Sweet Annie Part 8

There had never been a doubt. "I want to."

"And if they find out?"

"Then we deal with that."

"Okay, Annie." He took a step closer. Her heart skipped a frantic beat. She looked up into his eyes, glad she was standing on his level and not staring up from her chair. His slow smile turned her insides to liquid.

A footstep sounded in the next row of books. Mrs. Krenshaw's loud whisper echoed from the desk, instructing someone where to find a volume.

The sound of swishing fabric and footsteps came up behind her, and Annie stepped away from Luke.

Charmaine rushed to her side. "Mr. Carpenter! What a pleasure to see you."

"You too, Miss Renlow."

"I didn't know you came here."

He glanced from Annie to her cousin. "It's a library. A lot of people come here."

Charmaine giggled. "Of course. How silly of me."

"I was wondering if you and Annie would meet me for dinner at Mrs. Edgewood's cafe tomorrow night? Not very fancy, but the food is good. I would sure like your company."

Charmaine blushed to the roots of her hair. "Why, that would be delightful! Wouldn't that be delightful, Annie?"

"Shhh!" came an admonition from the front of the library.

"Yes, it would," Annie whispered. "What time, Mr. Carpenter?"

They settled the details and he wished them a good day, turning away and walking toward the door, his boot heels loud in the echoing silence.

"Oh, my gracious, Annie!" Charmaine said, leaning on her cousin's arm and nearly toppling her over. Annie grabbed a shelf for support. "Oh, oh, I'm sorry. You must be getting tired. Here." She retrieved Annie's chair from the end of the aisle and Annie picked up her books and settled into it. "He invited us to dinner! This is the most thrilling event! Can you even imagine?"

"Shhh!" came the expected admonition from the front of the building.

"Keep your voice down," Annie shushed her.

"I've never been invited to dinner before." She glanced at Annie. "Well, of course, neither have you, but it's ever so flattering. He's not even a boy, he's a grown man!"

Annie had been flattered, too; naturally Charmaine would be ecstatic. She thought Luke was a prince. And she had no idea that Luke had invited them so that he could see Annie. Hadn't he? Or was Annie attributing too much meaning to the kisses that had pa.s.sed between them? It was almost too good to be true that he thought of Annie as fondly as she thought of him.

Perhaps he shared kisses and dinners with other young ladies all the time. Or perhaps it was actually Charmaine who'd captured his interest and Annie was a harmless distraction.

No, no, he had voiced his interest on more than one occasion. He genuinely wanted to see her in spite of her family's disapproval. She almost wrapped her arms around herself and laughed. Her! Luke Carpenter was interested in her!

"We'll have to decide what to wear," Charmaine said from behind, pushing her toward the loan desk. "We'd better go home and plan."

Guiltily, she hoped Charmaine's feelings wouldn't be hurt when she realized that it was Annie whom Luke wanted to see. Perhaps she should tell her. But that would seem as though she were full of herself-and she wasn't. She could hardly believe it herself.

What would her cousin think if she knew about the kisses she had shared with Luke? She'd better wait and see what happened next. She could be wrong about his intentions.

And if she was, she would die of disappointment.

Her emotions were in turmoil for an entire day. Charmaine told her mother about their dinner plans and proceeded to try on every dress she possessed, as well as arranging her hair and holding earbobs to her ears and turning this way and that before the mirror. Annie felt like a traitor. She didn't want Charmaine to get her hopes up. She didn't want to get her own hopes up. She didn't want Charmaine to be embarra.s.sed. She didn't want to be embarra.s.sed herself.

What a predicament she'd landed in.

By the time they were dressed and ready to take the wagon into town the next night, Charmaine's whirlwind chattering and primping had Annie's nerves frayed. She surveyed the scenery between the ranch and town and took slow calm breaths, tuning out her cousin's continual stream of girlish talk.

They entered Copper Creek and Annie's heart kicked into a frenetic beating. Luke, dressed in dark trousers and a white shirt and black string tie, met them at the livery. "Evenin', ladies. Aren't you the prettiest creatures in these parts?"

Annie had borrowed a blue shirtwaist dress from Charmaine. Charmaine thought the dress was too plain, but that was exactly why Annie loved it. She didn't feel like a child in the garment.

"Stay where you are," he said and climbed up to sit beside Charmaine. "I'll leave the wagon in the alley while we eat."

He drove the horse and wagon to the cafe and a.s.sisted the ladies to the door, then left to move the wagon.

"Isn't he charming?" Charmaine asked breathlessly.

Annie nodded.

"I wish Mary Lou could see me," she said. "She's always bragging about that Nelson boy calling on her."

"This isn't exactly calling," Annie dared to mention.

"Of course it is," her cousin argued. "He's courting minded."

"But there are two of us," Annie reminded her.

"That keeps it proper. Watch how outrageously he flirts."

"He's simply being nice."

"No. He's of an age to be married. Don't be so dull, Annie. When a young man shows interest in a young lady, it's courting."

Luke came toward them and the conversation ended. He led them into the cafe, held Charmaine's chair while she sat, and moved a chair aside to wheel Annie up close.

Noting the high color in Annie's cheeks, Luke sat between the cousins and glanced from one to the other.

Annie was lovely in a dark-blue dress with a ruffled collar standing up around her ivory throat. The color set off the red-gold highlights in her curly hair and brought a sparkle to her eyes. "You look-you both look so pretty."

Annie smiled and blushed, and Charmaine thanked him.

Dora took their orders and brought the ladies cups of tea and Luke coffee. He stirred in a spoonful of sugar.

"Rachel Maye said she ate at an elegant restaurant when she went to Denver with her family," Charmaine said. "Have you been to any of those types of places?"

"Restaurants, you mean?" he asked.

She nodded.

"I've eaten in some nice places. Dora's cookin' is right up there with the best, though. 'Course it was always just Gil and me cooking for each other, so I'd probably think anything was good if we didn't fix it."

"Your uncle doesn't have a wife?" Annie asked.

"Guess he had one once, but she ran off. He never talked about her. I never knew her-that was before I came here."

Annie's gray-green eyes studied him as he spoke, her sincere interest obvious. "You weren't born here, were you? In Colorado?"

"No. I was born in Illinois. My father worked in a newspaper office. My mother died when I was about six or seven, and my father was killed when I was fourteen. That's when I came to live with my Uncle Gil."

"It must have been awful for you, losing your parents like that," Charmaine said.

"My mother and my younger sister died of whooping cough. After that I sort of took care of myself when I wasn't in school. I was fortunate that Gil asked me to come out here. I'd been workin' at the paper, just doing the clean-up jobs, but when I got to Colorado I discovered how much I loved horses."

"You didn't get Wrangler until you moved here then?" Annie asked.

"Actually we found him on the way from Illinois," he replied. "We stopped over at a stage station near Wichita and Gil bought him from a trader for me."

"A Swedish Warmblood," she said.

Luke raised his brows. "You remembered that?"

She nodded and changed the subject. "Your Uncle Gil sounds nice."

"He is. You'll have to meet him."

"I'd like that."

Charmaine glanced from Luke to Annie curiously.

Annie's face turned pink and she looked down at her hands. What had been said that had embarra.s.sed her?

She glanced up again, and the cousins exchanged a look.

Annie's gaze turned to other patrons in the room, and Luke followed her glance. Five or six other tables were filled, mostly town people he knew because he did business with them.

She was obviously wondering who would notice them together and take the news back to her family.

The door opened and closed.

"Annie," Charmaine whispered, "it's Mary Lou with her parents and that awful brother of hers." Charmaine almost squirmed in delight. She sat up straighter, and Luke wondered what was so exciting about the arrival of the people she'd mentioned.

A glance told him it was Daniel Holister with his wife and children. The girl, Charmaine's age, stared wide-eyed at their trio. Luke smiled politely and her cheeks turned crimson.

Dora brought their meals, and the attention moved to the savory roast beef and new potatoes.

"Annie's mother has someone to help with the cooking, but my mother only has me," Charmaine said. "You don't know how nice it is to eat away from home."

"Sure I do," Luke replied. "I get tired of food out of tins, so I eat over here a lot."

"What's your favorite dessert?" Charmaine asked, glancing at the chalkboard on a wall.

"Apple pie." It had become his favorite when Annie had baked one just for him. And since she'd said his kisses tasted like cinnamon. He couldn't repress a smile at the memory.

Annie wouldn't meet his eyes. She dabbed her mouth with her napkin and folded it into a neat square.

"Annie, you're positively scarlet!" Charmaine said, and touched her cousin's cheek with the back of her fingers. "Are you feeling well?"

Annie caught Charmaine's wrist and lowered their hands to the tabletop. "I'm fine. Can we change the subject?"

"From apple pie?" Her voice held puzzlement.

A laugh worked its way up from Luke's chest and he tried to hold it back by taking a sip of coffee. But Annie's red face and Charmaine's quizzical look struck him so funny that the laugh rumbled out, and he choked.

He coughed to cover his amus.e.m.e.nt, making the situation worse, and covered his mouth with his napkin.

Annie leaned sideways in her chair and slapped her palm against the center of his back a few times. "Are you all right?"

He glanced down at the warm touch of her other hand on his forearm, able to think of nothing but her hand on him.

She caught herself and s.n.a.t.c.hed it back.

"Yes, thanks," he managed to reply finally.

She met his eyes then, and leaning close this way, he could see the tiny green flecks that circled her gray irises like sunbursts. Her brows were delicately shaped and tinged with red like her hair, her lashes a spiky fringe.

His focus lowered to her mouth, a lovely smooth pink bow with a full lower lip. He'd kissed those lips.

The corners twitched. She was fighting laughter now, too.

She chuckled and straightened, pulling away from him. One glance at her cousin and laughter spilled out.

Luke joined her, and they laughed until his side hurt.

Charmaine glanced around the room with a halfhearted smile.

Finally, the mirth subsided and Dora came to remove their dinner plates. "Will you be having dessert?"

"I guess apple pie is out of the question," Charmaine said owlishly.

Luke didn't look up. "I'll have the bread pudding, please."

His dinner companions agreed with his decision, and Dora cleared the table. She returned with their desserts, filled Luke's coffee cup and set a fresh pot of tea on the table.

"This is delicious," Charmaine said. "I wonder how you make it."

"Eggs and bread and...cinnamon," Annie replied. "I-I saw a recipe in a cookbook."