Courted by Karma (The Adventures of Anabel Axelrod) (23 page)

If a girl need
ed to obsess, I’ve always thought that it would work to a woman’s advantage to flip flop those priorities around to the exact opposite. Wouldn’t it be much more fun to obsess over your groom and consider the wedding a detail so minor that it needn’t even occur? Now, that’s always been my idea of a Dream Plan, but I sure didn’t force Anna to sit and listen to me for hours.

‘
Maybe Anna should look in a mirror and see she wasn’t so great of a best friend herself!’

I
started to go into Bel’s, but Anna startled me by slapping herself in the forehead.

“
What the… Anna, didn’t that hurt?”

She brushed aside my laughing question
and put out an arm to stop me. “I can’t believe I almost forgot! I haven’t even told you what Reg said happened at breakfast today.”

“Something happened?” I
repeated, stepping closer. I was curious what Reg’s take would be on any of the He-Man undercurrents from Mike and Luke’s mental arm wrestling.

Flashing her nervous,
furtive smile that means she knows something I don’t, Anna milked it and said airily, “Oh, maybe just a little something.” I squeezed Anna’s arm and she grinned. “Mike told Luke he’s winning you back. Mike said you guys made out last night, so it was obvious you were still interested.”

I felt myself freeze.
This was so not mental arm wrestling.

‘
Why, that little troublemaker Mike is turning into a big, fat troublemaker!’

I wasn’t sure if I was more pissed or amused at Mike’s declaration of open
season on Anabel. He was always a go-getter and very open about his feelings when we were younger. This morning’s wordplay on the sidewalk was a reminder that Mike would use any ammunition in his arsenal to win. He’s a man that obviously has no problem stretching the truth so far right; you were nearly left with a lie. I bet he was a great lawyer.

‘The blasted Shyster!’

Anna shook my arm and chortled with glee. “Reg said it went dicey when Luke got that cold look on his face. You know, when he looks all British and 007, the Daniel Craig way?”

My eyebrows climbing,
I interrupted in amazement, “Reg said that?”

Anna
’s laughter trilled, and her high pony tail jiggled with her shaking head. “No, I’m the one saying that’s how Luke looks. Can’t you just picture him?”

Anna
made a face that was her idea of Luke Drake as a cool James Bond. I laughed out loud while thinking Luke would be thrilled to know he looked like a sick chipmunk with a severe underbite.

“No,
all Reggie said was that Luke was cool.” Anna waved off my brother’s lack of imagination and glanced around us to verify we were still out of earshot. “Okay, so then Luke tells Mike to try all he wants, but since it was common knowledge Mike fucked around on you with your own cousin, you were much too smart to fall for such an asshole.”

Anna laughed at my wide eyes. “I know, right?
So then Mike sneers back at Luke. He tells Luke that it’s obvious he sure as shit doesn’t know you very well. Mike says that if Luke thinks you’d party with him alone up in your apartment last night if you believed Mike had fucked you over with your own cousin, then Luke was the biggest asshole around.”

Anna
was grinning widely. She loves this stuff and I do too, up until two minutes ago. It’s not so funny when it’s about me. She held up a hand when I started to speak.

‘
Ah, crapola! There was more?’
This was so not good for the good guys. The mean mommy voice snickered, but everyone else was quiet in breathless anticipation of what Anna would reveal next.

“Then Luke
tells Mike that he’s the supreme asshole at the table. If Mike made out with you like he claims, it wasn’t very impressive since you left Mike to go to Luke’s farm.”

Seeing my mouth drop open,
Anna quickly added, “Wait, this is going to tear you up. This is when, out of the blue, Crookie stands up and informs Mike they are leaving. Reg said Crookie hadn’t been paying much attention to the altercation between Mike and Luke. He was too busy looking over some list he had and muttering. Reg said it surprised the hell out of the guys when Crookie stood up.”

Anna shot me a laughing, sympathetic look and I cringed at what
must be coming. “Crookie seemed to realize that he had interrupted their conversation. To show the guys he was paying attention, Crookie was very loud when he said that Luke was right. Crookie stated he clearly remembered giving you a ride out to Luke’s farm at one in the morning. I’m sorry, June, but I guess everyone in the café heard him.”

I narrowed my eyes at Anna. She didn’t sound very sorry
when she giggled.

“
According to Reg, everyone now knows you were trashed, laughing like a maniac, and barely dressed. Crooks lectured everyone about hypothermia and gave Luke a hard time about his lane being in terrible shape. Crookie then grabbed Mike’s arm and hustled him out of Goodbye’s because he was freaking out he was late grocery shopping!”

Anna’s voice rose
in disbelief at these last few words. She could barely continue over her own laughter. “Reggie said…Reg said he was worried there for a minute towards the end, but after Mike left, Luke calmly finished eating his breakfast. He only said one thing to Reggie about all that had happened and it was, ‘Those cheap bastards stiffed us.’ Reggie says he wants to be just like Luke when he grows up!”

I
did crack a smile at that, and at the idea of Crookie being his seemingly oblivious self. A mad scientist didn’t have anything on my friend, or was it a sly fox? Either way, I hated knowing I was now a public carcass of contention.

Anna wiped her eyes and seeing I wasn’t laughing so
much, said brightly, “Oh June, don’t worry about the public humiliation. Just think of all the other publicity you’ve had over the last few days. This is nothing!” She gave me a knowing smirk. “Luckily, neither of these men likes you very much.”

Casually rubbing my cheek with a middle finger
, I officially welcomed Anna into the family as Reggie’s chosen mate.

Acting offended,
Anna was giving me grief that I needed to defer to her in all things from now on because she’s the sensitive Bride-To-Be when Crookie walked into the lobby.

Cheeks flushed with
success at his shopping adventure and exclaiming over all the good buys, he was loaded down with straining grocery bags. Crookie waited with his usual happy equanimity while I walked over to assist him and opened the apartment door.

Peering
up at him closely, there was nothing in Crook’s affable expression to hint that only an hour earlier he’d broken up a potential man fight and outed me to a café full of strangers.

After Crookie assured me with a cheerfully blank look that there wasn’t anything he wanted to talk about and that he would be busy upstairs
on his laptop, I shrugged slightly and shook my head. Behind me, Anna dissolved into musical laughter. She waved her hello and goodbye’s before leaving to get to work.

I
promised Crookie to save some reports for him to do later when he came to play Store, and went to work myself. Stopping by the herb troughs on the entry table, I stuck a finger in the soil, but they didn’t need watering. I ran my hand over a tight mound of purple basil and sighed over the released aroma. I could roll in a field of basil and die happy.

At my office,
Stella and I met as she came out of the door. We stopped to discuss some business about Bel’s December schedule and then a few customers came in. She went off to help them, right as my possessed cell phone vibrated again. Looking at the screen, I felt my heart skip a beat.

I waved to Billy and Trent at the Fare counter before closing my office door behind me.

“Hi, Luke.”

“Hi, how are you feeling? Did you get in another shower without me?” his
deep voice was quiet.

“I did, but
you’ve ruined me for showering alone,” I replied, smiling.

“I should have come up with you.”

I sure wished he had, for several reasons, but only said, “Hmm, that’s funny, but I don’t recall issuing an invitation.”

“Anabel, don’t you know
me better by now?”

I laughed
. “What? You don’t need an invitation?”

“No, I don’t wait for an invitation.”

I sat down abruptly on my desk chair. My voice was soft. “I like that about you.”

“You don’t love it about me?”
His voice was quiet still, but teasing.

“I’ll let you know next time we’re in bed together and you’re inside me.”

There was a beat of silence on the phone, and then low laughter. “I like that about you.”

We were quiet
a second, but I felt a smile in the silence.

“Anabel, did you make out with Mike
McClain last night?”

Thank
heavens for friends and brothers because I did not pause in making my reply, “No, I did not.” After a beat, I added, “But he did kiss me.”

There was no smile in this silence.

“Why do you ask?” I ventured nervously.

“
It’s good you’re honest,” Luke ignored my question and ended the call after saying, “but I’m disappointed in your answer, Anabel.”

I tossed
my phone across my desk. “Dammit, Mike McClain!”

There was a light knock on my door.

“Come in,” I called out absently, jumping up and wanting to take some action but not knowing what would make things right. I told Luke all the truth, not impulsively, but so that it came from me. He wasn’t my exclusive boyfriend, but I also didn’t want him to erroneously think I was having sexual encounters with other men based on gossip or misdirection by troublemakers. I had no desire to make out with Mike last night, or I would have. Luke has my total interest captivated right now. Maybe I needed to tell him that. I was sure he wouldn’t like the idea of sloppy seconds or second string any more than I did. Then I frowned at his questioning of my actions.

‘Holy Hannah, I had no idea being sexually infatuated took up so much time and energy!’

The door opened wider. Larissa put her fluffy, golden-blonde head in my office and cautiously looked around. “Hi Bel, am I interrupting? I thought maybe you were in a meeting since I heard you talking.”

Opening my
arms wide, I put my man troubles aside. “Larissa, it’s great to see you! No, it was just me yelling at myself for being stupid. Oh my, look at your hair. It’s darling!”

Larissa grinned and scooted in,
saying, “You could never be stupid.”

S
urprising me, she came forward and enfolded me in a tight embrace. Gently patting her thin back, I realized Wednesdays were one of her regular days on the schedule. Believing she’d need more recouping time, I hadn’t thought to see her back at work this quickly. We did speak on the phone, but this was the first I’d seen Larissa since her ex-husband’s kidnapping attempt on Saturday.

We swayed together for a moment
. She released me and put her hands up for our traditional high-five. Laughing, we smacked hands.

Cheeks blushing, she
touched her hair and asked anxiously, “Really, Bel, you like it?”

Larissa had cut off all her long, straight hair. It was
now super short, but looked sassy on her. Her bone structure was so classically beautiful that even the worst haircut wouldn’t detract from her looks, but this truly was cute.

“I
love it! You look adorable,” Smiling, I added, “like a feisty kitten.”

Giggling in her squeaky, high pitch, Larissa’s expression
still wore a tiny, worried frown. “It’s okay that I came back to work, though?”

“Okay? It’s fantastic! I’ve missed you
r bat giggles.”

She giggled again,
but her relief was evident as the tension left her face. I’d been observing her since she came into the office. Her big blue eyes were wide, but not with fright. In her position, trepidation and self-conscious determination were the normal expressions I’d expect to see on someone’s face after getting slapped around. Poor Larissa has suffered far worse for far longer. Physically, the only new mark marring her pale skin was a red scratch near her lip, and it would soon disappear. Mentally, I was monumentally relieved to see dealing with the rat bastard’s latest abusive attack hasn’t pushed her back into her pitiful shell. Larissa’s come a long way since I first interviewed her last summer.

“
If you are positive you want to be back, Larissa, consider it a done deal. You’re such a brave girl and I’m very proud of you. Aren’t you proud of you, too, for getting your butt back to work?” She grinned and nodded shyly, her eyes shining. “Now, I want to be sure you’re prepared for the Nosy Nellie’s asking you questions,” I wrinkled my nose in distaste, “and guess what kind of questions they’ll probably be?”

H
er narrow shoulders relaxed at my words, but she thought about it and answered seriously, “Umm, nosy, ding-dong questions?”