Annie's Neighborhood (Harlequin Heartwarming)

by Fox, Roz Denny

  “Those feats are difficult enough, Annie. And you want to add reopening the factory to what you’re already planning to do?”

  “Are we back to you thinking I’m being unrealistic? I thought we’d progressed beyond that, Sky.”

  He scooped up a paint pan and roller. “Sometimes it seems we have, other times not. I’m not sure how I fit into your life when you take on more and more projects.”

  “That’s a good question,” she said unhappily. “How does someone fit in who casually drops by after not showing up for days?” Annie wrested another ladder out of the back of her pickup and stomped off to the side of the house. If he felt left out of her life, well, too bad; she felt left out of his.

  Annie didn’t see Sky again until one of the painting crew brought lunch. She wondered if he’d even sit with her―except that Zack grabbed her hand and tugged her over to show her the birdhouse he’d finished.

  “You did a great job, Zack.” Annie admired his work from every angle. “Once they’re all done and dry, I’ll coat them with shellac so they’ll hold up in every kind of weather. You and your dad can hang them from the branches of that big tree in his front yard.”

  “Can I take one to the farm? I have two homes, Annie. Three,” he said, changing his mind. “I forgot Papa Archibald’s vacation house in the Appa, Appa...some mountain. Daddy, what’s that mountain called where Mama said we hafta go?”

  “Appalachian,” Sky filled in, not sounding pleased.

  Annie assumed this was another bump in Sky’s rocky road of shared custody. She aimed her question at Zack, but darted a quick look at Sky. “So, Zack, you’re going on vacation soon?”

  Sky took the last bite of his chicken. “His mother wants to spend the summer at Archibald’s cabin. My attorney is looking into it now.”

  Nodding, Annie sat closer to Zack than Sky. “Well, Zack, if you don’t get all three birdhouses painted today but you finish two of them, I’ll run out and buy a can of shellac so you can take one to hang at the farm and the second to your cabin. The third one, for your dad’s place, can wait till you’re back. So we’ll shellac the first two, and hot as it is today they’ll dry in your dad’s car trunk while he drives you home.”

  The boy sprang up and threw his arms around Annie’s neck, exclaiming his pleasure.

  She noticed that Sky, who sat on the opposite side of the blanket, had stiffened; she started to disengage Zack’s arms. But Sky’s eyes weren’t trained on her. Rather he was watching a blue BMW that had double-parked at the curb.

  An attractive blonde got out and, with little more than a sweeping glance around the work area, stalked straight up to the trio seated under the tree.

  From Annie’s perspective, the well-turned-out woman in spike-heeled sandals, sleek sundress and arms aglitter with gold bangles seemed out of place at a neighborhood paint party. The blonde raised her hand and waved a crushed paper in Sky’s face. Annie felt her contempt as the woman—who could only be his ex―gave her a dirty look.

  “Isn’t this cozy,” she snapped, tossing her champagne-streaked hair. “What you’re asking for is totally impossible, Skylar. There’s no way I can drive Zack down from the cabin once a week so you can bring him here to hang out with your paint-speckled girlfriend. You know we always spend every summer at the cabin.”

  “Mama,” Zack cried, his arms still circling Annie’s neck. “This is Annie. And look, she bought me birdhouses to paint. And I get to hang one in a tree at the farm.”

  The woman, who so far hadn’t bothered to acknowledge her child, lowered her eyebrows in a perfect V over a dainty nose. “I guess you think it’s clever, trying to buy my son’s affection. You’re wasting your time. If I have to hire a gaggle of Kentucky’s best guardianship lawyers to ensure that Zack doesn’t spend another hour in this...this dump of a town, I will.” Sky bounded up to clasp the woman’s arm and began hustling her toward the street.

  “Apologize to Annie.” His words grated like sandpaper.

  Shaking her arm free, she accidentally kicked over the birdhouse Zack had just painted.

  The boy ran to rescue it, sobbing for his mother to stop.

  Annie figured Corrine had been too furious to see Zack’s work, although he’d tried to direct her attention to it. Annie quietly helped Zack right the birdhouse and murmured, “It’s okay. Your mom didn’t mean to kick over your project. See, no harm done.”

  As Sky urged her toward the street, the woman appeared confused, watching her son and Annie interact. As if realizing that the eyes of everyone seated around the partially painted house were glued to her, she said stiffly, “I’m sorry, Zachary honey. I didn’t see it. You, uh...it’s very nice.” She blew him a kiss, then gave in to Sky’s insistence that they leave the scene.

  Peggy Gilroy sidled up to Annie, who’d managed to get Zack interested in eating again. “You okay, Annie?”

  Touching a finger to her lips, Annie murmured, “I’m fine.”

  Several other women had joined them, staring out at the street where Sky stood, legs apart, arms crossed, and the blonde gestured wildly.

  “That was some tantrum,” Rita Gonzales put in.

  “If everyone’s through eating, we can get back to work,” Annie said.

  Taking the rather obvious hint, people tossed their garbage in a box, and went back to what they were doing prior to lunch.

  Annie felt sorry for Sky. He would be on the receiving end of his neighbors’ sympathetic―and maybe not so sympathetic―remarks. Compelled, for Zack’s sake, to ward them off in advance, she raised the volume of the music that had become part of their daily environment. Visiting each volunteer, she requested discretion and restraint. So the scene Sky returned to was one of tranquility.

  Without hesitation he climbed Annie’s ladder and stood three rungs below her. “I’m not making this up, Corrine asked me to apologize for her.”

  “That’s good, Sky. Thanks. I assume your lawyer just won another round. Were you afraid things would go in her favor? Is that why you were so grouchy today?”

  He winced. “Has anyone told you you’re as much of a shrink as a social worker?”

  “You’re shaking my ladder. It’s dangerous to have two on one ladder.”

  He stepped down, creating more of a sway. Annie grabbed hold of the rain gutter and a section came loose. “Watch out below!” she yelled, and panicked to see how close the broken gutter came to hitting Zack, who sat innocently painting his second birdhouse. To her immense relief, the heavy gutter was deflected by a tree branch. It crossed Annie’s mind that a worksite was no place for a child as young as Zack. Then noting the big smile he flashed his dad, she shrugged off her concerns. Zack loved to putter around, and it was a cinch he didn’t get to do that at his mother’s.

  * * *

  AT THE END of the day, which included Annie’s dashing out to buy a can of varnish at the nearest convenience store to spray the three birdhouses Zack had completed, Sky stopped her on the fly. “Hang on a minute. Zack wants to go out for pizza and we’d like you to come.”

  “Oh, Sky, won’t that create more trouble for you on the home front?”

  “Corrine can’t order my life. She certainly didn’t ask me to give the green light on Archibald. And after so many years of hassle, the new family court judge who’s handling our case believes in equal custody. Her latest decree, the one that upset Corrine, says fifty-fifty means equal time, regardless of the season, for both of us. Up to now, Corrine has had it all her way.”

  “I’m glad, but court orders can’t regulate what’s in someone’s head or heart. Zack’s mother plainly doesn’t want to share him. Seeing him hug me, a stranger, was like throwing gasoline on the fire. You should assure her that we don’t have a relationship. That would start easing her mind. After you take a new job elsewhere, you and she really need to sit down and ta
lk.”

  “I decided I don’t want to move. And I told Corrine we do have a relationship. I thought we settled that the other night.” Taking Annie’s hands, Sky brushed a kiss over her chapped knuckles. Enveloped by the humidity of late afternoon, they let the moment drag.

  “Daddy, Annie, aren’t we gonna go for pizza?”

  Her needs and desires overwhelmed by doubt, Annie detained Sky. “You say one thing and then another. I don’t know what’s truth and what’s fiction anymore. I’m the kind of person who goes all in. I don’t do anything halfway. And I expect the same thing from anyone I’m...involved with.”

  “That’s been evident since the day we met. Look, I acted like a jerk this morning. Is there a possibility you’d be willing to give me a second chance?”

  “A slim one,” she said, letting him squirm—but not too long. “We all have flaws. Okay, I’ll forgive yours if you’ll forgive mine.”

  “Over pizza can you tell me what some of yours are.”

  “Are you kidding? And have you looking for them? You’d send them off to a lab to be analyzed.”

  Sky laughed from deep in his belly. Then he threaded his fingers through hers. They collected Zack and got in Sky’s car.

  At the pizza parlor on the outskirts of town, Sky asked Annie what she liked. When she told them Hawaiian, Zack bounced gleefully in his seat. “You like the kind me and Daddy like. Goody! Nobody at Papa Archibald’s ever agrees. And Mama thinks we should only have vegetables on pizza. Ugh!”

  “Vegetable toppings can be yummy. Have you ever tried it?” Annie asked.

  Zack shook his head, and Annie let the subject drop.

  After they ate and watched Zack play some of the kid games set up around the big, noisy room, Sky again took Annie’s hand. “Instead of me dropping you off at your pickup, ride with us to the farm.”

  “As if one explosive encounter today wasn’t enough?” Annie laughed.

  “It’s a pretty drive through bluegrass country. Doing the trip alone is boring. On the way back, you can tell me more about your plans for reopening the glove factory.”

  “Well, I should be home on the internet researching places that sell raw cotton and leather. That’s the piece of the proposal I don’t have facts and figures on.”

  “Will an hour or so make a difference? The sun will set soon. You’ll enjoy seeing the moon rise. And you’ll like watching the thoroughbred horses in their pastures. You’ll also see why they call it bluegrass.”

  “Sold. I lived here half my life, but horse farms weren’t on Gran Ida’s radar. Reading, sewing, gardening—those were our passions.”

  “You said she used to arrange work parties to care for the rose beds in the park. You come by your volunteer skills honestly,” he said. “Aaron told me you want to name the teen center after your grandmother.”

  “And the park, once I have time to revive it. I’ve already sketched out the signs. Mr. Yost, who’s doing the wrought iron, said his son can make them.”

  Zack’s supply of quarters came to an end, and when he ran back to them, he was yawning. Sky boosted him up on his shoulders as they left the restaurant. “Annie’s going to ride to the farm with us, Zack.”

  “Yay! Will you help me hang one of my birdhouses, Annie?”

  “It’ll be too dark when we get there,” Sky said. “I’ll help next time I pick you up.”

  “When will that be?” Annie asked. “We have your neighbor’s house to paint, starting tomorrow, then yours. I can order the paint now that you’ve decided on the gold with dark blue trim.”

  “I wanna help,” Zack said, buckling himself in. “But Mama said I hafta go to the cabin.”

  “We’ll work it out,” Sky promised.

  Zack fell asleep almost before they got out of town. Annie turned to watch him and smiled. “Poor kid, painting tuckered him out. But he had fun.”

  “He doesn’t seem to like the farm. As a kid I would’ve loved running wild in the country.”

  “Therein may lie the problem. I sense that there isn’t a lot of running around, that his life’s more structured.”

  “You’re right.” He sighed. “I need to follow as many of Corrine’s rules as I can.”

  “True,” Annie agreed. Then, because Sky asked again, she explained her plans for the glove factory. She also took in the beauty around her; the moon shining down on long, waving grass that indeed looked blue in the pale light.

  At the farm, Sky got out, put two of the birdhouses on the porch, then carried his son to the house. From the car, Annie observed the exchange taking place at the door. A big man, older than Sky, came to stand behind Corrine. He and Sky talked for a few minutes when Corrine carried Zack inside.

  “Did everything go okay?” Annie searched for any sign that Sky was distressed as he got back in the car and turned it around.

  “Archibald’s going to hang a birdhouse here and one at the cabin. They agreed to let me have Zack for two days while we paint my house if I give them a week for their vacation.”

  “You’re learning the art of compromise,” Annie said, leaning over to squeeze his hand.

  They rode in silence, hands still clasped, and were almost back at Briar Run when Sky’s radio crackled to life. “Sky, it’s Joe. Are you in radio range?”

  Sky let go of Annie’s hand and clicked on. “I’m just outside town after dropping Zack at the farm. What’s up?”

  “I’m on your street. A neighbor called. They caught two guys who were spray painting a couple of homes that Ms. Emerson’s crew just painted on Dusty Rose Street. Folks are upset. Her pickup’s still at the curb. Our perps slashed all four of her tires, but she’s not around and they haven’t been able to locate her.”

  “She’s with me, Joe. We’ll be there in ten minutes. The guys they caught? Local kids?”

  “Nope, they’re from Louisville, and both have outstanding warrants. If I had to guess I’d say your neighbors, with the aid of shovels and brooms, landed us two upper-level Stingers.”

  “Hallelujah,” Sky returned. “Call Morrissey’s Garage and see if Don can tow Annie’s pickup to his place.”

  Annie looked up from checking her phone, which she belatedly remembered shutting off at the restaurant. “Didn’t I tell you the residents would take back their neighborhood once they were invested in it?”

  “You did, smart lady.” Sky held up his hand for a high five, and in spite of Joe’s news about her vehicle and the graffiti, Annie high-fived back.

  Chapter Thirteen

  OVER HALF OF Annie’s paint crew had gathered on the street where a tow truck was backed up to her pickup. She and Sky left his car and examined her slashed tires. “At least they didn’t key the paint job,” she said, and thanked him for arranging a tow. Leaving him with the driver, Annie began unloading paint from the back of her pickup. Roger McBride rushed over to help.

  Once everything was out of the bed, Annie went with Davena to check on the extent of the graffiti. She still held a baseball bat in one hand and a flashlight in the other. “I swear, Annie, this was probably the only time I appreciated Remy Thacker being a nosy neighbor. She heard a noise, looked out and saw two guys messing with your truck, so she called the police. Before Joe Morales got here, Remy saw them start spraying the side of the Petermans’ house. They’re at a concert in Louisville, so Remy called me. I activated the phone tree Peggy Gilroy set up. It worked like a charm, except you didn’t answer and we were worried.”

  “We went out to eat. I turned my phone off in the restaurant,” Annie said. “Did you ask everyone to bring shovels and baseball bats?”

  “No, I handed those out from my shed as they arrived. I had everyone park on Wild Rose and sneak in through my backyard so we didn’t scare them off. We’re all sick and tired of the Stingers intimidating us.”

 
“You did good, Davena. Thanks to you, they didn’t have time to paint a lot of graffiti. Covering it shouldn’t take too long tomorrow morning.”

  “What about the Aaron Loomis 8:00 a.m. meeting?”

  “I don’t know about any meeting.”

  “Odd. He said he was phoning all the former glove factory personnel, and I’m sure he said you and he would explain why we were being asked to meet.”

  Annie dug out her phone again and saw that Loomis had left her a message to call him. She waffled. How late was too late to phone a city manager? It was now quarter to ten. He’d left his home number, so she decided to take the risk. “Excuse me, Davena. I’m going to step away and give him a call right now.”

  Loomis answered at once. “Ms. Emerson, I’m glad to hear from you. At your suggestion, I’ve looked into the idea of reopening the factory, and I feel we should move on it immediately. I did some fact-checking, including a call to an Argentine executive named in one of the articles you gave me. Believe it or not, they bought our gloves until the plant closed. He said he’d pave the way for volume purchases because the gloves they’re importing now are inferior.”

  “Wow! Fantastic.” The only problem was that Annie envisioned this putting a huge dent in her paint project, to say nothing of getting drapes sewn and completing the teen center. Most of her regular workers were former factory employees. “I’ll do my best to make the meeting,” she told Loomis. “A couple of Stingers slashed my pickup tires tonight. I’m having it towed as we speak.”

  “If you can’t cadge a ride, take a cab—at town expense. It’ll be worth it. This could breathe new life into Briar Run.”

  She signed off, seeing that Sky was hailing her. The tow truck was driving off with her pickup. “Davena, I guess I’ll see you at Mr. Loomis’s meeting. I’ll ask Peggy to start a crew painting over the graffiti in the morning.”

  “So what’s his big secret about?” Davena asked.

  “He’ll reveal that tomorrow. Sorry, Sky’s my ride and he needs to leave.”