A Love Surrendered (25 page)

“Unfortunately that won’t work, darling,” Charity said sweetly, sending a look of concern to where Glory played jacks with the cousins. “You see, Annie’s sister needs a ride too.”

Mitch blinked. “Oh. Well, I can just run Faith and Collin home first.”

Charity yanked on his arm to whisper in his ear, and Mitch’s mouth crooked up. “On second thought, the roadster might be a little cramped.” He slapped Steven on the back, his smile dry. “Don’t look now, Steven, but she’s got you in her sights.”

Patrick chuckled and moved toward the stairs. “It’s late, Marceline, let’s head up.” He fished keys from his pocket and tossed them at his son. “Steven, lock up and then take Annie and Glory home. Annie, it was a pleasure meeting you, and I hope you’ll come back soon.” He angled a brow at his foster daughter. “Gabe, upstairs—now.”

A painful groan issued from her throat.

“Come on, darling,” Marcy soothed, ushering Gabe to the stairs. “I’ll fix you a nice, warm bath because I’m afraid you don’t smell much better than Collin and Brady.” She shot a bright smile over her shoulder. “Don’t be a stranger, Annie, you hear? Good night, everyone.”

“Good night, Mr. and Mrs. O’Connor, and thank you!” Annie called. Her gaze collided with Steven’s, and she chewed at her lip. “Sorry for the inconvenience. I can call Frailey, really.”

He felt like a louse. But then innocence like Annie’s always made him feel that way. He sighed and buried his hands in his pockets, offering a polite smile. “Nope, I’ll be happy to give you a ride. I need to stop by Joe’s anyway.”

“Good, then it’s all settled.” Charity gave Annie a hug. “Hope to see you soon.”

Husbands and kids bolted out while Annie linked arms with Faith to follow behind.

Steven expelled a weary breath, and Charity gave him a quick hug. “Come on, Steven, open your eyes,” she said with a pinch of his waist. “You’re smart, good-looking, and employed, but what good is it? You’re one of the loneliest men I know.”

He diverted her concern with a laugh. “Single doesn’t mean lonely, sis. Trust me, there’s nothing lonely about me.”

She studied him, eyes suddenly too serious for Charity. “Haunted, then,” she said quietly, a solemn look reflecting deep love often obscured by tease. “And you’ve been that way too long now.” She patted his cheek. “Do something about it, will you?” The sparkle returned to her eyes. “Because face it, Steven—miserable is not a good look for you.”

He grinned. “I don’t know, it works for Mitch.”

She smacked his shoulder. “For your information, you little brat, Mitch is one of the happiest men around.”

“Yeah?” Steven cocked a hip. “And how do you know that?”

“Simple.” She tossed her hair back and sashayed out the door, slipping a grin over her shoulder that included a wink. “Because I tell him so every day.”

9

S
o . . . Annie tells me you’re an officer of the law.” Glory sat in the front seat of Steven’s father’s Model T like a tiny adult, legs crossed at the ankles and hands folded in the lap of a polka-dot dress carefully fanned out. She glanced up, tone matter of fact. “Do you carry a gun?”

He studied her out of the corner of his eye while he shifted gears, a grin easing across his face. “Sometimes.”

“Have you ever killed anybody?”

“Gloria Celeste Kennedy, that is an awful question!” Annie pinched her leg.

Kennedy?
Steven’s palm froze to the wheel.

“Ouch, that hurts,” Glory moaned, pinching her sister back. “I’m just curious is all, ’cause Steven’s the only person I ever met with a gun.”

Glancing over his shoulder, Steven eased into the next lane before peering at Annie, his tone sharp. “Kennedy? Joe said your name was Martin.” Even in the dark, he saw her blush.

“Martin is my aunt’s name,” she said quietly, staring straight ahead, throat shifting in silhouette. “I guess Peggy told Joe I lived with my aunt, so maybe he just assumed.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Steven braked at a stoplight, his mind shifting as fast as the Model T.

“Steven?” Her voice was tentative.

“Yeah?” He waited, finally looking over when she didn’t respond.

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

He squinted. “You okay?”

“No, not completely.” She paused, her face as pale as the moonlight streaming through her window. “There’s something I need to tell you, but I’m not ready.” She exhaled. “But I will.”

He nodded, studying her with a crimp in his brow. “Okay.” Sucking in a deep breath, he slowly released it again and stared straight ahead, allowing his thoughts to stray. Kennedy was a common name in Boston, but it always had the same shocking effect, taking him back to Maggie. She had hailed from Chicago as he recalled, and the only sister she ever mentioned was a kid named Gracie Sue, or something like that. Come to think of it, he hadn’t really known a lot about Maggie, and he supposed that had been part of her mystique. Mysterious, passionate, sexy.

And deadly.

“So, have you?” Glory persisted, slapping Annie’s hand away from her leg.

He could feel Glory’s questioning gaze and it edged his mouth into a smile. “Nope.”

“Good, I’m glad.” Glory smoothed a wrinkle in her skirt with the utmost care.

Turning a corner, he gave her an off-center smile. “Me too,” he said with a wink.

A few moments later, he felt a gentle tug on his leg and looked down at the upturned face of an angel. “Would you mind if we came over again sometime, Steven?”

His eyes flicked from Glory’s soulful stare up to Annie’s cautious look, and he sighed, leveling his gaze on the street ahead. “Sure, why not?”

“I’m glad. Faith said we could come over again after story time next week.”

Good to know
. Steven took a corner with a slice of the wheel.
I’ll make sure I’m gone.

“We’ll see, Glory.” Annie’s tone was nervous.

“Okie-dokie,” she said with a big yawn. Snuggling close, she surprised him when she laid her head on his lap, hand curled over his knee. “Thanks for the piggyback ride, Steven.”

“You’re welcome, Glory,” he said quietly, palm resting on her hair while his thumb grazed her neck. Within seconds her soft snores made him smile.

“Steven?”

He glanced over, and Annie’s tentative eyes met his. “I really had no idea you were Faith’s brother, and I’m sorry for barging into your life like that. I wouldn’t have come had I known.”

He exhaled, gaze back on the road. “It’s okay, Annie, really.”

“No . . . no it’s not,” she said, shifting to stare straight ahead. Her voice lowered to a near whisper. “I threw myself at you once, Steven, and it was wrong. You tried to warn me, protect me, but I was too stupid and too angry to understand.”

He chanced a glimpse, heart stuttering at the moisture in her eyes. “Angry about what?”

She buffed her arms as if she were cold despite the steamy summer night, and when she spoke, her voice was thick with emotion. “At God for taking my parents away, for abandoning Glory and me to an aunt who neither wanted nor approved of us.” She paused, head bowed, and he sensed the weight of guilt in the slump of her shoulders. “I was the good girl in the family, you know, the devout one my father counted on, his spiritual pride and joy. But when he . . .” Her voice cracked and without thinking, Steven lifted his palm from Glory’s head to Annie’s shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze. She averted her gaze and quickly swiped at her eyes. “When
Daddy died, I . . . wanted no part of God anymore, so when I came to Boston, I made up my mind that since Daddy’s love was gone, I’d find love on my own . . .”

Steven expended a quiet sigh. “With any guy who came along . . .”

“Yes,” she whispered, eyes fixed on her fingers. “I know Peggy and her sister aren’t the type of friends my father would have liked me to have, but I was too angry to care and so I . . .”

He downshifted and slid her a sideways glance. “Threw caution to the wind?”

She swallowed hard and peeked up. “Yes.”

“Happens to the best of us, kid,” he said, remembering all too well when it’d changed for him, that dark transformation from good to evil, forever staining both his memory and his soul
.

“Yes, it does unfortunately . . . only
you
saved me from the worst.” Her chest expanded with a heavy breath as she looked away, eyes lagging into a glossy stare over the dash. “So, I owe you an apology and my thanks because I honestly don’t know what might have happened if you hadn’t taken such a hard stance with me, warned me . . .
protected
me.” She turned, eyes awash with gratitude. “You see, Steven, God used you to safeguard me until I could come back . . .”

He coasted to a stop at the light, eyes in a squint. “Come back? What do you mean?”

She paused to take in another deep breath. “Back to
him
. I’m doing things God’s way now, seeking the right kind of love with him in the center, not the wrong kind like you warned me about. And you started it, Steven, but it was God who finished it.” She smiled, the effect somehow soft and strong at the same time. “You see, he brought Faith into my life to show me what true faith in God can be.” Her throat shifted in profile. “And the type of true love that’s only available through him.” Her chin notched up the slightest bit, almost giving her an air of invincibility. “So trust me when I say it’s the only love I’ll ever settle for again.”

The light changed and he gunned the engine hard as if to escape this uneasy feeling in his gut, like God had him in his sights, ready to pick him off. “That’s why you’ve avoided the Pier?” he asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from a subject he neither understood nor liked.

“Yeah,
that’s
why I avoided the Pier.” She grinned and turned with a little bounce, exuding that innocence he found so attractive. “Because as much as I wanted to see you again,” she said, rifling through her purse, “I’m through being that kind of girl.” She popped a Life Saver into her mouth, then offered him one. “Peppermint?”

He shook his head, but her words triggered a warm glow in his chest. “I’m glad, Annie.”

“Me too,” she said with a contented sigh. “So, you see, if I had known I was coming to
your
house, I would have never set foot in the door.”

Signaling a turn, he eased onto her street, gliding the car up to the curb in front of Aunt Eleanor’s house. He coasted into park before he slipped her a slow grin, allowing the engine to rumble along with the chuckle in his throat. “You make me sound like an ogre, Miss Kennedy.”

“Nope, just a hard-nosed arm of the law whom I’m scared to cross.”

“Good,” he said, turning the engine off, “then my work here is done.” Fisting his door handle, he glanced down at the angel drooling on his leg and smiled. “Come on, you little piece of heaven,” he whispered. He slipped his hands beneath her fragile arms and draped her over his shoulder before easing out of the car. A smile nudged when her arms curled around his neck, and the scent of Ivory soap and bubble gum caused a sudden ache in his heart. He opened Annie’s door and helped her out, and in the flash of a moment, longing invaded his chest. The touch of her hand, the weight of Glory on his shoulder, and he almost felt whole again, as if he deserved the happiness of a good woman, one who would give him children to love . . .

“Thank you,” Annie whispered, reaching to take Glory.

“No,” he said, unable to resist burying his head in her sweet mass of curls. “I don’t mind.” Lump in his throat, he kissed Glory’s cheek and followed Annie up the steps.

“I can’t thank you enough for bringing us home,” Annie said, slipping her key in the door. She pushed it ajar, then turned and held her arms out for Glory, her smile warm. “You’re a very lucky man, Steven O’Connor, to have the kind of family you do.”

He paused, her statement taking him by surprise, as did the realization she was right, something he’d come to learn the hard way when his father almost died. He’d taken his family for granted before that . . . but never again.

Her smile tipped into a soft grin. “Or maybe ‘blessed’ would be a better word.”

It was his turn to smile. “That’s certainly what my sisters would say, especially Faith. Come on, munchkin,” he whispered in Glory’s ear, “time for bed.” Gently dislodging Glory’s fingers, he leaned forward to pass her to Annie.

“No . . . ,” she groaned, her sweet little voice groggy with sleep as her arms inched back to his neck. “I don’t want you to go . . .”

He paused, head tucked against hers as emotion thickened his throat.

Annie tugged at her sister. “Glory, Steven has to go home and we have to go to bed . . .”

“B-but will I see you a-again?” she said with a whimper.

He swallowed hard. “Sure, kiddo, anytime you want.” His gaze flicked to Annie and back, and suddenly his hopes for distance seemed to be fading.

“We’ll see,” Annie said, voice and hold adamant as she tried to pull Glory away.

“Okie-dokie.” Glory loosened her grip, then patted a fat little palm to his cheek. “You’re itchy,” she said with a giggle, then deposited a sweet, tiny kiss on his mouth. “G’night, Steven.”

“G’night, Glory.” He kissed her nose before Annie managed to pry her away.

“Thanks again,” Annie said, inching through the door with Glory in her arms.

“Wait! Aren’t you going to kiss her too?” Glory spun around, eyes wide with the innocence of a little girl who had no earthly idea what she was asking him to do.

He blinked, noting the expanse of Annie’s eyes.

“Glory, no,” she whispered, turning ten kinds of pale.

“Please?” The little troublemaker stared at him with those wide eyes of an angel.

Heart thudding, he did the only thing he knew to do. He kissed Annie right on the tip of her nose. Clearing his throat, he stepped back. “Well, good night, ladies.”

“No, silly,” Glory said, “like this . . .” She demonstrated with a sweet little peck on her sister’s lips as if he were too stupid to understand, then tilted her head. “See? It’s easy.”

Too easy
, he thought with a trip of his pulse.
Way, way too easy . . .

“Stop it, Glory, Steven doesn’t want to—”

“Sure I do,” he whispered, his words shocking him as much as Annie. Gaze holding hers, he slowly leaned in, close enough to see the long sweep of her lashes, the pale gold in eyes so green, he felt like he was in Oz, about to be granted a wish. He heard the soft hitch of her breath when she stopped breathing because it coincided with the halt of air in his own lungs. Cupping her face in his hand, his eyelids sheathed closed at the touch of her lips—soft, supple, and just a hint of peppermint from the candy she’d offered him in the car. It was meant to be no more than a peck like Glory had given him, but somehow his mouth wanted to linger and explore . . . He stepped in close, body grazing hers and Glory’s till they were one. A little-girl giggle broke the trance, and Annie’s lips curved beneath his.

“His whiskers are itchy, aren’t they, Annie?” Glory asked, patting his face once again. “Kinda makes you wiggly all over, doesn’t it?”

Annie’s eyes glowed as she caressed her own cheek. “Very wiggly,” she whispered.

“Well,” Steven said quickly with a clear of his throat. He chucked Glory beneath her dimpled chin. “I suppose that’s enough kisses for one night, wouldn’t you say?”

“No!” Glory giggled with a thrust of her chin.

He hiked a brow. “You know what?
You
are going to be trouble when you grow up, little girl.” Tapping a finger to Glory’s chin, he slid Annie a smile and winked. “Just like your sister.”

“I know.” She looped an arm around Annie with a pixie smile. “G’night, Steven.”

“G’night, Glory.” His eyes strayed to Annie and he nodded. “Annie.” Without another word, he loped to the car, his thoughts as warm as the summer night. He slipped into the front seat with a faint smile and turned the ignition before shifting into gear with a tentative sigh. His gaze lighted on the passenger seat where Annie had been, and something warm and deep and full of hope expanded in his chest till he thought he couldn’t breathe.