Anna Meets Her Match

by Arlene James

  “I’ll be there!” she promised, but he called almost nightly to make sure, and more often than not, they wound up talking for hours.

  She learned about his work and his company, his many siblings—six kids spread about among five parents!—and how responsible he felt, as the oldest, for the difficulties that divorce had caused them.

  “And here I am repeating the same mistake,” he said with a sigh.

  “That’s not your fault,” she told him.

  “Of course, it’s my fault,” he refuted softly. “I picked Marissa, for all the wrong reasons, but I’ve learned my lesson, believe me. I’ll get it right next time.”

  Anna blanched to think of him marrying some other woman, but she quickly changed the subject. That didn’t keep her from thinking about it, though, and when Saturday finally came, she took more pains with her appearance than she ever had before. Let Tansy crow. For once, Anna just didn’t care.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Reeves paced the foyer impatiently. The soft strains of music, produced by a piano and harp, blended with the clink of flatware as the temporary staff put the final touches on the tables in the ballroom. Where was she? A good many guests had arrived already, and Anna had promised to be early. He should have insisted on picking her up.

  Stationed in front of a narrow window, Chester opened the door. Reeves whirled and saw Tansy Burdett, decked out in matronly gray silk, enter.

  She smiled thinly. “Not arrived yet, has she?”

  Reeves took a stranglehold on his temper. “Stay away from her, Tansy. Just give her some room tonight, will you please?”

  “I know my part in this,” she huffed, marching toward him.

  “That’s just it. You have no part.”

  To his surprise, her chin wobbled. “I’ll always have a part in my granddaughter’s life,” she insisted in a trembling voice, “even if it’s from a distance. She’s all I have.”

  Before Reeves could follow up on that, Chester announced, “She’s here, Mr. Reeves.”

  Tansy marched away at double-time. His mouth dry and palms damp, Reeves faced the door. He gave his French cuffs a tug and rolled his shoulders beneath the black satin-trimmed jacket of his tux. With a black bow tie and a white cummerbund against a white shirt, he suddenly felt colorless and trite. Chester swung that door open, and Reeves ceased to think at all.

  It was just a long, slim midnight-blue skirt of some slinky knit, slit to the knee on one side, and a sleeveless, fitted, purple lace top worn beneath a length of sheer dark blue fabric draped over her shoulders and arms, but it looked as fine on her as any ball gown. She’d tucked her hair behind her ears and clipped rhinestones—or whatever they called faux diamonds these days—to her dainty lobes. A matching string encircled her slender neck and one wrist. On her feet were those delightful shoes. Wow.

  Summoning up what he hoped to pass off as charm and wit, he stepped forward and shook his head, saying, “Oh, this is not good.”

  She looked down at herself in alarm. “What?”

  “How will anyone concentrate on the auction items with you in the room?” She laughed, taking the arm he offered. “You’re stunning,” he told her softly, “beautiful, and if you get farther than three feet away from me tonight, I won’t be responsible for my actions.” She laughed again, a bright, crystalline tinkle that sounded like happiness itself.

  They strolled toward the ballroom, passing half a dozen flower arrangements on pedestals. “Where’s Gilli?” she asked.

  “Oh, she’s around here somewhere. I told her she could mingle until dinner started, provided she’s on her best behavior. Then Carol will take her to the kitchen for a private party with Special. We can slip off and put her to bed afterward.”

  Anna nodded and squeezed his arm. “I’d like that.”

  The aunties were at their stations, Odelia at the door to greet, Mags directing guests to the proper seats, Hypatia handing out catalogs and pointing out items displayed on the rectangular tables that lined the room. The round tables, decorated in layers of white and gold, that stood in the center of the floor were for dining. With flickering candles on every table and an abundance of flowers, the room resembled a fairy glade, an impression enhanced by the smattering of light reflected upon the ceiling and the faint, ethereal lilt of the music.

  He knew a moment of tension when Anna spied Tansy bending over one of the bid sheets on the display tables. As if sensing her presence, Tansy straightened and looked straight at them, but then she went back to penning in her bid, and Anna turned away. Reeves said nothing, smoothing a hand over her back until she relaxed.

  The evening progressed smoothly from that point. He and Anna made the rounds of the auction tables and dutifully made bids on various items. One of them, a trip to the Bahamas donated by a local travel agency, was proving extremely popular, but Reeves made a generous bid anyway, imagining Anna and himself on the beach. She chose small, inexpensive items and made modest bids, which he upped at every opportunity in hopes of being able to present one or more of them to her.

  Every chair was filled by the time dinner was served, and the bid sheets, according to his aunt’s whispered progress reports, were nicely covered. They were on track to raise a record-breaking amount for the scholarship fund.

  Reeves recognized Anna’s corpulent boss and his equally bountiful wife seated at another table across the room, as requested, but after a single wave, Anna paid them no more mind, nor they her. It was just as well. If he had his way, Reeves would keep her entirely to himself tonight.

  The aunties had provided their guests with filets mignon, creamy scalloped potatoes with asparagus and a dish of sweet shredded carrots cooked with currants. For dessert, they were presented with chocolate mousse and a “nut mélange in a caramel glaze.” If that didn’t open wallets, Reeves didn’t know what would. As soon as he was finished eating, he made a dash over to place one more bid on that Bahamas vacation, then he grabbed Anna by the hand and swept her from the room. It was time to put Gilli to bed. Chester met him in the hall, however, a grave, apologetic look on his face.

  “You’re needed in the parlor, Mr. Reeves, and I think the misses will want to be there, too.”

  “Is it Gilli?” Reeves asked, but Chester was already moving into the ballroom. Glancing at Anna, he clasped her hand tighter and tugged her swiftly toward the front of the house. Striding into the room, Anna at his heels, he swept it with his gaze, and came to a frozen halt.

  Marissa sat on the settee, clad in a strapless, red spandex sheath that hugged her curves and ended at her ankles, where the straps of her black spike-heeled sandals began. Her legs crossed, she bobbed one foot impatiently. Gilli, dressed in ruffles and petticoats, perched on the very edge of the cushion beside her. They had the same hair, Reeves noted inanely, though Marissa had tamed her curls into bouncy waves that framed her face and tumbled about her shoulders.

  The aunties arrived at about the same instant that Gilli let her feet slide down to the floor. “Hello, Daddy,” she said with false cheer, her mouth curved into the parody of a smile. “Hello, Anna. Look who come.”

  The sly look on Marissa’s face made his stomach turn over. Knowing that this sudden appearance could not be good, he mentally kicked himself for not having bothered to read that letter upstairs, though he doubted it would have made much difference in the end.

  He started forward grimly, intending to haul Marissa out of there for a private conference, but the moment he stepped off, Gilli said, “She my mommy.”

  Reeves stopped immediately, realizing that the last thing his daughter needed was another ugly scene. He made himself relax and almost at once felt the steadying touch of Anna’s hand just above the small of his back. As if in ugly parody, Marissa reached over and slid a hand down Gilli’s fragile spine. Smirking, she looked up at him, the light of challenge in her hazel eyes.

  “Sugar,” Reeves said, smiling at his daughter, “why don’t you check on Special? I’m sure he’s missing you?”


  “Okay, Daddy,” she said, skipping around the table as if on her way to play.

  “And while you’re at it,” he added, “take the aunties with you. They have guests to see to.”

  Marissa pursed her mouth, and smoothed a hand over her skirt. Reeves suspected that she had expected to be invited to join the gala evening. She had enough nerve to pull off something like that.

  The aunties hustled out after Gilli, throwing him sorrowful, worried glances as they disappeared. Anna’s hand never left his back. Somehow, he had not expected it to. Marissa folded her arms and did a lazy perusal of the antiques in the room. He could almost see the numbers clicking in her head as she judged their value. At the same time, he sent a prayer heavenward.

  Help me, Lord. Whatever You’re doing now, help me get my part right, for my little girl’s sake.

  “I thought I’d find you here in the lap of luxury,” Marissa said with a smirk. “I notice you still haven’t moved back into our house.”

  “My house,” he corrected.

  Ignoring that, she pointed her chin at Anna. “Who’s this?”

  He answered succinctly. “Anna. Why?”

  Marissa shrugged. “Can’t help wondering if she’s after my home, that’s all.”

  “You lost all right to that house when you walked out on me and our daughter,” Reeves said flatly. “It says so in the divorce decree.”

  She looked around pointedly. “Mmm, yes, well, you obviously have no need for it. I made a mistake not fighting for my fair share. I just felt so bad at the time.” She slanted a smug look at Anna. “Breaking your heart like that and all.”

  A bark of laughter escaped him. “I kinda got over it.”

  “You won’t get over losing your daughter,” she snapped, her expression hardening.

  Anna gasped and stepped up beside him. Reeves shifted his weight toward her, both as a warning and a comfort. He knew what Marissa wanted, and it wasn’t Gilli, though she was not beneath using the child against him. Strangely, he was not afraid.

  “Marissa,” he said conversationally, “are you threatening to sue for custody of my daughter if I don’t hand over my house to you?”

  She picked at an invisible piece of lint on her skirt. “I’m told, by an attorney to whom I’m very close, that mothers almost always win in court.”

  So she had a new boyfriend, a lawyer. Reeves smiled, refusing to be rattled. “Is that so?”

  Marissa sat back, folding her arms. “So, which will you give me, your daughter or the house?”

  Before Reeves could say a word to that, Anna exclaimed, “The house! We’ll give you the house.”

  Reeves looked at her in stunned wonder. Did she even know what she’d just said? “We?”

  “A family is worth more than brick and stone,” she argued, and the agonized look in her eyes said that she, above all others, knew it only too well. “Besides,” she went on desperately, “it’s not like she’s going to live in it. She only wants to sell it.”

  Marissa sniffed. “Live in that pedestrian little bungalow? I don’t think so. Even you had sense enough to move in here. Still, it will bring a pretty penny on the market.”

  Reeves didn’t look at her. He was smiling at Anna, who was revealing her heart to him, all unknowing. “But where will we live, sweetheart?” he asked deliberately. “Your apartment’s not big enough for the three of us.”

  “I don’t know!” Anna exclaimed, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt. “I don’t care. We’ll live in a cardboard box, if we have to, but we can’t put Gilli through a custody battle, no matter how it comes out in the end.”

  Reeves thought his heart would burst from his chest, if his face didn’t split first. “You know you just agreed to marry me, don’t you?”

  “What? No! I—I mean…” She gulped, her eyes widening, and then she squared her shoulders and said, “Yes.”

  Cupping her face in his hands, he laughed, and said, “I love you, Anna Miranda Burdett.”

  She blinked. “You do?”

  “You and Gilli matter more to me than anything else in this world,” he told her, “certainly more than a heap of brick and mortar. But what about your grandmother?”

  Anna looked up into his eyes and smiled tearfully. “I’d already decided that I couldn’t let her get in the way of this. I’ve been in love with you for too long! Since high school, at least!”

  Reeves beamed. “I know.” Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her close. “If only I’d known it at the time.”

  “Can’t imagine how you missed it, Stick,” she burbled against his chest. “What other girl went around gluing your keys to your locker?”

  They looked at each other and burst out laughing.

  Cupping her face, he put his forehead to hers. “Praise God,” he said. “Finally, I got it right.”

  “How touching,” Marissa remarked sourly.

  Reeves pulled his gaze from Anna’s, dropped his hands, slid his arm about his beloved’s waist and looked to his glowering ex. “You can have the house,” he told her, “under one condition.” She raised an eyebrow, waiting for it. “You will allow Anna to adopt Gilli. Barn door’s closed, Marissa. No more coming back to the trough.”

  Narrowing her eyes at him, she rose languidly to her feet. “Fine.” But she couldn’t resist sweeping her gaze over Anna and sneering, “I figured you’d go for the kid. You have that mousy housewife look about you.”

  Anna, to her credit, simply smiled. “What do you think, darlin’?” she asked him. “Do I look like your wife and Gilli’s mother?”

  “Oh, yeah. Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  She kissed him, once, hard, on the lips.

  Marissa tossed her head and slinked across the room, sniping, “I’ll have my guy contact you.”

  “You do that,” Reeves said, “but you get zip until those adoption papers are signed.” He grinned down at Anna. “From now on, Gilli’s going to have a real mother.”

  “And you are going to have a real wife,” Anna promised softly.

  Just then, Gilli burst into the room, the cat dangling from the crook of her arm. Marissa, who was near the door, shot Reeves a look of pure spite then bent to bring her face near Gilli’s.

  “I’m so sorry, Gilli,” she droned, “but I won’t be your mommy anymore. Your daddy—”

  Before she could complete whatever malicious statement she’d been about to make, Gilli shoved her, declaring, “I don’t want you!” With that she ran, not to Reeves, to Anna. “Wanna hold my cat?” she asked, gazing up at Anna adoringly.

  Anna, fortunately, knew better than to even try such a thing. “I’d rather hold both of you,” she said, scooping up Gilli, cat and all. Gilli giggled and reached out a hand to cup Reeves’s cheek, letting him know that she approved of what was happening.

  As Reeves turned his head to put a kiss in the center of that little palm, a throat cleared. He looked around to find Marissa gone and his aunts standing abreast in the doorway. Mags snuffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve, while Auntie Od blew her nose into a lacy hanky. Even Hypatia’s eyes sparkled with moisture, but she merely lifted her chin.

  “There will be no cardboard boxes,” she pronounced, shamelessly revealing that they had eavesdropped every word. “Not so long as Chatam House can offer the barest refuge.”

  Smiles and laughter erupted as the aunties rushed forward, babbling about weddings and what beautiful children they expected Anna and Reeves to make. Grinning, Reeves encircled his family with his arms, cat and all, his chest to Anna’s back. With his chin snugged against her temple, he let the three most wonderful old dears in existence tell him about God’s will for his life, just as if he didn’t already hold it in his arms.

  “Thank You,” he whispered.

  Anna put her head back and smiled before she lifted her gaze heavenward. “Me, too,” she said. “Me, too.”

  Epilogue

  Hypatia watched Anna dip a finger in icing then dab it onto the tip
of Reeves’s nose, laughing.

  “Brat!” he growled over the fork with which he was trying to feed her a bite of their wedding cake. She was still laughing when he poked the cake into her mouth. With the other hand, he swiped the icing from his nose, and then, while Anna chewed, he smeared the remnants across her mouth. Swooping down, he kissed it away, to the applause and laughter of the guests gathered in the ballroom of Chatam House for the wedding reception.

  Hypatia sighed. As beautiful a bride as Anna made in a floor-length, long-sleeved closely fitted sheath of Brussels lace, Reeves had never looked finer. He was not just the most handsome groom she had ever seen, he was also the happiest, most relaxed and confident. Gilli looked like a confection in her flower girl’s dress, even with Special trotting at her ankles and trying to rub off the pink bow tied around his neck. In a break with tradition, Myra had served as ring bearer, with the rest of Reeves’s siblings performing various other duties.

  To everyone’s relieved puzzlement, Tansy had not taken a large role in planning the event. She had, however, insisted on paying the cost of the hastily thrown together wedding. One could never tell with Tansy, though, which was why Hypatia stiffened when she saw the other woman march up to the happy couple with her shoulders back and her chin high.

  “I have a gift,” she announced, shoving a fat envelope into Reeves’s hands.

  Glancing warily at Anna, he opened the flap and took out the papers, unfolding them to study. After a moment, he looked up at Anna. “It’s the deed to Burdett House.”

  Tansy lifted her chin higher still, ignoring Anna’s gasp. “It’s not Chatam House, but it has a long and gloried history.” She fixed Anna with a steely gaze, adding, “And room enough for a large family.”

  Hypatia could see the war going on inside of Anna, and so could Tansy. “I’ve bought a little house on the other side of town, and I’ve already moved in. Burdett house would be yours one day, anyway,” she told Anna. “Who else would I leave it to? You’re all I’ve got.” Her chin wobbled, but she went on gamely. “I know I’ve been hard on you, too hard, maybe, but it’s because I was so soft with your father. After my husband died, I indulged Jordan. I made every excuse in the book for him.” She squeezed her eyes shut and her voice cracked when she said, “I’m the reason he died of a drug overdose. He thought life was one long party, and I let him think it.” Gulping, she looked at Anna. “I vowed not to make the same mistake with you. So instead I made others.”