Her father set the infant carrier and the bag with Joey's things in it just inside the bedroom and said to Anne, "I'll leave you to your mother, but if you'll allow yourself to settle in over the next few days, things will be better."
Anne started to tell him things would not be better until she returned to Joe's house, but he'd already left the room and was walking down the hallway.
Her mother set the bags on the bed, and said to Anne, "Other than hanging new drapes and recovering the chaise, everything's about the way you left it, so you should be comfortable."
Angry with the situation and feeling like a prisoner in her parent's house, Anne said, "I'm surprised you still have my things. From what Joe told me, you and my father petitioned the court to make me dead so you could put a plaque on the family tomb and be done with me."
"We needed some closure," her mother said. "We were devastated when we thought you'd drowned. For two months I didn't go anywhere or see anyone."
From the distraught look on her mother's face, it came to Anne, for the first time, that her mother really did love her and had obviously grieved when she thought she was dead. Taking a deep breath, she said, in a more tempered tone, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said what I did, but Joe went through the same thing, except he never gave up on me because he loves me, and now you're taking me away from him right after he found me, and I don't know how you can do that, even to someone you hate."
"We don't hate Joe, honey, but we don't want you to—"
"Marry a coonass," Anne cut in. "I'm aware of that."
Her mother drew in a long breath. "We don't want you to rush into something you might later regret. What we want right now is for you to get well."
"And come to my senses and find a man who'll stick me in a big house like this where I'd be expected to put on fancy teas and do things that would bore me to tears, but at least you and my father would be able to hold your heads up and not face the embarrassment of having a daughter married to a Cajun."
"It's not like that at all. What you choose to do with your life after your memory comes back will be up to you, but for now, let's just concentrate on getting you well. Joey's crib's in the next bedroom down the hallway, and there's a changing table in there and several packages of disposable diapers, so you can get him settled."
"I'd rather keep him here with me, in his infant carrier." Anne realized it would have been the first night since Joey was born that he wouldn't be in the room with her. He did make baby noises at times, but the sounds gave her the assurance he was safe.
"Piper and Georgia are out for the evening and will be in later, and they'll want to see you when they get home," her mother said, "and Nana's in her bedroom suite downstairs and will also want to see you when you're settled."
Anne drew in a labored breath. "I don't want to see any of them. I'm tired and angry and just want to be alone."
"They'll be disappointed, but whatever you want is fine, and let me know if you need anything." Her mother waited a moment, and when Anne said nothing, she turned and left the room, pulling the door quietly behind.
Sitting on the bed, with Joey still in her arms, Anne looked around a room that brought back no memories… Except there was something vaguely familiar about a shelf lined with trophies, ribbons, and small framed photos of her with the horse she knew to be Jolie. That much was coming back, but she remembered nothing about where she got the mare, or when.
Feeling emotionally drained, she decided to get Joey ready for bed, nurse him, take a shower, and be done with a day she wished she could erase from her memory, a strange thought to have in the middle of everything that was happening.
Sometime later, she'd just put on a gown her mother had laid out on the bed and wrapped herself in a silk robe she'd found in the closet, one with a label at the neck reading Stefano Rici, she could imagine coming from an upscale shop, when she was annoyed to hear a light knocking. She'd hoped to be done with the people in the house for the night.
On opening the door, she found her mother, who looked disturbed. Her words that followed explained why. "Joe's here and he wants to see you."
Anne felt as if a dark cloud had lifted, and even though she knew Joe wouldn't be able to stay, at least she'd see him briefly before going to bed. "Then send him up."
After a lengthy pause, her mother said, "I think it's best you visit with him downstairs."
"Downstairs where? In the kitchen with the help?"
Her mother took a few moments before saying, "He's welcome to visit with you in the family room."
"But I want him in my bedroom where he can sit on the bed and hold Joey and we'll have some privacy. He is Joey's father so it's not like I haven't slept with him and won't sleep with him again." As she said the words, Anne realized there was truth in them. She did want to sleep with Joe, mainly because she wanted to curl up in bed with him and be held protectively in his arms, away from these people, and in the house Joe bought for her because he loved her.
She also realized she'd set off alarm bells in her mother's head with her impromptu announcement that she intended to sleep with Joe again, which meant more reason for her to marry him. Her mother was clearly disturbed, but after apparently having second thoughts, she said, "I'll send him up," then turned and left.
Shortly after, Joe appeared in the doorway, looking weary, and very troubled. He also had a five o'clock shadow. But what she saw was the man she was growing to love again, scuffed boots, faded jeans, worn denim shirt and all. He seemed reluctant to come into the room though, and she was uncertain why, other than it was the end of a long tiring day of moving cattle, only to come home to a very messy situation with her parents, and he was exhausted.
No, not exhausted. Disturbed.
She couldn't deny he looked very out of place in a room furnished with southern plantation antiques she suspected had been in the Harrison family for generations.
He remained standing in the doorway, his gaze intense as it moved around the room, seeming to be taking in everything, and from his expression it was obvious he was discontent. More than discontent. She got the feeling he was reconsidering things. Reconsidering her. She couldn't deny there was a canyon-sized chasm between their families' lifestyles.
Needing to change his mindset before such thoughts could settle in and become a reality, she walked up to him, and taking his hand, pulled him into the room and shut the door then looped her arms around his neck. "I want to do some exploring," she said, hoping to lift his dark mood. "I have a hankering for alligator jerky,"
He didn't smile. Instead, he removed her arms from around his neck, and said, "I'm sorry, sugah. I just feel out of place here. Maybe my comin' tonight wasn't a good idea."
Anne pulled her arms from his grip and encircled his neck again, and said, "Having you here is what's made this day tolerable, and if you don't kiss me I won't be able to sleep tonight."
Joe hesitated, but only for an instant before his mouth covered hers, and when he closed his arms around her, all Anne wanted was to be back at their house where they could begin to build a life together.
When the kiss finally came to an end, Joe said, "I came to see if there was anything you need from the house?"
"The only thing I need is to get out of here. Will you come back tomorrow?"
Joe shook his head. "Ace and I have roof work to do so it'll be later this week." When he heard Joey make baby noises, he released Anne and walked over to the infant carrier, and when Joey saw him he kicked his feet and reached a little hand out to Joe, who lifted him in his arms.
Anne went to stand beside them, and while peering down at her son in Joe's arms, she said, "Thank you for giving me Joey. He made life worth living when I didn't know who I was or where I came from, but all that time I had no idea his daddy was a man worth loving, and I'll take that to my grave."
"You might wanna watch the kind of things you say while you have no memory of me or what your life was like here before." There was no humor in Joe's voice.
Anne had a fair idea what her life was like when she lived in this house with its oversized rooms and grandiose furnishings. There was something cold about the place, like it was for show, not for living in. She could imagine the house being on a plantation home tour like they did in New Orleans, where twice a year the owners of homes in the Garden District opened their houses to visitors. "Whatever my life was like here is irrelevant. I have no wish to remain here once this issue with Joey is resolved."
Joe said nothing, just gazed down at Joey, the expression on his face brooding, which was understandable. The people in this house had taken his son under the pretext of protecting him, but with a sole goal of driving a wedge between her and Joe. "I'm not going to let my parents get away with this," she said. "They have no right."
Joe let out a short, ironic grunt. "They have a legal document giving them the right, no doubt signed by a judge who owed your father a favor."
Anne eyed Joe with uncertainty. "Why do you say that? Is there something you know about my father?"
Joe shrugged. "Only that he has money and connections, and that gives him power."
"Maybe it does now, but when my memory comes back I'll have some power too."
"If your parents get permanent legal guardianship, whatever power you think you have won't be worth a hill of beans. You still won't be taking Joey anywhere unless they approve. Meanwhile, I'd better leave. I wasn't exactly welcomed."
Cupping Joey's head in his broad palm so Joey could look at him, Joe said to his son in a solemn voice, "I won't ever be able to give you what you have here, Tee Joe, but I can promise you this. You'll always have a roof over your head, food in your belly, a job on the ranch, a daddy who'll give his life for you, and a family who'll love you till the day you die. There aren't many places in this world you can count on that."
Anne saw the way Joe looked at Joey, the deep love he had for an infant he hadn't known existed two weeks before, and she knew the words he'd just spoken had come from his heart. Placing her hand on Joe's arm to keep him from leaving, she said, "It doesn't matter what my parents think. I want you to stay."
"Stay and do what? Right now your parents are downstairs tryin' to figure out how to get me out of here and out of your life, permanently."
"They can't do that."
Joe let out a scornful huff. "You might be surprised what your father's capable of doing."
Before Anne could try to convince him to stay and maybe try to formulate a plan on how to fight this thing, Joe kissed Joey on the cheek and said, "Good night, Tee Joe. I'll turn you over to Momma now, but I'm just across the cane field."
"They can't keep Joey from you forever," Anne said as she took Joey from him. "No court will decide he belongs here instead of with his father and mother."
"No, but they could decide he belongs with his mother under the watchful eyes of his legal guardians, the ones with the power and money, and I can't fight that." Saying nothing more, he turned and left, and when he pulled the door behind without kissing her goodbye, Anne felt lonelier than she'd ever felt in her life.
CHAPTER 10
While Joe and Ace worked together replacing old shingles on the barn roof, Joe felt depressed in a way he hadn't since the day Anne disappeared over six months before. Being served papers and watching Anne leave in a police car under the pretense that Joey needed guardians made him fuming mad. But shortly after, when he went to the Harrison's for the first time in his life and entered a house with an entry hall big enough to park a truck, and found Anne wearing a silk robe that probably cost more than his new kitchen cabinets, it was clear he didn't belong in the Harrison's world. But now he questioned if Anne belonged in his.
He had no problem wearing a shirt to the table as Anne requested, and his mother expected the same, but he wondered if after the newness of married life would begin to wear off, how many more rules would begin to sift into their lives. More important, how many breaches of Anne's family's social demands would she begin to find among his family.
Theirs was a simple lifestyle. Family was something to hold onto, not walk away from to start a new life somewhere else. His family, cousins, aunts and uncles lived in the same parish as the church most of them had attended since they were baptized. Even godparents stayed close because that's the way it had always been in their Cajun world. Families were there for each other, whether it was butchering animals, working cattle, or helping build or repair houses.
That wasn't the way Anne was raised. Families didn't work together over there. They hired the work done. And even though occasions like Christmas were a time of family gathering, it was different there. Anne described how they'd sit around a table set with so many kinds of silverware his head would spin just trying to figure out which to use for what. Joey would learn all about it from them, but what would his attitude be after visiting grandparents who'd indulge him with high-tech toys while surrounded by affluence and luxury, only to come home to old barns, bleating cows, and a father and uncles splattered in mud after a day in the saddle?
He gazed across the cane field at a complex of buildings that included a state-of-the arts stable, a training track with a top-of-the-line starting gate, several paddocks, and a home so out of his league he'd be more contented living in the stable with the horses.
Before Anne disappeared he'd given little thought to lifestyles. She'd convinced him she didn't want luxuries, she only wanted him, and that's all he needed to hear. But theirs was an unrealistic dream. Something akin to Anne's dissociative fugue. Before Anne disappeared was their fugue period, but last night he came out of the fugue in a place he didn't belong, and once Anne got her memory back, she'd compare her family's lifestyle with his, and the house she grew up in with the house he got her, and feeling as much a fish out of water with his family as he was with hers, she'd eventually conclude that his was a place where she didn't belong.
"I'm done here," Ace called to him from the opposite end of the barn roof.
"A couple more shingles and I'll be done too," Joe called back.
After they'd unhooked the safety ropes from around their waists and climbed down the extended ladder, Ace eyed Joe with curiosity and said, "You were in the Harrison's house yesterday. What's it like over there?"
Joe laughed in irony. "It's like the last place on earth I want to be. I'm surprised some servant didn't follow me up the stairs while vacuuming behind me, and from the looks I got from Anne's parents, I probably should've entered through the back door. I'm still tryin' to figure out why Anne got involved with me in the first place. She's looked across the property line at the house we grew up in. It's big and roomy enough to house us all, but that's the extent of it."
He glanced at their parent's house, a century old, two-story cypress farmhouse with a wraparound porch where family gathered in evenings to rock, chew the fat and tell tall tales, a house shaded by several live oak and a few pecan trees.
"You got Anne a pretty decent house now," Ace pointed out.
"By our standards, yes. By the Harrison's standards… I'll put it this way. The furniture in Anne's bedroom's so big we'd have trouble getting it into my house."
"Is that the problem, that Anne wants to move her furniture in and it won't fit?"
When Joe didn't answer right away because the whole thing with Anne and her family was almost too complicated to explain, Ace said. "I take it your silence is because the Harrisons did what they typically do when they want something. Muscle their opponent out and take it. But even they can't prevent a good father from having his son."
Joe heaved a weary sigh. It wasn't just about what the Harrisons did. It was about facing reality and the fact that he fell in love with a woman far above his class and he couldn't begin to give her the things she'd grown up with. "I wish it was that simple," he said. "I'm about to spend all my savings fightin' for Joey and still could lose him, which means I'd lose Anne too. But even if we do get Joey back, how do I fix up a place good enough for the two of them?"
/> "I'd say you start by tearin' out the old kitchen cabinets and puttin' in the new ones, replacin' the old vinyl floor, paintin' the bedrooms, and gettin' a nursery set from one of the cousins. The Harrisons are doin' this to stall things, hoping Anne'll change her mind about marryin' you while she's over there in her ivory tower."
"Puttin' in cabinets and doin' all the rest of the work in the house is fine in theory," Joe said, "but how do I pay for it? Call in my fairy godmother?"
"We'll all chip in and make you a loan. You can pay us back over time." Ace glanced at his watch. "Meanwhile, we still have a few hours before supper, enough time to take down the beds and clear the bedrooms."
Joe eyed his house. Ace did have a point. A judge could hardly deny him his son if he could provide a decent home and a family to help look after him. "Okay then, let's get crackin'."
By the end of the day, Joe and Ace, with the help of Pike and Gator, had the beds taken apart and stashed in the living room along with the mattresses and the rest of the furniture, and using crowbars, they tore out the old kitchen cabinets and hauled them to the barn where they'd be used for storage, and they were ready to strip off the old vinyl flooring in preparation for putting down new. He wouldn't have Anne's input when selecting the vinyl, but now his goal was to satisfy a judge that the place would be adequate for one little Cajun boy, not a woman who might change her mind about living there once her memory came back.
The fact was, after seeing Anne situated where she was, and knowing her siblings and parents would be pushing her to find a man who'd provide her with the kind of house and lifestyle she'd grown up with, he held little hope that she'd want to spend the rest of her life with him. If married to him she'd also hear no end from her family about what a mistake she made to settle for a cowboy who had nothing more going for him than a love for ranching, working cattle, raising quarter horses, and providing her with a house he'd picked up for little more than the cost of hauling it in and setting it on a foundation.
Tall Dark Stranger (Cajun Cowboys Book 1) Page 12
