’s out of school . . . ” He sighed. “I have to pick Izzy up from Lurlene’s tomorrow. I could meet you at her house—she lives down in Raintree Estates—you remember where that is? Pink house with gnomes in the front yard. It’s hard to miss. ”
“Sure. What time?”
“Say one o’clock? I can meet you there on my lunch break. ”
“Perfect. ” She stared up at him for another long minute, then turned and opened her car door. She climbed in, started the engine, and slowly pulled away. The last thing she saw, out of her rearview mirror as she drove away, was Nick looking after her.
Long after she’d driven away, Nick remained on the edge of the lawn, staring down the darkened road. Slowly, he walked back into the house, letting the screen door bang shut behind him. He went to the fireplace and picked up the photograph of the three of them again. He looked at it for a long, long time, and then, tiredly, he climbed the long, creaking staircase up to his old bedroom. Steeling himself, he opened the door. He moved cautiously inside, his eyes adjusting quickly to the gloom. He could make out the big, unmade bed, the clothes heaped everywhere. He could see the lamp that Kathy had ordered from Spiegel and the rocking chair he’d made when Izzy was born.
He grabbed a T-shirt from the floor, slammed the door behind him, and went down to his lonely couch, where he poured himself a stiff drink. He knew it was dangerous to use alcohol to ease his pain, and in the past months, he’d been reaching for that false comfort more and more.
Leaning back, he took a long, soothing drink. He finished that drink and poured another.
What he and Annie had done tonight didn’t change a thing. He had to remember that. The life she’d stirred in him was ephemeral and fleeting. Soon, she’d be gone, and he’d be left alone again, a widower with a damaged child who had to find a way to get through the rest of his life.
There was a light on in the living room when Annie pulled up to her dad’s house. She winced at the thought of confronting him now, at two o’clock in the morning, with her clothes all wrinkled and damp. God, she probably smelled like sex.
She climbed out of the car and headed into the house. As she’d expected, she found Hank in the living room, waiting up for her. A fire crackled cheerily in the fireplace, sending a velvet-yellow glow into the darkened room.
She closed the door quietly behind her.
Hank looked up from the book he was reading. “Well, well,” he said, easing the bifocals from his eyes.
Annie self-consciously smoothed her wrinkled clothes and ran a hand through her too-short hair, hoping there was no grass stuck to her head. “You didn’t need to wait up for me. ”
“Really?” He closed the book.
“There’s no need to worry. I’m a hell of a long way from sixteen. ”
“Oh, I wasn’t worried. Not after I called the police and the hospital. ”
Annie sat down on the leather chair beside the fireplace. “I’m sorry, Dad. I guess I’m not used to checking in. Blake never cared . . . ” She bit back the sour confession and forced a thin smile. “I visited an old friend. I should have called. ”