Anabel Unraveled (24 page)

“Thanks.” I felt shy again, and stared out the window. “I’m so glad you know where you’re going.”

“So what’s with your name?”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, it’s spelled funny.”

“I don’t want to talk to you about my name,” I stammered.

“Why?” he asked, smiling at me, showing a little warmth. “I’m just curious.”

“I’m named for a literary character,” I managed. Why was he discomposing me so?

“Which one?”

“Annabel Lee. It’s a poem.” I should not be embarrassed about this. But having Matt put me on the spot made me flustered and uncomfortable.

“Didn’t she meet a terrible end?” He made another sharp turn.

“I think my mom just liked the way it sounded,” I told him. “Anyway, she really liked the name, and then she saw a reference to it in another book—” here I winced, and hoped he didn’t notice—“so she decided it was perfect for me. She wanted to put a weird spin on it and name me Aniyabel, but my dad said absolutely not, and stripped it of extra vowels and letters, so it was simply, ‘Anabel.’ My father wasn’t one for . . . superfluousness.” Was that even a word?

“I see,” he said.

“I’m kind of impressed you know the poem,” I commented. “Do you like Poe?”

He grunted, and I wasn’t quite sure what that meant. So I tried again. “I mean, most people don’t know ‘Annabel Lee,’ much less the content of it.”

His eyes stayed on the road. The silence persisted again, but now Matt was slowing down, and so I eagerly awaited my new place.

Then, he turned into a driveway. “So this is it, I guess.”

I stared. “This is mine?”

“It matches the address you gave me.”

“Wow,” I breathed. It was gorgeous. The house was a red-brick, two story number, with a sweet little garden in front. In fact, it was exactly what a house should be, in my opinion. It looked so quaint and charming that I couldn’t believe it was mine. I stared at it, wide-eyed, until a cough shook me from my awed state.

“I believe,” Matt added, “this is where Jonathan and Cassidy lived prior to their divorce.”

I stared at him for a moment, and then burst into tears.

He sighed. “Anabel, I’m sorry.”

“N-no,” I sniffled. “I’m glad you told me.”

He parked the car and I just sat there, wiping tears away and sniffling. Matt was kind enough to look away until I got myself together. “Shall we?”

I nodded.

“I wonder where the caretakers are,” I pondered as we walked up the path.

Matt was looking around, not even noticing me. This again irritated me, and I felt a vexation at him start to grow. Everyone noticed me. Who did he think he was?

“Should we ring the doorbell? In case the caretakers are in?”

“I suppose so.” I pushed the button.

A moment later, a balding, middle-aged man answered. “Yes?”

“Hi!” I beamed. “I’m Anabel Martin, this is my house!” Matt rolled his eyes.

This turned out to be the wrong thing to say. His face literally fell. “Oh, Miss Martin,” came his halfhearted greeting.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m so sorry, but I don’t know your name.” What had I done to cause this poor man pain?

“Phil Albertson,” he introduced himself. “You should come in.”

“Oh right,” I agreed, giving him my best smile. “This is Matt, my new best friend.” Matt raised his eyebrows at me. I smiled back.

So we walked in and I was admiring the neat hallway that led into the sitting room when Phil said, “Miss Martin, because of the short notice from Mr. Holbrook, while we are packing right now, we haven’t found a new place yet.”

“Wait, what?” Pulled from my appreciation for my beautiful surroundings, I was confused.

“Well, my wife and daughter and I, we have been living here, and I imagine you’ll want us to leave.”

“Why would I want that?” I asked.

He stared at me, disbelieving.

I shrugged. “Well this is your home. And I was hoping you’d stay on, I don’t know how much time I’m going to be spending here.”

Phil’s face relaxed a bit. “Well thank you, Miss Martin, we’re much obliged.”

“My name is Anabel, you can call me that,” I offered.

“Anabel,” he beamed, “let me give you the grand tour.”

So he showed me around the kitchen, the living room, the family room with the cute fireplace, a quick peek at the library (the room caused a reappearance of the tears and Matt yanked me out of there), and then the upstairs, which was divided. There were four bedrooms and an office—Phil’s family was located on the right half, and he showed me the left, which had the master suite with the adjoining office, and a bedroom across the hall.

“Oh, how sweet!” I admired, looking at the smaller bedroom. “That will be perfect for Emma’s nursery.”

“Anabel is expecting,” Matt told Phil.

“Well congratulations! We did know, but it’s hard to keep up with all of those hearings,” Phil said, smiling at me. “And are you the father?”

Matt looked a little green. Quickly, I corrected, “No, Phil, that would be Jared, who is going to drop by later.”

“Will he be moving in, Anabel?” Phil asked me.

“I don’t know at this point,” I answered, shaking my head. “I doubt it though. I apologize for disrupting your lives.”

“No, no, no,” Phil reassured me. “Now, I expect you’ll want to unpack. My wife, Charlotte, and our daughter, Carrie are out at the market. Will you be joining us for dinner?”

“I wish, because that sounds lovely,” I said. “But Matt and I have a dinner engagement. How about tomorrow? That way we can get to know each other a little better.”

“I’ll tell Charlotte,” Phil beamed. “Now, you should get settled. Is there anything else in the truck?”

“Yes,” said Matt.

“Well, I’ll go get it!” And he took off.

I grinned at Matt. “He is precious!”

He was staring at me, unsure. “Are you for real?”

“What?”

“Anabel, this guy is your caretaker, not your family. You’re just going to let some strange man and his wife and kid live in a house with you? You don’t even know them!”

I stared at him blankly.

“It’s also a nightmare for me. I haven’t even done background checks on these people. You’re not allowed to be with them alone until I give the say so, okay? You need to consult me on matters of your security,” he admonished.

“Oh,” I said. “I hadn’t thought about it like that. What was I supposed to do? Kick them out of their home? That hardly seems fair.”

“Well it’s not really their home, kid.”

“Well, I don’t feel like it’s mine.” I sat down on my new bed. It was gorgeous, a four-posted number. “You can go sleep in Emma’s nursery, there’s a bed in there. Is that okay?” I smiled at him. “I don’t think it would be a good idea if you slept in here.”

“You’re forgetting rule number two.” As he walked out to check out the room across the hall, I chastised myself. Stop attempting to chat up your bodyguard, Anabel.

He stuck his head back in. “I’m going to walk around the house and just scope it out, okay? Please stay here.”

“Will do,” I promised. I lay back on my incredibly soft bed. I could do with a rest, as it had been a long day and now this man was hurling brutal verbal assaults my way. It really bothered me that Matt, who had seemed so nice the first couple times I met him, was suddenly cold and distant, and didn’t really seem to want to have anything to do with me. I closed my eyes and hoped that traffic was bad, and Jared would be delayed. With all of this going on, I didn’t want to deal with him right now.

Then what seemed like moments later, Matt was shaking me awake. “Jared just called your phone. He will be here in ten minutes.”

“I didn’t hear it ring.”

“I took it out of the room so you could rest.”

“But I just fell asleep,” I whined, flustered by this abrupt awakening.

“You’ve been passed out for an hour, Anabel. And,” he added, grimacing, “you might want to mouthwash.”

“You really go out of your way to make me feel self-conscious, don’t you?” I blurted out.

“And you say whatever pops into your head without thinking about it,” he returned. “So here we are.”

I furrowed my brow. “Why don’t you like me?”

“Who says I don’t?”

“I can tell.”

He smiled wryly. “You’re funny, Anabel.” Then he left, and I rummaged through my bag for my mouthwash, perturbed.

In a very desultory state of mind, I met him downstairs, smoothing my blue dress as I walked to the front entryway. He quickly glanced at me and then looked away, and I bit my lower lip a little, thinking of the borderline lewd glances Jared always shot my way. “We’re meeting him in Tyson’s Corner,” he announced. “Does Italian food sound okay to you?”

“Mm,” I said, looking at him. He looked freshly showered, and I liked the way his blue shirt complemented his dark brown eyes.

Matt noticed me appraising him. He looked like he might say something, but he didn’t. So I called good-night to Phil and followed him to his truck.

We rode in silence, and this began to drive me crazy again. So, in my most mature fashion, I shot him mistrustful glances and sighed to show my annoyance. But that didn’t matter to Matt. He just stared at the road, ignoring me. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Why do they call it Tysons Corner?”

“I have no idea,” he replied.

“Fat lot of good you are,” I muttered.

“What now?”

“Nothing,” I snapped. I stared out the window.

He sighed. “I need you with me on this, Anabel,” he told me.

“What?” I was startled.

“I know you think I’m not being nice to you—”

“I know you’re not being nice to me,” I put in.

“I just want to protect you.”

“Of course you do.” I was exasperated. “That’s what you’re being paid for.”

“I also want to protect you from Jared.”

“Oh, Matt,” I almost laughed, “no one has been able to do that thus far.”

He looked at me. “That doesn’t mean I can’t be the one to do it.”

But then I frowned, recollecting something. “Wait a minute. I thought you said he was meeting us at the house.”

“Yes,” said Matt, and I caught a gleam in his eye, “that.”

We turned into the parking lot of the restaurant. He jumped out and went to open my door. “I think you should know something,” he said.

“Oh?”

“Jared called to say that something came up and he would have to reschedule. He wasn’t thrilled that I told him you were asleep. So, you and I are getting dinner alone.”

“Why, Matt Moore,” I raised my eyebrows, “I underestimated you.”

He cracked a grin. “Come on, Anabel. It’s time we got to know each other.”

So he made me laugh, he did. It turned out that we had a fair amount in common, similar tastes in food (he had hit the mark with the Italian), favorite movies (we both adored Cary Grant), and were both strongly opposed to James Joyce. What caught me off guard about Matt, though, was his self-assurance and complete disregard for propriety. It was like one moment I was drawn to him, and then the next, repelled by a snappy insult.

“So, I’m pretty pregnant,” I commented.

“Yeah, you look it,” he replied.

“And I’m the one who says whatever pops into her head,” I shot back, taking an angry bite out of a breadstick.

“Well, you do,” he acknowledged. “I told you I knew the moment I saw you. Besides, I’ve been watching you in these hearings, Anabel. Not to mention your little stunt when you revealed your pregnancy to Jared.”

I looked up at him. “I was angry.”

“Yeah, and not thinking.” He took a spoonful of soup. “You like attention and seem to go out of your way to get it.”

“I don’t have to,” I pointed out. “The press follows me around like . . . like . . .”

“Well, you’re a sideshow.” He met my eyes. “They never know what you’re going to do or say. Plus, your brother kept you hidden for almost five months after they smuggled you back into the country. You never came to church or any other function with him and Alexis.”

“I’ve never been to church,” I admitted. “On Sundays Marilyn read the Bible to me and that’s really it. So I don’t know how to behave in church. That was Alexis’ rationale, anyway. I think it was just another excuse to not let me be around Sam. She hates how much he cares about me.”

“Yeah, she really doesn’t like you,” he agreed. “Every time she’s interviewed she sneers a bit when your name comes up. And earlier today at the hearing there was blatant dislike in her face.”

“I know,” I agreed, feeling glum. “I don’t understand why she hates me so much.”

“It’s because she’s insecure as a person, and she hates the fact that your brother loves you.” He said it so matter-of-factly that I dropped my breadstick.

“That’s probably the first honest assessment I’ve heard of her.”

“I’ve known Alexis for a long time. I’ve worked for your brother for a long time.”

“So is that how you know Jared?” I picked up my breadstick again.

“Our paths never actually crossed, in spite of the fact that our families know each other. I worked privately for Sam as a bodyguard for his children. Now that they’re in Martha’s Vineyard with Alexis’ sister, he wanted to keep me here to keep an eye on you and the hearings. I’ve been watching you for a while.” He offered me a smile, and it was again warm and friendly. “And you know, buying you smoothies.”

I was thoughtful. “So are you going to tell me how you know Jared, or are we going to keep playing this game?”

“If you really must know, it was a very sad circumstance that brought us together.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. So when did you meet him?”

“After my sister died last fall.” He stared into his soup.

I frowned. “I’m so sorry.” I paused, not knowing what to say.

He looked away. “Go on, I know you want to ask me.”

“How did she die, and what connection does that have to Jared?”

“She was murdered in Rock Creek Park. She was on a run with her boyfriend at the time, and they had a fight and he let her run off, alone. A man murdered her and left her body in the park. It was days before anyone found her.”

My eyes widened. “Are you saying what I think I am?”

“She was with Sorensen, yes. She was very much in love with him and he broke her heart.” He looked at me. “He’s not a good guy, Anabel.”