Full Bloom

Annie pulled away quickly and sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. She would give her heart a few seconds to settle down, and then she would admonish him for his actions. Yep, as soon as her pulse steadied she was going to let him have it and have it good.

  She sank against him.

  Wes pressed his lips against her forehead. “I’ve half a mind to sweep you up in my arms and carry you upstairs.”

  She had half a mind to let him do it.

  “But I know that the absolute last thing you need or want is a man in your life.”

  Annie’s face burned as he tossed her words right back at her. Worse, she could hear the amusement in his voice, which could only mean he hadn’t lost one ounce of control while kissing her and somehow she was going to have to save face.

  “Thank you, Wes,” she said evenly.

  “Thank you?”

  “For proving to me that I was right about us,” she said, trying to sound sorrowful even as her heart felt as though it were beating in each ear. “Please try not to take it personally, you’re a fine kisser and all, but there’s just no chemistry.”

  “At least you gave it a chance.”

  She stood on legs that felt like overcooked noodles. “We can be friends.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, we still have that.”

  She turned and started for the door.

  And ran right smack into a wicker rocker, stubbing her big toe. Damn! She lost her balance, fell over the arm, and her face hit the seat. Shit!

  Wes was at her side in an instant, pulling her up. “Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?”

  Annie bit back the loud yowl and four-letter words that threatened to spew from her mouth as pain roiled in her toe, shot through her foot, and shimmied up her calf. Tears burned her eyes. “I’m fine,” she said, managing a small chuckle. “I always bump into that chair.”

  “You might want to move it,” he said.

  Damned if he didn’t sound like he was having a good time. What she really wanted to do was chew the effin’ chair into a million pieces and spit it into an open sewer.

  “Do you need help getting upstairs?”

  Her toe throbbed inside her bedroom slipper. It would be just her luck to have broken the damn thing. She’d probably smushed it to smithereens. “No, no,” she said, forcing herself to walk on it and not hobble to the door. Only later, when the surgeon was forced to amputate, would she admit to Wes that it had been a painful experience.

  He opened the door for her and she stepped inside. “Good night,” she said.

  “Sweet dreams, Annie.”

  She thought she heard him laugh softly as he closed the door behind her.

  Theenie was the first to join Annie in the kitchen the next morning. “Boy, don’t you look nice,” she said, pausing at the sight of Annie in her newest jeans and a starched pale pink oxford shirt. “And you’re wearing makeup.”

  “I always wear makeup,” Annie said, trying to sound perky despite having slept very little during the night. She had finally climbed from the bed in the wee morning hours and dragged her throbbing toe to the bathroom, where she’d found a nighttime pain reliever that had allowed her to get a couple of hours’ sleep before the alarm clock blared her awake at 5:00 AM. She was still fighting grogginess and a hurting toe, but she was determined to keep it to herself. She checked the oven, where she had already put in an egg, sausage, and cheese casserole.

  “You don’t do your eyes up like that except on special occasions,” Theenie said. “Like when you and Danny go to a show in Charleston.”

  Annie entertained the thought of grabbing the sponge from the sink and stuffing it into Theenie’s mouth. “It’s no big deal, okay?” The casserole was beginning to bubble around the edges. Annie slid in a pan of homemade biscuits before reclaiming her chair at the kitchen table, where she’d begun making up her to-do list for the day.

  Theenie joined her a moment later, coffee cup in hand. “I thought I’d never fall asleep last night,” she said, batting a dainty hand against her mouth as she yawned. “Peaches kept me awake walking up and down the hall making those weird sounds in her throat that she does when she’s not happy.”

  “Gee, I don’t recall Peaches ever being happy,” Annie said. As if acting on cue, the cat plopped from her chair, walked over to her now-empty food dish, and stared into it. She nudged it with her nose several times and then paused long enough as though waiting for Annie to get up and put more food in it. When Annie didn’t make a move to do so, Peaches raised one paw and whacked the dish. As usual, it skidded across the kitchen floor.

  “Did you remember to feed Peaches?” Theenie asked.

  Annie looked amused. “Does it look like she has ever missed a meal?”

  “As I was saying,” Theenie began, “after about two hours of listening to Peaches growl like she sometimes does, I finally got up and carried her to your room, which was no easy task, mind you, considering how much she weighs, but I was hoping you could get her to calm down. Only you weren’t in your bed. I got worried.”

  Annie pretended to be very interested in making her list. “That must’ve been when I stepped outside for some fresh air,” she said in an offhand manner.

  “Yes, I saw you,” Theenie said.

  With pen poised in midair, Annie held her breath and waited.

  “With Wes.”

  Peaches walked over to the cabinet door. Bam, bam, bam.

  “Kissing,” Theenie said.

  Annie looked at her. “You were spying on us?” Like they said, the best defense was a good offense.

  Theenie sniffed as though she had just been insulted. “Of course not. I simply pulled the curtain aside to see if you were on the piazza, and there the two of you were, plastered together like Velcro. I don’t mind telling you I was shocked.” She gave another sniff.

  Bam, bam, bam.

  “Good morning,” Lovelle said from the bottom of the stairs.

  Annie jumped. She hadn’t heard the woman come down. “Oh, you startled me.”

  “Everybody in this house is as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” Lovelle said. “Theenie, you don’t look happy. What’s wrong?”

  “Oh, nothing,” she said in a voice that suggested otherwise.

  “That’s good,” Lovelle said, going to the coffeepot.

  “Except I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night,” Theenie said.

  Lovelle glanced at her. “That’s too bad.”

  “I’m just too old to have to lie in bed and worry.”

  Lovelle carried her cup to the table and sat down. “Why were you worried?”

  “No reason.”

  Lovelle turned to Annie. “I see you’re already making your list.”

  “It’s not like I don’t have enough on my mind, what with Destiny talking about a spirit and Doc’s gardener finding human remains in the backyard. Not to mention Annie renting a room to some biker stud who—”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Annie said, tossing her pen aside. She looked at Lovelle. “Theenie saw Wes and me kissing last night.”

  Lovelle looked pleased. “Oh, yummy, is he a good kisser? He looks like he knows a few things.”

  Destiny came downstairs in a flowing satin flamingo pink bathrobe and matching slippers. “Good morning,” she mumbled, staggering toward the coffeepot.

  “You sound tired, dear,” Theenie said.

  Destiny filled a cup and joined them. “Yeah, well, it’s hard to rest when you’ve got a ghost hanging around you twenty-four/seven.”

  Theenie nodded sympathetically. “If it makes you feel any better, almost nobody slept well last night.”

  “Theenie saw Wes kissing Annie on the piazza last night,” Lovelle said.

  Destiny shrugged. “I’m not surprised. I saw a hot romance in Annie’s future when I read her palm.” She looked at Annie. “Is he as good in bed as I told you he’d be?”

  Theenie’s mouth fell open. “You went to bed with him?” she asked Annie.

&
nbsp; Annie felt her face burn clear to the tips of her ears. “Of course not!”

  “What are you waiting for?” Lovelle said. “I can tell by the way he looks at you that he’s hot for you.”

  “He looks at her like she’s naked,” Theenie said, rolling her eyes. “I knew Annie shouldn’t have rented to him.”

  “I’ll tell you what he’s thinking,” Lovelle said. “He’s thinking he’d like to dunk his doughnut you-know-where.”

  “I shouldn’t be hearing this,” Theenie said, stuffing her fingers in her ears.

  “It would do you good to get laid,” Destiny said, giving Annie a hearty wink.

  “La la la la la—,” Theenie began loudly.

  Annie was relieved when the telephone rang. She answered before it could ring a second time.

  The woman on the other end of the line wasted no time. Annie just listened. “I see,” she said after a moment. “Of course I understand. Please call me in the future if I can be of service.” She hung up, slipped her hands into an oven mitt, and pulled out the casserole and biscuits.

  Theenie pulled her fingers from her ears and looked at Annie. “I can tell by the look on your face that you just got bad news.”

  Annie began putting the biscuits in a cloth-lined basket. “The baby shower is off.”

  “That’s not fair!” Lovelle said. “How can people be so rude? You’ve lived in this town practically half of your life. I can’t believe anyone would think you killed your husband.”

  “It’ll pass,” Annie said, hoping she was right.

  Someone tapped on the back door. Annie unlocked it and found Danny on the other side. He tousled her hair as he entered the kitchen. “Good morning, ladies.” He glanced around the table at the serious faces. “Or is it?”

  “It’s a wonderful morning,” Annie said. “The coffee is hot, and I just pulled breakfast from the oven.” She poured Danny a cup of coffee, and he carried it to the table. As though following Annie’s lead, all three women gave him a bright smile.

  “I’ll set the table,” Destiny said, and went for dishes and flatware while Theenie and Lovelle continued to smile in such a way that one would have thought they’d just been handed a gift certificate to the local Family Dollar Store.

  Danny smiled back and took a sip of his coffee.

  “When will you be finished staining the ballroom floor?” Lovelle asked. “I need to get back to my exercise routine.”

  “I plan to put a couple of coats of polyurethane on top of the stain,” Danny told her. “It’ll be a few more days.”

  Annie glanced his way. “I took a peek at the floors last night. They’re gorgeous.”

  Erdle came through the back door looking haggard. He sat at his usual place. Danny passed him the basket of biscuits. Erdle took one and bit into it.

  “What time did you get in last night?” Theenie asked.

  “I wasn’t keeping track,” he said.

  Lovelle sniffed. “You smell like a beer can.”

  “It’s my new aftershave.”

  “Aftershave, my foot,” Lovelle said.

  Wes came downstairs. Everybody but Erdle looked up. “Mornin’,” Wes said. He glanced at Annie, and their gazes locked. “How are you?”

  “Great. You?”

  “Same.”

  “Coffee?”

  He nodded. “I can get it.”

  “No, I’ll do it.”

  They both reached for the cabinet door at the same time, but Annie was quicker. The door swung open and banged Wes’s head. He winced and stepped back.

  “I’m so sorry,” Annie said. “Are you okay?”

  “I’ll know when my vision clears.”

  Annie carefully reached inside the cabinet for a mug, filled it with coffee, and offered it to him.

  Their fingers brushed.

  Annie felt something quicken in her stomach and let go.

  Just missing her big toe, the cup fell to the floor. It shattered and splashed coffee on the floor and cabinet doors. “Oh, look what I’ve done!” Annie said.

  “Did you burn yourself?” Danny asked as Wes and Annie began picking up the broken pieces.

  She shook her head, too embarrassed to look up. Theenie and Lovelle got up and hurried to the broom closet.

  “She didn’t get much sleep last night,” Destiny said.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “It’s a long story,” Annie said.

  Theenie and Lovelle stepped up with the broom and mop. “Annie, sit down before somebody gets hurt,” Theenie said. “You, too, Wes,” she added. “I’ll get your coffee.”

  Annie and Wes did as they were told.

  A door slammed upstairs. “That crazy woman is at it again,” Destiny muttered. “I’d kill her if she weren’t already dead.”

  “Like we don’t have enough problems,” Lovelle said, sweeping the last of the glass into a dustpan as Theenie followed with the mop. “Dead body in the backyard, dead person roaming the house, it’s no wonder everybody is canceling.”

  “You’ve had more cancelations?” Danny asked Annie.

  She shrugged. “No big deal. It’s not like I don’t have enough to do what with planning a wedding.”

  Something shattered overhead, making everyone jump. “Dammit!” Destiny said, bolting from the table. “She’s breaking my stuff.” She raced upstairs.

  Erdle looked at Wes. “This is why I drink.”

  Wes propped his elbows on the table and said nothing. Theenie brought him a cup of coffee, and he thanked her.

  “I know this is going to sound crazy,” Danny said to Annie, “and I can’t believe I’m even suggesting it, but if you really suspect there is some kind of entity in this house, you might consider calling a priest.”

  “We’re waiting to see if Destiny can lead her to the light,” Lovelle told him. “In the meantime, be careful or she’ll steal your underwear.”

  Danny nodded as though it made complete sense. “I’ll be sure to keep them on at all times.”

  “That’s advice we should all follow,” Theenie said, tossing a look from Wes to Annie.

  Erdle got up from his place, carried his plate to the sink, and rinsed it out. He placed it in the dishwasher and started for the door.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Annie said. “I’ve got a whole list of chores for you.”

  Erdle sighed and reclaimed his seat.

  The doorbell rang. Theenie started from the room. “Don’t answer it,” Jamie said. “It might be another reporter.”

  Theenie squared her shoulders and grabbed a meat mallet from the drawer. “I’ll make him sorry he ever set foot in the yard.”

  Wes and Danny watched with interest while Erdle rested his head on the table.

  Lovelle smiled. “I’m so glad Theenie is beginning to show assertiveness.”

  “I just wish Doc hadn’t left town,” Annie said, “in case she hurts somebody.”

  Peaches, who’d been quiet for a while, returned to the cabinet. Bam, bam, bam.

  Annie sighed.

  Bam, bam, bam.

  Annie shook her head. “I don’t know which is worse, having to deal with a cantankerous cat who hates me or having to spend every spare dime I have on the upkeep of a tacky whorehouse.”

  “Now, Annie, you know you don’t mean that,” Theenie said from just inside the doorway. Max and Jamie stood beside her.

  A door slammed upstairs. “Stop throwing my stuff!” Destiny shouted.

  Bam, bam, bam.

  “Good morning,” Annie said to Max and Jamie without missing a beat. She gave them a big smile. “And good morning to you, handsome,” she told Fleas. She’d barely gotten the words out of her mouth before she heard a hiss and a snarl, and a streak of orange fur flew past her. Fleas yelped and took off, and a second later there was a loud crash from the living room.

  “Uh-oh,” Jamie said, and turned.

  “Don’t worry,” Annie said calmly. “Theenie, would you please make sure Fleas is okay and put Pea
ches out?”

  “Of course, dear. Here, you can have the mallet back.”

  “Jamie, you and Max sit down,” Annie insisted, “and I’ll pour you a cup of coffee.”

  Max grinned. “I sort of get the feeling we dropped by at a bad time.”

  “We can’t stay,” Jamie said quickly. “Destiny called and asked if we would drop off her mail again. She sounded awful. Is she sick?”

  “She’s just tired.”

  “Annie, you don’t look so well yourself,” Jamie said. “Are you okay?”

  Annie glanced around the room and saw what looked like pity on her friends’ faces, and she crossed her arms.

  “Okay, everybody listen up,” she said, giving them a stern look. “I know things look bad right now, but I’ve been through tougher times than this.” She paused. “Okay, except for my husband being buried in the backyard.”

  “And the part about you being the murder suspect and all,” Lovelle reminded, “which is destroying your business.”

  Annie wished Lovelle hadn’t brought that up. “Yes,” she said calmly. “But once my name is cleared everything will be back to normal. The point I’m trying to make—”

  “Boy, this cat weighs a ton,” Theenie interrupted, coming through the doorway with Peaches in her arms. Wes and Danny both hurried over to help her; Danny took the cat and Wes opened the door for him. “Fleas is okay,” Theenie said, “but Peaches jumped on the end table in the living room and broke that statue. You know, the one that looks like a man and woman are doing it?” She was breathing heavily, obviously from exertion. “I never liked that statute, and I don’t know why anyone would have it sitting around, but then I keep forgetting a bunch of floozies used to live here. Oh, look, Peaches scratched me.”

  “That cat has lost her mind,” Lovelle said as more racket sounded from the second floor, “and all because we have some spirit running amok in this house.”

  “As I was saying,” Annie began, “I expect things to calm down very soon. Certainly before the wedding,” she added quickly, looking at Jamie and Max. “But in the meantime, I would appreciate it if you guys would stop with those woe-is-Annie looks, because that’s going to piss me off. You really don’t want to piss me off right now.”

  Erdle raised his head and looked around the room. “She’s right. You don’t want to piss her off on account of she’s mean and dangerous. If you don’t believe it, just ask me, ’cause I know firsthand.”