Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [79]
“I love you, Elmo.”
“Did you see that guy yet?” Elmo asked slyly.
“No, not yet. Maybe tomorrow.”
“What are you waiting for, Annie?”
“I don’t know, Elmo. Maybe I’m scared he won’t . . . be interested in me anymore. I was pretty nasty to him the last time I saw him. This isn’t what you think it is. I have reservations about him. It’s like he’s this fancy-wrapped present in glossy paper with a shimmering gold bow. I don’t know what’s inside that box. My gut is telling me to go slow, to tread lightly, and to carry a big stick.”
“I guess it all makes sense in an Annie Clark kind of way. I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you. Did you hear about that. new invention that’s out now?”
Elmo loved gadgets. “No. What is it this time?”
“It’s called the telephone,” the pharmacist cackled gleefully. “You pick it up, you dial a number, and you get to hear a voice.”
“Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.”
“You aren’t getting any younger, you know. Annie, I’m worried about that Newman fellow.”
She was worried, too, but she wasn’t going to admit it. “He’s just spinning his wheels. Make yourself some breakfast and forget about it. I’m going to go to bed now and dream about covering my naked body with plumeria petals. Talk to you in a day or so, Elmo.”
But the moment she hung up the phone, she started to shake and couldn’t stop.
At six o’clock the following morning, Annie took the elevator to the garage level and drove her car out to the road. She’d asked for directions to Parker Grayson’s house and the best way to get to the waterfalls the night before. She looked down now at the squiggly red lines on the map. A piece of cake.
The sun was high in the sky when Annie parked her car, kicked off her sandals, and made her way to the path that led to the falls. She was wearing the island dress Mattie had made her so long ago. She was going to sit in the carved-out rock and do nothing but stare at the shimmering falls. When she had her fill of the beauty and a few rainbows under her belt, maybe, just maybe, she’d make her way to Parker’s house and knock on his front door. Maybemaybemaybe.
Parker Grayson stormed out of the Aston Wailea. Once again he’d missed Annie Clark, and it was only 6:45 A.M. “I just goddamn well give up. I’m going fishing. I’m going to get an egg sandwich and some bait and fish all day,” he muttered as he floored the gas pedal.
An hour later, the smelly bait in the back of his jeep was making him gag. The prospect of sitting in the hot sun fishing no longer held any appeal for him. Maybe he’d go to the rock behind the falls and sit. It was as good an idea as any that he’d had of late.
He parked the jeep in the quarry stone parking lot, entered the house, changed his clothes, slung a towel over his shoulders, and headed for the falls on foot.
The sun was high now. He’d never seen a rainbow behind the falls before. He wondered if it was an omen of some kind. He splashed his way over to the side and ran between the walls of dripping water. He stared at her, his gaze unbelieving, his heart thundering in his chest.
“What took you so long?” Annie drawled.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Parker was too stunned to do more than stare at the woman clad in a rainbow-colored dress. His hands started to shake, the towel dropping to the ground. It was soaked in minutes. He needed to say something meaningful, something brilliant. “Sometimes I’m a little slow.” He winced at his sparkling repartee.
“Sit down,” Annie said, patting the stone seat next to her. “How have you been, Parker?”
“Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. I wanted to call you a hundred times, maybe two hundred times. I’m sorry I didn’t.” He was getting