Chapter 18
Annie slept in, the emotions of the night before still heavy on her mind. Tommy left her a note saying he had gone into the city for a couple of hours. He wanted to let her sleep and to text him when she woke up. Her body ached. Her butt ached. Her head ached. She needed some coffee and a shower.
She slipped on her robe and went downstairs to the kitchen to put the pot on, then padded back upstairs to Marti’s room to wake her and have the dreaded talk. Marti wasn’t there. “Marti! Are you here? Marti? Hello? Anyone here?”
Annie rushed downstairs. The men working outside but Marti was nowhere to be found. She must have stayed out all night. Annie poured herself a cup of coffee, delighting in the aroma of the fresh brew. She needed it. She put it to her lips, savoring the flavor, and thought about Marti. She was sure she was pissed about the whole ordeal.
She still wondered why Marti didn’t get along with Tommy. Did something happen between them? She grabbed her cell phone and called Marti’s number, but it went straight to voicemail. “Marti, it’s Annie, call me when you get this message.”
She went into Marti’s room and started searching for something, anything that might tell her where Marti went or who she was with. Who were her friends? She had been so obsessed with Annie; Marti hadn’t even seen anyone else the whole time she had been here.
Annie rummaged through her dresser, looking for any notes, addresses, phone numbers, something that told of Marti’s life when she wasn’t at the ranch.
She found an envelope tucked neatly away in her top drawer. Annie reached for it and pulled out the contents. There were some pictures in the envelope. Annie started thumbing through them.
She smiled. There was an old picture of Marti and her dad when she was a baby. A couple of old pictures of them in elementary school. Who is this? Is that Tommy? She looked at it again, not believing what she saw. She put her hand over her mouth and gasped. On the bottom of the stack were pictures of Marti and Tommy, very together, definitely more than just friends. She fell to the floor, her back against the wall. So this is what she had been hiding. This is why Marti didn’t want her and Tommy together. Tommy had been her man before Annie moved back.
Why didn’t she tell me? Why didn’t HE tell me? No wonder Marti was so snotty to him. What happened? Did I break them up? No. He was single when we reconnected. Neither one of them ever mentioned their past.
Annie hesitated before she picked up the phone again. Where is Tommy now? He said he was going into the city, but did he? Was he with Marti? So many questions raced through her mind.
She called Tommy.
“Hello, baby! You’re awake? I’m on my way home right now. I have a big surprise for you!”
“Uh, okay, have you seen Marti?”
“No, why would I have seen Marti, isn’t she there?” he asked, a little teed off she wasn’t interested in her surprise.
“Just asking, honey, see you in a bit. I love you. Be careful. Bye.”
Annie tapped her fingers on the dresser. Think, think, think, where would she be? Shit, Marti. Where are you?
Annie called her again. Voicemail. Left a message.
Tommy finally drove up while Annie was on the porch, texting Marti again. He walked up to her with a huge bouquet of roses and some shopping bags filled to the brim. “Hey, sexy lady, these are for you.” He bent down to kiss her cheek.
She hurriedly glanced at him and then back down to her phone.
“Hey,” he said as he lifted her chin up to look in her eyes. “I’m up here. What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
“I can’t find Marti. She’s gone. I can’t find her and I’m scared something has happened to her.”
“Are you sure? Did you call her mama? You know her mama lives in town?”
“I called her mama; I yelled for her by the peach trees; I called and texted her a hundred times. I know she’s mad and heartbroken, but I wanted to talk to her and explain us, and now I am afraid something has happened to her.” She couldn’t even think about the pictures in her room.
“Okay, honey,” he pulled her into his arms, “we’ll find her. Let me call the station and put out an APB.” As he held her in his arms, he pulled out his phone and called it in.
Annie started crying hysterically, her body shaking and trembling. He held her tighter. She was his woman and no matter what happened, she would always be his love.
She cried. Cried about the two lives she had changed, her two broken-hearted lovers she had hurt, two people who had done nothing but love her and show her an amazing wild side of her she didn’t even know existed.
As she composed herself, still in his arms, looking up at him, she thought about the pictures of them. The money in the trust he didn’t even know about. The whole bi-sex with Marti and Tommy watching them. All the lying, cursing, crying, hurt and pain over the last few days. She wondered if it was all worth it.
She wriggled out of his arms. “Tommy, go, just go.”
“What?”
“Go! I don’t want you here. Go away!”
“Annie, I—”
“Go away!” she screamed and ran into the house, flew up the stairs and slammed the door.
Tommy stood there for a second, heartbroken. He contemplated going back into the house and talking to her. The vision of his beautiful fiancée and Marti having sex came back. He needed to think. She needed to think. He turned and walked down the steps, wiping his tears.
He knew he had to get her back, had to find a way. There was no way he could go on without her. He jumped into his truck and sat there for a moment, thinking about what just happened. He loved her, but would probably never understand her.
He turned up the radio and drove away.