Better Than Before (RightMatch.com Trilogy) (5 page)

“Hey, guys, come on inside,” she called out. “I’m leaving.”

“Is Nana here?” Hope yelled back.

“Uh-huh.”

“Yay! Let’s go, Alex.”

Screeches sounded from the yard as Alex and Hope hurried inside. They all met in the foyer and Hope threw her arms around Norma. Her mom returned it, and even got a hug from Alex. Her grandchildren were a major part of her life.

“Can you take us to the zoo, Nana?” Alex asked. “They got koala bears visiting.”

Annie liked seeing Alex so excited about something. But zoo tickets were expensive and she hadn’t planned on the money from this week’s budget. She’d have to dip into Keith’s monthly check. Since the house was paid for—thanks to a low-interest, fifteen-year mortgage gotten through Keith’s banker connections—she used his child support for the kids’ necessities and saved the rest for their college. She’d set aside some cash for special occasions or when she couldn’t afford a treat, though.

Her ex accused her of being stubborn and willful about money, but Annie had learned never to be financially dependent on a man again. That kind of security helped her gain some personal confidence, too. Both were reasons why she wanted a fall teaching position.

Norma circled an arm around Alex. He was already taller than his grandma. “I’d love to, if your mom says yes.”

Alex gave her his best wheedling smile. “Mom?”

“Please, Mommy,” Hope added.

“Sure, you can go.”

Norma ruffled Hope’s hair. “Get what you need and we’ll leave right after your mom does.”

 The kids scampered away and Annie crossed into the living room to the desk where she kept petty cash from Keith’s check. She gave her mother fifty dollars.

“I can pay for the zoo and lunch.”

“I know, but I don’t want you to. Have fun on Keith.”

Norma laughed. “Fine by me.”

“Thanks for taking Alex and Hope today.”

“Spending time with them is the highlight of my life, Annie, like it was with you when you were a child.”

She hugged her mother, too. “I love you, Mom. Make sure Hope has a sweater. Alex will bring one, but she’s still little.”

“Hush. I know how to care for my grandchildren.” For a moment, she watched Annie. “You seem…happy, honey.”

“I am. I’m excited about meeting this guy. We’re so in tune, it’s almost spooky.”

“Enjoy yourself.”

“How can I not? See you later.”

o0o

Spence finished his squash game in time to have coffee with his client. The workout had energized him and he accomplished some business as well. As he headed to the locker room to shower and change, he let himself think about Annie.

He’d told Joey he was meeting her because he needed to borrow his brother’s car, but he hadn’t confided in Cole because, Spence admitted as he stood under the hot spray, he didn’t want his younger brother knowing about this yet. Cole would freak that Annie could get hurt. But Spence had already convinced himself he had that covered with his foolproof reason for stopping their contact.

After donning jeans and a dark blue shirt rolled up at the sleeves, he put on his athletic shoes, battered enough to wear even though they were expensive. Dressed, he went to the mirror to comb his hair, styled short so he didn’t have to fuss. Maybe he’d let it grow out some. Would a construction worker wear his hair longer?

Hell, what was he thinking? Meeting Annie today was a one-shot deal. At this time tomorrow, he wouldn’t even be emailing her. And why on earth did that thought roll around in his chest and land with a thud?

Chiding himself for his vacillating emotions, he left the gym, got in Joey’s SUV and drove to Charlie’s Frog Pond, keeping the windows down, the radio blasting some country station his brother liked. And for the first time in a long while, Spence felt the zip he used to get when he’d started out making business deals. Maybe it was the novelty of being a different person and pulling off the ruse.

He walked into the restaurant ten minutes early. The long, rectangular space was decorated in a frog motif, hence the name. The place was packed with customers, so as he waited at the front, he scanned the tables. Mostly couples. A group of five. A woman with wavy, light brown hair almost to her waist sat alone. He checked out the rest of the customers, but his gaze came back to the lone woman. He wondered if… Then she glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him.

For a minute, Spence was immobilized. He was dimly aware of the sound of dishes and silverware clanking, the low hum of conversation, but all he could do was stare. She was not at all what he’d expected. When she stood, he was forced to move before he’d completely collected himself. Up close, the feeling of…what was it?…intensified. Her eyes were a fall forest of colors and held a bit of anxiety.

“Hi, Spence.” She extended her hand.

He grasped it. “Hi, Annie.”

“I recognized you right away.”

“Not me. Your picture didn’t do you justice.”

Hers had been taken from a distance and she’d seemed attractive enough, though he hadn’t been able to see how long her hair was because she’d pulled it off her face. At the time, he’d thought she was trying not to stand out. Then again, in the photo of persona number two, he was nondescript in a ball cap and T-shirt.

Despite the fact that he was off balance, his normal, assertive nature surfaced. “Let’s sit.” He grasped the back of her chair. When he bent to help push her seat in, the scent of all that gorgeous hair wafted up to him. Fresh and flowery, it teased his senses and was as appealing as the soft silk of her hand.

Dropping down across from her, he studied her. “Your hair’s so long.” His fingers itched to touch it. “And lovely.”

She tugged on a thick lock that had fallen over one breast. “You think so?”

“What man wouldn’t?”

Her face shadowed.

“Annie?”

Instead of answering her question, she smiled at him. “You’re pretty much like your picture. Except for the ball cap, which was cute on you, by the way.”

Spence chuckled and signaled the waitress, ordered coffee for him and a refill for her. “Did you catch up on your sleep yet?”

“I never catch up on my sleep.”

He kept staring at her face. She had high cheekbones and delicately arched brows a bit darker than her hair. Her skin was smooth and creamy except for a few freckles starting to peek out. He wondered if summer brought more of them.

Used to assuming control of a conversation, he said, “Tell me what you did this morning.”

“Um, let’s see. I took Jake for a walk early. That’s Alex’s job, but I let him sleep in.” She sipped her coffee, patted her mouth with her napkin. “We went to church, came home and I got ready to come here.”

Spence hadn’t seen the inside of a church in years. “Who’s with the kids?”

“My mother. I haven’t told you much about her.”

“I’d like to know about your family.”

“First, tell me what you did this morning.”

He’d gotten up, done some stock trading online, and read the
New York Times
before he played squash. All of which an ordinary guy wouldn’t do. But he should stick as close to the truth as possible in case he decided to confess who he was.

“I checked my email and went online, read the paper, then worked out.”

The waitress came to their table. Spence picked up the menu.

Annie said, “I’ve already decided. I’ll have frittata, whole-wheat toast and orange juice.”

The egg-white omelet appealed to him. But wait…

“I’ll have a cheese-and-artichoke omelet. Juice too, and the wheat toast.” His cholesterol could stand one splurge. He didn’t think the average Joe would go for egg whites.

“So, your family?” he asked. He’d be able to tell a lot about Annie by reading her expressions as she talked.

“My mother raised me alone. I never knew my dad, which has always made me sad. And why I encourage the kids to see theirs.” She sighed. “Mom had three jobs to support us until I got in high school and she could cut back to two.”

“Did you work in high school?”

“Of course, didn’t you?”

No. He’d gone to a private school, took horseback riding lessons and tried like a son of a bitch to get his father’s approval. “Oh, yeah, sure.”

“Tell me what you were like then.”

“Serious. Competitive. I have two brothers, so you might guess what it was like.”

“That’s so cool. I always wanted siblings.”

Spence rolled his eyes. “Be careful what you wish for.”

“What do they do?”

“One’s a cop, the other is in computers.”

“Parents?”

“My parents are both living, but they divorced not long after I was born.”

The food arrived, and though his smelled cheesy and rich, Spence picked at his meal and Annie devoured hers. She ate with gusto, seemingly unaware of the astronomical calories in sausage, eggs and potatoes. They made small talk in between bites.

Over more coffee, he said, “Tell me about school. You’re almost done, right?”

“Yes, I’m finishing the last of my coursework now. I’ve applied for several teaching jobs for the fall. I loved my kindergarteners when I taught all those years ago.”

“You quit to have kids?”

“Uh-huh. And enough about me. Tell me about your business.”

“Not much to tell. I build things.”

She gestured to his hands. “I noticed no calluses. How come?”

Shit! “I, um, own a contracting business and do mostly supervisory work now, not manual labor.”

“Ah. Do you miss it, working with your hands?”

“Can’t say that I do.”

A baby two tables away laughed out loud, distracting Annie. “Isn’t she cute?”

Spence tracked her gaze. “Not as cute as my brother’s three-month-old.”

“Oh, wow. That’s young. I loved when my kids were that age, but Keith didn’t want much to do with them until they got older. Do you babysit?”

As he gazed at the beauty before him, Spence thought about his bet with Cole. Because he’d met with Annie, he’d be sentenced to watching his niece for a month. “Um, not much, but I’ll be doing more.”

That, however, wasn’t an issue for him.

Being in this lovely woman’s presence was. She made Spence feel good. Her naturalness, her simplicity, her wholesomeness, he guessed, refreshed him.

Still, he was sure he could walk away.

If he wanted to.

o0o

“This is decadent.” Annie licked the chocolate–ice cream cone with fervor. It was smooth and sweet. “I
love
Abbott’s.”

They were seated at an outdoor table in front of one of Rockland’s signature ice cream stores, the sun beaming down from a cloudless sky.

The very attractive man eating a vanilla cone smiled over at her. His eyes were almost navy blue, deepened by the color of his shirt. His dark blond hair was short; he had a strong nose and a beautiful mouth, which kept drawing her attention. He also had a magnetism about him that hadn’t come across in email. His demeanor had startled her at first.

“Do I have ice cream on my chin?”

”No, sorry I was staring. After weeks of talking online, it’s…fun to watch you.”

“I feel the same.”

They finished their cones and he suggested a walk down Park Avenue. Annie enjoyed browsing in the novelty shops and observing the people out to enjoy the spring day. She stopped to pet a cute little Yorkshire terrier and dodged skateboarders. They walked by Julia’s Café, not far from where they’d had brunch. “This is where I took the new job,” she said.

“Hmm. I hope future nights are better for you than the last one.” After they reached a small park with a playground, Spence wandered over to a bench. He patted the spaced next to him. “Come sit.”

Joining him, Annie shifted on her seat. “We haven’t talked about our pasts much. I’m embarrassed about what I shared online. I was just so damn angry.”

“You have nothing to be embarrassed about!
His
actions were inexcusable, Annie.”

“But it’s so us.”

“What do you mean?”

“I-it’s hard to talk about.”

He took her hand and she found comfort in the gesture. No man had held her hand in two years and she missed the casual touches. “I imagine it is.”

“Especially since you had such a happy marriage. Your heart probably broke when your wife died.”

“Some bad things have happened to all of us.”

“Okay, here’s the short version. I met Keith in college. I was on a scholarship to Amherst and he went to Harvard. It was stupid to get involved with someone so out of my league, but I was flattered by his attention, and honestly, I believe he really did care about me. He knew I was poor, but it didn’t seem to matter. We fell in love, got married and decided to settle in his home town.” She shrugged. “I felt a little like Cinderella.”

“You weren’t from Rockland?”

“No. Massachusetts.”

“So your mother moved here, too?”

“Yes. We bought her a small house.”

“Your ex agreed to that?”

“I thought it was so I wouldn’t ask to have her live with us. But Keith isn’t stingy. We did have a prenup at his parents’ insistence, to protect their family money. I didn’t care about that, anyway. When we split, I got half the house—we’d just paid it off—and a portion of investments we made during the marriage, but I wouldn’t take his alimony. Which makes him furious.”

“He’s angry about
not
giving you alimony?”

“It does sound absurd. But Keith likes to keep up pretenses. My working at a spa and now the restaurant embarrasses him. Anyway, when we moved back to Rockland, his parents didn’t take to me, either, which increased my insecurity. After a while, I stopped wanting to go over to their home, even out to the country club with them.”

He squeezed her hand. “Their loss.”

“Finally, Keith got tired of me and cheated with a girlfriend from his old social circuit. When I found out, he left us for her.” Even now, saying it aloud, made her heart tighten in her chest.

“He must have been a moron to run around on someone like you.”

“You’re sweet to say so. I have to admit I don’t like him very much anymore. But I was partly to blame.”

“Because he made you feel inferior?”

“No, not only that. Keith says I’m stubborn. I never liked his lifestyle. It was full of parties, business dinners, country clubs and competition. I went to events begrudgingly. I liked when we spent time with Julia and Lauren and their husbands, but that was about it.”