It Had to Be You

by Marilyn Lee

  There was no doubting the sincerity in his voice or in his eyes when she summoned the nerve to turn and look into them. She shrugged. “Lighten up. I was only joking.”

  He flashed a quick smile before he spoke. “Are you meeting anyone?”

  “By anyone I suppose you mean a man?”

  He nodded. “Yes. A man. Are you?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  He shrugged, lowering his eyelids to conceal his expression. “I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  “No.”

  Had he spoken to quickly or was she just wasting her time in wishful thinking? Oh, no, you don’t, girl. Don’t start obsessing over him again.

  “Are you meeting someone, Annalise?”

  She shook her head. “Just nature.”

  Did he seem relieved? Or did he even care. He must or he wouldn’t have followed her and insisted she answer his question. When he spoke, his tone revealed none of his thought. “They don’t look so swollen today. How do they feel?”

  She held them up for his inspection. “Today’s a good day. They feel fine.”

  He surprised her by taking both of her hand in his. He lifted them to his lips, kissing her fingertips. “I’m very glad to hear that, Annalise.” He smiled.

  She smiled while admonishing herself not to feel too hopeful. “So. Tell me. How are things down at the farm?”

  He brushed his lips against her fingertips before releasing her hands. “About the same. Deb’s threatening to take hostages again. The last nanny candidate only lasted three days.”

  She nodded in sympathy. “I know.”

  “Oh?”

  “Ria and RP called me last night.”

  He seemed surprised and she realized that Ria hadn’t been truthful with her. He obviously didn’t know that they called her. Anxious to assure him she wasn’t plotting behind his back, she spoke quickly. “I thought you knew that we talked. Sorry if it’s problem.”

  “I didn’t know, but it’s not a problem. They obviously like you a lot.” Locking gazes with her, he reached for her hand.

  She inhaled quickly, withdrawing her hand from his. “Oh, Reed, let’s not go down that path again.”

  He reclaimed her hand, holding it against his chest, over his heart. “What do you mean?”

  She tugged at her hand.

  He refused to release it.

  “I mean you’re asking for trouble.”

  “How?”

  She tugged at her hand again until he finally released it. “I might end up asking if you like me again. And you know how well that question went over on your back porch,” she reminded him.

  As he had that night on the porch, he looked away.

  So despite his inexplicable flirting, nothing had changed. He was still unwilling to discuss his feelings for her. “So, you were telling me about life on the farm,” she prodded.

  Several silent moments passed before he released a deep breath and slowly turned to look at her “It’s not all happiness and sunshine.”

  “Why not? Because you’re not sharing it with me?”

  His blue gaze swept over her face before settling on her mouth.

  Did he need an incentive to kiss her? After dismissing her conscience that insisted on reminding her that he belonged to Taylor, she leaned closer. She parted her lips and extended the tip of her tongue in a shameless effort to tempt him into kissing her.

  He sighed and shook his head. “Annalise…please…”

  Please what? Lean closer? Or please don’t tempt him? He wasn’t indifferent to her. He’d followed her to the park, held her hands, and kissed her fingers, but clearly wasn’t willing to kiss her lips. “Fine.” Save your kisses for the lucky, Taylor. “So if you don’t want to kiss—”

  “Annalise…”

  “Do you, Reed?” She slipped her arm through his and rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. “Do you want to kiss something other than my fingertips?” She lifted her face to his with her lips parted.

  He stared silently down into her eyes. Although he made no effort to pull away from her, he didn’t attempt to kiss her either.

  “Reed?” She stroked her free hand over his chest and shoulders.

  He sucked in a breath and disengaged his arm from hers. “I want to talk.”

  His voice was husky and lacked conviction. “Is that really all you want to do, Reed? Is that why you wanted me to share the porch swing with you in the moonlight so you could talk to me?”

  “That’s all I did then and all I’m going to do today, Annalise. Talk.”

  “In case no one told you, locking lips can be very nice,” she said.

  “I have two kids, Annalise. I think you can assume I know all about kissing and how locking lips can lead to improper desires.”

  “Improper desires? Neither of us are married, Reed.”

  “You’re forgetting Taylor.”

  “Lord knows I wish you would,” she admitted.

  “Well, I’m not going to.” He rose and quickly walked away.

  Annalise closed her eyes and leaned back against the tree trunk. Nice going. After all that begging to be kissed, he’ll question your faith and think you have the morals of an alley cat in heat.

  “Can we try again?”

  Annalise snapped open her eyes.

  Reed stood staring down at her.

  She shrugged. “Why are you back? Did you decide you want to kiss after all?”

  “I…” He reached down, gripped her hands, and lifted her to her feet. “Can I buy you an early dinner?”

  “That depends.”

  “On what?”

  He still held her hands and was now staring at her mouth. “Will there be any kissing and improper desires involved?”

  He squeezed her hands. “I’m sure there’ll be all too many improper desires involved.”

  She extended her tongue and circled her entire mouth. “And kissing?”

  “Why are you determined to tempt me, Annalise?”

  Because this time she wanted to prove to herself and God that her faith was stronger. This time she would not sin. She leaned against him, slipping a hand from his to slide up his chest to touch the hair at his nape. “Why are you determined not to be tempted?”

  He released her other hand. “You know I’m dating Taylor.”

  “I know you’re not married or engaged—”

  “We’re close enough to—”

  She took his hand and placed it on her waist. “I also know you’re tempted, Reed.”

  “Isn’t it incumbent upon you, as a fellow believer not to attempt to lead me into further temptation? Don’t you believe?”

  He couldn’t know of her struggles of the last twenty months to restore her faith after her amoral relationship with Tom. “My brother is a minister. I’m a member of his congregation. Of course I believe in God, but that doesn’t mean I have to be…a Bible thumper.”

  “You’re clearly not that.”

  Oh, no. Did he know? “Look, Reed, just because I happen to believe that the Lord helps those who help themselves doesn’t make me a heathen. I believe in God and I do my best to follow the bible’s tenets.”

  “But you have no respect for marriage or engagements?”

  “I respect both!” She snapped, stung. “But you’re neither married nor engaged.”

  He stepped away from her. “Dinner would probably be a very bad idea.”

  Even when God forgave his servants, they still had to reap what they’d sown. Despite being raised by parents of faith, she’d spent nearly a year living with a man who’d never had any intentions of marrying her. Even if Reed didn’t know of her past, her attempt to redeem her character is his eyes had clearly failed. She sank onto the grass with her back against the tree. “You want to talk instead?”

  To her surprise, he nodded and sat down on the grass with his shoulder touching hers.

  “Are you back at work yet?”

  “Nope.” She breathed in the
air. “Still enjoying the easy life.”

  “How do you manage financially? Deb said something about your not having to work.”

  She turned to look at him. “Have you been asking her about me?”

  “I was a little curious.”

  “I inherited a little money from my grandparents that allows me a measure of independence. That’s why I can freelance instead of having to work full–time for a firm. Now speaking of curiosity, why don’t you ask your girlfriend to help with Ria and RP?”

  The question seemed to surprise him. “Taylor?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Taylor. Unless, of course, you have more than one lady friend. Do you?”

  “No! I don’t!”

  “Okay. No need to take my head off.”

  “How many times do I need to tell you I’m a one woman man?”

  Did he say it so often because it was true or in an attempt to make himself believe it was true? “I heard you the first time but I just wondered why you don’t ask your ‘one woman’ to help out?”

  “Taylor has a demanding job.”

  She shrugged. “Really? What exactly does your Taylor do, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  “And if I do mind?”

  She shrugged, opened her insulated lunch bag, took out a sandwich, and took a small bite before she grinned into his very annoyed looking face. “I’ve already asked. You’re minding isn’t going to change that.”

  “She’s the branch manager at a local bank.”

  “Branch manager, huh? Doesn’t sound all that demanding to me. So I take it she and the kids don’t get along.”

  “You don’t have any basis for concluding that. She’s just not very good at some things.”

  “Ahhh. Little, insignificant things like cooking and cleaning and getting along with kids?” She suggested, taking a sort of perverse delight in his obvious displeasure. “I suppose she’s too much of a career woman to take the time to master such mundane skills. Let me guess. She’s the hire a maid and nanny type woman?”

  “I didn’t know you and Taylor knew each other.”

  “We don’t.”

  “Then why do you feel comfortable enough to criticize her?”

  She shrugged. “Put like that you make me sound petty…and jealous.”

  “I think you’ve done that without any help from me, Annalise.”

  That stung. “Have I told you how very…charming you are, RP Senior?”

  “Sorry I bothered you,” he said and rose.

  She had been unforgivably and needlessly rude. But better to be rude than to continue to make a fool of herself.

  He stood staring down at her, almost as if he were waiting for her to come to her senses and ask him to stay.

  She bit her lip hard to stifle the urge to do just that.

  “So you want me to go?”

  She nodded.

  “Like this? Without knowing if or when we’ll see each other again?”

  “You haven’t gone out of your way to make me want to see you again and I don’t know that I do.” She almost sounded sincere.

  She watched the muscles in his cheek tightening. “I kind of thought ….”

  She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and squinted up at him. “Yes? What did you think?”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter because I was clearly wrong. You want me to go.”

  She nodded. Then sat silently clenching her hands as he walked away. Even though every nerve ending in her body urged her to go after him and ask him to stay. It was a sin to covet a man who belonged to another woman. He belonged to Taylor. End of story.

  All the way back to his office, Reed chided himself for being a fool. What had possessed him to go tearing after her not ten minutes after he’d prayed for the strength to forget her? Pushing himself in where he so obviously wasn’t wanted? Why had he thought she’d be pleased to see him?

  He hated admitting it, but it had been vanity. All her talk of finding him attractive had gone to his head. She’d just cured him of vanity. Pursuing Taylor, who didn’t shake up his life or test his faith by stirring such improper desires in him, made more sense.

  He needed to have his bruised ego soothed. When he got back to his office, he picked up the phone and called Taylor. To his dismay, his thoughts of Annalise filled his mind during their entire conversation.

  Annalise sat on her apartment balcony enjoying a second cup of decaf when the phone at her elbow rang. Should she answer it? After a few restless nights lying awake thinking of Reed, she wasn’t in the mood to talk. She glanced at her watch. Besides, who would be calling at eight–thirty on a Saturday morning? All of her friends knew this was her quiet time to reflect after she’d read the Bible.

  Whoever was calling was persistent, she thought irritably, as the phone rang again. And again. She picked up the cell phone lying on the table at her side. Deb’s number flashed on the caller I.D. screen. Great. “Yes?”

  “Thank God you’re home, Annie!”

  Ria and RP’s voices sounded in her ear.

  “Hi, Annie!”

  “It’s us! We’ve come to see you since you wouldn’t come to see us. Let us in,” Ria ordered.

  Annalise’s pleasure on hearing their voices overwhelmed her. “Yes, ma’am,” she said, punching in the code that released the front door.

  Five minutes later, she sat on the sofa with RP and Ria pressed against either side of her.

  Deb, sat across the room on the matching cream–colored love seat. Her blue gaze held that desperate look Annalise was beginning to dread.

  “How’s things down on the farm?”

  “Oh, Annie! I’ve tried and tried, but I just can’t cope.”

  The anguish in her voice tugged at Annalise’s emotions. “Surely your brother can—”

  “Daddy’s doing his best!” Ria interrupted.

  Then why wasn’t he with his kids while Deb got a much–needed rest? She looked at Deb with an arched brow.

  Deb wiped at her damp cheeks. “He’s doing his best, Annie, but he’s stressed out too.”

  “Where is he stressed out at?”

  “He tried to get up and be with us so Auntie Deb could have the weekend free, but he just couldn’t,” Ria said. “So we left him in bed.”

  “In bed?”

  “He’s been in bed for the last two days. Today he’s running a slight temperature,” Deb said.

  Had he been sick the day he followed her to the park? “He’s sick and you left him home alone?”

  Deb stared at her. “He said he needed to sleep and he’s afraid of these cuties catching what he has.”

  Realizing that she’d spoken much more sharply than she’d intended, she blushed. Worse, she saw the gleam in Deb’s eyes and knew she’d betrayed her feelings for Reed.

  “I was hoping you’d take pity on us all and come back to the house today, Annie,” she began.

  “I can’t.”

  “I know it’s asking a lot, Annie, but I really need you to do this. We all do. And you won’t have to see Reed if you don’t want to. He’s really feeling lousy. He’ll probably be in bed all weekend. Just feed the kids and send some soup up to him by Ria. Come on, Annie. You can be in and gone without his even knowing you’ve been there.”

  “Please come spend the weekend with us,” RP begged.

  “Daddy needs you.” Ria slipped her arm through Annalise’s and stared up at her. “He’s all hot and sweaty and he just feels awful. Please help him.”

  If only Reed did need her. She was probably the last person he wanted to see. Not that she could tell Ria or RP that. She smiled at Ria. “I would help him, if I could, but since he’s sick, he’d probably rather have Taylor at his side.”

  “What’s she going to do?” Ria demanded. “She doesn’t clean, she can’t cook, and she never comes around when me or RP is sick. You’re the one Daddy needs. Please come and help him.”

  RP pressed against her other side. “Please, Annie.”

  �
�We really need your help, Annie,” Deb said.

  “Deb, I’d like to help,” she said, looking away from RP. “I really would, but, I don’t think he’d want me there.”

  “You mean because of Wednesday?”

  She blinked in surprised. “You...you know about that?”

  “Not really. He told me he saw you. He didn’t say anything else, but he looked sort of...well, I got the feeling that...” Deb glanced at Ria, who was staring expectedly at her.

  “Suffice it to say he doesn’t hold grudges.”

  “Doesn’t he?” Thank God for that. “Then I’ll come.”

  “For how long? Just the day or the weekend?”

  “Don’t push it, Deb!”

  “I really could use a break. There are so many things I still need to do for the wedding and I can’t do them there with the kids under foot and with Reed sick.”

  What difference did it make if she went for one day or a few days? There was nothing of a personal or pressing nature to keep her in Philly. So why not go help Deb? She knew she was rationalizing, but she didn’t care. What more could a woman ask than the chance to look after the man she loved?

  There. She’d admitted. She loved Reed.

  “Annie?”

  “Call me crazy,” she said, shrugging. “I’ll stay for the weekend.”

  RP and Ria flung their arms around her neck.

  Deb rushed over to kiss her cheek. “You are the sweetest person I know, Annie. Why didn’t you agree to be my maid of honor?”

  She gingerly peeled three pair of arms from her neck. “You know I was really honored to be asked, but at the time I had a lot of commitments and now it’s too late.”

  Deb straightened and gave her an anxious look. “One more favor?”

  “Don’t you think you’ve just about used all your favors up?”

  “Oh, absolutely not. I’m sure I’m due at least one more.”

  She rolled her eyes. “And that would be?”

  “Well. Since I’m already here and you’re going to Flemington anyway, why don’t I just give you the keys to the house and you can take the kids with you?”

  “And you’ll be doing?”

  “Spending the day with my almost dearly beloved.”

  While Annalise got to spend hers baby–sitting the kids of a man she adored but could never have. Sounded a little lopsided.