to leave him the past couple of months was new to him.
He didn’t like it. He followed her, limping slightly, through the living room and dining room and into the big, old-fashioned kitchen, lecturing himself silently. He’d get a lot farther by charming Annie than by fighting with her.
The kitchen distracted him. For the first time since he’d driven into town yesterday, he had a sense of homecoming. He’d spent a lot of hours in this room. “This hasn’t changed much. The floor is new, but it’s almost the same shade of green as the old one.”
Annie set the bags down on the scarred oak table. “The floor was new five years ago. You haven’t been here in a long time, Jack.”
“Has it been that long?” Strange, he thought, it didn’t seem like it, not with memories crowding up as close and friendly as puppies. He moved over to the table and automatically began helping her unload the groceries, just as he’d done a thousand times before at this house.
Annie stood on the other side of the grocery sack. Close enough for him to touch…if he’d thought his touch would be welcome. She was frowning. “You’re limping.”
“I had an accident a couple weeks ago, banged up my knee. Nothing serious.”
The quick flash of concern in her eyes pleased him. “What happened? You’re a good driver.”
Yes, he was—which was why the accident had been minor. It could have been a lot worse. He was going to have to tell her about that and a lot more, but not yet. Not yet. “Hey! Jalapeños.” He grinned as he took out the plastic bag holding two of the small, potent peppers. “Is Ben planning to fix some of his chili?”
“Yes.” She grabbed the milk and butter that he’d unloaded and carried them to the refrigerator.
“What are the chances of me getting an invitation to supper?” He hadn’t had any of Ben’s stomach-burning chili in a long time.
She glanced at him quickly over his shoulder. “Good grief, Jack, don’t you think that might be a little awkward under the circumstances?”
His brief fling with nostalgia thudded to an end. “I guess he doesn’t know we’re married.”
“No.”
“So why haven’t you told anyone about Vegas?” Was she ashamed of him? The idea added another layer to the anger he was trying to ignore.
“I—I didn’t know what to say. It’s not like we had a real marriage. I was here and you were thousands of miles away, in Timbuktu—”
“Borneo,” he said, temper lending a lash to the word.
“Whatever. You were off building things, and I was here. I didn’t know what to tell people. You never answered my letter.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Jack.” She sounded exasperated. “I’m not talking about that note I scribbled two weeks ago. I’m talking about the four-page letter I wrote after you left.”
“I answered that, too.” She’d written him four pages, all right—four pages about how confused she was, how she cared about him, but she didn’t want to leave everything she knew unless he could make a real commitment to her. Which had made about as much sense as skinny-dipping in January. He’d married her. How much more committed could a man get?
“A one-way plane ticket is not what I’d call an honest effort at communication,” she said dryly.
“You knew what that ticket meant. I wanted you to join me. But you were too busy hiding here in Highpoint, fixing people’s roofs and plumbing, to live up to your promises.” He moved closer. “Did you keep our marriage a secret because the marriage wasn’t real to you? So you would be free to date? I hear Toby Randall has been sniffing around lately.” Ida had mentioned that last night.
She rolled her eyes. “Get real. Toby Randall? He’s a nice guy, I suppose, but for heaven’s sake! His mother still irons his Jockey shorts.”
“She does, huh?” A smile tugged at his mouth in spite of his mood. Jack couldn’t believe Annie knew about the condition of the man’s underwear for the obvious reason. “How would you know that?”
“He told me. He wanted my advice on how to get her to quit. Honestly, Jack, you’re being ridiculous. I’ve always had a lot of guy friends, you know that. I can’t believe you thought I took my ring off because I wanted to fool around on you.” She turned away, getting very busy with unpacking the last of the groceries. “I thought you knew me better than that.”
He sighed. “Hell, Annie, I’m sorry. This is all new territory for me.” Brand-new. Until this morning, he would have sworn he’d never been jealous of a woman—not since the seventh grade, anyway, when Charlie tried to cut him out with Mary Wolfstedder. He wasn’t even sure what he was feeling was jealousy. Whatever it was, he didn’t like it.
Dammit. Annie kept making him feel things he didn’t want to feel. “So where’s your ring?”
“Upstairs, in my jewelry box.” Apparently putting the groceries away was more important than talking to him, since she didn’t glance his way again as she bustled around the kitchen. “Why are you making such a big deal about it? You didn’t want to wear a ring yourself. You said you’d probably lose it, since you’d have to take it off whenever you were working. And it’s not like it was a real marriage, so—”
“Don’t.” His voice came out edgy. “Maybe you didn’t think our marriage was real, but I did.”
She froze, a can of beans clutched in one hand, her other hand reaching for the door to the pantry—then falling to her side. “I’m sorry. I was going to tell my brothers, at least, but I wanted to wait until I knew what you were going to do. With the way things were between us when you left… You just took off, leaving me that stupid note. ‘When you come to your senses, you can join me.’ Geez.”
She shook her head and vanished into the pantry. “You’re supposed to be so good with women, Jack. Did you really think that note was going to make me decide to fly off to the ends of the earth to be with you?”
“You’re not like other women. You’re Annie.” Annie, his friend, who had stood beside him in a gaudy little wedding chapel and promised to be with him forever…but forever had only lasted two hours. Long enough for him to be called out of the country on an emergency. Long enough for Annie to change her mind about him. “I was angry when I wrote that note. You refused to go with me.”
She came out of the pantry. “I wasn’t expecting to leave the country practically the minute I got married! Good grief, I wasn’t expecting to get married at all. I thought there would be time to adjust…but then you got that call. Everything happened so fast. Too fast. I’m not proud of the way I reacted, but if you hadn’t—oh, damn. I’m doing it again.” She grimaced. “I promised myself I wasn’t going to pick up our argument where we left off. We did each other enough damage that night.”
He remembered. More clearly than he wanted to, he remembered the ugly words he’d said as their argument had taken on a life of its own, and the words she had flung back at him. Words that had shocked her into silence and sent him down to the casino that night and halfway around the world the next morning. Words like liar and selfish
