Chapter Nine
Annie – Saturday
I let the elderly couple out of Boffees before stepping inside myself, instantly noticing the big grins on their mouths as they left the store. This place made people happy, there was no denying that, and I really wanted to be a part of it…I still just wasn’t sure that my financial advisor would agree with me. I wanted to call Harry and beg him to come down to Florence to see Boffees, too, but I still didn’t think that would be enough. He wouldn’t see the depth of the coffee and bookshop like I did.
He would probably tell me that it was all because I had a crush on Annie, and in a way, maybe he would have been right.
“Hi there, Annie,” I grinned at her, desperately hoping that the weirdness between us was gone. I knew that I shouldn’t have invited her back to the hotel room with me, and I doubt I would have given in to the temptation if I hadn't been drinking. I needed to make that right.
“I’m not here on business; this is a social visit.” I just wanted to make that point clear, but from the way that her face fell, I could instantly tell that she’d gotten the wrong end of the stick. “Oh no, not to ask you out or anything. I just want some coffee and to maybe read some books. Are you close to closing?”
As she glanced at her watch, I couldn’t help but wonder why I couldn’t seem to keep away from this woman. I’d intended to call her, to tell her that I had to head back to Portland tonight, but I just couldn’t do it. I had to see her again because I could not stop thinking about her. Is it because she was so cute? Or maybe because of her business smarts? It could have simply been just because she’d turned me down, but I really didn’t want to think that way.
“Erm, I can stay open for another twenty minutes or so, if you’d like? What do you want to drink?”
“Cappuccino, please,” I ordered before making my way around the book shelves. I was amazed to find such an eclectic collection of books. When I’d been looking before, I hadn't really been taking any of it in, but now I needed something to read to try to prove to Annie that I was at her shop for a purpose. There were nonfiction books, every genre of fiction book, some big name authors, and some I didn’t recognize. I flicked through the titles of some, reading the names aloud, as if I was trying to prove how serious I was.
“New Moon, Fifty Shades Freed, The Boys and Girls Club, Love You, Always…wait,” I muttered, noticing the name underneath the book title. “By Annie Driscoll.”
My heart raced with an odd excitement at that. It had to be, didn’t it? Annie Driscoll wasn’t exactly a common name, and it seemed like far too much of a coincidence to be anyone else. “Annie?” I called out. “Did you write this?”
“What’s that?” she asked innocently, walking over to give me my drink. “Oh…” she trailed off and her face went a little white as she noticed the item in my hand. “Oh, I don’t even know how that got here.” She went to take it from me, but I moved my hand away. I was far too intrigued to simply hand it over right now; I wanted to read it first! “It’s not even a real book, not really. Just a sample. I only ever had a couple of copies printed up, with the intention of getting it looked at by publishers, but then I got too busy with the bookshop. Maybe it got mixed up in stock, or Rae brought it down here…”
“Can I read it?” I asked her curiously. “I like the look of the cover.”
“Oh…sure,” she replied, looking a little unsure. “You might as well; someone should read it, I suppose.”
I sat down at one of the tables and opened it up to start reading, intrigued to see what Annie had written. With her business astute, I hadn't imagined her as much of a creative person and I was looking forward to getting to know that side of her.
She shuffled away, seemingly shy of me reading her work, which had me even more excited. It meant that she’d truly opened herself up and made herself vulnerable in the pages, which was exactly what made a good plotline.
My name is Mary Ann, and I’m wanted for murder.
Okay, that definitely wasn’t what I expected the first line of what seemed on the outset to be a purely romantic book, but that was good. I was hooked, sucked in from the very first line.
I didn’t do it, of course, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not wanted for the crime. In fact, I’ve been on the run for the last three years because of that…
I was so consumed that I’d already read the first two chapters before she dragged me out from the storyline. “Erm, Justin?” she eventually inquired quietly. “I have to get going in a moment. I can’t leave Rae and her babysitter too much longer.”
“Oh, of course,” I jumped up, noticing that the majority of my coffee had been left to go cold. “I will be in touch about the investment next week, once I’ve spoken to all of my advisors.”
“Sounds great,” she grinned widely. “And, erm…I hope that you enjoy the book.”
I could have taken the moment then to really praise her for her for what I’d already read, but instead, I nodded sharply. I already felt like I’d been too full on with her, especially with my comments the previous night, and I really didn’t want to do that again. I wanted to leave this on a nice, calm, positive note, and leaving right away was the best way for me to achieve that.
“I’ll speak to you soon.” There was no disguising the sadness in my tone as I thought about leaving Annie and going back to Portland. Things might have been strange between us, but she was the first person to have clawed their way inside of me in a very long time and I didn’t feel quite ready to let her go.
Then again, there wasn’t any reason for me to stay, either.
While I walked away, and I shut the door behind me, I felt a mismatch of emotions racing through my system. I knew that there were a lot of unsaid things, floating between me and Annie, but there was no way of vocalizing any of them, not when I couldn’t even identify them. All I knew for sure was that I didn’t want to walk away.
And that feeling didn’t go anywhere, even when I was packing up my stuff in the hotel room. My mind was whirring, desperately trying to find yet another excuse to stay, but of course, I couldn’t.
I had already rescheduled my meetings once; I couldn’t do it again. Portland needed me, I had to go back. Until I finally could let go of my company enough to have a manager running the day-to-day side of things for me, I would always have to be there, and I wasn’t sure that I would ever be able to find anyone that I believed in enough.
I sat down on the sheets of the bed and pulled the book out from my pocket for a moment, thinking about Annie sitting down and typing out the words inside. I could already tell she had a real talent for writing; it was a real shame that Boffees had taken up so much of her time and she hadn't managed to pursue that dream. She could have really made a serious career out of it.
I opened it up for a moment and read a few more pages quickly, being drawn back into the world that she’d created. It was a mix of genres: romance, suspense, mystery, thriller, which made it even more unique. I desperately wanted to know more, and that wasn’t because I knew who had written it; it was because it was such a good story.
I quickly got drawn back in, and I didn’t manage to bring myself out until my phone rang, reminding me about real life.
“Garrett, are you okay?” I asked into the phone, already a little anxious about what he was going to say. I was constantly phoning him, but he didn’t usually contact me unless things were bad. It was just the way he was, only thinking about someone other than himself when he needed something. “What’s going on?”
“Are…are you home?” he slurred, obviously drunk. “I need to get in, I can’t…I don’t know where my keys are…”
Just as I was about to tell him where the spare set was, I heard a gaggle of women giggling in the background, which had my hackles rising. What I didn’t think that Garrett understood was that not everyone had pure intentions. He might have been naïve enough to assume that they were all oh so interested in his body, but I was well aware that they could have been con women, after stealing things from my home. Only when I tried my best to explain that to him, he laughed at me and called me a paranoid idiot.
“Just check in to a hotel,” I practically growled at him. “Use the credit card I gave you. I’m still in Florence, about to leave now.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he whined, sounding like a bratty baby. “That’s so annoying.”
“Oh, I am so terribly sorry that my need to work is inconvenient to you,” I snapped back, starting to lose my temper with him. “But unless you’re forgetting, you need me to work to give you somewhere to bring back your random bimbos, so I think for once you can do this one thing for me. I can’t do anything to help you, anyway. I’m three hours away.”
With that, he hung up on me, causing my temper to boil over. How dare he behave like a petulant child just because he wasn’t getting his own way? If it wasn’t for my promise to my father, there was no way I would be going through all of this now. If our parents were still alive, I would have kicked his ass to the curb a long time ago. Mind you, if that were the case, then he would probably be their problem, rather than mine…
Maybe Dad wouldn’t have been much good standing up to Garrett because he never was when he was alive, but our mother could have been…had she not gotten sick. Maybe she was the tough one in the family, the one who knew better, the only one who could have made Garrett listen.
For the first time in a very long time, I found myself missing the woman who I barely knew. I couldn’t ever remember her well enough to miss her, but every now and again I got the intense sense of loss, of a hole in my heart that simply couldn’t be filled.
“Right,” I muttered, trying to ready myself for the long drive that lay ahead of me. “Time to get going.”
With that, I grabbed all of my belongings, taking the most care over Annie’s book. I needed to read it now, every damn page, and I was very excited to get back for that. I couldn’t wait to see where her characters were going to take me next, and I had a feeling that it would be the one thing to get me through what was going to be a very tough week. What with endless meetings and my brother’s attitude to deal with, I needed something good to help me out.