Home Free - Fern Michaels [55]
“Follow me.”
Chapter 15
Days later, Annie looked at Fergus across the breakfast table. She knew she had a sappy expression on her face, but then, so did he. She wondered if fate would somehow throw a monkey wrench into her newfound happiness.
Don’t go there, Annie, she cautioned herself. Don’t make yourself your own worst enemy. You have something good, really good, going on here. Try for once to enjoy it, and stop worrying about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, because those days may never come. She took her own advice and smiled.
Fergus smiled back.
“You sure you’ll be all right here by yourself today?” Annie asked.
“Of course. I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me. With that honey-to-do list, I’ll probably still be working when you get back. Just in case you’re running late, do you want me to start dinner?”
Annie almost swooned. “I would dearly love that, Fergus.”
“Consider it done, then. Let me make sure I have all this straight in my head,” he said, peering down at an actual list that Annie had written out. It had tickled him to no end when he read his honey-to-do list: “Set up Christmas tree. String lights on Christmas tree. Do not decorate till I get back. Hang wreath on front door. Hang wreath over fireplace in the kitchen. Attach the balsam swags to the mantel. Wash the towels. Empty the dishwasher. And, of course, prepare dinner.” Then he asked, with a chuckle in his voice, “Did I get it all right?”
“You did. It sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? If you think I’m taking advantage of you, tell me now. I can ask Isabelle to find someone to do it for me.”
“Absolutely you are not taking advantage of me, dear lady. For more years than I care to remember, I longed to do these things over the holidays, but I always worked after my wife died so the younger men could be home with their families. I will get great pleasure doing this, and I can’t tell you how I look forward to spending Christmas with you and all your friends.”
Annie beamed from ear to ear. She’d hit the jackpot, no doubt about it. Fergus Duffy was one of a kind. “Okay, then. I’m going to pick up Myra. We’re meeting the girls at Nikki’s office. Then we’re . . . Well, we have business to take care of.”
Fergus’s eyes twinkled. “And that business is not my business is what you’re saying. Is that right?”
“That’s right, Fergus. Just like your little meeting with the president wasn’t my business. Imagine what we could do if we pooled our information. No, no, too late. You had your chance. Trust me, the girls and I will ferret it out, at which time you might wish you had confided in me. You think about that while I’m gone, my Scottish friend. See ya when I see you,” Annie said as she slipped into her coat and left by the kitchen door.
She was smiling from ear to ear as she climbed into her warm car, thanks to Fergus’s turning on the engine and the heater earlier. There was a lot to be said for consideration. She was still smiling when she barreled through Myra’s electronic gates, which opened the moment she was a hundred feet away.
Myra was waiting on the steps of the back porch. She was dressed like a lumberjack, in a red and black plaid jacket, corduroy trousers, and stout walking boots. “We already have our Christmas trees, Myra. Or are you planning on chopping down some trees for fireplace wood?” Annie giggled.
“Go ahead and laugh at me, Annie. I don’t really care. It’s twelve degrees outside. This is the Christmas season, when all those nasty flu and cold germs abound. I do not want to get chilled. You look . . . bundled up yourself.”
“I’m layered. Lord, Myra, I don’t know what to think about all of this. Do we have a mission or not? What is it the president is counting on us to do? No one has a clue. And here we are going to see Maggie’s . . . ah . . . snitch. I wish I knew what our game plan was. Or if we even have a game plan,