Annie's Neighborhood (Harlequin Heartwarming) (21 page)

The boy flung his arms around Annie, who had bent to his level. He almost bowled her over—would have if Sky hadn’t come up in time to catch her. “Whoa, Zack, don’t knock Annie over. What have you got there? Hey, guy, that cover-up is neat. I hope you thanked Annie.”

“I
was
thanking her, but I almost hugged her over.”

Sky and Annie laughed, and Sky ruffled his son’s sun-bleached hair. Slightly self-conscious now because Sky seemed so focused on her, Annie went through her explanation again about how Zack could paint the birdhouses.

“It was kind of you to think of him in the middle of everything you’re doing. Aaron Loomis called me on Friday. You have him all worked up over the teen center. He asked if I thought my force could control unsavory interest in a place that caters to teens.”

“What did you tell him? I’m almost ready to hire staff.”

“I was honest. I said we’d see. Have you missed me?” He gave his sideways smile and ran his forefinger down her nose when she rose from spreading newspapers for Zack’s paint project. “I think we may be close to cracking the upper echelons of the Stingers,” he said excitedly. “That should make you happy.”

“Close only counts in horseshoes.” She opened a pack of brushes, gave Zack one and opened two small cans of paint. “Try this color on the bottom part of one birdhouse, and this color on the roof. Then you can see what it would look like if we painted your dad’s house with these colors.”

Sky arched an eyebrow at her before he knelt down. “Take your time, Zachary. We’re not in a big rush today.”

The boy nodded and sat cross-legged in front of the birdhouse.

Annie stepped a few feet away as Sky stood up; he seemed too close. “Uh, Sadie said the police in Louisville arrested the man they believe shot her. Frankly it surprised me not to hear the news from you.”

“Yeah, well, I wanted them signed, sealed and headed to the big house before I said anything. That’s taking time. The Louisville detectives invited me to sit in while they grilled those two, hoping to get to the higher-ups in the Stingers. For the past few days I left early and got home late. Koot and Teddy covered my shifts. Plus I was buried under a backlog of paperwork. Anyway...back to Loomis. Antsy as you made him over the teen center, you got him super worked up about the prospect of reopening the glove factory.”

“Shh,” Annie pressed a finger to his lips and cast a glance around to see who was nearby. “He hasn’t agreed to let me go ahead with that yet. No one else knows.”

“I didn’t let on that I knew anything about that grand scheme of yours.”

“Are you making fun of me, calling it a grand scheme?”

“Daddy, stop hurting Annie’s feelings,” Zack said, raising his voice. The adults whirled around and saw that Zack had paused in his painting and was frowning at them.

“We’re just discussing something,” Sky told Zack. To Annie, he murmured, “We’ll catch up on this later.”

She nodded. “By the way, Chantal filled Davena in on what a judge ordered for Heywood and Roy Dell. Our teen center will run smoothly if we can get other former gang members on similar paths. I know we can beat this gang, Sky. If you nab the leaders, I’ll redirect the kids.”

“Those feats are difficult enough, Annie. And you want to add reopening the factory to what you’re already planning to do?”

“Are we back to you thinking I’m being unrealistic? I thought we’d progressed beyond that, Sky.”

He scooped up a paint pan and roller. “Sometimes it seems we have, other times not. I’m not sure how I fit into your life when you take on more and more projects.”

“That’s a good question,” she said unhappily. “How
does
someone fit in who casually drops by after not showing up for days?” Annie wrested another ladder out of the back of her pickup and stomped off to the side of the house. If he felt left out of her life, well, too bad; she felt left out of his.

Annie didn’t see Sky again until one of the painting crew brought lunch. She wondered if he’d even sit with her―except that Zack grabbed her hand and tugged her over to show her the birdhouse he’d finished.

“You did a great job, Zack.” Annie admired his work from every angle. “Once they’re all done and dry, I’ll coat them with shellac so they’ll hold up in every kind of weather. You and your dad can hang them from the branches of that big tree in his front yard.”

“Can I take one to the farm? I have two homes, Annie. Three,” he said, changing his mind. “I forgot Papa Archibald’s vacation house in the Appa, Appa...some mountain. Daddy, what’s that mountain called where Mama said we hafta go?”

“Appalachian,” Sky filled in, not sounding pleased.

Annie assumed this was another bump in Sky’s rocky road of shared custody. She aimed her question at Zack, but darted a quick look at Sky. “So, Zack, you’re going on vacation soon?”

Sky took the last bite of his chicken. “His mother wants to spend the summer at Archibald’s cabin. My attorney is looking into it now.”

Nodding, Annie sat closer to Zack than Sky. “Well, Zack, if you don’t get all three birdhouses painted today but you finish two of them, I’ll run out and buy a can of shellac so you can take one to hang at the farm and the second to your cabin. The third one, for your dad’s place, can wait till you’re back. So we’ll shellac the first two, and hot as it is today they’ll dry in your dad’s car trunk while he drives you home.”

The boy sprang up and threw his arms around Annie’s neck, exclaiming his pleasure.

She noticed that Sky, who sat on the opposite side of the blanket, had stiffened; she started to disengage Zack’s arms. But Sky’s eyes weren’t trained on her. Rather he was watching a blue BMW that had double-parked at the curb.

An attractive blonde got out and, with little more than a sweeping glance around the work area, stalked straight up to the trio seated under the tree.

From Annie’s perspective, the well-turned-out woman in spike-heeled sandals, sleek sundress and arms aglitter with gold bangles seemed out of place at a neighborhood paint party. The blonde raised her hand and waved a crushed paper in Sky’s face. Annie felt her contempt as the woman—who could only be his ex―gave her a dirty look.

“Isn’t
this
cozy,” she snapped, tossing her champagne-streaked hair. “What you’re asking for is totally impossible, Skylar. There’s no way I can drive Zack down from the cabin once a week so you can bring him here to hang out with your paint-speckled girlfriend. You know we always spend every summer at the cabin.”

“Mama,” Zack cried, his arms still circling Annie’s neck. “This is Annie. And look, she bought me birdhouses to paint. And I get to hang one in a tree at the farm.”

The woman, who so far hadn’t bothered to acknowledge her child, lowered her eyebrows in a perfect V over a dainty nose. “I guess you think it’s clever, trying to buy my son’s affection. You’re wasting your time. If I have to hire a gaggle of Kentucky’s best guardianship lawyers to ensure that Zack doesn’t spend another hour in this...this dump of a town, I will.” Sky bounded up to clasp the woman’s arm and began hustling her toward the street.

“Apologize to Annie.” His words grated like sandpaper.

Shaking her arm free, she accidentally kicked over the birdhouse Zack had just painted.

The boy ran to rescue it, sobbing for his mother to stop.

Annie figured Corrine had been too furious to see Zack’s work, although he’d tried to direct her attention to it. Annie quietly helped Zack right the birdhouse and murmured, “It’s okay. Your mom didn’t mean to kick over your project. See, no harm done.”

As Sky urged her toward the street, the woman appeared confused, watching her son and Annie interact. As if realizing that the eyes of everyone seated around the partially painted house were glued to her, she said stiffly, “I’m sorry, Zachary honey. I didn’t see it. You, uh...it’s very nice.” She blew him a kiss, then gave in to Sky’s insistence that they leave the scene.

Peggy Gilroy sidled up to Annie, who’d managed to get Zack interested in eating again. “You okay, Annie?”

Touching a finger to her lips, Annie murmured, “I’m fine.”

Several other women had joined them, staring out at the street where Sky stood, legs apart, arms crossed, and the blonde gestured wildly.

“That was some tantrum,” Rita Gonzales put in.

“If everyone’s through eating, we can get back to work,” Annie said.

Taking the rather obvious hint, people tossed their garbage in a box, and went back to what they were doing prior to lunch.

Annie felt sorry for Sky. He would be on the receiving end of his neighbors’ sympathetic―and maybe not so sympathetic―remarks. Compelled, for Zack’s sake, to ward them off in advance, she raised the volume of the music that had become part of their daily environment. Visiting each volunteer, she requested discretion and restraint. So the scene Sky returned to was one of tranquility.

Without hesitation he climbed Annie’s ladder and stood three rungs below her. “I’m not making this up, Corrine asked me to apologize for her.”

“That’s good, Sky. Thanks. I assume your lawyer just won another round. Were you afraid things would go in her favor? Is that why you were so grouchy today?”

He winced. “Has anyone told you you’re as much of a shrink as a social worker?”

“You’re shaking my ladder. It’s dangerous to have two on one ladder.”

He stepped down, creating more of a sway. Annie grabbed hold of the rain gutter and a section came loose. “Watch out below!” she yelled, and panicked to see how close the broken gutter came to hitting Zack, who sat innocently painting his second birdhouse. To her immense relief, the heavy gutter was deflected by a tree branch. It crossed Annie’s mind that a worksite was no place for a child as young as Zack. Then noting the big smile he flashed his dad, she shrugged off her concerns. Zack loved to putter around, and it was a cinch he didn’t get to do that at his mother’s.

* * *

A
T
THE
END
of the day, which included Annie’s dashing out to buy a can of varnish at the nearest convenience store to spray the three birdhouses Zack had completed, Sky stopped her on the fly. “Hang on a minute. Zack wants to go out for pizza and we’d like you to come.”

“Oh, Sky, won’t that create more trouble for you on the home front?”

“Corrine can’t order my life. She certainly didn’t ask me to give the green light on Archibald. And after so many years of hassle, the new family court judge who’s handling our case believes in equal custody. Her latest decree, the one that upset Corrine, says fifty-fifty means equal time, regardless of the season, for both of us. Up to now, Corrine has had it all her way.”

“I’m glad, but court orders can’t regulate what’s in someone’s head or heart. Zack’s mother plainly doesn’t want to share him. Seeing him hug me, a stranger, was like throwing gasoline on the fire. You should assure her that we don’t have a relationship. That would start easing her mind. After you take a new job elsewhere, you and she really need to sit down and talk.”

“I decided I don’t want to move. And I told Corrine we
do
have a relationship. I thought we settled that the other night.” Taking Annie’s hands, Sky brushed a kiss over her chapped knuckles. Enveloped by the humidity of late afternoon, they let the moment drag.

“Daddy, Annie, aren’t we gonna go for pizza?”

Her needs and desires overwhelmed by doubt, Annie detained Sky. “You say one thing and then another. I don’t know what’s truth and what’s fiction anymore. I’m the kind of person who goes all in. I don’t do anything halfway. And I expect the same thing from anyone I’m...involved with.”

“That’s been evident since the day we met. Look, I acted like a jerk this morning. Is there a possibility you’d be willing to give me a second chance?”

“A slim one,” she said, letting him squirm—but not too long. “We all have flaws. Okay, I’ll forgive yours if you’ll forgive mine.”

“Over pizza can you tell me what some of yours are.”

“Are you kidding? And have you looking for them? You’d send them off to a lab to be analyzed.”

Sky laughed from deep in his belly. Then he threaded his fingers through hers. They collected Zack and got in Sky’s car.

At the pizza parlor on the outskirts of town, Sky asked Annie what she liked. When she told them Hawaiian, Zack bounced gleefully in his seat. “You like the kind me and Daddy like. Goody! Nobody at Papa Archibald’s ever agrees. And Mama thinks we should only have vegetables on pizza. Ugh!”

“Vegetable toppings can be yummy. Have you ever tried it?” Annie asked.

Zack shook his head, and Annie let the subject drop.

After they ate and watched Zack play some of the kid games set up around the big, noisy room, Sky again took Annie’s hand. “Instead of me dropping you off at your pickup, ride with us to the farm.”

“As if one explosive encounter today wasn’t enough?” Annie laughed.

“It’s a pretty drive through bluegrass country. Doing the trip alone is boring. On the way back, you can tell me more about your plans for reopening the glove factory.”

“Well, I should be home on the internet researching places that sell raw cotton and leather. That’s the piece of the proposal I don’t have facts and figures on.”

“Will an hour or so make a difference? The sun will set soon. You’ll enjoy seeing the moon rise. And you’ll like watching the thoroughbred horses in their pastures. You’ll also see why they call it
bluegrass.
”

“Sold. I lived here half my life, but horse farms weren’t on Gran Ida’s radar. Reading, sewing, gardening—those were our passions.”

“You said she used to arrange work parties to care for the rose beds in the park. You come by your volunteer skills honestly,” he said. “Aaron told me you want to name the teen center after your grandmother.”

“And the park, once I have time to revive it. I’ve already sketched out the signs. Mr. Yost, who’s doing the wrought iron, said his son can make them.”

Zack’s supply of quarters came to an end, and when he ran back to them, he was yawning. Sky boosted him up on his shoulders as they left the restaurant. “Annie’s going to ride to the farm with us, Zack.”