I'll Be There: BWWM Romance (Brothers From Money Book 5)

by Shanade White

  Annabelle was silent, watching Marcie make what she assumed was lunch. Every time she turned around, she found another reason she was happy to be here. This was a job that a lot of people would have been thrilled to get, for the first time in a long time, she actually felt excited about her life. Things here would be simple, not easy, but simple.

  When her toast was finished, she took it and her coffee over to the table and sat down by Elizabeth who was feeding her daughter Rebecca cereal. Most of it was on her face, but she seemed to be enjoying it. “How old is she?” Annabelle asked.

  “She’ll be six months old next month. We’re just learning to eat with a spoon, as you can see.” Elizabeth said, laughing as Rebecca smeared cereal in her hair. “Time for another bath.”

  “I’d love to help. I need to figure out where everything is after all.” Annabelle said, dying to get her hands on the chubby baby.

  “You’re on. I’ll gladly let you help me give Ms. Squirmy her bath.” Elizabeth said, handing the messy baby over to her. “Hope those aren’t nice clothes.”

  “No worries, they’ll wash.” She said, tucking Rebecca into her arms.

  Annabelle didn’t care about a little baby food in her hair or on her clothes, it would wash out. After the bath, they put the baby down for a nap in one of the new cribs in the nursery and went back to the kitchen. As they were discussing plans for the rest of the day, a delivery truck pulled up in front of the house.

  “Oh, my stuff is here.” Annabelle said, jumping to her feet. She’d only brought one change of clothes and she’d just put it on.

  Michael was already talking to the driver when she got outside, so she let him handle the driver and sign for the packages. Once they were on the porch, Michael carried then up to her room. “Thank you.” She said, when he’d put the last one down.

  “It’s no problem, I like taking care of you. It makes you smile.” The words were out of his mouth before he’d even thought about it, taking it slowly with Annabelle was difficult.

  Annabelle blushed, not used to attention from men. Unsure what to say, she looked at him, then changed the subject. “How’s the work going?”

  “Fine, we’re pushing as hard as we can. I just keep hoping it won’t snow. It’s almost Halloween, it won’t be long now.” Michael said, relieved the moment had passed, but loving the way Annabelle blushed.

  “Well, I better get to work, I’m already out of clean clothes thanks to Rebecca’s breakfast.” Annabelle said, pointing to the pile of boxes in her room.

  “I’ll let you get to it then. I better get back to work anyway.” He said, backing toward the room.

  “Thanks again for taking the time to help.” She said, walking with him to the door.

  “No problem, just let me know if you need anything else.”

  It took most of the rest of the day to put her room in order, but when she was done, it felt like home. While she’d been working she’d kept the drapes closed, wanting to see what the room would look like at night, she still had nightmares sometimes. But now that she was finished, she wanted to let in some light to see if she might be able to have some plants in her room.

  There was only one window in the room, but it covered almost one entire wall. She stepped to the center and parted the drapes, pleased to find that she had a wonderful view of the valley and since the window faced west, she’d get plenty of light during the day. As she was contemplating what kind of plants she might be able to find in town, she noticed that Michael was standing just below her window deep in conversation with a man in a suit.

  The man must have been someone important because she could see how tense Michael was even from this far away. He was punctuating his words with his hands, clearly frustrated with something the man had told him. When the man walked away, Michael stood rooted to the spot, taking deep breaths.

  As he turned to walk away, he looked up to Annabelle’s window and his eyes met hers. A big smile broke out on his face and he waved to Annabelle, who without thinking ducked behind the curtain. Realizing how rude that must have looked, she parted the curtain again and waved to Michael, glad that he was too far away to see her blushing.

  Watching him walk away, Annabelle wondered what it was that had made her hide from him when he’d waved. Then she realized what it was, she was attracted to him. That thought had her backing up and sitting down on the bed. She wasn’t sure quite how to feel about her attraction to Michael, even if he wasn’t way out of her league, she had no idea what to do with those feelings.

  She’d had very little experience with men, in fact, the truth was she’d had no experience with men at all. Her last date had been more than two years ago, and that hadn’t been much of a date, since it was only a movie and coffee afterwards. Although for her, that had pretty much been the norm. She’d never had a boyfriend, lots of friends that were boys, but none that were more than that.

  It had never bothered her, since she’d never found a boy who made her feel like Michael made her feel. She’d been more concerned with her studies than finding a boyfriend, of course her parents had fostered that, always saying that she’d have plenty of time to meet a boy. But now, she’d managed to develop a crush on Michael and had no idea what to do about it.

  The most logical thing to do would be to just ignore the feelings, they’d probably go away on their own. Besides, Michael was probably just being nice to her. He couldn’t possibly be interested in her, she wasn’t exactly going to be featured in a fashion magazine any time soon. She liked to think of herself as curvy, or generously proportioned, but most people would call it something else. She’d heard it often enough when she’d been growing up, size 16 girls always did.

  The fact that she was black might also be a problem, although the other Terrell men had chosen black women, so maybe that wasn’t an issue either. Frustrated with the direction of her thoughts, she got up from the bed to find some company. She’d accomplished a lot today, her room felt like her own and she couldn’t wait to climb under the comforter that her mother had made for her when she went to bed that night.

  Thinking about Michael and her chances with him was a waste of time, she had other things to be concerned about, including her new job. Although she had plenty of experience with kids, new born babies were new to her and she was a little nervous. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint anyone, they’d put their faith in her, it would be terrible to let them down.

  Realizing what she probably needed was to get out of the house for a while, she decided to go for a walk, it would be good to get some fresh air and she hadn’t seen any of the property. Stepping out the front door, she took a deep breath of the chilly air, knowing that it would be much colder sooner and she’d have to get some warmer clothes. She found the trail Leslie had told her about easily and started off, she’d been warned about the elevation and sure enough, she was breathing heavily almost immediately.

  Taking it slower, she hiked for an hour then made her way back to the house, feeling better. Instead of worrying about her crush on Michael, she’d just enjoy it, maybe even learn to flirt a little. Everyone got crushes, it didn’t mean that it had to go any farther, and if it did, well she’d handle that when it happened, worrying wasn’t getting her anywhere.

  When she got back into the house, everyone was just sitting down to dinner, she’d timed it perfectly. Michael was sitting next to the only empty seat at the table, smiling at her. Butterflies in her stomach, she sat down next to him, suddenly even more aware of how good looking he really was.

  Chapter 5

  By the end of her first week at the Terrell’s, she was feeling right at home, and ready for the arrival of Leslie’s baby. She’d helped Elizabeth with Rebecca some, but not enough to keep her entertained all day. Hiking around the ranch helped to fill the time, but she was quickly getting bored. The huge stack of books she’d brought with her held no appeal, she just didn’t want to read anything she’d brought.

  One afternoon, as
she was scanning the shelves in the library looking for something different to read, she realized that what she really wanted was a romance. Like all young girls she’d gone through that phase of reading romances, of course her mother had put an end to it as soon as she found out. Annabelle hadn’t read anything remotely like a romance since then, but there was nothing to stop her now if she wanted to. The days of striving for academic greatness were long behind her, her goals completely altered after that night.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go back to school, but that life looked different to her now. She’d survived when she shouldn’t have, when her parents hadn’t, it was a gift she had no idea what to do with. In the years she’d spent recovering from her injury she’d had a lot of time to think about her life and as much as she missed her parents, she realized that it had been their dreams she’d been living.

  What she’d come to realize over the last few years was that success wasn’t measured by only what you achieve, but by how much happiness your achievements bring to you and those around you. Her parents had experienced that kind of success, but instead of encouraging her to find her own path, they’d pushed her to follow in their footsteps, thinking that what made them happy would make her happy as well. Now that they were gone, the drive she’d felt to fulfill their dreams was gone, she was free to follow her own path, but she had no idea what that path would be.

  There was no doubt that she’d go back to school and finish her degree someday, but when that day came, it would be her choice what path to take. Until then, life at the Terrell ranch was pretty darn good, she had a great place to live, and plenty of company when she wanted it. Including Michael who seemed to appear from nowhere several times a day to spend a few minutes talking about everything from the weather to the latest celebrity gossip.

  He’d also been her constant dinner companion, teasing her about not eating her vegetables or her search for the old spring house, which had become a bit of an obsession for her over the last week. Jonathan had pointed vaguely into the woods by the creek and sent her off to search. But, it had kept her occupied for several hours every day, and she needed the exercise.

  Dinner had quickly become her favorite time of the day, her crush on Michael hadn’t gone away, if fact it had grown every day, until she felt this strange need for something to happen. She had no idea what was next, or even if there was going to be any more than just the flirtation and teasing. It was then that it occurred to her that her desire for a romance novel was stemming from her crush on Michael, she wanted to read about the happily ever after she was afraid to imagine with him.

  Laughing at herself and her romantic musings, she picked up an Elizabethan romance, it wouldn’t have any racy scenes in it, but it would have to do until she got something more contemporary. Taking the book, she went to the sunroom where she knew she’d find Leslie. She’d started staying as close to her as she could, her due date was only a few days away so it wouldn’t be long before the baby was born.

  Sitting down in one of the chairs in front of the window with a big sigh, she opened the book and began to read. She’d only read the first page when Leslie interrupted her, “I think you need to get out of the house. Why don’t you take my car and go to town.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t driven in a while. Are you sure you should be alone?” Annabelle fired off excuses, suddenly afraid of going out on her own.

  “Well, I’m hardly alone, there’re at least ten men out in the yard, and Marcie is in the kitchen. It’s not that far to town, you’ll be fine.” Leslie said.

  “Maybe I’ll go this afternoon.” Annabelle said, touched by Leslie’s concern.

  “Any time you want to, just let me know. I’m not going to be using my car for a while. We’ll have to do something about getting you a car pretty soon, but for now use mine.”

  “Thank you, Leslie. I do need to get some more winter clothes and I hate ordering clothing on line.”

  “There’s a great store downtown that sells just about anything you might need to stay warm, let me know if you’re planning to go and I’ll call ahead and let Sarah know you’re coming.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Annabelle said, the idea of actually striking out on her own beginning to appeal to her. She was a grown woman, a trip to town shouldn’t be such a big deal.

  By lunch, Annabelle had talked herself into driving into town, in part because her one brief trip outside had given her a taste of just how cold it was going to be that winter. A cold front had come in overnight and it was well below freezing. Her quick trip to the stream had taught her several things, first she needed a much heavier jacket and second she’d be suspending her search for the springhouse until spring.

  It was time for a shopping trip, she’d never been much of a shopper, but suddenly it felt like just the thing she needed. Some new clothes, a couple of warm coats, and a pile of new books would be just the thing to cure her boredom. So after lunch, she got Leslie’s keys and gave herself a generous budget and headed for town, which was possible thanks to the generous estate her parent’s had left her. Money wouldn’t be a concern for her for a long time.

  Arriving in town, proud of herself for navigating the dirt roads, she found a parking spot downtown and headed for the bookstore first. All the shops downtown were in historical buildings, but the bookstore was one of the most charming, with big windows displaying books and stationary, she couldn’t wait to get inside.

  When she walked in the smell of books was the first thing that hit her. She took a deep breath, surveying the store with greedy eyes. Annabelle loved books and it wasn’t very often that she allowed herself to go on a shopping spree in a book store, libraries usually providing her reading material. But as well as she’d done on her trip to town, the nearest library was twenty miles away and that was farther than she was willing to drive on her own.

  Seeing a sign for the romance section, she went directly to the shelves and began to browse, wondering what kind of romance she wanted there were so many different kinds. After she’d chosen a stack of books, she took them to the front to pay for them, slightly embarrassed by her choices. But she shouldn’t have worried because as soon as the woman at the counter saw her choices, she got excited.

  “Oh, another romance lover.” She said, ringing up the books. “This one is really good. Have you read the first on in the series?”

  “Well, no. Actually I’ve never been much of a romance reader, but I wanted to try something new.” Annabelle said, embarrassed.

  “You can’t read this one first.” The woman said, coming out from behind the counter and heading for the shelves. Plucking a book from the shelf she handed it to Annabelle. “And you should read this one, it’s divine. We’re talking about it at book club this week, if you’re going to be in town long enough you should come.”

  Annabelle thought about that for a minute trying to decide if sitting around with a bunch of women talking about romance books would be fun. “I’m new to town, but I don’t know if I would be able to make it. I just started a new job.”

  “Well everyone is welcome, we drink wine and everyone brings something good to eat. Don’t worry they’re not all old women like me.” She said, laughing. “I’m Michelle by the way.”

  “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Annabelle.” She said, paying for her books. “I’ll be working for the Terrell’s as their nanny.”

  “Such nice people, we’re all so happy for them. I hope you’ll come to the book club, I’ll put a flyer in your bag with all the information.”

  Annabelle looked at the big bag of books realizing that she should have made this her last stop. “Would it be possible to have you hold these until I finish my other shopping? I have to get a new coat and some other clothes, California didn’t prepare me for snow and cold.”

  “You need to go see Sarah at the mercantile, she’ll get you all fixed up. I’ll keep your books until you’re finished, no problem.”

  “Thanks, Leslie said I sho
uld go see Sarah too, so I guess that better be my next stop.” Annabelle said, happy to have already met someone new.

  While she’d been in the book store, it had gotten cloudy and the temperature had dropped even further. As she walked the few blocks to the clothing store, big, fat, wet flakes of snow began to fall. In only a matter of minutes, what had been a few flakes had turned into a blizzard soaking her flimsy coat. By the time she stepped thought the doors of the store, she was shivering.

  The sales girl behind the counter called a greeting then went back to helping the customer she was with. Annabelle brushed the snow out of her hair, then spotted the stove in the corner and went straight over and stood in front of it until she’d warmed up. Still wet, but no longer cold she began to look at the coats, not sure what she was shopping for.

  As she was looking at some bright pink parkas, she saw a woman come out of the back of the store. She came straight over to Annabelle and said, “You must be Annabelle, I’m Sarah.”

  Annabelle was surprised at first that the woman knew who she was, but then she remembered how small this town really was. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” She said, relieved to have some help. “I’m from California, I have no idea what it is I’m going to need. Frankly I’m having a hard time picturing what winter is going to be like. Although I guess I did get a taste of it on the way here.”

  “Well, this storm is just a teaser, we’re only supposed to get about six inches. Come on, let’s start with the basics. Have you ever worn long underwear?” Sarah asked, raising her eyebrows.

  “You mean like those one piece red things you see on TV?” Annabelle said, wrinkling her nose.

  “Well kind of. You’re going to need some, but they’ve come a long way from the red one piece you’re talking about.” She said, leading Annabelle to a display of silky, lacey tops and pants.