Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [68]
“Sure you did. You as much as told me to stake him out and see what gives. I think I just might do that.”
“So you’re going to Maui?”
“Yep: You’re sure now I shouldn’t frizz my hair and get one of those dresses you suggested?”
“Nah. That’s not who you are. You’re a lady, Annie.”
“That’s probably one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me,” Annie said, with a catch in her voice.
“I bet if you give that guy a chance, he’ll say all kinds of nice things to you. You gotta give him the chance, Annie.”
“Here’s my card, Stella. Will you call me either way? Leave a message on my machine back home. If you decide to go for it, I’ll fly to New Jersey and make sure you’re all set up. Thanks for the lift. See you around,” Annie said, pulling her bag from the car.
“You wait right there, Annie. Listen, if I seemed uninterested or whatever... you know. It’s just that no one ever did anything so nice for me except Joe. I didn’t know how to act because I was so flabbergasted. The answer is yes. We’ll do it. We’ll take it. We want to do it.”
“Don’t you have to ask Joe?”
“Yes and no. If there’s a change, I’ll let you know.”
“Okay. Bye, Stella. It was nice meeting you.”
“Not so fast.” Stella threw her skinny arms around Annie and bear-hugged her. “He’s a big jerk if he lets you get away from him,” she whispered.
Annie pried herself loose. “It’s been a lot of years, Stella. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“You don’t have my phone number.”
“Call my house and leave it on the answering machine. Gotta go, destiny awaits.” Stella’s fist shot into the air.
Annie cringed when Stella peeled away from the curb, her tires smoking.
His face murderous, Parker slammed his way out of the jeep and into the offices of the Grayson Coffee Company. The moment he saw the naked fear in his sister’s eyes, his shoulders slumped. How well he remembered his own fear when he’d done something wrong and had to account to his father. He wasn’t an ogre, was he? Obviously Kiki thought so.
“Let’s sit down and talk this through. Maybe we can salvage the account. Tell me what happened, Kiki. Tears aren’t going to help. Wipe your eyes and blow your nose. Then get me some coffee.”
“Get your own coffee, Parker.”
The palms of Parker’s hands shot forward. “Sorry, I forgot. Women don’t fetch and carry for a man anymore. It just seems to taste better when a woman hands it to you,” Parker mumbled. “Sit down, Kiki, and let’s hear your side of this.”
“Until the day before yesterday I didn’t know Tom wasn’t coming. The truth is, I didn’t get the message until very early yesterday morning. When I thought it was Tom coming, I didn’t concern myself because you always meet him at the airport and spend the day with him. I got in late yesterday morning because I had to go to Loya’s school to talk to her teacher. She’s becoming a discipline problem. I’m dealing with it. Anyway, that threw me behind. I wasn’t in the best of moods when I got here. My day was all mapped out. I jiggled and juggled and found thirty minutes. I thought it was going to be a cut-and-dried meeting. I was wrong.”
“Then what happened?”
“Miss Clark arrived. You know what, Parker, she looked... she looked like I always wanted to look. She was crisp, businesslike, she was dressed beautifully, and she was carrying this gorgeous Chanel bag. Her white straw. hat had a lime green streamer on it. To me she just reeked of success. She had this air about her like she was saying, I’m here, and we’re going to do it my way. Or, I take my marbles and leave. She never said that, Parker, in words. It was probably my own insecurities. It was that damn Chanel bag. My son could pay his board for a full semester with the money that purse cost.”
Parker threw his hands in the air. “I must be stupid. What in the goddamn hell does a woman’s purse have to do with the price of coffee?”
Kiki burst into tears. “I don’t know, Parker. I guess it was a symbol of something I didn’t have, should have, will never have. I don’t know.”
“I’ll buy you a damn purse just like it.”
“No. It’s