CHAPTER TWELVE
Annie walked into the church with Dawn at her side. She was feeling much better than she had been a few days earlier, so she’d decided to come to the kickoff for the women’s Bible study.
“Is it in the basement?” Dawn asked when they stepped into the empty foyer.
“Yep.” Annie gestured to a whiteboard propped up on an easel that was decorated to direct them to the lower foyer.
She heard women’s voices before they reached the lower floor, so they were in the right place. They stepped into the large open area to find that it had been sectioned off by a retractable wall. It created a smaller, more intimate environment for the six tables that had been set up.
“Hi, Annie,” Lexi said as she approached them. “How are you doing, Dawn?”
“I’m doing fine,” Dawn said. “How about you?”
“I’m good.” Lexi looked back at Annie. “Are you feeling back to one hundred percent? Wilder said Cole had mentioned that you weren’t feeling well.”
“I came down with the flu,” Annie said. “But thankfully, some rest and good meds have helped me get back on my feet.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
Annie had no idea where she’d picked up the bug, but as soon as she’d gotten sick, her dad had flown his doctor and his staff out on a private jet to Coeur d’Alene, then a helicopter had brought them to the property at Serenity Point.
Such a response hadn’t been unexpected. Her dad reacted that way whenever any of them got sick. It still didn’t make it feel less like it was overkill. However, Annie had to admit that whatever the doctor had given her had helped her recover.
She’d felt like death warmed over for the first few days. But now, just a week later, she nearly felt back to normal.
“Do you want to sit with us?” Lexi asked as she gestured to where Rori and Kelsey sat, two more of the Halversons’ daughters-in-law.
“Sure.” Annie was glad for the invitation because even though she’d been attending the church for awhile now, she hadn’t really made many connections.
“I’m glad you two could make it out,” Rori said with a warm smile when they sat down at the table.
“It looks like they’re expecting a decent turnout,” Dawn commented as she looked around.
Rori nodded. “There’s been a good response to starting up the study this year, so we’re excited.”
“Rori is helping to lead one of the studies,” Lexi said.
“I’ve never done anything like this before, but Lee encouraged me to give it a try.”
“I’m sure you’ll do a great job,” Kelsey said. “They wouldn’t have agreed to let you lead if they didn’t think you were qualified.”
Annie could tell that Kelsey and Rori were close, and she felt a bit envious of their friendship. Right now, the two women she was closest to were Dawn and Lexi. She and Lexi shared an interest in clothing design and creation, but beyond that, they didn’t have much in common.
They hadn’t been seated long before plates of goodies and tea and coffee pots were placed on the tables. Each table had been set up with a linen cloth and a small floral centerpiece. A small China plate and cup and saucer had been placed at each seat.
They’d gone to a lot of effort for the evening, and Annie was glad that she’d decided to come. Dawn could have just waited in the parking lot, but she’d seemed interested in the study as well.
“Welcome, ladies,” a middle-aged woman said. She held a microphone in one hand as she smiled at them. “I’m Alice Kennedy, for those who don’t know me. I’m the wife of Pastor Kennedy. And I’m so glad to see each one of you here.”
She then said a prayer to open their time together before she introduced the study they’d be using.
“We’re going to have two study groups, though they’ll both be using the same material,” Alice said. “We’re going to have one at ten o’clock on Tuesday mornings. That one will have care available for infant and pre-school-age children. The second one will be Thursday evening at seven. We don’t plan to have childcare available for that one, but if it should become necessary, we’ll revisit that decision.”
Annie figured that she’d come to the daytime one. It was better for her, and would probably make her dad happy since she wouldn’t be venturing out at night. He never liked when she did that.
“We were pleased to have a lot of interest expressed when we put out the plea for women to pray about becoming a Bible study leader. Because of that, we’ve been able to come up with three leaders for each study. Some of you might be wondering why we didn’t just have more studies. To help explain our plan, I’d like to ask Charli Madden to join me.”
Charli got up from her seat and went to where Alice stood. The older woman gave her a hug, then handed the microphone to her.
“Before I explain what we hope to do, I’d like to introduce myself,” Charli said. “I’m Charli Madden. I’m a former schoolteacher turned stay-at-home mom. My husband, Blake and I are parents of five children. Three girls and two boys. I’m going to be one of the leaders of the daytime study.
“Miss Alice is very cognizant of how busy women’s lives can be. So when she brought together those of us who had expressed an interest in leading the study, she made it clear that she understood that our families and jobs would come first. Because of that, she wanted to spread the responsibility of leadership over two or three women. As it turned out, there was enough interest for us to have three women per study who will rotate leading each week.
“I’d like to ask each of those women to come up here with me and introduce themselves.”
Rori got up, as did four other women. They lined up beside Charli and Alice. Over the next few minutes, each woman shared a bit about themselves. They were an eclectic group representing a variety of ages and a variety of stages of life.
Through all the talking, Annie and the other ladies had been drinking their beverage of choice and indulging in some very delicious treats. Annie hadn’t had much of an appetite while she was sick, and even now, she wasn’t eating like she normally would. The sweet treats, however, were definitely worth eating more than just one.
She hadn’t told Cole where she was going that evening, though she wasn’t sure why not. It wasn’t like he didn’t know that she attended church. They’d both attended services during the summer when he’d been in Serenity.
Of all the things they’d talked about, God hadn’t been one of them. She wanted to, though. It felt like it was an important conversation to have with him.
“We’ll have you sign up for the study you plan to attend just to give us an idea of what to expect for group sizes,” Alice said once the introductions were done. “But that doesn’t mean you have to stick to it if you find that the one you initially chose doesn’t work well for your schedule. We just want you to attend.”
“When you sign up, you’ll be given a copy of the study book we’ll be using so that you can start reading the first chapter,” Charli added.
“I want to thank each of you for coming out this evening,” Alice said. “And I hope that you’ll hang around for a bit to socialize and eat the delicious treats that several ladies in the church made for us this evening.”
After Alice closed the meeting in prayer, Rori returned to their table. Discussion quickly turned to which of the studies they’d each be attending.
“I’ll probably go to the morning one,” Annie said when Rori asked her.
“That’s great,” Rori responded with a smile. “That’s the one Charli and I will be co-leading with Ruth.”
Annie figured she might be one of the only ones to attend the daytime study who didn’t have kids. Unless there were older women who preferred going out during the day over nighttime.
Of course, Dawn would be there too.
“Have you talked to Cole lately?” Rori asked.
Annie froze, aware that Dawn was listening to their conversation. She really didn’t want her dad to know how much contact she actually had with Cole. And Dawn would be honest with him or Jude if they asked her what she knew about Annie’s interactions with Cole.
“Does yelling at the television count?” Annie asked.
Rori’s brows rose. “Yelling at the television?”
“Yep. If that counts, then I talked to him last night.”
Lexi started to laugh. “Wilder does the same thing.”
“Even though Cole is the professional, somehow Benji and I think we know what he should do sometimes.”
“Shoot the ball!” Lexi whispered-shouted as she cupped her hands around her mouth. “Shoot. The. Ball!”
“Exactly,” Annie said. “Sometimes he listens. Sometimes he doesn’t.”
“Sounds like all my brothers,” Charli said with a laugh. “And my husband.”
That started the women at the table sharing about humorous communication efforts with the men in their lives. Annie breathed a sigh of relief as the conversation moved on from her and Cole.
Hopefully Dawn hadn’t realized what Annie had done with her misdirection. At least she hadn’t had to lie.
Once people began to leave, Annie stayed a bit longer to help clean up, then she and Dawn took their newly acquired Bible study books and made their way back to the car.
“So you’re sticking close to home tomorrow?” Dawn asked as they headed out of town.
“Yep.”
“I have an appointment in the morning, so if that changes, you’ll have to take Andrew or Lucy with you.”
Annie grimaced at the name. As much as she and Dawn got along, she and Lucy did not.
The woman was much more rigid in how she approached Annie’s security. While Annie could appreciate that Lucy was just trying to do her job, she made things miserable for Annie.
She’d told Jude that she only wanted Lucy when absolutely necessary. If he’d insisted on her taking Lucy instead of Dawn, Annie let him know that she’d make things more difficult all around.
Since Jude had taken her threat seriously and given her Dawn full time, Annie tried not to make things about her own security too difficult.
Well, previously, she hadn’t.
Now that she was finding being so closely guarded by anyone a challenge, she was afraid that she wasn’t going to be quite as easygoing about things.
“I won’t be going anywhere,” Annie assured her.
“Also, you know you don’t have to hide that you’re talking to Cole.”
Oh, she wasn’t going to fall for that. Not a chance. “I know. But seriously, why would someone like Cole ever want to spend any amount of time chatting with someone like me? Haven’t you seen the type of women professional athletes prefer?”
Her question was only partly an effort to divert Dawn again. She was still really perplexed that Cole had persisted in keeping in contact with her. And that he genuinely seemed to care about her. Unless she’d misread his concern during their conversation when she hadn’t been feeling well.
“Don’t sell yourself short, Annie,” Dawn said. “You’re amazing.”
“Thanks,” Annie said with a roll of her eyes. “Do you know that the women Cole has dated in the past have also been amazing? Amazingly beautiful.”
Dawn snickered, then said, “You’re not chopped liver, you know.”
“I’m aware.”
Annie often wondered why she hadn’t inherited her mom’s beauty. She had been a model, which was no doubt why her dad had married her. But maybe he’d realized that there was more to beauty than just what he could see because Elizabeth wasn’t a model, though she certainly was attractive.
“Do you think there’s any chance Cole knows who Dad is?”
“What?”
Annie winced, realizing her mistake. “Just wondering if he did start to show an interest in me or started paying a lot more attention to Benji, if it might be because he knew who our dad is.”
“I don’t get that feeling from him,” Dawn said. “He really doesn’t strike me as that sort of guy.”
Annie didn’t get that feeling either, but she didn’t have a whole lot of experience with guys. It was one of the reasons she had a lot of trouble figuring out what Cole’s intentions might be. The last thing she wanted to do was misunderstand something and make their friendship awkward.
She wished that she had someone she could confide in. Unfortunately, at the moment, every woman in her life was either connected to her dad or to Cole.
In her mind, she’d always known that her life was incredibly insular. Her closest relationships, outside of her family, were with people her dad had paid to spend time with her.
Her tutors. Their housekeepers. The security personnel. She’d never had a relationship with someone who looked at her and said to themselves, hey, I want to spend more time with her because I think she’s a nice person.
Instead, they were spending time with her because they wanted a paycheck. Which, for the longest time, had been fine because she hadn’t realized what she was missing.
Now, however, she’d witnessed friendships and relationships that made her realize that she had a hole in her life that she hadn’t known was there.
She didn’t think she’d ever be a person who had tons of friends, but she was at the point in her life when she’d like to have at least one.
How could she even have that, though, when she couldn’t reveal much about her life to anyone?
When they got back to the property, Annie said goodbye to Dawn, then continued on to her house with Nyla. After she let herself into the house, she pressed the button on the app on her phone that secured the entire house. All the doors automatically locked, and the security blinds lowered over the windows.
It was overkill, in her estimation, but if she didn’t do it, someone at the security office would press a button and do it. She didn’t want that because such an action would feel like she was being robbed of what little control she had.
After checking that Nyla had water in her bowl, Annie made herself a cup of tea. Since she’d been sick, she’d been drinking more tea in hopes of strengthening her immune system.
Taking her mug, she made her way upstairs with Nyla on her heels. She didn’t always work in the evenings, but right then, her thoughts were in a bit of a muddle. Keeping her hands busy while she thought over things felt more productive than ignoring it all by watching television or crawling into bed to toss and turn.
Between sips of tea, she cut out a sleep sack from some beautifully soft material that she’d ordered that had come in while she was sick, while worship music played softly in the background. As she worked on the garment, she said a prayer for the child who would one day wear it, then set her thoughts free to work through what she was feeling.
Her phone chimed with an incoming video call, bringing a smile to her face. She answered on her tablet and set it up to the side of her project.
“Hey,” Cole said, as his face filled the screen. “How’s it going?”
“It’s going well.” She lifted the pieces she was pinning together. “I’m making a sleep sack.”
“Is that one of the things I bought?”
Annie smiled. “Yep. It’s for the baby to sleep in since they’re not supposed to use blankets in their cribs.”
“They’re not? Clearly I’m not as up-to-date on what babies need as other people.”
“You haven’t needed to be.”
“You haven’t needed to be either,” Cole pointed out. “And yet you know all about it.”
“I learned a lot about it when Mom had Benji. That’s where I got interested in stuff like this.”
“And now you’re doing ice skating costumes.”
“Well, just one so far.”
“Amelia is probably going to want more than just one, since you did such a great job on it.”
“She did an ice test with it while I was sick, and it seems like it worked out okay.”
“Has she worn it for a competition yet?”
“No, but she has one coming up this weekend that I think she’s going to wear it for.”
Annie usually kept working as they chatted, but this time, she couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off Cole. He was relaxed back against whatever chair he was sitting in, and it appeared that he was wearing his team T-shirt.
“Do you think you and Benji might want to come to LA for a home game?” he asked.
Annie straightened a little at his words. She wanted to immediately say yes, but she knew it was going to be more complicated than that for them.
“When were you thinking?” she asked.
“I can send you the schedule and you can check over which dates might work for you.”
She wanted to ask if it would be okay if Andrew and Dawn came with them, but she bit her tongue. Their presence was going to be a non-negotiable for Jude and her dad, so she’d have to ask about including them eventually, but it could wait since asking first off might appear a bit weird.
“That would be great. I’ll have to ask my parents if Benji can go. They have to give permission before I can take him anywhere.”
“I expected as much, which is why I’m open to whatever date might work for you. If you pick a home game where we have a couple of days before or after without travel or a game, I could spend some time with you.”
“Dad might let Benji take a day or two off school, depending on what sort of mood he’s in and how Benji’s grades are.”
Cole chuckled. “Maybe it would be a good incentive to keep his grades up.”
“Probably.” Although the current incentive seemed to work pretty well, which was that he’d be out of school and back with a tutor if he didn’t keep his grades up. Thankfully, Benji was naturally smart, so it wasn’t a hardship.
“Any big plans for the rest of the week?” Cole asked.
He’d asked the question before, and it always made her feel like she was a super boring person because she usually didn’t have much going on beyond sewing. However, that week, she had something else to do.
“I’m going to Coeur d’Alene on Thursday afternoon to drop off some stuff at the women’s shelter there.”
“Do you do that often?”
“Usually once a month.”
“Do you make stuff specifically for the shelter?”
“Yes, or sometimes if I have stock that hasn’t sold in awhile, I’ll donate that too.”
She hadn’t told him that she also took a check that equaled everything she’d earned during the previous month, plus personal funds she added to match it.
Sliding off her chair, she went to the stacks of folded clothing at the far end of her worktable. Sliding them carefully across the smooth surface, she moved them to the front of her tablet.
“Here’s what I’m taking tomorrow. It’s mainly mittens, scarves and hats. Mostly for kids, but there’s some stuff for the women as well. I also take a bunch of personal hygiene products for the shelter to give to the women.”
Cole stared at her for a moment, then sat forward. “Would you be interested in attending a fundraiser dinner with me for a charity that I’ve partnered with?”
Annie froze. There was nothing she’d like more, but right then, such a thing felt impossible. How would she ever be able to convince her dad that it would be fine? She didn’t think she could.
But did he have to know?
“When is it?”
“It’s in November,” he said. “If you came for the home game the weekend before Thanksgiving, you could attend the banquet at the same time since it’s that weekend too.”
That might make it easier to pull it off. However, she still couldn’t commit. She had to think it through.
“I’ll see how the schedule works out and if my parents will give Benji permission to go then.”
Did she really, really want to step into Cole’s world? Especially since she still wasn’t one hundred percent certain where they stood in their relationship?
“Well, at least you didn’t outright say no,” Cole said, a smile wreathing his face. “Maybe is good enough for now.”
Would he really have been disappointed if she had turned him down right away?
Maybe it wouldn’t be her dad that would end up keeping her from attending that gala with Cole. It might very well be her own self-doubt.