more demanding. They are with you. Why should you do all the grunt work? Who made her the fairy princess and you Cinderella, scrubbing the castle floor? You have just as much right to be a fairy princess as she does. Let her do a little scrubbing for a change.”
“I love you,” Sabrina said, smiling at him, and then kissed him. “I'd rather be alone with you anyway.” The movers were finally gone, and they were working on their own. And they had peace. They took a break half an hour later, went upstairs and put the sheets on her bed, and wound up making love, and lying there in each other's arms for an hour afterward. It was perfect, just as it always was. She dozed in his arms, until they finally got up and went back to unpacking and putting things away. It was the first time in a month that Chris felt he had her full attention, and that for an hour at least she belonged to him again. It was sheer heaven and gave him hope that their life might return to normal again one day. He couldn't help but wonder when.
In Connecticut, her father had made Annie dinner. She didn't want to complain, but the frozen spring rolls had been awful, although the soup was halfway decent. He apologized for his shaky cooking skills, and Annie laughed with him.
“It must be genetic, Dad. I'm not such a great cook either.” He handed her a Dove bar afterward, after asking her if she wanted chocolate or vanilla, and dark chocolate or milk. She chose vanilla ice cream with a dark chocolate shell and was savoring it when she heard the doorbell. Her father went to answer it, while Annie waited in the kitchen. She could hear a woman's voice talking to her father and the words “What a surprise,” from her father, but she didn't pay any attention to it, until she finished her Dove bar, and followed the voices to see what he was doing and who it was. By then, he was standing outside on the front lawn, talking to a woman whose voice she didn't recognize. All she could tell was that she sounded young.
“You remember Annie, don't you?” he said to the unknown woman as Annie approached. “She's all grown up now.”
“And blind,” Annie added for shock value. She had been saying things like that for weeks. It was her way of expressing her anger. Sabrina had pointed out several times, as gently as she could, that being rude to people wouldn't bring her sight back. It was unlike Annie to act that way. Or had been, until then.
“Yes.” Her father's voice grew instantly somber. “She was in the accident with her mother.” Annie still had no idea who he was talking to.
“Who is it, Dad?” she asked as she reached where they stood. She could smell an unfamiliar perfume that was made of lilies of the valley.
“Do you remember Leslie Thompson? Her brother went to school with Tammy.”
“No, I don't,” Annie said honestly, as the young woman addressed her.
“Hi. My brother Jack went to school with Tammy. I'm his big sister. Sabrina and I were friends.” Yeah, for about five minutes, Annie thought to herself. She remembered her now. She was older than Tammy and younger than Sabrina. They had been horrible social climbers, and her mother didn't like them. She remembered the girl being a pretty blonde who Sabrina said was a slut, when she made a pass at Sabrina's boyfriend. Sabrina was seventeen then and a senior in high school. Leslie had been fifteen and what their mother had referred to as “fast.” Sabrina never let her come over again. “I just moved back from California, and I heard about your mom. I came over to tell you both how sorry I am.” Annie could hear something else in her voice, but she wasn't sure what. Her voice had changed when she spoke to Annie. Before that, speaking to her father, it had had a warmer lilting sound, and now she sounded annoyed, as though it bothered her that Annie was there. It was a curse to be so aware now. Annie was suddenly hearing nuances she never had before. It was like listening to people's minds and felt odd.
“She brought us an apple pie,” her father said warmly. “Homemade. We were just about to have dessert. Would you like to come in and join us?” Annie frowned as she listened to them. Why was her father lying? They had had Dove bars. She figured he was just trying to be polite.
“No. That's fine. I've got to get back. I just wanted to say hi, and tell you how sorry I am. Jack said to say he was sorry too.”
“When are you going back to California?” Annie asked, for no particular reason. But she made it sound as though she hoped it would be soon.
“I'm not, actually. I'm staying with my parents, while I look for an apartment in the city. I was living in Palm Springs and I just got divorced. I was out there for ten years and got pretty sick of it. So now I'm back,” she said, with a lilt in her voice again, as Annie nodded, processing the information.
“I'm moving to the city too,” Annie supplied, although Leslie hadn't asked her. “We're moving in tomorrow. Candy, Sabrina, and I.”
“That's too bad,” Leslie said, as Annie got another whiff of her perfume and decided it was too sweet. “I'll bet your dad will be lonely when you're gone.”
“Yes, I will,” he answered quickly, and then Leslie said she had to leave after saying goodbye to both of them. “Don't be a stranger, Leslie. Come by anytime,” her father called after her, and then Annie heard a car door slam, and she drove away.
“Why did you say that?” Annie asked, frowning at him, even though she couldn't see him. She had to take his arm to get back into the house. She had gotten slightly turned around. “The thing about ‘don't be a stranger’?”
“What am I supposed to say? She brought us an apple pie,” which he was balancing in the other hand. “I didn't want to be rude, Annie.”
“So how come she came by? We haven't seen her since Sabrina was a senior in high school.” She thought about it for a minute as they walked into the house, and she let go of his arm. She could get around the house without assistance. “I smell a rat here.” Actually, what she had smelled was lily of the valley, and a hell of a lot of it.
“That's silly, Annie. She's a nice girl who used to know you when you were kids, and she heard about your mother.”
“That's my point, Dad. Don't be so naive.”
“Don't you be so paranoid. A girl that age is not going to go after me. And I already told you, I'm not going to be dating anyone. I'm in love with your mother and always will be.” Annie was worried about it anyway. She wished that she could have seen her and evaluated the situation herself. She made a mental note to mention it to Sabrina when she came home. She didn't like the idea of women going after their father. Particularly not girls like Leslie Thompson, if she was anything like what she'd been when they were kids. All she really remembered was a lot of blond hair, and Sabrina saying she was a slut. Annie had only been nine years old. But she remembered her oldest sister being mad as hell. It was funny how things like that left a lasting impression. For the rest of time, she was a “slut” in Annie's mind, based on her behavior at fifteen.
Annie put the dishes in the dishwasher after that. Her father had a piece of the apple pie and said it was excellent, and Annie snorted in response. And afterward they both went upstairs. Annie was excited about the new house and moving in the next day. It was too quiet here, and she felt isolated. It was going to be nice to be in the city, even if her movements were still limited and she couldn't go out on her own. It was going to be a refreshing change.
She sat in her room quietly for a while, listening to music, and thinking about her life in Florence. Painting, visiting Siena, her endless hours in the Uffizi gallery, and her months with Charlie. She still missed him, and wished she could have called him, just to say hello. She was still in shock that he had found someone else so fast and dumped her. But at least she hadn't had to tell him she was blind, and he didn't feel sorry for her. She called Sabrina, who said everything was going well at the house, and Tammy in L.A., who was home alone on a Saturday night. She said she was giving Juanita a bath and doing laundry. It was sad realizing that she would never see their faces again, or look into their eyes. She could feel them and hear them, touch them, but for the rest of their lives she would remember them as they were now. They would never grow old in her mind's eye, and they would never change. She went to sleep thinking about it, and dreamed that she and Charlie were watching the sunset in Florence, and when she turned to say something to him, and tell him that she loved him, he had disappeared.
Chapter 15
