Chapter Twenty-Six
Annabelle
Iraced upstairs the second Bruce and Marie showed up, just before six. I'd washed my hair early that morning and left it twisted in a bun, knowing I wouldn't have time to deal with it before Chase picked me up.
Jumping in the shower, I washed off the day and slathered on lotion before I took down my bun and hit my still damp hair with a blast from the dryer, pulling the brush through it in quick jerks, feeling the clock tick as every second passed.
This was our first real date. Kind of. The wedding had not been a date. We might have ended up in bed, but we'd gone as friends. I wasn't sorry it had happened, but it hadn't been the plan.
Tonight, Chase was picking me up at my door and he'd invited me in advance. It was a family dinner, true. Not exactly first date territory. And they were his family, not mine, even though I'd known them longer than he had.
All of that aside, in my heart, this was a date, and I had no intention of meeting Chase at the door with sweaty armpits and limp hair that smelled like coffee grounds. He'd seen me like that enough.
I slapped on some makeup, yanked my dress over my body—still sticky with lotion—and fastened my earrings just in time to hear his voice at the bottom of the stairs calling out my name.
"Just a second."
Shoes. I had shoes here somewhere. I'd even picked them out in advance and set them aside. Ugh, so what were they doing under my bed?
Never mind.
I snagged the pair of high heeled, open-toed sandals I'd bought on a whim and barely worn.
Some women could wear heels all day and look like they were born doing it. I was not that woman. I wore sneakers, and my feet were still killing me by the time I closed up at night. Doing that in heels? No flipping way.
I always marveled at Violet's shoes when she stopped in the café. She strode in on those skyscraper heels and I would have bet she could run a marathon in them if she needed to. That took serious skill.
I clattered down the stairs, spilling through the doorway and almost bumping into Chase before I froze.
I was used to him in jeans and a T-shirt. I loved the way he looked in jeans and a T-shirt. The way his shirts weren't too tight but still hugged his shoulders. How his faded jeans let me ogle every inch of his spectacular ass.
I'd seen him in a suit once, for the wedding, and he'd been so crazy hot he'd made my mouth go dry. Tonight, he wore jeans with a blue button-down that almost exactly matched his eyes.
My mouth watered, and I imagined slipping those buttons open, one by one, baring his chest so I could trace the lines of his circuit board tattoo with my tongue. I remembered that tattoo.
I remembered every inch of him in vivid detail.
I was so wrapped up in staring at Chase, I didn't notice the look on his face until I reached for his hand and he didn't move.
His eyes wide, he scanned me from head to toe and back again. At the heat in his eyes, I flushed.
"Do you like it? I asked, gesturing down at my dress. It wasn't much; a simple sundress with spaghetti straps, a sweetheart neckline and a full skirt. Simply cut, the style was classic and reminiscent of a forties silhouette.
I didn't have many curves, but the sundress made the most of my narrow waist and small breasts.
Chase reached up to tuck my hair behind my ear. "You look beautiful. Really, really beautiful."
"Thanks," I said, angling my face up to his.
To my disappointment, he didn't kiss me, just took my hand and led me through the back door to his parked car.
He held my hand all the way to Winters House, his thumb rubbing mine absently as he drove.
The whole family was already there, gathered in the formal living room. A small bar had been set up in the entry hall. A uniformed waiter circulated, silver tray in hand.
Waiting for Chase to get us drinks, I hovered at the door to the room, taking in the scene.
Now that they'd all paired off, the assembled Winters family was quite a crowd. The youngest male Winters, Holden and Tate, were there, Holden with his fiancée Jo, and Tate with his wife Emily.
They were both a few years younger than me, and I would have bet they weren't going to settle down until they were at least Aiden's age. They'd spent their twenties working their way through all the willing young things in Atlanta.
All of the Winters were adept at fending off fortune hunters, but Holden and Tate had made an art out of helping themselves to what they wanted and skating away with nary an engagement ring in sight.
I'd never imagined either of them falling in love, to be honest. They were too interested in their company, too focused on working hard and playing harder.
And if they fell, I never would have picked Jo or Emily. Too much substance. Way too much between the ears. I always figured they'd go for empty-headed beauty queens or a nice matching pair of debutantes.
I'd underestimated them. Jo and Emily both had masters degrees in computer science. After much argument and debate, Tate had finally talked Emily into taking a position at Winters Gaming Corp., the company he and Holden ran together.
Holden's fiancée, Josephine, worked on some kind of technology using Bluetooth to help the blind. Honestly, I didn't really understand it.
They'd both met their girls and fallen head over heels in a matter of days, going from confirmed bachelors to settled men in a heartbeat, and they couldn't have been happier about it.
Charlie, the baby of the family, was another one I hadn't seen coming.
She stood across the room, laughing, her ocean blue eyes sparkling as she looked up at her husband and sipped a glass of champagne.
He held a whiskey and said something that drew a mock scowl from Aiden and another laugh from Charlie.
Only a year ago she'd been utterly miserable and pretending to be anything but. We'd all known she'd hated her job at Winters, Inc., but she'd refused to leave Aiden as the only Winters at the company.
That was Charlie. Loyalty to family above all else.
She had been so loyal—and so miserable—Aiden had fired her to force her to change.
She'd moved into the dump of the house she'd bought in the Highlands, planning to renovate it at some point.
When she thought she was going to do that while she worked eighty hour weeks no one knew, especially Charlie.
But suddenly she had nothing but time, and wouldn't you know, she also had a very hot neighbor. Lucas Jackson had fixed up the house next door to Charlie's. They'd bonded over a very expensive bottle of whiskey she'd stolen from Aiden in revenge for her firing. Bonded, kissed, and…
Well, we know where that ended up. Across the room, a child giggled, the first Winters baby since Charlie had been born more than a quarter-century before.
Vance held his daughter on his hip, smiling indulgently at her as she tugged at his long hair and blew enthusiastically messy raspberries into his neck.
I could have told you Vance and Maggie were going to end up together.
Both of them would have denied it when she first started working for him.
Vance had been a mess, Maggie engaged to a loser almost as bad as Tommy, but I'd seen the way Vance looked at her when she wasn't watching. I'd also noticed her looking back.
No one had expected little Rosalie to drop into their lives and turn everything upside down. I never would have guessed Vance would take to fatherhood the way he had. Watching him cuddle his little girl into his chest, letting her climb him like a monkey, I marveled at the way life could change.
Four years ago, he'd been an alcoholic, drinking his life down the drain, blistered with anger and frustration, running from the past straight to the bottom of a bottle. Now he was happily married to Maggie, head over heels in love with his wife and his daughter.
Sophie, tucked into Gage’s side, gazed at little Rosie with wistful longing. Her husband, always tuned into all things Sophie, followed her eyes and smiled at his niece, whispering something in Sophie’s ear that brought a flush of pink to her cheeks.
I never thought I’d see this side of Gage again. He’d disappeared from our lives for so long. Only weeks after Hugh and Olivia Winters had been murdered, Gage joined the Army and left home.
We thought he'd come back after a few years, but he'd stayed in, going further and further off the grid until we didn't even know if he was still in the Army. If he was still alive.
Aiden seemed to age a decade the day the Army told him Gage was missing, presumed dead. When he'd finally made it back, he hadn't been the Gage we'd known.
But Sophie, Great-Aunt Amelia's nurse and a source of endless patience, of boundless kindness, had eased what was broken inside him. In return, he loved her with a fierce protectiveness.
Even now, safe among family, he stood beside her, his arm around her waist, tucking her small frame into his much bigger one. He'd almost lost her once, and he wasn't taking any chances.
Chase handed me my beer and took my hand, drawing me further into the room. Lise, my Lise, my best friend since I was a little girl, spotted me. With a wide grin, she practically skipped across the room to pull me into a hug. Riley trailed behind her.
“You came," she said, squeezing me tight.
"I told you I was coming," I said.
"I know you did, but you left the café early. You never leave the café early."
"Well," I shrugged a shoulder a little embarrassed, "I'm turning over a new leaf. I'm experimenting with having a life."
"Yeah?" Lise asked, her eyes popping from me to Chase holding my hand. "How's that working out for you?"
I looked at Chase, feeling a goofy smile stretch across my face at the warmth in his blue eyes.
"So far, I think it's working out pretty well."