Sweet Annie Part 14

He nodded, obviously uncomfortable with the subject.

"My father turned you down. But the other bank loaned money to you? Just like that?"

"No, they came and looked at my business to make sure it was a sound investment. Once they were sure of that, they gave me the money."

"I'm sorry." Her disappointment in her father weighed like a weight in her chest. "It must be a lot of money," she said, trying to comprehend.

"It's not going to be a mansion," he said, sounding almost apologetic. "Not as nice as this house you live in now."

"Where?" she asked, suddenly excited and forgetting everything except what this meant.

"I couldn't afford a lot in town. Besides, your father controls most of the deeds, which I already knew. I found land outside town and I bought enough to keep horses and build a barn and plant a garden. This property's better anyway."

Annie gripped his forearms. "Are you going to take me there?"

"Now?"

"Yes, now! I want to see it! I want to see where we're going to live."

He glanced behind her. "This is dangerous."

"They're asleep," she a.s.sured him. "No one will see us."

"I don't know, Annie, I don't think it's wise."

"Oh, please, Luke. The days are so hard to get through." She touched his face and pleaded into his eyes. "If I can see it, I'll have a picture in my mind to get me through the days and nights. Please?"

His hair shone in the silvery glow of the moon. He dipped his head and took her lips in a crush of damp heat. Annie clung to him. "All right," he said hoa.r.s.ely. "All right."

After a.s.sisting her to Wrangler's back, he mounted behind and urged the horse into a gallop, avoiding houses and heading straight away from Copper Creek.

"Is it far?" she asked over her shoulder.

"No. About five miles."

They'd ridden for several minutes when he guided the horse across a shallow stream. "This is the quickest way," he said.

Wrangler carried them up the bank on the other side and they topped a rise and a slope of pines came into view.

"It's just over here," he said.

The open area he indicated held a stark framework, barely visible in the darkness. "Is that our house?"

"It will be." Luke brought the horse to a stop and slid from his back, then reached up for her. "The ground is uneven here, so watch your step."

She held tightly to his arm, her attention riveted on the wooden skeleton. "I wish it was light out, so I could really see it."

"There's nothing much to see yet."

"This is the door?"

"Yes."

"Only one?"

"I'll build you a bigger house later."

"I wasn't criticizing." She turned and grasped his forearms. "I told you I'd live anywhere with you, and I meant it, but I think this will be the most beautiful house ever."

"You're easy to please," he said with a lazy smile and touched her hair.

Annie grasped his hand for support and made her way to the opening in the framework. "A wood floor? That's good."

"Did you think I'd let you sleep with snakes and bugs?"

"And a fireplace."

"Not brick, the field stones were free."

"I love the stones. Did you do this yourself?"

"No, Gil helped me. And a couple of friends."

"Have you told Gil...about us, I mean?"

He shook his head.

"Oh."

"But I think he suspects something. A single man getting a house ready is pretty suspicious."

"So," she glanced around, wishing she could see better. "This is the...sitting room?"

"The kitchen is the other end down there-all one long room really."

The s.p.a.ce seemed adequate. Another doorway led to a separate room. "The bedroom?"

"Uh-huh."

Annie released his hand and stood in the center of the wooden floor, wrapping her arms around herself. This would be her home soon. She would live here with Luke. They could be alone together, have all the time they wanted to talk and kiss and whatever else they pleased. "No one will monitor my time or my activities here. No one will tell me what I can and cannot do in this house of ours. Oh, it's almost too good to be true."

"It's more than that," he said softly from beside her. "Isn't it?"

She caught his hands. "Of course it is! Oh, yes, Luke, so much more. I'm sorry I sounded selfish just then. I'm excited about us being together. I can't wait until we don't have to leave each other and go our separate ways at night."

Luke caught her against him and hugged her fiercely. Her enthusiasm buoyed his spirits for another week of dawn to dusk work. She was worth every minute, every hour and every day and every aching muscle. He didn't ever want to disappoint her. She deserved so much happiness and love and he wanted to give it to her.

Every swing of the hammer, every stone and nail and peg was one step closer to them being together. He'd worked his whole life toward this goal, though he'd never recognized it until lately. School, ranching, learning his trade, those had all been steps toward winning Annie. Beneath his hands and in his arms she seemed so feminine and fragile. But so real, finally.

He enjoyed the scent of her hair, the glide of her silky dress against his thighs, the sound of her sigh against his heart. Out of all the men who could have ridden into her life and received her favor, he'd been the one she'd wanted. He would do anything for her, anything to please her, anything to see her smile, hear her laugh, win her kiss.

Bending his knees, he dipped to scoop her into his arms. Beneath the canopy of stars, he spun in a circle, her skirt billowing, her laughter floating toward the mountains. He revolved until it seemed the heavens smeared into streaks of light and Annie placed her head on his chest.

Sinking to the floorboards on his knees, she wrapped her arms around his neck while the world continued to spin, slowing, slowing.

"Thank you, Luke," she whispered.

"Thank you, Annie."

"Let's do this again on our wedding night. And on every anniversary for the rest of our lives. Let's be just this happy."

"Okay," he promised.

She lifted her head. "Maybe you'll get tired of carrying me."

"Never," he denied.

"Maybe I'll grow fat and you'll hurt yourself."

"Look how big I am," he said. "Look how tiny you are. I could carry two of you."

She placed her palm along his cheek. "I'm gonna hold you to that promise."

"You do that."

In the weeks until the Fourth of July party, Annie only saw Luke on two occasions. Once when her parents rented a rig and took her for a Sunday ride, and the other a night like the last, where she met him and he showed her the progress on their house.

"I should be doing something to help," she'd told him.

"You're giving me the strength," he'd a.s.sured her. "Besides, there will be plenty to do when it's finished and needs a woman's touch."

A woman's touch, he'd said, and she'd held that close to her heart since. The only man who'd ever seen her as a woman, and he was the man her parents despised.

She'd helped the girls with their hay wagon float and the decorations for the party, but when time came for the parade and for the girls to perch atop the crepe paper flowers and ride through town, she asked Charmaine to push her to the boardwalk and go on without her.

"Not a chance," her cousin refused. "In fact, look at what the girls came up with!"

Doneta Parker and Mary Chancelor held out an ap.r.o.n of red, white and blue felt roses. "It's for you, Annie," they chorused. "You have the place of honor on our float."

Annie'd never ridden on the float before. She'd always watched and waved from the side of the street as the floats pa.s.sed. "You're sure?"

"Positive. Up you go!"

She took Charmaine's and Mary's hands and climbed the stack of crates to the back of the bed, which no longer resembled a hay wagon, but a fluttering ma.s.s of vivid crepe paper.

She took her seat where instructed. The other girls, chattering and checking their hair and gloves, seated themselves all around her.

The volunteer fire department's three-piece band sounded more like they were warming up than playing a patriotic tune, but they energetically led the gaily decorated procession toward the main street and through town.

Ahead, the floats were cheered by townspeople along the sides of the street, and the girls' antic.i.p.ation heightened. Annie's heart fluttered nervously, though she was having a grand time. A small black dog barked at the wagon ahead of theirs and a man in a hat picked it up and placed it in an empty flower pot in front of Miss Marples' Ice Cream Emporium.

Annie laughed at the sight, and then their float came into view of the crowd. The onlookers cheered and clapped and Annie waved as hard as the schoolgirls.

She scanned the crowd, seeking one shiny black head and devilish smile, and after straining to find him, finally recognized the smile, but his hair was hidden beneath a straw hat. Grinning, Annie waved and blew a kiss. He caught it and pressed it to his heart.

The float had moved several feet forward, and Annie let go of the image she'd been seeking and the next person she spotted was Burdy. Will sat on his shoulders, waving like mad, so she waved back. Burdy, however, scowled as dark as a thundercloud. From his side, Diana cast him a wary glance.

Beside her brother's family in the crowd stood her parents, her mother in a cream-colored silk dress and white gloves, her father in a lightweight suit and tie.

Her mother brought her hand to her mouth and fluttered like a cattail in a stiff wind. Eldon immediately reached to support his wife, his angry eyes never leaving Annie.

Had they seen her wave at Luke? Had they seen the kiss she'd blown and his reaction? Would Burdy stomp through the crowd and wallop him? She could say she'd been waving at one of the children-or Lizzy's little sisters, yes, that was it.

A sick sensation rolled in her stomach.

The parade had another few blocks to travel, so she pasted on a smile and endured the ride, waving absently when Charmaine pointed out Uncle Mort and Aunt Vera.

The wagons came to a halt in an open lot at the east end of town, and a few owners came to get their rigs and horses.

"This one goes back to the livery," a woman from the church Ladies' League's float called. "You girls need a ride back?"

The girls swept Annie along with them, and as long as Charmaine stayed with her, Annie didn't mind. Luke had returned to the livery and met the returning crowd, leading the rigs inside, unhitching horses and turning them into the corral beside the building.

He stayed busy and Annie didn't dare approach him in public, so she took a seat beside her cousin on a bench inside the stable. The others left a few at a time, obviously not thinking that Annie's chair had been left behind at the start of the parade and she would have no way back without help.

Annie hadn't thought of it herself, she'd been so caught up in the excitement of the moment.

"Something wrong?" Charmaine asked.

She shook her head, not wanting to express her worry.

"The Ladies' League's float was beautiful, wasn't it? I hope ours wins, though. We worked harder and longer, we deserve to win."

After several minutes of Charmaine's chatter, Luke appeared, the straw hat shading his eyes.

"You ladies need a ride back now?"

"Why, yes," Charmaine said, jumping up. "Can we ride one of your horses?"

"Charmaine, Mama and Papa would have a fit of apoplexy if I came riding down the street on a horse!"

"Oh." She looked down. "I forgot. Sorry."

"The choir just returned the buggy they borrowed and it's cleared off, so I'll take you in that," Luke offered.

"Okay." Charmaine walked beside Annie out into the sunlight.

"That's sure a pretty dress," Luke said.