Текст книги "The Rocker Who Betrays Me"

Автор книги: Terri Browning

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Текущая страница: 3 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

He stood and picked up the tray that had our trash on it. He was back from throwing it away before I could get to my feet. Zander took my hand and linked our fingers as he headed for the door. I glanced over my shoulder as we waited for a few other people to enter The Burger Shack to glance at Noah and Chelsea. My friend waved and I lifted my free hand to wave back, but Noah was watching me with narrowed eyes. That look made me glad that we were going for ice cream and not sticking around. I didn’t need Noah going all brother-bear on Zander.

Outside, the night air was turning cooler and the scent of rain was on the wind. Zander stopped by the passenger door to his truck and while he opened the door for me I closed my eyes and enjoyed the clean fragrance. I’d always loved the rain, even the thunder and lightning. For me it was calming. The rain could wash away the past, while the thunder and lightning seemed to energize me.

Zander tugged on my fingers and I opened my eyes to find him staring down at me with an odd expression on his sinfully sexy face. The lighting was too dim for me to see his eyes, but at a guess I would have said they were green with those damn gold flecks flaming down at me. My heart jumped in my chest, excitement making my blood practically sing.

I didn’t dare blink for fear of making him step away from me. Kiss me. Please, kiss me. 

An old farm truck backfired as it left the parking lot, causing me to jump. Zander shook his head, as if he was trying to clear it, and then smiled down at me a little sadly. I wanted to cry, feeling like I’d lost out on something special. “What flavor do you want?” he asked as he helped me into the truck.

“I don’t know,” I told him honestly. Ice cream had been the furthest thing from my mind just then.

He closed the door and came around the truck to get in behind the wheel. “Let’s get several and share, then,” he suggested as he started backing up.

“Okay.”

It was barely a two-minute drive down the street to the little ice cream shop that had been open back when my dad was a little boy. The owners were an older married couple and they both greeted us when we walked into their shop. They had only ever sold seven flavors, but every now and then they would get a new flavor in by accident. Butter pecan was my favorite and the old couple always made sure they had some on hand.

Mrs. Welsh smiled fondly at Zander as he glanced from one flavor to the next. She and her husband were one of the few people in West Bridge who didn’t look down their noses at him because of his OCD. “How are your grandparents, Zander dear?”

Zander met the old lady’s gaze and smiled. “They’re good, ma’am. Thanks for asking.”

“What would you like, Annabelle?” Mr. Welsh asked as he grabbed an ice cream scoop. “The butter pecan is calling your name, I bet.”

I grinned over the counter at him. “I think we’ll take two scoops of everything, Mr. Welsh. Two spoons, please.”

Zander turned to face me as Mr. Welsh scooped up the ice cream into one large, disposable dish for us. “You are the only chick that gets me, Anna.”

I felt my cheeks fill with pink from the sheer pleasure that little statement gave me, but I shrugged off his compliment in hopes he wouldn’t see my blush. “That’s why we’re such good friends, Z.”

“You’re my best friend, Anna.”

I lifted a brow at that. “Not Dev or Noah?”

He shook his head. “No, babe. Neither one of them get me like you do. I never talk to them like I talk to you. Without you, I’d probably lose what is left of my mind.”

My heart turned over. “Zander…”

“Here you go, kids.” Mr. Welsh set the dish loaded with ice cream on the counter, pulling Zander’s attention away.

He paid for the dessert and we went over to the toppings station. I grabbed the can of whipped cream while Zander drowned most of our ice cream in hot fudge sauce, nuts, marshmallow cream, and gummy bears. As I started to cover the dish in the whipped cream, I noticed that he had made sure to leave the butter pecan alone when he’d been putting on the toppings.

It wasn’t that I got Zander so much; he got me, too. He knew what I liked and didn’t. He was so considerate, so gentle and caring. It hadn’t been hard to fall for him. Unfortunately, I kept falling a little more every day.

 

C HAPER F OUR

Zander

Tell her.

That damned voice in the back of my head kept whispering those two words over and over again. Wanting me to confess, needing to prepare her for what would happen when she went in to work the next morning.

I couldn’t force the words out, however. I knew that if I told her what I’d done—that I’d gone over her head and told Noah exactly what was going on in her house—she would think I had betrayed her. I’d promised her repeatedly that I wouldn’t go to Noah¸ but I couldn’t let things continue the way they were at home. If something happened to her and I hadn’t done everything in my power to make sure she was safe…

I punched the side of the bed and glared up at the ceiling. Just the thought of her getting hurt made me insane. My fucked-up mind couldn’t deal with it and I wanted to destroy something.

From my connecting bathroom I heard the water turn off and tried to relax, not wanting her to worry. I’d convinced her to shower here rather than sneaking into her house to do it. Since it was Friday night I knew my grandparents wouldn’t think twice about me taking a shower so late. I was usually out until early morning because of OtherWorld’s gig and they were used to me showering when I got home.

That is if they actually happened to hear anything at all. They both wore hearing aids and took them out when they went to bed. That was one of the reasons I hadn’t moved out when I’d graduated high school. Devlin and I had even talked about renting a house or something together, but I hadn’t wanted to leave Gram and Gramps vulnerable like that. What if someone broke in and they didn’t hear anything? They could get hurt and I would seriously lose my shit then.

The other reason I’d decided to stay was because I knew Gram needed some help paying for her medication. It was so expensive that she’d been known to go without just so she could instead buy groceries when I was younger. Now that I was working full time and getting a decent paycheck every week, I was able to help her with that. I paid most of the bills so she didn’t have to worry about whether or not she had her blood pressure medication or electricity that month.

The bathroom door opened and Annabelle stepped out dressed in one of my T-shirts and a pair of boxers. All other thoughts evaporated from my mind at the sight of her like that. Her long, platinum-blond hair was hanging around her face in wet tangles. The shirt I’d loaned her fell to mid-thigh, practically swallowing her small frame up. The old, black boxers I’d given her to sleep in peeked out from under the shirt as she walked toward the bed.

I quickly sat up and pulled one of the pillows over my crotch to hide the evidence of my raging hard-on. She flopped down on the bed beside me, turned on her stomach and scrunched the pillow under her head. She looked tired, but no less beautiful.

Tell her.

My mouth remained closed. If I told her, and she got upset, I wasn’t sure how I would handle it. Would she stop trusting me? Stop sneaking through my window when she needed me? Would I lose her?

Clenching my jaw, I reached out and turned off the lamp beside my bed before lying down next to her. She was quiet, way too quiet for Annabelle. Concerned, I reached over and pushed her long, damp hair back from her face. A streetlight and the moon were both shining through my window, giving her skin an ethereal glow. “What’s wrong?” I whispered.

“Just tired,” she murmured, but I could tell she was lying. She might have been tried, but there was something on her mind. I could practically see the wheels in her mind turning.

“Talk to me, babe. You know you can tell me anything.” And I won’t tell Noah unless I have to. I gritted my teeth as that damn voice taunted me. Guilt was eating me alive, but I knew I’d done the right thing. I just hoped she would see it that way.

Her lips lifted in a small smile that didn’t reach those baby-blue eyes that fucking owned me. “I’m just being silly, Z. Honest, I’m fine.”

Without thinking, I cupped her cheek in one hand. “I’d walk through hell for you, you know that, right?” Please remember that tomorrow, I mentally willed her.

She turned her face into my palm. Her eyes closed and she smiled a little bigger. “Me too, Z. Me too.”

“Come here,” I muttered and pulled her closer. She turned on her side and pillowed her head on my shoulder. Fuck, that felt good. It felt so fucking perfect. Like she belonged there. One of her slender arms draped over my stomach and I brushed a kiss across the top of her head. “Goodnight, Anna.”

“Night, Z.” She yawned and her eyes closed sleepily.

I laid there for hours just listening to the sound of her breathing. Even with the guilt churning in my gut, my fucked-up mind was calm. Over the last few months I’d realized that she brought me peace. I wasn’t up twisting the doorknob fourteen times, or closing my dresser drawer fourteen times, or turning off the bathroom light—yeah, fourteen times. With her, like this, I didn’t feel like my mind was broken. I was able to see past the obsessions and think clearly.

I couldn’t tell you when my OCD first started messing with my life. I couldn’t remember a time when it hadn’t affected it. Even in kindergarten kids would whisper about me. Parents hadn’t wanted me to play with their kids; either they were too much of a bigot or scared I would rub my OCD off on their special little brats. It hadn’t really mattered that much to me.

I’d had Noah and Devlin from the time I could walk, and then Annabelle, followed almost just as quickly by Noah’s girlfriend, Chelsea. I hadn’t needed anyone else. A few years back, Liam had moved to West Bridge because his old man had died. With Liam I’d gotten two more friends to add to my short list since he’d brought Wroth into our little group. Well, I guess three if you counted Marissa, but she was still too young to understand that I was broken. One day she would and who knew what would happen then. She might be just like those other fuckers who looked down their noses at me, or she might be just as amazing as Annabelle and would look past my fucked-up mind.

I considered myself lucky to have all of them as friends, but I knew if I had to give them all up it would be Annabelle I would miss the most. Just thinking about being without her was enough to make me feel like there was a boulder sitting on my chest, making it almost impossible to breathe.

By morning I might have to face life without her. That was the scariest thing I’d ever have to face. Ten times more terrifying than Wroth Niall in a rage and being the one he was ready to tear apart.

I sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm my heartrate. She wouldn’t hate me for long. She couldn’t stay mad forever. I’d find a way for her to see it from my point of view. I had to keep telling myself those things over and over until I was finally able to relax once more. Tightening my arms around her, I brushed a kiss across her forehead and breathed in the fragrance of my shampoo in her hair.

Before I was ready, my eyes began to grow heavy and I was drifting off to sleep…

She was gone when I opened my eyes the next morning. I pushed down the disappointment and got out of bed, knowing that Gram would come looking for me if I wasn’t out of bed in time for breakfast.

I sat down at the table with my grandparents and ate the food that Gram placed in front of me, but I didn’t taste any of it. Gram asked me twice if I was feeling okay, and I forced a smile and assured her I was fine. The concern in her hazel eyes told me she didn’t believe me, but I wasn’t about to blurt out what was bothering me.

Gram loved Annabelle and she would skin my hide if she knew I’d done something to hurt her. I couldn’t tell her the reasons why I’d broken a promise to the girl who was more my best friend than anyone else on the planet. There would be an all-out war between my grandparents and Mrs. Cassidy-Malcolm. Annabelle would get put in the middle, and she would end up hating me even more than I suspected she already did.

Or would, once she talked to Noah.

Gramps was always grumbling about the grass and having to mow it. I didn’t know why he was so fussy about it because I’d been mowing it since I was twelve. After breakfast I went out to get the yard work done before he could open his mouth about it. By the time I came back in, just a little over an hour later, Gram had a glass of her sweet tea waiting for me.

I gulped it down, enjoying the sugar shock to my system that always came with a glass of Gram’s special sweat tea, before heading back to my room and grabbing a quick shower. I was just pulling a clean shirt over my head when my bedroom door opened and Devlin walked in. He barely glanced at me before flopping down on my bed.

I caught the pillow he threw at my head easily. “Thought you and Liam were going fishing this morning?” At least, that’s where he and Liam usually spent their Saturday mornings.

Devlin clenched his jaw. “That was the plan until Tawny called him and asked him to drive her to Nashville.”

I swallowed back a curse and dropped down on the edge of the bed to put on my boots. “That bitch is trouble.” Liam and Devlin were normally inseparable on the weekends. Well, before Tawny came into Liam’s life. Now Liam was ditching Devlin and anyone else for that stupid coke whore.

“Yup.”

I combed my fingers through my damp hair and stood. “So what do you want to do?”

“Wroth said he was putting hay in the barn today. Want to go out there and give him a hand? See if Mary Beth made one of those cherry pies?” He grinned as he sat up on my bed. “I could really go for a slice of one of her pies.”

I was up for anything that didn’t involve us going near the garage. Maybe I was acting like a pussy, but I wasn’t ready to face Annabelle if she was going to hate me. It would be best to let her temper cool off a little before I saw her again. I’d even go out to the Niall’s farm and carry heavy-ass bales of hay to avoid a confrontation with her.

I grabbed the keys to my truck and called a goodbye to Gram as we headed out the back door. “I probably won’t be back for dinner,” I told her. “We’re going out to the Niall’s farm to help out.”

Gram smiled fondly up at me, and my heart twisted with love for the little wrinkled-face lady who had raised me. “You two are good boys. Tell Mary Beth I said hello.”

It was a twenty-minute drive out to the farm. Devlin spent the time trying to find something decent to listen to on the radio, but our only radio station only played old country music. We were close enough to Nashville to get some of their stations, but the closer we got to the farm the less of a signal we got until we were mostly just listening to static. Frustrated, I turned the damn thing off and we were silent for the last five minutes of the ride.

Wroth’s farm was one of the largest in the county, but a few years before, his father had nearly lost it to the bank. Wroth had enlisted in the marines and used his sign-on bonus to get his old man caught up on their mortgage. While he was away, he’d sent money home as often as possible to help keep it running, but it had been Liam who had helped out the most. He’d worked at the garage part time, helping Devlin’s dad work on engines. After Wroth had come home from his deployment, however, he’d quit the garage.

Of course that was the same time he’d started dating Tawny. Fuck, if there was ever a chick I hated it would have been that bitch. She was sucking all the good out of my friend and turning him into a person I didn’t recognize anymore.

I drove past the old farmhouse about half a mile before I reached the barn. Wroth was standing on the back of his truck surrounded by huge bales of hay that he’d cut and baled himself over the last few days. Stopping a few feet away from the other truck, I got out and walked toward the barn with Devlin.

“Zander! Devlin!”

I couldn’t help but grin at the excitement in Marissa’s sweet little voice. She was standing in the barn entrance with an orange kitten in her arms. Liam’s little sister was nine and was always following Wroth around. You would think that someone as scary looking as Wroth would terrify any kid who went near him. That wasn’t the case with Marissa. She might have been the only person alive who didn’t cringe at the sound of his beast-like voice or cower when he went all rage-monster. I was pretty sure that Marissa was the only person Wroth actually cared about.

“Whatcha got there, Rissa?” Devlin asked as he scratched the kitten behind the ears. It was tiny, nothing more than a ball of fur.

“This is Peaches,” she informed him. “Wroth found her last night. He nearly ran over her with his truck. She doesn’t have a mommy, so he brought her home to me to take care of.”

I tried not to snicker at the thought of the beast known as Wroth Niall picking up a stray cat and bringing it home. I bet the poor kitten had been terrified at the sight of the ex-marine. I knew better than to speak those thoughts aloud, though. I wasn’t about to push the rage-monster’s buttons. I didn’t have a fucking death wish.

“Want some help?” I asked the beast, who was tossing bales of hay onto the ground two at a time like they were nothing.

“I’m not gonna say no, dude.”

Smirking, I started carrying the bales already on the ground inside the barn. There was already a small stack against a back wall so that was where I put the rest. After a few minutes of talking to Marissa, Devlin started helping and before long we were finished—with the first load at least. It took three more loads before the job was done.

Covered in sweat, we went down to the farmhouse for lunch with Mary Beth. As soon as we walked through the door, I knew Devlin was going to get what he came for. The smell of Mary Beth’s famous cherry pie filled the entire house, making me want to sit down and never leave.

“Marissa, put Peaches in your room, baby.” Mary Beth was running around the kitchen putting together freshly cooked roast beef sandwiches. “And wash your hands.”

“Dad not coming?” Wroth asked as he took his place at the table.

“He’s still in town. Wade is putting new brakes on the pickup.” Mary Beth set the sandwiches on the kitchen table before turning back to the fridge to take out the potato salad. I didn’t know how she did it, but she always had a batch of potato salad on hand whenever I came over. Devlin might be a sucker for her pies, but for me I’d steal Mary Beth away and marry her just for that damn potato salad.

Mr. Niall was at the garage. I couldn’t help but tense up at the thought of what was going on down there this morning. I grimaced, wondering if Annabelle hated me yet.

Fuck. I hoped not.

 

C HAPTER F IVE

Annabelle

The garage was empty when I walked into work that morning. The old Buick was gone, letting me know that Mrs. Farris had already picked up her car. I grinned to myself as I opened the door to the office.

“Thanks for handling the Buick for me,” I told Noah as I walked past the desk and into the break room to grab one of the donuts Wade always brought in on Saturday mornings.

After pouring myself a cup of the strong black coffee Noah favored, I went back into the office and sat down on the edge of the desk. I was stuffing my face with the blueberry-filled powdered donut when I glanced at my brother. He hadn’t spoken so much as a word since I’d walked through the door and that just wasn’t like my brother.

“What’s up?” I asked, causing powdered sugar to come out of my mouth in a cloud.

Noah wasn’t normally a brooding kind of person. Even when he was sick he always had a smile for me. That wasn’t the case right then. His face was so grim it looked like he’d never smiled a day in his life. His blue eyes were darker than I’d ever seen them and his jaw was clenched so hard that I worried he was going to break the crown on his back tooth he’d gotten in the fifth grade.

He just sat there, his eyes full of a mixture of emotions that confused me as he watched me. I knew instinctively that whatever was bothering him, it wasn’t good. My brother was the kind of guy who could find the good in any situation. Mostly. The look on his face right then told me that he’d come across a situation that held very little good, however.

I licked the powdered sugar and blueberry filling from the corner of my lips before wiping my mouth with the napkin I’d snatched in the break room. “You’re starting to worry me here, Noah.” I laughed, trying to break the tension that was filling up the office.

He moved so fast I nearly yelped in surprise when he grabbed hold of both my hands and held them tightly in his much bigger ones. “Why didn’t you tell me, Annabelle?” he asked in a voice rough with the same emotions that were swirling in his eyes.

Everything inside of me went still with dread. I forced a smile for him and shook my head. “Tell you what? I’m not following here, Noah.”

His hands tightened around my fingers, but what shocked me was the desperate look on his face all of a sudden. “I know, honey. I know what’s been going on at home. About Mom and Jacob. About the beatings. I know that you’ve been sleeping in Z’s bed the last few weeks. Why didn’t you tell me? Why, Annabelle?”

I closed my eyes as I was consumed with a mixture of emotions that rivaled those I’d seen in Noah’s eyes. I hadn’t wanted to tell Noah about what was going on at home because I knew he would worry and stir up trouble, not just for me but also for himself. I didn’t want to drag him into the middle of it when his relationship with our mother was tedious at best. As for his relationship with Jacob, well, let’s just say there were plenty of reasons why Noah had moved out the day after graduation. Our stepfather had been at the very top of that list.

After Mom had married Jacob, he’d thought he could jump in and take over the running of the garage. There had been dollar signs in Jacob’s eyes, but Noah had made it clear real fast that the douchebag wouldn’t touch our father’s legacy. The garage had been left to Noah and me, period. There had been no stipulation on age or even a small share of it for our mother. Two days after our father’s funeral, a lawyer had shown up with a will our dad had made.

The terms had been simple. We would inherit as long as we continued to run the garage and kept Wade on as a full-time mechanic for as long as the older man wanted the job. Having been raised to take care of the office practically from birth, both Noah and I hadn’t been concerned about keeping the garage open. Even at fourteen and sixteen, we’d been able to run the place smoothly with Wade as our mechanic. Mom had tried to contest the will, but she hadn’t made it far before a lawyer had ordered her to back off.

When Jacob had realized that he wasn’t going to be cashing in on our profits, or sell the garage—which was what I really think he’d wanted to do—he’d gone ballistic. I was sure that Jacob and Noah would have started throwing punches if Wade hadn’t stepped in. Their relationship had been tense ever since, and Noah had been counting down the days until he could get out of the house we’d both grown up in.

Noah was looking for a reason to beat the hell out of our stepdad. So, yeah, I hadn’t wanted him to know what was going on at home.

My heart clenched as I fought back tears. Don’t you dare cry, Annabelle. Not now. Not yet. If Noah knew about what was going on, and from the look on my brother’s face he probably knew it all, then there was only one person who could have told him. Pain sliced through me and I jerked my hands out of Noah’s grip and crossed to the windows.

Zander must have told him. After promising me over and over he wouldn’t, he’d gone to Noah with it. I thought I could trust him with anything, but obviously that wasn’t true. He’d shattered my trust in him, but of course he must have known that he would.

Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t. Fucking. Cry.

My mind couldn’t comprehend why he’d done it. Was he tired of me sleeping in his bed? Was my coming to him for help so often messing with his life? My heart suddenly felt like it was broken and I fell into one of the chairs by the window as I put my head in my hands, fighting the tears with a desperation that nearly stole my breath. That must have been it. Zander was tired of having to play the white knight for me. Especially when he could have been out fucking any other girl.

“Annabelle.” Noah pulled my hands from my face and I looked at him through tear-blinded eyes, but still I refused to let them fall. I was not going to cry in front of my brother over a guy I’d been stupid enough to put all my trust in. “Honey, you should have told me things were bad at home. It isn’t safe. We have to get you out of there.”

The fear of sleeping at home was nothing compared to the pain I was feeling right then. It drove home just how differently Zander felt for me than how I felt for him. To him, I was just his friend’s bothersome little sister that he had to take care of—and he no longer wanted to do that. While I…

I loved him.

“It’s fine,” I muttered. My voice was choked with the tears that I was holding back. “I’m fine. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Noah released my hands only to grasp my elbows. He made an angry sound in the back of his throat as he shook me, just enough to make me lift my eyes to meet his. “Stop it, Annabelle. Just stop it. Everything is not fine. Jacob could hurt you bad and then I’d kill the sonofabitch. For your safety and my sanity, you aren’t going home ever again. I’ll figure out something, but until I do you have to stay with me upstairs.”

“No. There’s no room.” I couldn’t let him move me in with him. I couldn’t burden him with me and my problems. I still had two weeks before I turned seventeen. Noah was nineteen and needed his own space, to live his own life. I wasn’t going to rob him of that.

“I’ll take the couch and you can have the bedroom,” he told me, determination overshadowing his blue eyes instead of the emotional cocktail I’d seen just a few minutes before. “The bus drives right by here on the way to the house, so getting to school won’t be an issue.” As he spoke, I saw his shoulders actually become less tense, as if he’d finally found the good in the situation after all.

“Noah, no.” I tried to reason with him. I couldn’t let him do this. “Mom won’t like it. She’ll be pissed and she isn’t going to let me live with you.”

“What the fuck is she gonna do, Annabelle?” he demanded. “She has no job, no income except for what we give her. Jacob’s measly little paycheck every week won’t keep her in the wine and vodka she’s so accustomed to getting every night. If she so much as opens her mouth about this, I’ll cut all that off.”

I shook off his hold on my arms. “Noah, you aren’t listening to me. Please, don’t do this. It’s only going to start trouble. You have your life to live. I can’t move in with you.”

His eyes suddenly went darker than I’d ever seen them. Big hands cupped my face tenderly, showing me loud and clear the difference between him and Jacob. My brother would never touch me with violence. Never. “You listen to me, Annabelle Marie, and you listen good. I don’t want to have to repeat myself.” I started to speak, but he quickly shushed me. “No, honey. Just listen. You are the most important person in the world to me. I would do anything for you. Anything. Keeping you safe is the only thing I care about. Don’t you ever fucking argue with me about that.”

The battle to keep my tears at bay was suddenly lost, but my tears had nothing to do with Zander right then, and everything to do with how much love I felt for my brother in that moment. I realized in that moment that our father had done an amazing job raising his son. Noah reminded me so much of Dad, not just because he and I both looked so much like him, but with his amazing heart and determination to take care of me. My brother was a man that any father would have been proud to call his own.

Seeing my tears, Noah groaned like he was in physical pain and pulled me against his chest. “Don’t cry, Annabelle. Please, honey. I swear it’s going to be okay. I’ll make sure you’re safe. I’ll take care of you.”

I wrapped my arms around his lean waist and buried my face in his chest as his arms contracted around me. “I-I love you,” I whispered brokenly.

I felt his lips on my forehead. “Love you, too, Annabelle.”

I felt drained the rest of the day.

Noah went out into the garage bay to help Wade when a few customers came in, and I sat down behind the desk to finish up the paperwork I hadn’t finished the night before. People came in to set up appointments for tire rotations, oil changes, and sticker inspections or to order parts for vehicles so they could do it themselves. I handled it all on autopilot.

I had a smile planted firmly on my lips all morning and well into the afternoon. It was only after my jaw began to ache that I realized what I was doing and wondered if I looked as much like a puppet as I felt. Rubbing at the ache in my cheeks and temples, I handed Mr. Niall the keys to his older-model pickup truck once he’d signed the invoice slip for his brake replacement.

“Thank you for your business, Mr. Niall. It’s always a pleasure to see you.” My smile was a little less forced for the still handsome man who looked so much like his only son. The two Niall men were drop-dead gorgeous in a masculine kind of way, but Mr. Niall was so much less intimidating than his son. Maybe it was the eyes. The things his son had seen while on deployment to war-torn countries didn’t haunt James Niall’s eyes like they did Wroth’s.

Mr. Niall winked down at me from his magnificent height, something else he had in common with his son. “Thanks, Annabelle. Appreciate the quality service, sweetheart. You and that brother of yours should come out to the farm and have dinner with us one night. You look as if you could use one of Mary Beth’s home-cooked meals.”