Taking on Twins (22 page)

“Listen to me,” he demanded against her slack lips. He dipped his head for another deep kiss that sent him to the edge of his control. “Just listen to me.”

His words seemed to bring her back to the present and she sagged. He could taste the salt of her tears as she started to cry.

She twisted her mouth away from his. “No, Wyatt. You have to let me go!”

The knot in his stomach grew in proportion to the size of his desperation. “You haven't heard me out.” He grasped her flailing wrists to keep from catching one in the face.

“I can't.”

“Why not?”

“I'm scared.”

“Of what?”

“That you…” She sobbed and looked away, “That you are going to ask me to marry you.”

He froze. This was not the response he'd been living in his fantasy life all these years. In his dreams, he'd envisioned Annie falling happily into his arms at his proposal. The tears she shed would be tears of joy, not anguish.

She was slipping away once again, and suddenly he felt the same terror he saw lurking behind her eyes.

“No,” he murmured and tightened his hold on her wrists. “No. You can't do this to me. To you. To us.”

She closed her eyes and lashes, spiked with tears, rested
against her cheeks. “Damn it, Wyatt. Why did you have to come back to Keyhole and screw my life up this way?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Starting up our relationship like this is futile. Pointless. I live in Keyhole, Wyoming, for crying out loud! You live in Washington, D.C.! Long-distance relationships do not work. We proved that once already. I can't afford the therapy bills.” She was growing hysterical.

“But that doesn't have to tear us apart.” Ignoring his protest, she struggled against him, frantic to escape. “Annie, please! We can work this out.”

“No!”

“Yes!” He yanked her back up against his body.

This time the word was devoid of emotion. “No.”

Desperate to make her see reason, Wyatt crushed his mouth to hers once again, but as he did so, he had the sinking feeling that he was kissing Annie goodbye. This time for good.

I
t wasn't until the plane had reached cruising altitude that the boys finally, blessedly, stopped crying. Annie was an emotional wreck herself, but she tried her best to be strong for them. Cheerful even. But she was failing miserably, and she knew it. She glanced over at their long faces. Though the tears had dried, the disappointment was still sharp.

“Mom, you guys said Wyatt was comin' back home with us,” Noah moaned. Like most five-year-olds, it was hard for him to let a subject die. “Wyatt said he was gonna play space monster with us again.”

“And read to us.” Alex had thrust his lower lip out during takeoff and was still pouting.

“I've explained this to you both, over and over. Sometimes grown-ups change their minds. They realize that they have other important commitments and those things must come first.”

“Sean Mercury's new dad didn't have other commandments. He married Sean's mom.”

“And now his new dad lives at Sean's house and someday, he's gonna adopt Sean and maybe Sean will get a new name. His mom already got a new name.”

“Cuz they were kissin' and junk,” Noah reminded.

Annie closed her eyes as memories of Wyatt's last kiss threatened to tip her over the precipice of her sanity. Before she'd given him another chance to propose, and thereby confuse her any further, she'd broken away from him and rushed to the house. Once back in her suite, she'd hurriedly packed, called a cab, grabbed the boys and bid the Colton family a hasty goodbye.

Luckily, they'd all inferred, by the wild look in her bloodshot eyes, the tear stains on her cheeks, the tomatoesque nose, that she was mourning the loss of her own marriage and the ceremony had simply been too much for her. They'd been more than helpful and completely understanding.

Wyatt, on the other hand, had not come to see her off. To try to talk some sense into her jumbled mind. Quite the opposite, in fact. As she hustled the boys out to meet the waiting taxi, she'd glimpsed him having drinks with Rand and Lucy back at the reception. He'd cast her a cool to-hell-with-you look and turned his attention back to Rand.

Life went on.

Whether she wanted it to or not.

As the tears came again, Annie pressed her face against the smooth glass of the jet's window and watched the mountains slowly pass by below.

“Mom?”

“Hmm?”

“You cryin' again?” Alex peered up into her face.

She pressed the back of her wrist to her eyes. “No,
honey. No. I'll be all right. I'm just feeling a little sad right now.”

“I really love Wyatt, Mom. I wish you did too.”

“I do, honey.” At this admission, Annie began to hyperventilate.

“Mom?” Noah craned his head past his brother for a better view.

Annie struggled to breathe. “Yes?” she gasped.

“You okay?”

“I'll…be…okay…” Frantic, she loosened her collar buttons, then dug through the back pocket of the seat in front of her until she found an airsick bag. Flipping it open, she held it to her face and sucked in great gulps of soothing carbon dioxide.

This was ridiculous.

The bag snapped out, the bag whooshed in.

Noah stopped whining long enough to laugh at the funny picture she made.

Snap. Whoosh. Snap. Whoosh.

“I wanna do that,” Alex cried and grabbed his own air-sickness bag and began to imitate his mother. Not to be left out, Noah joined in.
Whoosh snap whoosh snap.

Concerned passengers turned in their seats to stare. A flight attendant approached after the elderly woman across the aisle had signaled for help.

“Are you going to be all right, ma'am?”

Annie smiled weakly and nodded. “I'll be all right.” Flopping back against her seat, she took another deep drag from the bag.

Whoosh. Snap.

“Would you like a glass of ice water?”

Bag bobbing, Annie said, “That would,”
whoosh, snap,
“be nice.”

“Airsick?”

Heartsick, airsick, whatever. Annie nodded. “Something like that.”

The flight attendant gave her shoulder a gentle pat. “Hang in there. It will all be over soon.”

Annie knew the stewardess was referring to the flight, but she had to wonder if her present troubles would ever be over.

Was she going to spend the rest of her life hyperventilating every time she thought about how much she loved Wyatt? Was she going to have to explain to her children why she'd chosen to keep them fatherless and miserable? Was she ever again going to enjoy living in Keyhole, when her heart was in Washington, D.C.?

Whoosh. Snap. Whoosh. Snap.

As her breathing slowed, the fog began to lift and Annie, for the first time in over a week, was finally beginning to think clearly. She shifted her gaze back out the window and an amazing revelation began to slowly take shape in her heretofore muddled mind.

She, Annie Summers, had been given a second chance.

How about that?

Her boys had been given a second chance.

They'd been handed a loving husband and father on a silver platter, and here she was, throwing it all away over a silly pile of Madrilla vases and butter churns.

What on earth was she thinking?

If she and the boys moved to Washington, D.C., they were only a phone call away from her mother and Brynn. MaryPat could fly out and see them as often as she wished. Annie didn't know why she worried so about her mother. After all, it wasn't as if she'd laid down and died when Judith and her husband and kids had moved to Iowa.

“Here you go, ma'am.” The flight attendant handed her
a soda water and packages of peanuts for the boys. “Please, let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.”

Annie took the soda water and sipped. “No, no. Thank you. I think I'm going to be fine.” As she recalled the wounded look on Wyatt's face, misery flared once more and she wondered if she'd blown it beyond salvation. “Eventually. I hope.”

 

The first thing Annie wanted to do when she got home was to call Wyatt. They needed to talk. She needed to apologize for her abhorrent behavior just as soon as she had a few minutes to herself.

Dragging their luggage behind them, the boys slogged in a foggy depression into the house and up to their room to unpack. Annie was worried about them, but knew she had to sort her own problems out before she could tackle theirs.

Annie took her luggage to the laundry room and, once she'd started a load of her delicates, rushed to the phone in the kitchen. She located her address book and picked up the phone only to discover Alex on the extension. He was talking to Sean Mercury.

“Nah. He doesn't want to be our dad.”

“How come?”

“I guess he had a bad time with us on the trip. Me and Noah helped make a mess of the bride's getaway car. Maybe that's why he's mad.”

Slowly, Annie hung up the phone. Her eyes slid closed and she sagged against the counter. Boy, she'd really done it this time. By trying not to hurt anybody, she'd ended up hurting everybody. Dully, she looked up as a knock sounded at her front door.

Brynn barreled past as Annie pulled the door open. MaryPat shuffled in behind her.

“What gives?” Brynn demanded in her typical all-
business style. “You weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow. I saw lights on over here and with what's been going on around here lately, I thought I'd stop by and see what's up. We're just coming from dropping Em off at work…” Her voice trailed off and she peered at her sister. “Good grief, woman. You look like you fell out of a pitiful tree and hit every branch on the way down.”

“Mmm. Thank you.” Annie shuffled to the living room and flopped into a recliner. She motioned for Brynn and her mother to take a seat.

“What happened?” MaryPat settled in next to Brynn on the couch.

Annie decided to ignore their questions and counter with a few of her own. “Mama, would you mind horribly if I wanted to sell the store?”

MaryPat opened her mouth to speak, but no words came.

Annie looked from her mother to her sister. “And, Brynn, if Mama gives me the thumbs-up, would you consider listing it as soon as possible? I'd be happy to pay the going commission rate.”

For the first time in years, both women were completely speechless. They stared agog at Annie and then at each other.

“I—” Annie squirmed in her seat and twisted her fingers together. “I'm thinking of moving. To Washington, D.C. Over the last week, out of curiosity, I got on the Net and found out that there are some very nice, affordable neighborhoods with excellent school systems. And what with the Smithsonian and the monuments and the memorials, and that whole political scene, well, I just know it would be great for the kids, educationally speaking. And you know, without the burden of the store, I can focus on my kids. And my art. Which is something I've kind of always wanted to do.” She shrugged.

“He's the one?” MaryPat asked with a smile.

“Mama, when he's in the room it's like there just isn't enough air.”

“He's the one.” She cackled like a turkey the day after Thanksgiving.

Brynn finally found her voice. “Wyatt has proposed?”

Annie shook her head. “No. But I'm going to. First chance I get.”

 

Her chin propped in her hand, Emily leaned over the café lunch counter and starred dreamily at Wyatt who was seated on a stool and picking at his fries. “So it was really beautiful, huh?”

“You'd have loved it. I've never seen a more beautiful bride.”

“I wish I could have been there.”

“Liza sends you her love. I know she wanted you to stand up with her, but she understands.”

“Why did you come back so early? I thought you and Annie were going to stay a couple extra days.”

“Change of plans. She wanted to get back yesterday. So she flew out shortly after the wedding. At first I was going to stay in Prosperino and then go back to D.C., but I got to thinking—”

“Just couldn't stay away, huh?” Emily teased.

“Something like that.” Wyatt poked a fry in his mouth, but he was so sick at heart, it tasted like a stick of fried cardboard. “Anyway, I hopped a plane this morning and here I am. Just in time for lunch.”

Last night had been the longest night of his life. He knew he'd been a fool to chase her all the way here, knowing how she felt about marrying him, but he couldn't seem to help himself. Before he went home to Washington, D.C.,
he had to talk to her one last time. Get some answers. Answers that he could live with.

Hopefully.

Criminy. He couldn't think about this anymore. His head was killing him. Time for a change of subject.

“So.” Wyatt dredged a fry through some ketchup. “How'd it go while we were gone? Toby any closer to catching that freak that broke into your place?”

Emily shook her head. “No, but
he's
a lot closer. Toby moved in with MaryPat and me for the weekend.”

Wyatt hooted. “Sounds like a really weird
Three's Company
rerun.”

Emily smacked him with a damp rag. “Funny boy. I have to say he did seem to love all the home cooking.”

“That's the way to a man's heart, you know.”

“Would you shut up? It's not like that between us.” With her rag, she wiped up a dollop of ketchup off the counter near Wyatt's plate. “Although, it was nice of him to stay on MaryPat's couch all weekend. I felt safe with him so close. He's a special man.”

“It's love, I'm telling you.”

Emily giggled. “You're so weird. Speaking of love, when are you going to pop the question to Annie?”

“I did, this weekend. Or at least I tried.” Wyatt sighed. Did he really want to go into this? Just talking about it made him feel as if his heart was a bloody ball of hamburger.

“You did?” Emily stopped cleaning the counter and gaped at him. “What'd she say?”

“No.”

Emily's broad smile twitched, then faded. “No?”

“No.”

“You're kidding.”

“No.”

“You're not going to let her get away with that, are you?”

“What do you mean, not let her get away with that? She's a grown woman. She can do what she wants. Marry whom she wants. She's proved that once already.” Wyatt tossed his sloppy French fry back onto his plate and twisted his napkin in his hands.

“But you can't just give up.”

“What would you suggest?”

“Fight for her this time! Last time you just let her walk out on you, without putting up a fight. Bad move, Wyatt. Women…” Emily said with a sigh. “We like our men to fight for us. Makes us feel wanted. Needed. Loved.”

Wyatt grunted. “How do you know?”

“I'm a woman.”

Wyatt stared at her in mild surprise. By golly, she was. When had his baby sister gone and grown up? “You think fighting for her is the answer, huh?”

“Yep. If it was me, I'd fight.”

Beneath his ribs, Wyatt's heart began to pick up speed at the idea. Emily was right. He'd let Annie walk away once. It had been the worst mistake of his life.

She still loved him.

He knew it.

And he'd be damned if he was going to make the same mistake all over again.

Emily tossed her rag in the pail beneath the counter and, leaning toward him, took his hand. “Why don't you find a place here in town? Move here and court her the old-fashioned way. Prove that you love her by just not going away. Finally, she'll just get so sick of you hanging around that she'll marry you just to get rid of you.”

Wyatt grinned. “You know, that makes a wacky kind of sense.”

“Call Brynn.”

He fished his cell phone and Brynn's card out of his pocket and dialed.

“Hello?”

“Yeah, Brynn? It's me. Wyatt.”