Paradise Disguised(18)

"Don't you hi, Dad me," he said, hot on her trail. "Do you have any idea  the number of phone calls I've gotten today? And it's only the middle  of the afternoon."

"I'm twenty-five years old. I shouldn't have to explain my actions to  the whole town or be under their scrutiny twenty-four hours a day."

"That's the price you pay when you live in a small town. You know this,  so why would you deliberately do something to cause such a ruckus?"

"I didn't do anything. It was all Dylan's fault. He pushed me into the bathroom. I couldn't stop him."

"What are you talking about? What bathroom?" Jack asked, confused.

"Well, what are you talking about?" Anna asked, wishing she could drop  off the planet. Surely someone had called to tell him about the bathroom  incident. She kept her fingers crossed about Walgreens.

"I'm talking about fifty people calling me wanting to know if I knew you  were back in town. They said you came rolling into town like you didn't  have a care in the world. Not that you let me know of your comings and  goings. And Mrs. Edgars wanted to know why you felt like you didn't have  to obey traffic laws."                       
       
           



       

"I obeyed all traffic laws, dad. Mrs. Edgars is a hundred and forty  years old. She couldn't see a stop sign if it was five feet in front of  her."

He nodded his head in partial agreement. Anna noticed the look on his  face hadn't changed, but when she examined it closer, she realized it  wasn't anger that cause the lines to furrow his brow. It was sadness,  and worse, disappointment.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I should have called to let you know when I was getting  back into town. I didn't mean to make you worry," she said, pulling him  into a hug. "I probably should have given you more detail as to why I  was leaving as well, but I didn't think I could explain it at the time  without breaking down. I just needed to leave town."

"Was it because of Dylan?" he asked, concerned.

"Yes, but I think I have everything under control now."

"What did he do?" Jack demanded. "I'll take the hide off that boy if  he's done anything to hurt you. I told him before he even asked you out  to make sure he took care of you."

"What?"

Jack realized his blunder too late. "Umm. . .It's not what it seems  Anna. I was just worried about you being cooped up in the house all the  time. I wanted you to be happy, to find a man you could settle down with  and raise a family."

"You set this all up?" she asked, mortified. "I'll never be able to face  him again. He must think I'm the most desperate woman in the world to  have my father set up my dates for me."

"It's not like that Anna. Settle down. Dylan asked about you first. It  was after he mentioned you that I started to get the idea in my head.  Lord knows the both of you are attracted to each other. I watched you  circle around it for months before either of you made a move."

Anna closed her eyes in embarrassment. Apparently she hadn't hidden her  lustful gazes well enough for her father not to notice. "Why didn't he  tell me?" she asked.

"Why would he?" Jack countered. "It's not as big of a deal as you're  making it out to be. You like him, he likes you, end of story."

"It's not like it matters anyway," she said. "I hate to disappoint you,  but my relationship with Dylan is nothing more than superficial. I never  want to get married or have a family."

Anna blanched at the thought that she might be carrying Dylan's child  even as she spoke the denial to her father, and the feeling didn't scare  her as much as it should have. In fact, the more she thought about it,  the more she adjusted to the idea, but she squashed the feeling before  she could become too comfortable.

"How could you even want that for me after what you went through when mom died?"

"What nonsense. You're telling me you'd give up a lifetime of happiness  with a man you loved and the joy of having children because you're  afraid. That doesn't sound like the Anna Hollis I know."

"Well it's the only Anna Hollis there is, and I never said I loved him."

"Let me tell you something young lady. That is a foolish notion and  hopefully you'll come to your senses soon. I wouldn't trade one moment  of the time I got to spend with your mother. Even if I'd known our time  together was going to be short I'd have married her anyway and cherished  our time as much as I still do. You make your own happiness, Anna, and  live the hand life deals you." He casually brushed the tears off his  cheek with a shaky hand.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I didn't mean to make you sad. I'm just scared. I don't  think I could bear to lose someone I loved that much. I don't think I'm  as strong as you are."

"Nonsense. You have Hollis blood in you veins, don't you? Just think  about what I said. I know you'll make the right decision when the time  comes. Now what's this about a bathroom incident?"

Anna blushed at the thought of what he was bound to find out at any  moment. "I think I'll plead the Fifth on this one and let you find out  from your next caller. I don't think I can handle any more embarrassing  situations today."

"Well that sounds promising. I think I'll go wait next to the phone just  in case. Is there anything else you need to tell me about?"

"No," Anna winced at the lie. Somehow parents always knew when their kids were hiding things from them.

Anna gave him a backwards wave and headed upstairs to get ready for an  evening with Dylan. Not just a hot night of sex, though hopefully that  would be included, but an actual date where they could sit face to face  and see if they had anything in common besides a sizzling attraction.  Talk about scary. What if they sat in complete silence the entire meal  and just stared at each other?                       
       
           



       

"Well, there's only one way to find out," she said to herself. She  pulled a dress out of the closet and ran her bathwater, sprinkling in  the scented sea salts Mel had given her for her birthday. The lilac  aroma rose fragrantly in a cloud of steam as she stepped into the hot  water.

She looked at the little white box in front of her. "Well it's now or never," she said, pulling the test out of the box.

The directions said she had to wait three minutes before accurate  results would be displayed, so she laid the test on the counter and  hopped in the tub, so she wouldn't be biting her fingernails for the  next three minutes.

Anna leaned her head back and closed her eyes, letting her muscles relax from the long car ride.

And then the phone rang. . .and rang. . .and rang.

"Dammit. Can't I have five minutes of peace and quiet?" she yelled to no one in particular.

It could only be a select few who were calling. She only gave her number  to close friends or family. It would just have to wait, whatever it  was.

The mood broken, she bathed quickly and stepped out of the tub. She  closed her eyes and picked up the test and then cracked one eye to see  what the results were.

"Oh." Relief and a little disappointment coursed through her as she saw the negative sign in the box. It wasn't meant to be.

She wrapped herself in a thick towel, looking frantically at the clock  as she began pulling undergarments out of drawers. It was later than  she'd thought. Dylan would be there before she knew it.

She did a light makeup job, since it was so warm outside, and  highlighted her eyes with a touch of shadow. She dusted her face and  shoulders with a shimmery powder and pulled her hair up in a high pony  tail on her head to keep the thick mass off the back of her neck. Summer  was just around the corner, and with the hot spring days they'd been  having, she couldn't imagine what the heat in the summer was going to be  like.

The stockings she had laid out on the bed already looked suffocating, so  she chose to go without them for the evening. She didn't need them, her  legs being one of her best features, long, tanned and smooth. It's not  like they would stay on long anyway.

Anna winced as she heard the phone warble from inside her purse once  again. "Fine, I'm coming. I'm coming," she said, throwing her hands up  in the air and hurrying over to the front entry table in her suite, only  wearing her underwear and high heels.

Her heel snagged the carpet runner in the foyer and she went sprawling  in a heap on the floor. She barely managed to get her fingers around her  purse when she crash landed, and her phone ended up falling on her  forehead to add insult to injury.

"Holy cow." She tried to get her breath back and thanked God that no one  had been around to see her make a fool of herself. She felt all her  extremities to make sure nothing was hurt, other than her pride, and  picked up her phone since it continued to play Hungarian Rhapsody in  shrill tones.