Annie was back? Crap!
Her time to win Deek back had just run out.
14
LEARNING TO TRUST AGAIN IS HARD TO DO WHEN THE WORLD KEEPS PITCHING YOU CURVE BALLS.
Lori’s heart nearly beat out of her chest with nerves. Deek asked Annie what she was doing here, and Lori was dying to know the answer too. He hadn’t been expecting her until Asher’s birthday, and not even then for sure.
“Apparently interrupting something fun,” Annie’s monotone voice answered.
Deek still stood in front of Lori, as if he was hiding her. She didn’t know what his plan was, but she poked him in the back to spur him on.
“Oh.” He stepped aside and held his hand out toward her. “This is my friend Lori. We were just playing some video games. How did you get in?”
Annie held up a key. “You gave me this, remember? And the gate code.” Her eyes shifted to Lori. “He said he built this house for me.”
Annie was clearly marking her territory. One she’d had little or no desire to claim until that moment.
Lori glanced at Deek. The look of sheer terror on his face reminded her of Emily whenever she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar right before dinner. But surely he’d say something. Explain to Annie that things have changed. And that he was taking her advice and dating other women.
Deek just stood there with his hands shoved into his pockets. Totally flummoxed. Wasn’t he going to remind Annie about how they could see other people?
Well, she wasn’t going to pretend this wasn’t a date. They were adults and could all be civil about the awkward situation.
Lori stepped forward and held out her hand. “I’m Emily’s mom. She and Asher are in the same class at school.”
Annie stared at Lori’s hand for a moment before she finally reached out and shook it. “Annie.” She turned to Deek. “If I’m still welcome here, then I think I’ll go on up to our room and go to bed. I’ve been traveling all day, and I’m beat.”
Deek’s jaw flopped opened and closed like a fish out of water as he looked back and forth between her and Annie. “Of course you’re welcome. Asher will be thrilled to see you. He’s at a sleepover but will be home in the morning. And Lori was just leaving anyway.”
Just leaving?
Before she could say anything, Annie’s eyes locked with hers again and she said, “Good. Then Deek and I can have some privacy to celebrate. I came home to accept his proposal. He asked me to marry him last Monday.” Annie’s gaze shifted back to his. “We’ll do it next week. At the courthouse, if that works. Goodbye, Lori.” Then she turned and walked out of the arcade.
All the air whooshed from Lori’s lungs. Annie was accepting his marriage proposal?
She looked up at Deek as she tried to draw enough air to speak. “You asked her to marry you on Monday?” That was the day they’d first slept together. How could he do that to her?
How could she have been so wrong about him? She thought he was different. Not the type to play two women at once so he could get laid.
Like Joe had done to her.
“No. Yes, maybe. I mean she opened the e-mail on Monday, I suppose. This is all happening too fast.” Deek shook his head. “I can explain, Lori. I’m just not sure what to do here.”
Not sure what to do? Yeah, she’d been an idiot to open up her heart again. “Never mind, Deek. I was just leaving, right?”
He ran a hand down his face. “I’m not good at confrontation. I can’t find the right words as fast as she can.”
“What if she’d come in five minutes later? When you were showing me how much you wanted me? Would you have still told her I was just your friend?”
He lifted his hand’s palms up and then let them fall helplessly by his sides. “I honestly don’t know what I would’ve said. But I didn’t mean to hurt—”
She held up her hand to stop him. “Never mind, Deek. You made your choice. Have a nice life.”
She headed for the front door, blinking back her tears.
“Wait.” Deek caught up with her and slipped his hand around her arm to stop her. “Can you just give me a minute to think? I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do. This wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
Lori stared into his eyes. Her heart, still carrying the scars Joe had left on it, shattered into a million pieces. “That you don’t know what to do means you should probably go upstairs. Annie’s waiting for you.” She yanked her arm out of his grasp. Her only goal was to get to her car before she fell completely apart.
When she got to the foyer to grab her coat and bag, Annie stood at the bottom of the steps with a triumphant grin on her face. “Buh-bye, now.”