A Promise Remembered

by Elizabeth Mowers

  “Mornin’, honey,” Karrin crooned, cinching her apron around her waist. “How are you faring after your walk at sunset?”

  “How do you know about that?” she demanded.

  “Easy, Annie. What are you so worked up about?” Annie finished refilling a canister with creamer and rocketed to the other side of the dining room. Karrin raced to keep up. “Everyone knows,” Karrin continued, pressing up beside her. “Joyce saw you run out of the reception.”

  “I needed fresh air.”

  “I’ll bet,” Karrin snickered, her eyes wide with curiosity. “Is he a good kisser? I bet he’s a really good—”

  “No.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Ooh, yes, you do. It was either good or it wasn’t.”

  “He’s fine.”

  “Fine?”

  “It doesn’t matter because it was a onetime thing, okay?”

  Karrin stuck out her lower lip. “Why?”

  “Nothing is going to happen,” Annie replied matter-of-factly. She’d make sure of it, even if it took her a long time to forget how good it felt to be entwined in William’s arms.

  “Mornin’, William!”

  Annie’s body jolted at Karrin’s singsong greeting, her heart flooding with enough adrenaline to propel her on a half marathon. She scooped up the remaining creamer canisters from nearby tables and dashed off around the counter and into the supply closet. She’d barely dropped the canisters with a clank when she noticed William waiting patiently behind her.

  “Hey,” she managed, pretending to search for something, anything, on the storage shelves to avoid being drawn into conversation.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Hmm?”

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m grabbing a few things before doors open.”

  “I think you’re avoiding me.”

  “What?” She laughed, scoffing at his implied question.

  “You’re cute when you’re nervous.”

  “I’m not— What do you want?” she asked, busying herself among the salt packets and ketchup bottles.

  “You forgot this.”

  Annie snuck a peek over her shoulder. There he stood, boldly, with an outstretched fist. He shook his hand playfully, piquing her curiosity.

  “Well...what is it?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I didn’t forget anything, William.”

  “No?”

  Annie crossed her arms. “No.”

  “Then you won’t miss it,” he replied with a dismissive shrug, pivoting to leave. He had barely taken a few steps when she let out an exasperated gasp.

  “Okay. What did I forget?”

  “Nope. You didn’t think you forgot anything.”

  “William.”

  He balked teasingly, strolling over to her. “You didn’t call me back.”

  “I knew I’d see you eventually.”

  “You didn’t want to see me sooner?”

  Annie shifted her weight to one leg. “Was that why you called?”

  “You know it is.” He closed the gap between them in an easy stride, his eyes ever fastened on hers. He presented his loosely clasped fist again. After several moments, she nervously tapped on it and he slowly peeled his fingers open to reveal the blossom of a white daisy.

  “I don’t understand...” she began.

  He pinched the daisy’s short stem gently between his fingers and brought it to her ear, softly tucking it within the wisps of her hair. After it was secure, he leaned back to admire it, his lips curling in clear satisfaction. Annie’s cheeks fell, any tightness in her face now emollient from his gesture.

  “When are you going to let me take you out on a real date?”

  Annie bit down on her lip. Distancing herself was going to be harder than she’d thought.

  “Oops. I didn’t know anyone was in here,” Bobby said, backing out of the doorway.

  “It’s okay,” Annie called, desperate to evade William’s question and risk fawning like a lovestruck fool. “We were on our way out.” She slipped around William as he brushed his fingers against hers, trying for her hand. But she was too fast and pushed out into the dining room as he followed behind. She thought to pour herself a cup of coffee before the Old Timers ambled in, which signaled the unofficial ceremonial start of her shift.

  “Did you have fun Saturday night?” Karrin called after unlocking the doors.

  William paused in front of Annie as she peered at him from over the top of her coffee mug. “It was a night to remember.”

  “Is that right?” Karrin replied, hip checking Annie on her way past. Annie shot her a scowl, but Karrin ignored it and continued her line of questioning. “So, what are your plans for this weekend, William?”

  “I’d like to take Annie out to the breakwater. We haven’t been there since we were kids.”

  “Oh, that sounds like a great idea.”

  “We could grab some dinner, walk the beach,” he continued as Karrin encouraged him with a knowing nod.

  “I have the children,” Annie protested.

  William’s eyes danced as she squirmed. She knew he could see right through her, and that fact made her even more uneasy. She yearned to be near him, but a real date meant resolving issues she wasn’t ready to face.

  “We can go whenever you want,” he offered.

  Annie shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “Girl, why not?” Karrin whispered.

  “I just can’t,” she said, backing away. She was a single mother with two children to think about, and she couldn’t afford to let her emotions carry her away. She wasn’t sure she could recover this time.

  Earl, Danny and Joe had settled into their usual seats by the time Annie went over to them. Seeing them, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Did you have fun at the wedding, Earl?” she asked, happily focusing on someone else’s life.

  Earl’s scruffy chin puckered. “Sure,” he mumbled.

  “Joyce loved her corsage.”

  “Got her a corsage, did ya?” Joe winked.

  Earl ignored them and held up his newspaper for protective cover.

  Joe wafted his hand at Earl with a resounding “Bah!”

  “How’d little Mia get on, then?” Danny asked, flipping his coffee cup for a fill up.

  “She was a beautiful bride.”

  Danny grinned. “When do yous think you’ll be a bride again, Annie?”

  “Ha!” Annie bellowed. “Never.”

  “Never say never, honey.” Joe chuckled, pointing at Earl. “If this old sack of potatoes can find a sweetheart, you certainly can.”

  Finding someone she wanted as a sweetheart wasn’t the difficult part. Deciding whether or not to trust her future to him again was what had her jittery and edging for the door.

  * * *

  WILLIAM HADN’T GOTTEN the image of Annie out of his head all weekend. She had consumed his thoughts with such a ferocity, he had tried to sleep just to find some peace. The details of their evening together were etched into his memory, allowing him to draw on them effortlessly like dipping a hand into a cool fountain for a drink on a hot day. He wanted to bury his face into her wavy curls; lose track of time in her caring brown eyes; and bask in the gregarious laugh she had apparently been rationing in recent years. There was one thing their kiss at magic hour had taught him: he needed to hold her again.

  “Okay, Annie,” he whispered to himself. “We’re gonna do this at your pace.” If attempting to spend time with her only spurred her to retreat into the shadows, he’d slow the pace even if he didn’t have much time left in Chinoodin Falls.

  “I’m taking mom to that property again,” he said, approaching Annie in the office after the lunch rush.
r />   “Oh?” Annie asked. “Is it serious?”

  “I’d say so. We put an offer in.”

  “That was fast.”

  “There’s no use in waiting around.”

  Annie nodded, her face solemn. “Sooner than later is better, I suppose.”

  “We have to do something to spark some business. The new place is near the water and has room to grow.”

  “Of course.”

  “Thank you for all your help looking at properties.”

  Annie fumbled through her purse for a few moments to the point he wasn’t sure she’d heard him. He was about to leave when her head popped up.

  “I had a good time the other night. You were nice.”

  “Nice? I haven’t been called nice a day in my life, Annie Curtis. But I enjoyed myself, too.”

  She went back to searching her purse. “Anyway, it isn’t that I didn’t enjoy spending time with you—I just can’t continue it.”

  “Can’t?”

  “It’s not a good idea for us to...”

  “See each other?”

  “Right.”

  “Why?”

  Annie dropped her purse into the desk drawer and slammed it shut with her knee.

  “It just isn’t,” she huffed. “There doesn’t have to be a reason.”

  “But you do have a reason?” William said softly, waiting for her to stop fidgeting. “Annie, I want to spend some time with you. You can pick the place, and you can pick the time. I don’t care if we sit up at the counter of this old dive and share a piece of pie. So if you have any desire to spend some time with me, let me know.”

  Annie paused long enough for him to finish and for her to spin on her heels. He delighted at the sight of her as she strode down the hallway, and he only tore his eyes away when the phone rang.

  Miles peeked his head out of the kitchen. “Grab it, would you?”

  “Pop’s Place,” William spoke into the phone receiver.

  “Joyce Green, please,” a familiar voice replied on the other end.

  “She’s out for the day.”

  “May I have her home number?”

  William hesitated and tried to place the masculine voice. “What is this regarding?”

  “A mutual acquaintance.”

  William’s stomach lurched as he recognized the raspiness on the other end. He moved to the window, pried open the blinds to peek outside.

  “I don’t have that handy. Is it something I can help you with?” he asked, trying to sound as casual as before.

  “What is your name, sir?” the voice inquired with an air of authority.

  “Miles Dent,” William responded, his sweaty palm clamping the phone in a death grip. “And you are?”

  “I’ll try Ms. Green again at another time. Thank you, Mr. Dent.”

  The line went dead, but William couldn’t move. Had his tone given anything away? Was Denver in town? Would he try calling again?

  “William?”

  William finally dropped the receiver into the cradle and drew a sharp breath. Annie stood in the doorway, her lips parted with concern.

  “Yeah?” he croaked.

  “Miles asked if there was an order?”

  “No...no order.”

  Annie came in and leaned against the desk. “How about tomorrow night?” she asked.

  “Tomorrow night?”

  “Marjorie’s going to babysit the children at her place.”

  “Oh?”

  “I want to see the breakwater after all...if you still want to take me.”

  William reached out and brushed the back of his hand down her temple to her jaw. Such beauty could leave a man like putty in her hands. Or at the very least, too distracted for his own good.

  “William?” she whispered, her eyebrows knitted in what looked like worry as she took his hand in hers and pressed it to cup her cheek. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” he said softly. “I’ll pick you up at six.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ANNIE DIPPED HER fingers into the ice-cold water, admiring the ripples slicing their way across the glassy lake. Except for the two of them nestled in the rowboat and a freighter loading far off at the railroad ore docks, the lake was still without even a breeze to disturb them. The shrieks of children chasing each other on the beach and motorists zipping along Lakeshore Drive grew softer as William rowed farther from shore.

  “It’s frigid,” she stated, pulling her hand from the water and shaking the blood back into her fingertips.

  “It’ll be this cold in July.”

  It was true. Lake Superior was the largest of the Great Lakes, its volume deep enough to easily hold the other four lakes within it. So even on the hottest day of the summer, the water was still cool.

  Annie pushed back masses of untamed hair while admiring William, his navy polo shirt straining over broad shoulders as he rowed. She was thankful for sunglasses to hide her stolen glances and wondered if he could be doing the same, shielded behind black Oakleys.

  “What are the children doing?”

  “When I dropped them off, Marjorie was eager to make dream catchers. It’s a craft where you weave string around sticks to look like a web.”

  “Dream catchers? Does anyone suffer from nightmares?”

  “Why?” Annie asked, her head jerking at the question.

  “Native American legend says they catch all your bad dreams and let only the pleasant ones slip through. You hang dream catchers over your bed.”

  Annie nodded. “I already know about that.”

  “So?”

  “Yes?”

  “Are you troubled?”

  It was an almost laughable question, but Annie couldn’t muster a chuckle. Ever since Sean had come into her life, she hadn’t slept well. Troubled sounded like such a polite word for it.

  “James has night terrors.” She thought she had only said it to herself until William halted his paddling. His expression grave.

  “Often?”

  She moved her shoulders. “Not exactly first-date conversation, huh?”

  “Sean?”

  “What else would he be frightened of?”

  William craned his neck to the side and released a heavy sigh. “What can I do, Annie?”

  Her eyes misted as she offered him a tender smile. “Keep rowing.”

  The freighter, which had been stationed at the railroad ore dock, now crawled away from shore. It jutted out to begin its voyage to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. It was a massive vessel, stormy gray and imposing against the delicate horizon. Annie could only watch in awe.

  “She easily has 70,000 tons of ore onboard,” William mused. “It never gets old watching that mammoth pull away from shore, does it?”

  Annie nodded before turning her attention to the beacon at the end of the rugged stone breakwater. The octagonal base, topped by a white cylindrical tower and banded with a bright red stripe, still guided ships day and night as the breakwater protected the harbor from northerly storms. Lake Superior behaved as unpredictably and violently as the ocean at her cruelest, but on the early June day, which still carried the mild temperatures of spring, the lake was as peaceful as a sleeping bear, her power dormant and hibernating—for the time being.

  “Care to climb out?” William asked, pulling the boat up to a narrow landing nestled between the jagged rocks that made up the breakwater’s protective armor.

  Annie peered over the edge. “I don’t know if we can make it up there without getting wet or worse.”

  “I won’t let anything happen to you,” William replied in an even tone. He tied the boat to a cast-iron stake jutting out of a concrete slab and carefully navigated the side against the rocks before extending a guiding hand to Annie. She searched for a place to step. “Here,” he directed, graspin
g her firmly on the back of her biceps as she found her foothold on the nearest, driest rock. Stepping from rock to rock, they finally reached a ladder that ascended up to a concrete crib, the base of the breakwater lighthouse.

  “Oh, it’s beautiful,” Annie sang, catching her breath once she’d made it to the top. She steadied her balance at the aged steel railing and found William’s hand already there. Fighting an instinct to draw her hand away, she found herself lovingly grazing it over his knuckles where a scab gave a clue about his former life. Given how much healing still had to be done to it, he’d acquired the gash shortly before he had walked into Pop’s Place and set her world off-kilter.

  “Do you remember the last time we climbed all the way out here?” he asked. She giggled at the memory. It had taken them an hour to carefully climb from shore over all the rocks of the breakwater, knowing a simple skidding foot could lead to serious injury.

  “I can’t believe I talked you into that. I really didn’t know what I was getting us into. The boat is a much better idea.”

  At their backs, the sun slipped closer toward the treetops of the forested park on Peninsula. Before them the sky and lake dueled in hues of blues and grays, horizontal bookends to the freighter quickly shrinking to toy size before their eyes. An angry storm cloud loomed far off in the distance, the only inkling the day would not end as peacefully as it had dawned.

  Annie yearned to be as tranquil as what was spread out before them. As she listened to the water’s edge lapping hypnotically at the shore, she mused at how safe she felt beside a man and was yet so uncertain of what it meant for her...and for him. She had plenty of questions for William. Why did he need to leave town? How did he get the scabbed gash on his hand? Had he missed her over the years as much as she had missed him?

  She felt a rush of joy at his touch. His rugged hand covered hers with a strength and tenderness unique to him, to them. As much as she wanted to vanquish her questions for the time being, she knew they would loom over her as heavily as the darkness blowing across the sky.