Annie's Answer (15 page)

“I’d be happy
to take you,” Nathan said. “Maybe Annie can join us.”

Was this how
he wanted to compensate her for the bad play? Annie didn’t want him to feel
obligated.

“Thank you,
but I usually spend Sunday afternoon with my mother,” Annie said. “We don’t get
much time together.”

“Bring her
along,” Mattie said.

“We have other
plans.”

Annie hated to
fib, but she couldn’t tag along just because Nathan felt he should make up for
taking her to a boring production. He didn’t realize being with him meant more
to her than where he took her. And she was never going to let him suspect how
much she cared about him. The more time she spent with him, the harder it would
be when her job here was over and he was out of her life for good.

When Annie
pulled into the Sawyers’ driveway Monday morning, Nathan’s car was still there.
So was a vehicle she’d never seen before, a fairly new tan four-door. She
parked and hurried to the door of the house, letting herself in as she’d been
told to do from her first day there.

In the foyer
Nathan and Mattie were talking to a tall, slender woman in a snug-fitting red
suit, her platinum blond hair piled high on her head. Her back was turned, but
Annie’s first thought was what a good match she was for Nathan: tall, shapely,
and sophisticated. Then she turned around, and Annie saw she was closer to his
mother’s age than Nathan’s.

“Annie, this
is Belinda Jensen from the real estate agency. She’s going to show you and
Mattie some houses this morning. This is my aunt’s friend Annie.”

It was nice of
him to call her a friend instead of a paid companion, but then, Nathan was
always tactful and considerate. It was a large part of why she cared so much
for him.

“I’m pleased
to meet you, Annie. This is a good time to buy a house. We’re in a bit of a
summer slump, and I have lots of listings that might work for Mattie.”

Belinda’s
lipstick matched her suit and her beige straw heels looked too high for
tramping around gardens and lawns, but Annie appreciated her professional
persona. She was looking forward to house hunting with her.

“I have to get
to work,” Nathan said. “Sorry I can’t go with you.”

He shook hands
with Belinda, kissed his aunt’s cheek, and smiled at Annie as though the two of
them had a secret. “Come walk to the car with me.”

Mattie led the
realtor to the den so she could sit and see pictures of the listings on Belinda’s
lap top computer. Annie followed Nathan outside, wondering what he had to say
to her.

“I really
appreciate your going with Mattie. She’s inclined to make snap decisions, so
make sure she sees everything available even if the first house looks perfect
to her. I want to check her choices for myself before she makes an offer. I’m a
little concerned because she didn’t know about the termite infestation in her
old house, but, of course, an engineer has to check before she buys.”

“I don’t know
anything about real estate,” Annie said, afraid he was expecting too much from
her.

“You have more
common sense than anyone I know,” he said encouragingly. “I’ll try to get home
before you leave this afternoon.”

Common sense!
She watched as he got into his car and drove away, not feeling at all
flattered. No woman in love wants to hear she has common sense. But then,
Nathan only saw her as his aunt’s companion. If she let herself expect more
from him, she would be immensely disappointed.

After Mattie
had seen all the photos of listings, she selected a few to see first. They went
in the realtor’s car, Mattie riding in front and Annie in back. She felt
totally out of place house hunting since she’d lived at home her whole life
except when she went to community college and shared an apartment with two
other girls.

Not for the
first time, she thought it was time to get her own place, even if it was a tiny
apartment. She was twenty-six, more than old enough to strike off on her own,
but living with Mom and Gramps was the only way she could save enough to buy
the flower shop.

“Usually my
clients like to leave their house when I show it, but the woman who owns the
first place is quite elderly. It’s difficult for her to get out. In fact, she’s
selling her house to move into assisted living.”

“How sad,”
Mattie said, no doubt thinking of how much she wanted to stay independent.

Belinda
stopped in front of a small bungalow in one of the older parts of town. Someone
had tried to perk it up by hanging a basket of flowers on the porch and
painting the front door a bright lime-green, but the touches of color only made
the rest of the exterior look more shabby.

“Mrs.
Hamilton,” the realtor said when a tiny woman leaning heavily on a cane
answered her ring. “Thank you for letting us see your home so early in the
morning. This is Mrs. Hayward and Annie.”

A shy kitty
poked it’s head out from behind a couch covered with shredded upholstery, but
Annie didn’t need to see it to know Mrs. Hamilton had cats. The smell was
dreadful, and several other felines watched their progress through the rooms.

“I’m
dreadfully sorry,” the realtor said when they were back in her car. “That’s the
first time I’ve been in that house. I’ll speak to the person who listed it
about the odor.”

“It’s sad the
owner isn’t able to take better care of her pets anymore,” Annie said
sympathetically.

“On the farm,
we kept our cats in the barn,” Mattie said, not unkindly. “I wouldn’t be
interested in that house anyway. It would need too many renovations.”

What made
Nathan think his aunt didn’t have enough common sense to look at houses without
her? Now that Mattie’s ankle had healed, she really didn’t need Annie. Was
Nathan being charitable, hiring her through the summer? Maybe she should give
up her job—and her hopes for a shop of her own. With Nathan constantly on
her mind, she didn’t see her future as clearly as she once had.

The next house
was a small ranch style, not new but well maintained. Annie liked the sunny
yellow paint and the marigolds lining the walkway, but Mattie wasn’t
enthusiastic after they walked through it.

“I really
would like a second bathroom, even a half-bath would do in case there’s a
plumbing problem. I suppose one could be added in that closet off the kitchen,”
she said thoughtfully.

“We’ve only
begun looking,” the realtor assured her. “I have an absolutely adorable cottage
to show you on Elm Street.”

“Oh, my,”
Mattie said when they stopped in front of a small home with pink stucco siding
and wooden shingles on the roof. Instead of a lawn, the entire lot was one big
garden with ornamental features including gnomes, a miniature stone windmill,
and flagstone paths.

“It is
adorable,” Annie said, admiring the morning glories climbing up one side of the
house. “Like something in a book of fairy tales.”

“Or maybe
not,” Mattie said, stepping around a broken board in the porch floor.

Inside the
kitchen faucet was dripping, the ceiling in the living room had a crack that
ran from wall to wall, and the walls were neon green and pink.

“It would make
a good fixer-upper,” Belinda said, ever chipper although Mattie was obviously
discouraged.

The realtor
took them to several others houses, but just when it was beginning to seem half
the town was for sale, Belinda regretfully admitted she didn’t have anything
else to fit Mattie’s requirements.

“Of course,
we’re getting new listings all the time. Sometimes people want to move before
school starts for their children, so we may have a last-minute rush.”

“I’d like to
move before Labor Day,” Mattie said.

“Have you
considered something a ways out of town?” the realtor asked. “We have a nice
frame house on two acres with a brook running through the property. It’s been
for sale since winter, so the owner is more than ready to negotiate.”

“No, I lived
on a farm since the day I got married. I’m ready for something in town.” Mattie
clenched her lips, a sure sign she couldn’t be persuaded.

“Well, I’ll
keep in touch,” Belinda said as she dropped them off in front of the Sawyer
mansion. “As I said, this is a busy time for new listings. I’m sure something
will turn up.”

“Maybe an
apartment wouldn’t be so bad,” Mattie said as she trudged wearily through the
foyer to the kitchen. “It’s hard to get old and not know where you belong.”

Annie put her
arm around the older woman’s shoulders. Now more than ever she could
sympathize. Her dreams were fading, replaced by an impossible love for Nathan.

By the end of
the week Annie did believe half the town was for sale. The realtor kept coming
up with more houses to show, but by Friday all that seemed available were
mostly three and four bedroom homes, more house than Mattie needed or wanted.

“Maybe I will
end up in an old folks’ home,” she said after they’d spent Friday afternoon
looking at several homes in a new development.

“I’m sure it
won’t come to that,” Annie said, trying to boost her spirits.

It was hard to
cheer up Mattie when she’d never felt so dejected herself. She’d stopped at the
flower shop before work a few days ago, and the owners were more reserved than
she’d ever known them to be. Were they looking for a different buyer, someone
who would buy them out immediately? They listened to her assurances she would
have the down payment by Labor Day but didn’t comment.

Nathan was
practically the invisible man. He’d left early every morning that week, and
Mattie said he sometimes stayed at his office until eight or nine at night.

“That boy
works so hard it’s high time his father came home and did his share,” Mattie
confided. “My Tom worked from sunup to sundown during planting and harvesting
seasons, but he did take it easier in the winter. That was his time for
repairing equipment and studying the markets. We stored corn in our own bins until
it was the best time to sell.”

“I don’t know
much about farming, but I do love seeing fields of corn as high as my head.”

Annie
encouraged Mattie to tell her about farm life instead of brooding over her
future. If only something could distract her from thinking about Nathan!

She was ready
to leave and face the Friday evening crowd at the pancake restaurant when
Nathan came through the front door.

“How are my
favorite women?” he asked, sounding in unusually high spirits.

“We looked at
more houses,” Mattie said in a sour tone. “I’m ready to pack my bags for Iowa,
truth to tell.”

“Don’t start
yet,” he said. “Come into the kitchen. I have something to show both of you.”

“I have to
leave for work,” Annie reminded him.

“This won’t
take long, but I want to share my idea with both of you.”

Annie checked
her watch as Mattie and Nathan settled down at the table. She could spare ten
minutes since she kept her uniform in the car, but she didn’t have the energy
to deal with Bob Hoekstra if she was late.

“This isn’t
all my idea,” Nathan said, opening his laptop. “I’ve been e-mailing back and
forth with Dad and consulting with a contractor here in town. I think I have a
solution.”

Annie leaned
over Nathan’s shoulder to see the screen, enjoying the spicy scent of his
aftershave a little too much. She’d never noticed what nice ears he had, close
to his head with sculpted lobes. She backed away a bit but could still see the
screen.

“Look at these
houses,” he said, going to a site that featured prefabricated homes. “I was
amazed at what you can buy now, everything from a modular apartment building to
tiny single person dwelling as small as 300 square feet.”

Sitting beside
him, Mattie avidly watched as he brought up a variety of designs from ultra
modern to cozy and traditional.

“This is all
well and good, but I don’t have a place to put a prefab,” she said.

“That’s why
I’ve been communicating with Dad. Our property here goes all the way to the
street behind us, more than enough for a small house and a big garden when some
of the trees are cleared.”

“You mean
bring one of those ready-made houses here?” Mattie asked sounding a bit awed.
“What about a cellar? I can’t live where there’s no place to go in a tornado
warning.”

“Not a
problem. The contractor I’ve been working with can dig a foundation while we
wait to put up the house. Do you see any designs here you might like? If not,
there are a lot of other companies to check out.”

Tears were
streaming down Mattie’s face, and Annie was having a hard time not crying
herself. Nathan had come up with the perfect solution. His great aunt would
have her own home, but she’d also be close to the family.

“I can’t
believe it,” Mattie said, wiping her eyes with a napkin from the holder on the
table. “I was almost ready to go back to Iowa a few minutes ago.”

“I’m not going
to let that happen,” Nathan said, getting up and hugging her.

As happy as
Annie was for the older woman, she didn’t feel she belonged there. Backing away
as quietly as she could, she practically ran to her car when she was out of the
kitchen.

The VW failed
her. Maybe she tried to start it too quickly, but it sputtered and wheezed but
didn’t kick in. Gathering up her uniform, she started to walk. She’d be late,
but she didn’t see an alternative.

“Annie!”

She’d only
gotten as far as the end of the driveway when Nathan called after her.

“I have to
go,” she said over her shoulder, still feeling too emotional to talk to him.

“You can’t
walk to work,” he said, running to catch up with her. “It must be a couple of
miles.”

“Not that far.
Anyway, I like to walk.”

“I’ll drive
you.”