Table of Contents
Her Name Was Annie
Copyright
Also by Beth Rinyu
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Her Name Was Annie
Copyright © 2021 by Beth Rinyu
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Beth Rinyu, except for the use of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Cover design by: Amy Queau Qdesign (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1746943402255030/?fref=nf)
Editing by: Lawrence Editing (https://www.facebook.com/lawrenceediting/)
Proofread by: Judy’s Proofreading (https://www.facebook.com/judysproofreading/)
Formatting by: C.P. Smith
Also by Beth Rinyu
The Exception To The Rule
Drowning In Love
Blind Side Of Love
An Unplanned Lesson
An Unplanned Life
A Cry For Hope
A Will To Change
Easy Silence
When The Chips Are Down
Two Of Hearts
Straight To The Heart
A Right To Remain
Keepin’ The Faith
Thursday Afternoon
When Autumn Ends
Miss Demeanor
I’ll Be Seeing You
The Night We Met
The People We Meet Along The Way
Find Beth on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BethRinyu/)
Join Beth’s Reader Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/615284398516306/)
Chapter 1
November 2019
THE WAVES PUMMELED the shoreline like a scorned woman taking out her frustrations on an unfaithful lover. To say I knew how that ocean was feeling at that moment wouldn’t have been a lie. Ashamedly, I had let out my own frustrations a time or two in the same manner. Time had moved on, and my heart should have as well. But every now and then, I’d reserve a pity party for one with a bottle of wine on the beach that held so many memories.
The stilted house that sat behind me had been built by my parents when I was a little girl. My mother and I spent every summer in that home. Long, happy days on the beach, making sandcastles and playing in the waves, then staying up way past my bedtime. There wasn’t a care in the world back then. It was a tradition I had continued with my own daughter, hoping she had formed the same sense of solace I had growing up. Those fond memories of summers gone by were now just a flicker of happier times I would never get back.
Lifting my wineglass to my lips, I took a long, slow sip of merlot, savoring the soft, sensual texture as it slid down my throat. A squall of air shot down the beach, blowing the sand like a storm in the desert. A strand of windblown hair stuck to my face, dampened by the misty salt air, as I gazed up at the ominous sky, watching the dark clouds move at warp speed overhead. It was an eerie sight, like a scene from a movie where the world was about to end. Was it a sign or just my feelings at the moment?
There was no doubt, the anniversary of today was a hard one for me to face, but lately it seemed as if every day was getting a little harder to get through. Time was moving on whether I liked it or not, and just when I was starting to get back in this game of life, the rules were changing once again. My baby was a senior in college, and I had celebrated my forty-eighth birthday a few months ago. The dating pool was slowly drying up with most men in my age group either looking and acting like old men, married, or even worse yet—never been married, which always led to the question of “why?”
I had found out the answer to that question more than my fair share of times. Either they were egotistical playboys who still had the mindset of a twenty-year-old and preferred the company of much younger women, or they were much too set in their ways to even entertain the idea of a woman changing things up on them. I had been in one serious relationship and a few casual dates since Jack and I had divorced, not because I really wanted to, but because I felt like I needed to do it to prove I had moved on.
The only person I was fooling was myself because after eight years of being divorced, I still felt stuck in a world that wasn’t mine. I had always had my daughter, Kara, to keep me busy and keep my mind from wandering to places it didn’t want to go, but now she was away, just beginning her life, which gave me more time than I needed to delve into my head.
I picked up the bottle of wine, pouring myself another glass. Grabbing a handful of sand in my fist, I sifted it through my fingers while sifting through the years gone by like a movie in my head. Jack and I had been high school sweethearts. My parents always thought I could do better, but their opinions were no match for young love. We married shortly after we graduated from college, both fortunate enough to land jobs in our respective career choices right away. Me as an elementary school teacher, and him in law enforcement. Fast-forward twenty-five years, and I was still working at that same school I started at. Some of my very first students were now married with children of their own, while Jack had moved himself up to the upper echelons of the FBI.
Life always seemed to work out that way. It was always the woman who sacrificed everything. I never regretted one moment of not trying to advance my career to become a guidance counselor or a school administrator like I always said I was going to do. Once Kara came along, she became my world, and any thoughts of career advancement halted. She wasn’t planned, but she was the best
