by A C Warneke
At her mom’s smile, her eyes darted to Harrison to see if he was paying any attention to her end of the table. His eyes were on her and she sucked in a breath at the heat that was blatant and unapologetic in his gaze. If there wasn’t a table full of people, she would have melted into a puddle on the floor. It was strange that she was able to breathe a little easier just having him in the same room.
“Anavrin,” her mother breathed, leaning closer so she was whispering in Ana’s ear. “Please tell me you’re not involved with him. He’s married and he has a child.”
“He’s not married,” Ana breathed, reluctantly pulling her eyes away from Harrison’s and facing her mom, who had heightened color along her cheek bones.
“Really,” her mom said, arching an elegant eyebrow in disbelief, a look that always made Ana squirm.
“Really, truly,” Ana murmured, her eyes going back to Harrison. Looking at him, she was able to shut out the rest of the conversations and actually think. It hardly bothered her at all when Carrie smiled a little too brilliantly or “accidentally” brushed across his arm with her breasts because he paid his ex-wife absolutely no attention. With a slight smile at him, she added, “He’s with me.”
Taking another sip of her wine, her mother digested that for a moment before she sighed, “At least be careful.”
“Always,” she said with confidence because Harrison was sitting there smiling at her and she had never been more sure of anything in her life. Except she had a feeling that her mother was talking about birth control and not protecting her heart. Turning back to her mom, she added, “He’s a good man.”
Her mom stared at her for a long, long moment and Ana held her breath. Instead of saying anything, Heather bit her lip and turned back to the food. As the conversation buzzed around them, Ana and Heather ate in silence, though Ana doubted either of them tasted a thing. In the last five minutes, Ana felt she understood her mother better than she had in the previous nine years and it was a little scary. Just who was this woman? She had the feeling that she’d find out later that night.
Nearly an hour later, Ana’s bladder was full. With an embarrassed smile, she excused herself. Not two seconds later, her mom caught up with her. With a smile in her voice, Heather asked, “Would you really be so cruel as to leave me alone back there?”
Ana chucked, slowing her pace for her mom to catch up. “Sorry. I forgot that you like crowds about as much as I do.”
Heather shrugged but didn’t say anything. As they reached the bathroom, she put her hand on Ana’s arm and whispered, “She’s still in love with him.”
Ana flinched because her mom said out loud what she had been feeling. “Maybe. Probably. I think she realized she screwed up in letting him go in the first place.”
“You’re in love with him,” her mom said softly but with certainty.
There was no use in denying it since anyone with eyes could see the truth of it. “I am.”
Heather sucked in a long, loud breath, “Ana, sweetheart.”
Ana looked at her mom for the first time in perhaps forever and saw something she had never seen before: the face of a terrified woman who had to be strong for so long. Swallowing thickly, she murmured, “Mom?”
Heather shook her head but Ana couldn’t forget what she had seen. Pasting a brilliant smile on her glossy lips, she pressed a kiss against Ana’s cheek. “I’m leaving tomorrow, Ana.”
“Mom,” she whispered, wishing she could find the courage to ask her all of the questions she used to ask. “You don’t have to leave.”
“I was only going to stay a few days anyway,” Heather murmured, misery creeping in along the edges of her mask. “Seeing you, knowing you’re okay, makes my mission that much more urgent.”
“Mom?”
“I’ll explain later,” Heather said. With that cryptic remark, she returned to the dining room, leaving Ana to take care of personal business, a million thoughts spinning in her head.
*****
“Your neighbor is very… interesting,” Carrie murmured softly but loud enough to be heard over the noise of his guests, her eyes on her food. Jolie had moved down the table to sit next to Dan and if Harrison knew his daughter and brother, they were probably discussing zombies. “I have to confess that I don’t quite see the appeal. She’s definitely unique.”
Harrison smiled because whenever he thought about Ana he had to smile. There was a direct link in his brain between Ana and smiling. Throughout the entire meal, he hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off her and holding a conversation had proven to be difficult. When she had excused herself, he had finally been able to concentrate on the people around him and he could only hope he hadn’t made too big of an ass of himself. Swallowing down the amazing food, he turned to Carrie and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Well, she’s certainly made herself at home,” she said primly, smoothing the napkin over her lap and not quite meeting Harrison’s eyes. “Jolie couldn’t stop talking about her when I had her for the weekend.”
“Ana is quite…” he smiled again. Or maybe he had never stopped smiling. “Remarkable.”
“Your cousin seems to think so as well,” Carrie continued. “He was flirting something fierce with her, not that she seemed to notice. If you ask me, she was very rude to him. Of course, I think she’s way too young for him. Or for you, for that matter.”
Harrison’s lips parted in surprise that Carrie said that. “She’ll be twenty-three in a month.”
Carrie’s lips pressed together in a disapproving line, “Well, I don’t like her filling Jolie’s head with promises she won’t be able to keep. Jolie already worships her and I don’t want her to break my little girl’s heart.”
“Ana would never….”
Carrie held up her hand to stop his protest, “I’m sure she’s very well-meaning but she’s still very young. How do you know she has any intention of coming back in a year?”
Harrison’s brows drew together but before he could respond, Ana’s mother reappeared, sitting back in her spot. The older woman was definitely beautiful and he saw a lot of Ana in her, probably more than Ana realized. Heather offered him a slight smile, her eyes troubled, before turning to Asher and talking to him. Taking another moment to think about Carrie’s words, he finally said, “All I can do is hope she does return.”
“And what about Jolie?” Carrie hissed. Leaning closer as she narrowed her eyes, she added in a harsh whisper, “I don’t like the idea of Jolie being around some girl you’re fucking.”
Harrison’s head whipped around at the vehemence in her voice. Glancing around the table to see if anyone was paying them any attention, he looked at Carrie and said in a low voice, “It’s none of your business.”
“Jolie’s my business,” she whispered.
“And I hold her welfare above all else,” Harrison returned, his gaze moving to the end of the table where Ana was sitting back down. She started to smile but faltered as she looked between him and Carrie. Arching an eyebrow, she silently asked if there was a problem and he shook his head no. Keeping his anger in check, he bit out, “No matter what happens, Jolie will be fine, I promise you.”
Carrie snorted in disbelief and he had to bite his tongue before he said something that he would never be able to take back. Taking a sip of the expensive wine Ana’s mother brought, Carrie said, “We’ll see.”
He looked at Ana and once again felt his lips curl up into a smile. It didn’t seem to matter that Carrie didn’t think Ana would come back because she was here now. Turning towards Jolie, he raised his voice to be heard over the crowd and he asked, “Hey, Jolie, do you want to help me with the pie?”
There were several groans of protest around the table along with several, “Oh, I couldn’t eat another bite.” But Harrison ignored them and stood up. Focusing on Ana, he added, “Would you care to join us, Ana?”
She stood up without hesitation, her smile lighting up the entire room. He could have sworn one of his friends said, “Lucky
bastard,” but he couldn’t be sure. Instead of heading directly into the kitchen, he made his way around the table, collecting Jolie along the way, before he stopped in front of Ana. Holding out his hand, he bent his head until it was next to her ear and he murmured, “You’re a success.”
Sliding her hand into his, making him feel a hundred feet tall, she smiled at him. He helped her up as she murmured, “Thank you.”
This was what he needed: to touch her, to breathe her in. Leading his two girls into the kitchen, he felt his chest puff up with such joy he thought he might burst with it. Grabbing Ana around the waist, he swept her up into his arms and kissed her, hard and quick since Jolie was standing right there. “Hey, you.”
“Hey,” Ana returned, sagging against him as if he had just sapped all of her energy. She always melted against him when he kissed her and he loved it.
“It hasn’t been so bad so far, has it?” he asked, still holding her up.
“Not so bad, though it would have been better if I had gotten to sit next to you. I think I only heard every third word from ten different conversations,” she admitted, running her tongue along the seam of her lips before she gave him a slight smile.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said. “Jolie was sitting there originally but she wanted to sit next to Dan.”
“It’s okay,” Ana assured him with an easy smile. Letting it go, she turned to Jolie and asked, “Which pie do you want to carry out?”
“The strawberry pie,” Jolie answered without hesitation, her eyes wide as she pulled the pie out of the fridge. Lifting her gaze, she looked at Ana in excitement, “I saved room for this pie.”
“You do know that others are going to want some of that,” Harrison murmured, keeping his arms around Ana.
“It’s not the only pie,” Jolie said with some authority. “And not everyone likes strawberries.”
“But everyone in our family does,” he reminded her. “And Uncle Dan especially loves strawberries.”
“I don’t mind sharing with Uncle Dan,” Jolie said, heading out with her prize in her hands. Harrison had the feeling that she would eat the entire thing herself if her stomach was big enough. Well, she might give Dan a small slice since he was her favorite uncle after all.
“I think we should get out there with the other pies,” he murmured. Turning his head, he was about to say something about Jolie hoarding the pie when Ana’s hand slipped behind his neck and she pulled his head down. Her lips were on his and he lost himself in the kiss. It didn’t matter if Jolie kept the pie to herself; there were, after all, a lot of other pies. Ana’s lips were on his and nothing else mattered.
“Kissing you will never get old,” she breathed, trailing a line of kisses along his jaw. It took every ounce of will power not to grab her and ravish her on the spot. “Throughout the entire meal, all I could think about was kissing you.”
“It must have made for some interesting conversations,” he said, letting out a soft moan as she kissed a particularly sensitive part of his neck.
“I wouldn’t know,” she whispered, giving his throat a small love bite before smoothing it with her lips. “I’ve forgotten everything that has happened before this moment.”
“I hope not everything,” he murmured, a grin pulling at his lips. Finding a small reservoir of strength, he stepped away from her while keeping his hands on her hips. He just didn’t have enough strength to keep his hands off of her. “We should return before they send out a search party.”
“It’s not like they don’t know where we went,” she said, her eyes dancing with amusement and lust. Heaving a sigh, she added, “But I guess you’re right. Which pie do you want to take out?”
Grabbing two pies at random, he smiled at her, “It doesn’t matter since I’m going to have a slice from all of them.”
Shaking her head, she grabbed two pies as well before she nudged him with her shoulder, “I don’t know how you do it, Harrison. If I wasn’t so madly in love with you, I think I’d be jealous.”
Would it be wrong to kick everyone out so he could take her to bed? Yes, yes it would. But they all had to leave eventually and then he’d have her all to himself. Walking behind her, he enjoyed the way her hips swayed as she moved, the inherent gracefulness that was so Ana. Watching her, the ease she dealt with his friends and family, he never would have guessed she was suffering social anxiety. It had been in the tremble of her lips as she kissed him in almost savage desperation. She was amazing.
Hell, if she decided she wanted to stay in California, he’d pack up Jolie, sell the house, and move out west to be with her. Setting down the pies, he simply watched her as she served up slice after slice, smiling and laughing with his friends and family. She absolutely shined and he could have watched her all night long. Looking around the table, seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces, the pleasure when they had their first bite of pie, he felt a surge of pride tear through him. In that moment, he wanted to see her soar, to see how far she could go.
Maybe he was too old for her because she made him feel like life was full of possibilities, and he hadn’t felt that way since high school. His eyes drifted to Carrie and he inwardly cringed at her look of misery. Despite everything that had happened, he still cared for her. She had been his first love, his first kiss, his first everything and she had given him Jolie and for that he would always be grateful.
Just as he was about to take a bite of the pumpkin pie with the cheesecake base, there was a roar of anger from Asher. His cousin stood up, a wet stain on the front of his pants. Asher was glaring at Ana while Ana had a grim smile on her lips even as her eyes flashed green fire. The rest of the table was dead silent so Harrison asked, “What happened?”
“She poured her wine on my lap,” Asher bellowed, brushing at his damp pants.
“It was my mother’s wine and I only did it after you tried to grope my thigh,” Ana interjected calmly, not looking at anyone, including Harrison. Color was high on her cheeks and in her fury she looked freaking glorious.
Harrison glanced to the side and saw the shock on Ana’s mom’s face and then a slight smile. When the older woman noticed that he was watching her, she carefully cleared her expression and turned to Ana and murmured, “I raised you better than this.”
Ana’s face fell and her shoulders slumped forward in dejection. But then her mom continued, “If a man makes unwanted advances, break his damn fingers.”
Ana’s head shot up and she stared at her mom in silent gratitude. Despite Ana’s conviction that she took after her nameless father, Harrison once again saw the similarities between mother and daughter, not just the strawberry hair. They had the same lips, the same delicate chin, the same nose. As they continued to stare at one another, conversation slowly began to fill the silence. Asher was still cursing as he stormed down the hall to the bathroom but no one seemed to care.
“That was, however, a waste of expensive wine,” Ana’s mom said, a smile in her voice as she poured some more into the glass and brought it up to her lips.
It was worth it. Hell, Harrison would buy her a bottle just for the memory of seeing Asher get shot down. He waited until Ana looked at him and then he gave her an approving nod, mouthing the words, Well done. That made her blush and her smile was all the sweeter for it.
Chapter 12
Sitting in her aunt’s living room with her mother was a surreal experience for Ana. It had been ages since the two of them had spent any time together and it had been even longer since they had been alone together. As her mom swirled her wine in the glass, Ana tried to think of something to say but came up blank. She was exhausted from the dinner and she was still confused as to why her mother was there in the first place. But she couldn’t just blurt out the millions of questions she had.
“I like what you’ve done with this space,” Heather finally said, taking a sip of the wine as she glanced around the room. “It’s very tranquil.”
“Thank you,” Ana murmured, not sure whether or not her mom
was being honest or lying to spare her feelings. Either way, she was just going to take it as a compliment and try not to over-analyze it to death. Fidgeting with the tassels on one of the pillows, she chewed on her lower lip and tried to come up with another topic. A part of her wanted to talk about Harrison but the other part thought it would be just too awkward to discuss him with her mother. She ignored the imaginary little girl screaming at the top of her lungs to ask about her father. Clearing her throat, she blurted, “I start my internship in January.”
Her mom started, the wine almost sploshing out of the top of her glass. Giving Ana a tight smile, Heather said, “Yes, I am aware.”
Wishing her mother had said more than that, Ana pursed her lips before she said, “I’m very excited… or at least I was.” At her mother’s questioning look, Ana rushed on, “No, I am excited. Really.”
Heather continued to study Ana, her head tilted to the side in that disconcerting way that she studied a room before decorating it. Ana held herself perfectly still and let her mother continue her perusal, wondering what the older woman would see, if she’d see the truth of why she wasn’t as excited as she should be. Heather’s brows drew together as she murmured, “You’re torn because you’re in love with the boy across the street.”
Ana guffawed, “Harrison is no boy, mom. And, yes, I am. In love with him, I mean.”
Her mom caught her lower lip between her teeth, the action so similar to Ana’s that she immediately stopped gnawing on her own lip. After another moment of intense scrutiny, Heather said, “I can repay the scholarship for you if you want out of the contract.”
For a single heartbeat, Ana was going to accept but she abruptly realized that she couldn’t. Shaking her head no, she said, “If I don’t do this, I’ll always have doubts in the back of my head.”
