CHAPTER EIGHT
Annie stared at her dad across the large island in the kitchen of the main house. He and Elizabeth had come home unexpectedly the previous day. It sounded like Elizabeth was home for the foreseeable future, but she didn’t know how long her dad would be there. As he stood there with a stern expression on her face, she kind of hoped he was leaving sooner rather than later.
He might have been in his late sixties, but her dad was still an imposing figure. He had a head full of silver hair, and his face, though more wrinkled in recent years, continued to sport a firm jaw and an aquiline nose. Annie imagined that this was what her older brother would look like in another thirty years.
Her dad wasn’t someone who smiled much or offered a lot of physical affection, but Annie never doubted that he loved her. Which was why he wasn’t happy with her.
“You’re making it more difficult for Dawn, Andrew, and the others to protect you and Benji.”
“But we agreed that Benji could have more flexibility.” Annie gripped her hands together on the counter. “We’ve made sure that they are aware of what’s going on, and we’ve worked with them to make sure we’re still safe.”
“You’ve gone into the ice skating rink at the resort without any of the security personnel.”
“I was armed, and they were close by.”
Her dad sighed. “I need to know that you are both safe.”
“We are, Dad.”
Annie didn’t like to stress her dad over the security issues, especially because she understood his motivation. However, Benji needed to be able to live his life as a teenager.
He actually wanted to be out and about in a way that Annie never had wanted at that age. She would do anything for him to have as normal a life as was possible in their situation.
“We’re not small children anymore, Dad,” Annie reminded him. “We appreciate that you’re concerned for our safety, but we also need to live our lives. Did you really want to bring children into this world, only for them not to be able to live their lives to the fullest?”
Her dad frowned as he leaned forward over the counter. “Are you unhappy, Annalisa?”
Annie rounded the island and went to where her dad stood. He turned, his face a mask of concern. She wrapped her arms around him, and there was no hesitation in his return embrace. He held her tight, then released her so she could step back.
She smiled up at him. “I’m happy, Daddy. Don’t worry about me.”
“I do worry about you. How could I not?”
“I’m okay with how things are, but Benji needs something more. His interests are going to take him farther than mine have taken me. He’s going to want the same freedom that Julian has.”
Her dad sighed as he turned away. “Then he needs to start taking the self-defense and weapon practice seriously. I need to know he can take care of himself. And you, if necessary.”
“I’ll tell him,” Annie said.
Benji didn’t really like the self-defense classes that Jude set up for them. And he wasn’t a fan of guns. Annie wasn’t necessarily either, but she also wanted to know that she could take care of herself should the need arise.
“And now I need to talk to you about something else.”
Annie frowned. “What’s that?”
“Cole Halverson.”
Her stomach flipped at the name, but she kept her face expressionless. “What about him?”
“He’s not the one for you.”
Annie wanted to be furious at Dawn and Andrew for revealing that Cole was someone she was having more contact with recently. However, she understood they were just trying to keep their jobs, since reporting stuff like that was required. Still…
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“He’s in the spotlight. Any woman he even looks at ends up in the spotlight too. That can’t happen with you.”
Annie knew that. “It’s irrelevant.”
“What do you mean it’s irrelevant?” her dad asked with a frown.
“Have you seen the women he usually dates?”
Her dad took a moment to consider her question. “Yeah. I’ve seen some pictures.”
It dawned on Annie then that it was a little weird her dad knew anything at all about Cole Halverson. He was Benji’s favorite player, but her dad seemed to mostly tune out Benji’s chatter when it was centered on basketball.
“Did Jude send you a file on Cole?” Annie asked as she hitched herself up onto one of the bar stools at the counter.
“No.” Her dad sat down on one of the other stools. “I already had info on him.”
“Why would you have info on him?”
Her dad hesitated, then said, “I wanted to make sure that the man Benjamin admired so much was worthy of that admiration.”
“And was he?”
Her dad lifted his brows at her. “He’s still Benjamin’s hero, right?”
“True.”
“I knew that one day, he might run into Cole here, so I needed to be sure that he was a good man.” He lifted a finger. “But not for you.”
“It’s a moot point,” Annie told him. “We’re just friends. There is no chance of anything more. I’m not the type of person who would fit into his world. Plus, there’s no chance I’d catch his eye that way. I’m sure he has a very specific type of woman in mind.”
“He’d be lucky to have you,” her dad said fiercely. “Any man would.”
Annie smiled at her dad, appreciating his defense of her. She was glad that he had confirmed what she’d already known about Cole—that he was a good man. But like she’d said, it was a moot point.
She hadn’t seen Cole after they’d left the boat the previous Sunday afternoon because he’d ended up leaving on Wednesday rather than the weekend. Something had come up that required his presence in LA.
Before they met, she’d thought that professional athletes practiced, played games, and occasionally did photoshoots. She’d since learned that there were lots of other things they did. So it wasn’t a big surprise when Cole had to head back to his home in LA.
She’d been a little sad, but he’d still been texting her, so they hadn’t completely lost contact. It was probably better that they had distance between them. It was definitely easier for her. Probably didn’t make much difference to Cole.
“How has everything else been?” her dad asked as he took the cup of coffee Elizabeth held out to him. “Thanks, love.”
Elizabeth had been present for the whole conversation, but she hadn’t said anything. Years ago, Elizabeth might have stepped in to advocate for Annie. But over time, Elizabeth had stepped back, encouraging Annie to find her own voice and relationship with her dad.
She was so grateful for Elizabeth and the way she’d stepped into the mother role in Annie’s life when her own mom had abandoned her.
Unfortunately, Julian hadn’t viewed Elizabeth the same way, but then he had clear memories of their mom that Annie didn’t have. And he’d not taken well to his mom leaving or Elizabeth stepping into her position, even though it hadn’t happened right away.
Annie’s immediate acceptance of Elizabeth—and later Benji—had meant that she wasn’t as close to Julian. He’d distanced himself from all of them. It wasn’t a great situation, but Annie wasn’t going to force a relationship on him.
“Everything else has been fine. I’ve been working on Christmas items for my shop, and I’ve been making mitten, scarf and hat sets for the shelter.”
“I’d love to see your new items,” Elizabeth said, setting a glass of water in front of Annie.
“You know where to find me.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I sure do.”
“Where’s Benji?” Annie asked. She’d come down to the house at her dad’s request, and she hadn’t seen Benji yet.
“He’s still sleeping,” Elizabeth said.
“He needs to get up soon.” Her dad frowned. “He shouldn’t be sleeping his life away?”
“He’s a growing boy,” Annie said. “He’s eating lots. Practicing lots. Which is probably why he’s sleeping so late.”
“Has he been spending time with the tutor?” her dad asked.
“Yep. He’s been doing an hour a day with her.”
“Good.”
Benji was smart, but sometimes he didn’t like to do the work. So during the summer, their dad insisted that he continue to work with a tutor so that he didn’t lose progress during those months.
“I hope Benjamin doesn’t think he’s going to play basketball for a living,” her dad said with a frown. “Is Cole Halverson a bad influence on him?”
Annie felt an immediate need to defend Cole, but she bit back the words. Coming to his defense was probably the worst thing she could do. It would be like waving a red flag in front of her dad. The thing was, she was sure that if her dad met Cole, he’d see that he definitely was a good man.
“He doesn’t need a career that puts him in the spotlight like that.”
“Julian is in the spotlight a lot,” Annie pointed out.
Her dad’s frown deepened. “And I’m not pleased about that either. However, it is already well known that he is my son. I don’t want people to be able to make that connection with you and Benjamin. Not when he’s still so young. If he pursues a career in the spotlight, sooner or later, they will dig up our connection.”
“You’ve done a lot to keep Benji and me hidden, but it seems inevitable that at some point something will come out.”
“I certainly hope not. I have invested considerable time and money into hiding what happened to you, as well as your identity. Benjamin has been a bit easier, since we’ve hidden his tie to me from when he was born.”
And yet his life was as constrained as hers was.
There were times Annie wondered if the lengths her dad went to were necessary. She knew that because of his considerable wealth and often controversial stand on political issues that people were looking for any reason to hurt him. It was the reason they all had bodyguards when they were off the property. Even Elizabeth had a woman named Abigail who went everywhere she did.
“Are you still trying to find the people who kidnapped me?” Annie asked, venturing into a territory that she usually avoided because her dad rarely gave her anything but vague answers.
“Of course,” her dad responded without hesitation. “We already know who took you. We’ve just never been able to find them.”
“Do you think they’re together wherever they are?”
“I don’t know,” her dad said. “From everything we learned afterwards, they were a married couple, so it’s possible.”
“If you know that much now, why haven’t you been able to find them?”
“They created elaborate identities when they came to work here, and I’m ashamed to admit that we didn’t do the thorough background investigations we do now. I was far too trusting back then. Afterwards, it was like they disappeared into thin air.”
“And they didn’t go back to their old identities?”
“No. They appear to have created new ones,” her dad said. “Ones that have allowed them to really fly under the radar.”
She didn’t usually ask her dad a lot of questions about the situation, but he seemed more willing than usual to talk about it.
But was it because he hoped that reminding her of the event would help her to accept the restrictions he wanted to put on her and Benji?
“Do you think they still have Angelica?”
Elizabeth and her dad exchanged another look before he said, “I think it’s highly likely they do. I don’t know if their original intent was to keep both you girls or to return you both. But in the end, they got away with Angelica and a healthy sum of money.”
“Why would they want to keep one of us?”
“The other nanny at the time told us that Angelica was Cheri’s favorite, so it seems that she decided that she wanted more than just the money.”
“If you think Angelica is still alive, why wouldn’t you want to put me out in public? If we’re identical twins, it’s possible that she’ll see me and have some questions about why there’s someone who looks the same as her.”
Her dad had already begun to shake his head before she finished talking. “No. That’s never going to happen. I’ve already lost one daughter, and I don’t want to take even the slightest chance of losing you.”
There was anguish on his face and his voice cracked as he spoke, revealing more in that moment than she’d ever seen before. Though she felt for him as he dealt with the loss of a daughter, she couldn’t relate to the emotion. She had lost a sister, but with no memories of her, it was hard to truly feel that loss.
That lack of an emotional connection to Angelica also made it difficult at times for her to accept the restrictions that her dad had put into place for her and Benji. Moreso Benji than her, but having a friendship with Cole was making her feel the weight of those restrictions a little more than usual.
Her dad’s emotions disappeared beneath the sudden return of his stern expression. “I know you don’t really understand why I feel this way because you have no memory of that time. However, it was the worst time in my life and I’m not interested in having something similar happen again.”
Annie wanted to protest that the likelihood of it happening again was slim, but she knew how the argument would go. They’d had it several times already.
“One more thing,” her dad said, his expression turning to one of disdain. “Your mother has contacted me again.”
Annie felt her own disdain rising at the statement. She had no interest in meeting with her birth mom. It made no sense to her that, after losing one daughter, her mother would abandon her other one.
“What did she want?” Annie asked.
“To meet with you.”
“I don’t want that.”
“I told her that would probably be the case, but that I would pass on her request.”
“I suppose now I can expect a call from Julian about it,” Annie said with a sigh.
These days, it was the only time she ever heard from her older brother. He’d been old enough to remember their mom, and she had kept in contact with him, even sharing custody of him with their dad when he was younger.
“Possibly,” her dad agreed. “But you just need to stick to your guns. Don’t give in to the guilt. If you ever agree to see her, let it be on your terms and only when you’re at the point where you really want to meet with her.”
Annie knew that if her dad had his way, she’d never meet with the woman. At that point, she kind of agreed with him, but who knew how things might change in the future?
Though they’d never had an in-depth discussion about the reasons for their divorce, Annie suspected it had to do with how her mom had treated her following her release, when Angelica hadn’t come home with her. And it was possible that her mom blamed her dad for what had happened.
“When are you heading back to New York?” Annie asked, more than happy to take the conversation in a new direction.
“I’ll be here for the week,” he said. “Then, once school has started for Benjamin, Betsy and I will be heading to Dubai for some meetings I have there.”
Annie smiled at her dad’s use of Elizabeth’s nickname. She knew from reading about her dad in the media that most perceived him to be a hard, calculating man. That might be true for him in his business persona, but it certainly wasn’t the case when he was there in Serenity with them.
He rarely spent such a long stretch of time there, and while she wouldn’t have a big issue with him being around for the next several days, she knew that Benji would struggle. And he’d probably spend even more time at her place.
“That was a great game,” Benji exclaimed as he glanced down at her from where he stood in front of her overstuffed couch.
He’d jumped to his feet during the closing minutes, cheering Cole and his team on to victory for their first game of the season, which had started in October.
Annie had enjoyed the game as much as Benji had, but she’d been doing some needlepoint work on a smocked baby girl dress she was making. That hadn’t been conducive to jumping around the way Benji had.
She’d watched countless games with Cole playing, but this one was the first since they’d met in person and struck up a friendship. Watching it had been… different.
When his face filled the screen of her large television, Annie’s breath caught in her lungs. His handsome face was flushed from his time on the court, and his hair was curling with sweat.
As he joined the reporter on the sidelines, he used the towel draped over his shoulders to wipe his face.
The woman holding the microphone had clearly interviewed him before because they had a relaxed interaction as she asked him about a couple of the plays he’d made during the game. The happy grin on Cole’s face as he talked made Annie realize that the way he interacted with her was how he interacted with every other woman.
She wasn’t anyone special to him.
Though that realization brought with it a wave of sadness, it was also the reminder she needed that their friendship wasn’t about her being someone special to him.
Unfortunately, that knowledge didn’t do much to halt her growing feelings for Cole. She’d just have to double down on her efforts to keep them under wraps.
“Do you think Dad would let us go to a game?” Benji asked as he sank down on the couch beside her, jostling her as he settled back into the cushions.
“I don’t know,” Annie said, honestly. “Maybe I’ll talk to Jude and see if he can figure out a plan, then present it to Dad. You know he has more sway when it comes to our safety out in public than if we make the request.”
“Yeah,” Benji grumbled as he crossed his arms, his chin sinking to his chest. “I just want to be a normal kid.”
“Benji.” Annie shook her head. “You need to appreciate what you have. There are kids out there who have to work to help support their families. Or they don’t have enough to eat. Or they don’t live in a safe environment. You are fortunate to have what you do. We are fortunate.”
“I know.” Benji’s frown didn’t lift, despite his words. “But what good is having all of that and not being able to live my life freely?”
Annie understood why he felt that way, but he had more freedom than she’d had at his age. “I’ll talk to Jude. Let me see what he says.”
“Thanks, sis,” Benji said, then drew his legs in. “I think I’m going to go home.”
“You don’t want to stay here tonight?”
Benji shook his head as he got to his feet. “I’m going to play some video games with my friends from school.”
And he preferred to do that in the theater room at the main house.
Annie set aside the dress she’d been working on and got to her feet. After walking him to the door, with Nyla following them, she gave him a hug.
“Love you, baby bro,” she said as she squeezed him tight.
“Love you too, tiny sis.”
Annie grinned as she gave him a light punch in the arm. “See you tomorrow.”
After closing the door behind him, Annie grabbed the dress and her other materials and made her way up the stairs to her bedroom and work area. She tuned in a home décor show on her television, then sat down in her favorite armchair with Nyla at her feet and picked up her work again.
However, though she usually enjoyed watching those types of shows, her thoughts that night were on Cole.
It had been a different experience to watch him play now that she’d met and interacted with him. She appreciated his athleticism more now, and she felt like she had more invested in the team when they played.
Of course, Cole was the player she cheered most enthusiastically for.
In the weeks since Cole had last been in Serenity, Benji had started school and spent time each day practicing at the gym their dad had built on the property. Andrew usually joined him, helping him hone his skills.
Benji and his team couldn’t officially practice together until the week before the season started, but he was determined to improve on his own beforehand.
The weeks had passed in much the same way they usually did for Annie, though they’d included more conversations with Cole.
She’d thought that with the basketball season getting under way, their conversations would drop off. And while they’d definitely decreased as Cole’s commitment to his team took priority, they usually exchanged messages every couple of days and still had a video chat at least once a week.
Their friendship—inexplainable as it might be—was continuing to grow. Annie didn’t question it too much, figuring it would eventually die off. Some day, Cole would find someone else to fill his time. Someone more like the attractive reporter and less like Annie with her plainer looks and simple, yet secretive, life.
As that thought sank its sharp claws into her heart, her phone chimed. When she saw Cole’s name on the screen, her heart skipped a beat. Ignoring her phone, she chose to take the call on her tablet, setting it up so that she could continue to work as they talked.
As Cole’s face filled the screen, the thought crossed Annie’s mind that while the reporter might have had Cole’s attention for the interview following the game, Annie had it now.