Anna hurried to the door, turned the lock and opened it. “Clarissa, what is it? What’s happened?” Then she saw her stepmother’s eyes were red and swollen, tears streaming down her face. Grabbing hold of the woman, Anna demanded, “Is it Dad? Is he okay?”
Clarissa nodded, gulped audibly and lunged for her. Hugging Anna tightly, she tried to talk around her own tears, but the words were garbled.
Relieved that her father was all right, Anna patted the woman’s back until she calmed down, then pulled away and said, “What’s going on, Clarissa? Why are you crying?”
“Oh,” the woman said, rummaging in her black bag for a handkerchief, “it’s just so wonderful…”
Anna’s heart picked up a normal rhythm. Not bad news, then. She waited impatiently for her stepmother to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. Then, at last, Clarissa spoke again.
“I had to find you, Anna,” she said. “Tell you right away. I know how worried you’ve been for your father and you just had to know the good news.”
Patience, Anna reminded herself, though the opposite feeling was pumping through her fast and hard. You needed patience with Clarissa.
“If it’s good news,” Anna said softly, steering Clarissa to a chair, “then I definitely want to hear it.”
But Clarissa didn’t want to sit down. She stopped suddenly, gave Anna another hard, tight hug and stepped back, giving her a brilliant smile. “Thank you, Anna. I don’t know how you did it, but thank you.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, feeling that hard-won patience begin to dissolve. “What are you thanking me for?”
Clarissa’s eyes widened and her smile got even brighter.
“You don’t know? I can’t believe you don’t know,” she said. “I thought for sure you were behind this somehow, but now…”
Anna took a breath and blew it out again. “Honestly, Clarissa, I do love you, but if you don’t tell me what’s going on soon-”
“Of course, of course.” Clarissa grabbed hold of Anna’s paint-stained hands and said, “It’s Sam Hale. He contacted your father yesterday…Hale Luxury Autos has signed an exclusive contract with Cameron Leather.” Her tears started again in earnest, but her brilliant smile never wavered. “Your father’s company is safe, Anna. He’s so relieved. So happy. I thought you had talked to Sam about this. Somehow arranged it all and I had to come and thank you for whatever you’d done.”
“Sam called Dad?” she echoed, her heart jumping into an accelerated beat. She hadn’t talked to Sam in days, but he’d called her father. Done this to help her father.
Hope leaped to life in her chest and she silently prayed that this meant what she thought it might. Dazzled, confused, Anna realized that Clarissa was talking again and forced herself to pay attention.
“He did. They met this morning with Sam’s and your father’s lawyers and settled it all in an hour. Everything’s taken care of and, oh, Anna, it’s so wonderful to see your father really happy again.” Clarissa reached out and hugged Anna tightly before letting her go. “It’s as if a boulder had been rolled off his shoulders.”
“Why would Sam do this?” Anna wondered aloud, not really expecting an answer. Was it possible that he did feel more for her than want?
“I don’t know, dear,” Clarissa said softly. “I thought he’d done it for you.”
Why would he, though? she asked herself. Why, when she’d broken it off with him, refused to take his calls? Why would he do something so wonderful?
Anna tore off the oversize apron she normally wore when she was working. Bunching it together, she passed it off to Clarissa and said, “I have to go. Will you tell Mateo I’ll be back?”
“Going to Sam?” Clarissa asked softly.
“Yes,” she said, frantic now to see him. She had to know why he’d done this. Had to know if he felt even half as much for her as she did for him.
“Good for you, honey,” her stepmother told her, reaching out to pat her cheek. “You go on. I’ll tell Mateo. But come to the house for dinner tonight, all right? I know your father will want to share this with you. We can celebrate.”
“I will, Clarissa,” Anna said and impulsively kissed the woman’s cheek.
Hopefully, she thought as she ran out the door, there would be a
Ten
Sam cursed as he jammed his thumb on the undercarriage of the Bentley. Should have known better than to be out here working, he told himself as his thumb throbbed in time to his heartbeat. His mind wasn’t on the work and that was a recipe for danger.
But as he’d given his staff two weeks off, he hadn’t been able to face going into an empty building. Instead, he turned and went into the small office off the garage. He stood in the doorway, staring at the painting Anna had completed what now seemed like a lifetime ago.
The illusion of the ocean view was so clear, so real, he half expected to feel a breeze sliding through that painted-on window. Then his gaze dropped to the hidden snake peeking out of the flower vine. He scowled as he realized that he’d deserved to have her immortalize him like that. Damn it, he cared for her and he hadn’t told her. He’d let his own suspicions drive her away when all he really wanted was her. Here. Now.
“This isn’t helping,” he muttered, trying to find something to do. Something to occupy his mind so it wouldn’t automatically turn to-
“I thought I’d find you here.”
He went still as a post. Her voice came from behind him and he’d hungered to hear it for so many days, he wanted to just take a second to enjoy it. But when she didn’t speak again, he turned around to face her.
Her long, auburn hair was pulled into a ponytail and she was wearing paint-stained jeans and a black sweatshirt, also decorated with splotches of paint. Her eyes were locked on his and Sam thought he’d never seen anything more beautiful.
Behind her, he could see that the promised rain had finally arrived. The sky was gray and trees were bending in the wet wind.
“I went to your office first,” she said.
He just looked at her. He couldn’t seem to get his fill. “I closed it until after the holidays.”
“Yeah, I saw the sign.” She walked closer, the heels of her boots tapping in tandem with the rain.
It took everything Sam had not to go to her, wrap his arms around her and hold on. He wanted her with an ache that had only gotten more overpowering over the last few days. And he knew unless he had her in his life, he was doomed to misery.
“You’ve got paint on your cheek,” he said.
She shrugged. “I’m working at Corzino’s.”
He nodded and wondered why they were suddenly being so damn polite.
“I know what you did,” she said and walked close enough that he could smell her. The scent of her shampoo mingled with the sharp scent of paint and he almost smiled. Because to him, that was the essence of Anna.
“And?” he asked, staring down into her emerald green eyes.
“And, I want to know why,” she told him softly.
“You know why,” he admitted, his blood stirring, his body quickening. She was so close and he’d missed her so much.
After his meeting with Dave Cameron, he’d known that he’d have to face Anna. But he hadn’t been sure what her reaction would be. Hell, she was a hard woman to predict, which was only one of the reasons he was crazy about her.
She watched him through guarded eyes. “I hope I do. Why don’t you tell me?”
Grumbling now, he admitted, “I did it because I love you, okay? You wouldn’t answer the damn phone and I knew you wouldn’t see me. So this was the only way I had to tell you.”
“Sam…”
