by Dawes, Casey
He watched her wipe down the countertop and wanted to laugh, but decided he needed to be serious. “So you’ve told them about our history?”
“One night doesn’t make a history, Sam. And, no, I haven’t told them, but I will if you get too aggressive with them.”
“Now what is that supposed to mean?” He leaned on the bar and saw her clench her teeth together. This should be good, he thought.
The only waitress on board this evening, Megan, came up to the counter with a scared look on her face and they stopped their discussion.
“What’s wrong, Meg?” Sam asked.
She looked up at him and was all brown eyes the size of saucers. “Those men over there from that ranch in the next county, they...” She looked over her shoulder and then back at Sam. “One of them felt up my skirt and pinched my butt. He asked me if I’d like to go out to his truck and...well, you know and he used really crude words. I mean really nasty. I’ve had guys pinch me before, but no one has said that kind of stuff to me. My boyfriend doesn’t even talk that way.”
Sam looked at Anna. “Do you have any idea how long they’ve been sitting there?”
“A couple of hours,” she said and reached over for Megan’s hand. “Are you all right, sweetie?”
“Yeah, but I think I’m going to have to go to church next Sunday. The words that guy used made my ears feel like they were going to melt right off my head.”
Sam looked at his watch and saw it was after ten o’clock. “We close in two hours; do you think we should cut them off and suggest coffee for their drive home?”
“Harry’s still in back if you need any help.”
Anna looked at him and her eyes made his insides turn to mush. He could find it very easy to get lost in them. He stood up straight and thought about his best approach with the ranch hands. “Meg, which guy was it that pinched you?”
“The one that’s sitting at the three o’clock position,” she said and looked over her shoulder.
Sam stared at her and couldn’t believe what he’d just heard her say. “The three o’clock...oh, right, I got it.” He shook his head as he walked to the table.
There were five men crouched over their cards and Sam moved to the guy that Megan said touched her. The guy was probably about six foot, but looked as though he didn’t have an ounce of fat on his bones. He probably pushed thirty years old and wore that tanned, weathered look. Sam put his hand on the guy’s shoulder and leaned over him.
“Sir, our waitress says that you were rude to her and I think it would be nice if you apologized.” Sam raised his eyebrows and saw the guy look up at him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, mister. I didn’t say nothing to her that she hasn’t heard before.” The man set his cards down and started to scoot his chair back.
Sam gripped the guy’s shoulder harder and kept him in the seat. “Now, a fight isn’t going to happen. Believe me when I say you really don’t want it to happen.” He stared into the man’s eyes and didn’t blink. He heard footsteps behind him and glanced over his shoulder. Harry stood on one side and Anna, with a baseball bat, on the other. “Since you don’t find it necessary to apologize, then I think it would be a good time for you guys to head home. You can come back in here when you’ve learned how to respect the wait-staff. They work too hard for too little to take crap from people.” He looked directly into the man’s eyes, again. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Sure, okay. Come on, guys, let’s clear out. It’s pretty boring in here anyway.”
Sam watched the whole table of men stand and walk out the front door. He followed them to the lot with Harry at his side and watched until they left completely.
“Thanks, Harry,” Sam said.
“Those boys are a bunch of assholes. They didn’t even order any food,” Harry spit out and sneered up at Sam.
He tried to not laugh until Harry went back into the bar. When Sam returned, Megan collected the glasses and trash the boys left on the table and Anna was back behind the bar. He walked up to the counter and watched her.
“You’re staring at me, Sam. It makes me uncomfortable,” she said.
“Where did the baseball bat come from?” He laughed.
“It’s back here for just such purposes. According to Jack, I’m free to use it when necessary.”
Sam shook his head and still laughed. He walked to the end of the bar and hoped the rest of the evening would stay quiet.
When Megan brought a tray of empty glasses back to the counter, she looked up at Sam and smiled. “Thanks, Sam. You’re my hero tonight, but don’t tell Ron. He’d never understand.”
“Megan, I think I’d like to walk you out to your car tonight, just to be on the safe side. There’s no telling if those boys will decide to come back and start trouble,” he said.
She nodded.
The ranch-hands didn’t return and it turned out to be a pleasant night for Sam. Now if he could just get Anna to stop snarling at him, things would be flat out great.
***
Anna decided to wait a couple of days before she’d hit the road. At the end of the week, when she left Cob’s, she’d almost told Jack she might leave. He was a nice boss, with a good sense of humor. She thought if she’d said anything though, she would have broken down completely and didn’t want a bunch of sympathy from anyone -- not even Jack.
Sam was too close and it wasn’t that he threatened her or that she was afraid of him. Anna just didn’t have it in her to give him or any man a chance. Trace and her father killed whatever trust she’d held in men and she wasn’t ready to go down that road just to slap herself in the head again for being stupid.
She didn’t really want to leave Willow Creek. The people there accepted her and treated her as a friend. She didn’t have to explain her past to them and could still laugh at the crazy corn interview with Jack. If she was sad about anything, it was leaving the town behind. It was the first time since she left Boise she felt she actually had a place to call home.
Anna got out of the cab and pulled her suitcase and a duffle bag out. She paid the driver and walked toward the front door of the Greyhound bus station. She tried the glass door and found it locked. She’d forgotten the station didn’t open until nine o’clock and it was just after seven in the morning.
She rolled her suitcase over to some benches under an awning and sat down in the sun. She wished she’d gotten a cup of coffee.
It turned out to be a beautiful day. She looked up at the cloudless sky and thought the skies in Montana were bluer than any other place she’d lived. She closed her eyes and felt the warmth from the sun on her face. The light behind her eyelids flickered like little Christmas tree lights and she smiled until she saw a shadow block it out. She opened her eyes and thought she’d see clouds, but found Sam in front of her with two paper cups.
“What the...” She sat up straight.
“You made enough noise this morning to wake bats in a cave fifty miles away. I saw the cab pick you up and followed.” He handed her a cup. “I brought you some coffee.” He sat down next to her on the bench.
Anna shook her head and wondered if he could read minds. “So, I suppose no matter where I go you’ll follow me. Randa was right. I have a puppy.” She saw him stare at her out of the corner of her eye.
“No, I think this is it. You’re going to be a free woman soon. Trace will be behind you, and I’m throwing in the towel. I’ve obviously made you uncomfortable and that’s no way to start a relationship.”
“It isn’t that you make me uncomfortable, Sam. I have a hard time with trust issues and it’s not just with you. I don’t trust myself. I freak out and then it’s just easier to leave.”
“I know why you don’t trust anyone, Anna. I have to admit though, I don’t understand why you don’t trust yours
elf. You’ve done pretty well the last two years. You’ve supported yourself and stayed safe.” He took a swig of his coffee.
She looked at him directly. “What? What do you think you know about me?”
“I know your dad deserted you and your mom when you were a kid and Bob’s philandering with anything female on two legs didn’t help. I know a lot about your past. I can understand why it would be hard for you to trust anyone.”
“How do you know all of that?”
“It’s a part of the job, sweetheart. And, remember, in Truckee you did tell me some of your history over dinner.” He sat back and crossed his legs.
“Jeeze, don’t call me sweetheart. I hate endearments. Bob used to do that all the time to make me feel like I’d imagined his cheating.” She sat back and stared off into the distance.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Anna looked at him, suspicious. “Sure, why not?” she said.
“What is it you want in life? All of this continual running you do it doesn’t seem like you get much of a chance to relax and breathe.”
She looked down at her cup and started to pick at the lid. “Once I used to think a happy marriage, kids making noise and a good job was all that I wanted,” she said, quietly. “We know that wasn’t reality. Now, I don’t know. I can’t seem to think that far ahead anymore.”
“When I first came to Willow Creek, it seemed as though you were going to fight me tooth and nail not to leave.” He put a hand up and moved a stray hair behind her ear. “Did I mess it up for you that much?”
“No, Sam...and yes.” She looked over her shoulder at him and felt her eyes sting. “It’s just...I mean...damn.” She stood up and threw the coffee cup in a garbage bin. She turned back around and crossed her arms. “It’s just I spend a lot of time...I try to keep my courage up and there are days...” She shook her head and bit her cheek. “There are days...” She couldn’t seem to finish the sentence she wanted to say. She knew in her heart she could trust Sam. There was no reason not to trust him. “I’m afraid all the time. I’m afraid to be alone and not to be alone. I keep everything just out of reach so I won’t get burned again. It hurts too much and I’m just not brave enough to feel that way anymore. It’s just too much,” she said in a very small voice.
She watched him set his cup down and stand. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her. Anna put her head on his chest and tried not to cry, but tears leaked out of her eyes. She felt his warm hand on the back of her neck.
He leaned his lips over and kissed her ear. “Please, don’t run away from me anymore, Anna. Please, give me a chance.”
She thought she could get used to him, even with all the doubts that filled her head. She leaned away from him and ran a hand over her cheek to wipe off the tears. “You wouldn’t have followed me, again? You are going to throw in the towel? Really?”
“Did Randa really say I was a puppy?”
“Yeah, that was weeks ago. What did you mean you wouldn’t follow me?”
He wiggled his eyebrows and took in a deep breath. “I lied a little. I had to figure out a way to get you to talk to me.”
“So, do you lie often? Is that a trait I should keep an eye out for?”
He smiled at her and pulled her ponytail. “Why don’t you wear your hair down?”
“Stop trying to change the subject...” She smacked him on the chest.
Sam leaned over and planted his lips on hers. Anna remembered he was a good kisser from the small amount of time they’d spent together in Truckee and couldn’t focus on their discussion.
Sam put his forehead against hers. “Can I give you a ride back to Willow Creek?”
She looked up at his blue eyes. “Sure, fine, but I don’t like being lied to. If you want to stay in my good graces, you’d better clean that up.”
****
She’d gone through the next week in a daze. She’d do her work and then come to the apartment and hide out. She just wanted the divorce decree and then she might be able to think clearly about where she stood in her life. She’d kept Sam at arm’s length and pretty much picked up where they’d left off before he found her at the bus station. Every trust issue she’d lost with her soon to be ex-husband swam around her brain like gold fish in a pond and it still made her crazy.
On one of Anna’s days off in the afternoon, she’d crossed paths with her friend Bridget in the grocery store. The woman seemed to be able to read her like an old comic book. She took Anna by the hand and dragged her to the coffee shop next door. She patiently listened to the story. Anna told her everything, from the divorce, to moving from place to place and being followed by Sam. After she’d held the fear in for so long, the flood gates opened and Anna tried to keep from sobbing, but the tears flowed. She talked for almost an hour straight and when she finished, she blew her nose with a napkin and dried her eyes.
Bridget smiled and asked her quietly, “Are you sure you don’t love Sam?”
Anna sat up straight and wondered. Was that her problem lately? She didn’t want to admit to herself that she might feel something for Sam. She looked at Bridget and started to shake her head, but then smiled. “Maybe...Oh my Lord,” she whispered.
“He’s been awfully good to you, taking care of the divorce papers and everything. It also seems like he’s given you plenty of space. Maybe you should give him a chance,” Bridget said and then got up from their table. Before she left, she told Anna that she and her boyfriend, Tom, were meeting some other friends at Cob’s that night. Maybe Anna would be interested in joining them for some dinner.
Anna went back to the grocery store and got the few things she could carry back to the apartment. When she got to her door there was a FedEx envelope taped to it with a note from Sam. Thought you’d want this, was all he’d written.
She walked into her apartment, put the groceries away and then picked up the envelope and sat down on the couch. She opened it and took the papers out. It was the final decree and a note from the attorney. Apparently, Bob didn’t contest the divorce or expect anything from her trust. That was good since the trust couldn’t be touched until she was fifty-two years old.
That part of her life was over, once and for all. When she thought about it with a level head she knew she really needed to thank Sam. If he hadn’t brought the papers to sign she never would have known about it. Anna wasn’t sure what she felt. She was relieved that she wouldn’t have to deal with Bob and his lies anymore. She thought about the conversation she’d had with Bridget this afternoon and wondered if she really did feel something for Sam.
She put her self-doubts away and decided she wouldn’t know unless she tried. She not only needed to give him a chance, but herself, too.
She got up off the couch and went into her bedroom. She pulled the boot box out from under the bed and set it up on the mattress. She took a shower and dried her hair. She started to put it up in a ponytail, but decided to leave it down. She put on make-up, which she hardly ever wore and then looked at the few pieces of clothing that hung in her closet. She put on her favorite lavender tank top, and the new denim drop-waist pleated skirt she’d bought on the outing with her new friends. She topped it off with a light brown suede vest that she’d had for years and felt very comfortable. She then turned to the box on the bed and pulled the new boots out. She put on a pair of socks, slipped the boots on and held her feet up to admire them.
She looked at herself from the waist up in the bathroom mirror and immediately thought she’d gone over the top. “Leave, now, you ding-bat or you’re going to ponytail your hair and change all your clothes.”
Anna turned out the light, grabbed her purse and walked out the door. She locked up and headed to Cob’s.
***
Anna snuck in the door with a group of people and smiled at Henry, whose eyes just about popped out of his he
ad.
“Looking fine tonight, Anna,” he said. “Are you meeting someone?”
“Just some friends and I see they already have a table.” She looked around the room and saw Sam at the other end of the bar. The DJ hadn’t started the music yet and she saw a mike stand in the middle of the stage. Someone must be singing tonight, she thought as she made her way over to her friends.
She sat down at the table next to Bridget and, her cousin, Callie. There were some introductions around the table and Anna said hello to Melody and her guy, Max. When she asked where Jessica was this evening, Anna learned she might come in later.
“I told you those boots had your name written all over them,” Bridget said with a smile. “And, I’m glad you wore your hair down.”
“Thank you, and, yes, you were right about the boots. They’re very comfortable but I don’t think I’ll be able to walk if I dance very much. They still need some breaking in.”
“I don’t know if there will be much of a dancing crowd, tonight being Thursday and all,” Bridget said.
“That will be good and save my feet. I do have to work tomorrow.” She leaned closer to Bridget. “Sam left an envelope taped to the door of my apartment. It’s the divorce decree and there was no contest.”
“That’s great. Congratulations. Do you want to celebrate?”
“Naw, that seems like a downer. Tonight I’m just celebrating life. I know, that’s really corny, but, hey, we’re in Cob’s. It’s a good place to be corny, right?”
The two ladies rejoined the rest of the conversation and Anna found out Bridget’s cousin, Callie would sing later. She’d brought a guitar and got the okay from Jack.
Anna took every chance she could to look at Sam. As far as she could tell he hadn’t noticed her. It was fun spying on him. Several senior couples came in for dinner and it touched her when he helped them get seated and comfortable. Anna witnessed so little chivalry lately, that every small thing counted in her book.
