A whole myriad of emotions were vying for top position within Anne when they arrived home, none of them good. There was sadness, disappointment and a feeling of rejection. And all the emotions were centered around her daughter.
It hadn’t started out that way.
Janie, Danny and she had had an incredibly wonderful afternoon, joining in the costume parade that had been sponsored by the vet clinic. Afterward they returned to the clinic, where they’d handed out candy to the excited trick-or-treaters who’d come by the downtown businesses.
Since this was Halloween, the day’s festivities were to culminate with her taking Janie out trick-or-treating to several of the neighbors’ homes the way they had done ever since her daughter was three and had first begged to take part in the sugar-laden holiday.
At least, Anne had assumed that the day would end this way.
But Janie apparently had different ideas.
“Please, Mom,” Janie begged. “Why can’t I go trick-or-treating with my friends? All the other kids in my class are breaking up into groups and doing it.”
Anne hated saying no to Janie, but she was concerned for her daughter’s safety. She was also reluctant to give up a much-loved tradition.
“I’m sorry, Janie. But you’re just too young to go out after dark with only a few girls with you,” Anne said firmly.
Janie was quick to tell her, “Cassie’s mother is coming with us.”
“Cassie’s mother,” Anne repeated. She had been replaced by another girl’s mother, she thought. That really stung and though she tried not to, she took it personally.
Dan had stayed silent, trying his best to keep out of the exchange between mother and daughter. He heard what was being said and heard, too, what wasn’t being said. He could hear that Annie was clearly hurt because Janie wanted to go trick-or-treating with another mother acting as a chaperone, not her.
Still, he could see Janie’s point. She’d spent the afternoon with her mother and although it had been a lot of fun—she’d clearly looked as if she was having a good time—now she wanted to spend some time with her friends. It was all a part of growing up.
Though he felt for both sides, he still would have gladly remained on the sidelines, letting this play out without his input.
But then Janie completely surprised him by turning to him and asking him to back her up.
“Tell her to let me go, Danny,” she pleaded. “I’ll only be gone for a couple of hours.”
“A couple of hours?” Anne echoed.
There weren’t that many doorbells to ring in the neighborhood. What was her daughter going to be doing with her friends that would last for a couple of hours?
Danny decided to pick a side—kind of.
“You know how it is,” he said to Annie. “Kids just want to enjoy themselves.”
Anne looked at her daughter. She wanted to put her foot down and veto this, but having Janie angry and upset with her wasn’t the way she wanted to end the evening, either.
“How many girls are going?” she finally asked her daughter.
“Eight,” Janie said, then promptly named every one of them.
Listening to her, Annie frowned. “I don’t know if Cassie’s mother is up to handling eight girls on her own.”
“Oh, she’s up to it,” Janie assured her with enthusiasm. “And Cassie’s mom is strict,” she added, using that as a winning argument. “The only way Cassie could go trick-or-treating with the rest of us was if her mother came along to make sure we behaved.”
“I like this woman’s style already,” Anne commented, although she wished that she was the chaperone, not Cassie’s mother. Seeing how much this meant to Janie, she sighed. “Okay, you can go—as long as you promise to behave yourself. And if anything goes wrong, anything at all,” she emphasized, “I want you to call me immediately, understood?”
Janie looked at her, all eleven-year-old innocence wrapped in fledgling eagerness. “What could go wrong, Mom?”
“You never know,” Anne informed her. “Do I have your word?”
Janie rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’ll call you if anything goes wrong—but it won’t,” she added insistently.
“All right,” Anne reluctantly agreed. “I’ll drop you off at Cassie’s house.”
“No, you don’t have to,” Janie protested. “Her mother’s coming here to pick me up. She’s picking up all the girls.”
“See?” Danny said, doing his best to nudge her into coming around. “What could be better?”
What could be better is if I was the one taking the girls, not this other woman.
Anne gave him a less-than-happy look, but said nothing.
Just then, the doorbell rang and Janie scrambled to grab the slightly worn plastic pumpkin she used every year to collect her treats.
“That’s Cassie’s mom now!” she declared, holding onto the pumpkin and rushing toward the door.
“You wait for me,” Anne ordered, quickly following in Janie’s wake.
But Janie had already thrown open the front door, clearly eager to make her escape.
“Hi,” she said brightly, greeting the woman in the doorway. “Mom said I could go!”
Cassie Jackson’s mother, a rather big-boned woman with a quick smile, was dressed as Cinderella’s fairy godmother.
“Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll watch each and every one of them as if they were my own,” the woman promised, putting an arm around Janie and shepherding the girl out the door.
“Bye,” Anne called after her daughter. “Be sure to listen to Mrs. Jackson and have fun.”
But Janie didn’t seem to hear her. She was already getting into Mrs. Jackson’s station wagon, chattering happily with her friends.
Anne sighed as she closed the door.
“And so it begins,” she murmured, saying the words more to herself than to Dan.
“So what begins?” he asked her, not sure he understood what she was saying.
Anne turned from the door. “Janie growing up, becoming independent. Once it starts, there’s no stopping it,” she said sadly.
“She’s eleven,” Dan reminded her gently. “She’s just going trick-or-treating with her friends, she’s not going away to college.”
“Yet,” Anne qualified sadly. “But it’ll happen faster than you think.” Crossing back to the living room, she sank down on the sofa, the very picture of resigned sadness. “And much faster than I’m ready for,” she added quietly.
Dan sat down beside her. She looked so unhappy, it tore at his heart. He slipped his arm around her shoulders, attempting to offer Annie at least a little comfort.
“It’s a long way between trick-or-treating and college, Annie. You’ll have time to adjust,” he promised her.
Annie said nothing. She just mutely nodded her head. He looked down at her and saw the light glistening on her cheek.
“Are you crying?” he asked, surprised.
Averting her face, she shook her head and managed to get out a small “No” in response.
“Yes, you are,” he contradicted. Crooking his index finger beneath her chin, he raised her head and turned it toward him. “You’re crying.”
Annie jerked her head away. “So what?” she retorted angrily.
“Oh, Annie,” he said compassionately, “you can’t keep her little forever.”
“I didn’t want forever,” she protested. “I just want a little longer, that’s all.” She was doing her best to stop the flow of tears. But they insisted on coming.
Danny took her into his arms then and held her closer. She attempted to pull away, then just gave up and sagged against him.
“I know,” he said understandingly. “But at least you had more years than I had. You got to see all the things that I missed seeing. You got to make memories,” he told her.
Her head on his shoulder, she turned to him then, too overcome with emotion to say a word.
Desperately wanting to comfort her, to somehow absorb her pain, Dan found himself lowering his mouth to hers.
And just like that, the years melted away and they were eighteen again. Eighteen without the restraint of any of the shackles that life had forged for them along the way.
The kiss, beginning slowly and deepening, seemed to unlock all the desire he had kept so carefully locked away. The desire that had been branded with her name on it all these years.
Adrenaline surged through his veins, fueling the passion that was growing and multiplying in every fiber of his being.
He wanted to trace her curves, the contours of her body with his lips. He wanted to make up for all the time that they had lost.
Every kiss just intensified his desire for her, stirring it up to a fever pitch.
He wanted to make love to her as if there was no tomorrow, no consequences to face. Nothing but the raw need and passion that was even now pounding through his veins in sheer anticipation of her and what lay ahead.
As he felt her hands against his chest, it was all he could do not to strip that blood-stirring costume she was wearing from her body.
But it was exactly those hands pressed against his chest that suddenly had him screeching to a halt emotionally and pulling back.
Breathing heavily, her lips all but throbbing from the imprint of his, Anne looked up at him in complete confusion and bewilderment.
“What’s wrong?” she cried. “Why did you stop?”
“I can’t do this,” Danny told her. “I can’t force myself on you like this.”
The hurt look on her face faded as she realized that he wasn’t rejecting her. Ever noble, he was protecting her.
“You’re not forcing yourself on me,” she told Danny, her breath all but coming in snatches. “I’ve been waiting for this—for you—for twelve years.”
Annie took hold of the front of his shirt and pulled him closer to him. His kiss had instantly triggered the hunger she had struggled to suppress since she had first seen him standing on her doorstep, back in town after all these years.
She had been eagerly anticipating this since that moment.
Yes, she was afraid—with good reason, she felt—but at the same time, now that Danny had rekindled the fire she had been trying so hard to put out, she felt as if she was going to totally self-destruct if he did the noble thing and walked away from her.
She couldn’t bear it.
Her eyes held his as she asked, “Are you going to make me beg?”
“No, never that,” he told her.
Danny knew that his conscience was still going to bother him. But there was no denying that he wanted Annie so badly, he physically ached. He knew he would have absolutely no peace if he didn’t give in to this incredible craving that threatened to consume him.
Surrendering, Dan began to make love to her then, softly, gently, reining in the all but insatiable desire to take her quickly, with wild abandonment.
He wanted to make sure that she would have no regrets, no doubts, even for a moment, over what was happening here between them. He didn’t want to risk her believing that he was doing this just to satisfy himself, thinking that his first and foremost thought was not of her.
Because it was.
He had always placed her happiness, her fulfillment above his own, and having Annie achieve that fulfillment would make him happy and contribute to his own feeling of satisfaction.
Danny kissed her over and over again, feasting on her lips, on her throat, on the swell of her breasts as he slowly removed each piece of her pirate costume until all of it finally lay on the floor beside the sofa.
He ran his hands lovingly over her body, stroking it as if he were reverently stroking the strings of a priceless instrument, desperate to coax a beautiful melody out of it.
Annie twisted and turned beneath his hands. She loved the way he touched her, loved how he was making her body veritably hum with anticipation.
Unable to restrain herself any longer, she undressed Danny, curbing her eagerness in order not to tear anything. Her eagerness almost got the better of her not once but several times.
The less clothing there was between them, the greater her desire mounted until she felt as if she were on the verge of erupting. Like a wild woman, she raised her body, pressing up against his, silently urging him to take her.
And still he went slowly, even though she felt his urgent desire pressed against her body.
Over and over again, she sealed her mouth to his, her fingertips digging into his shoulders as she silently offered herself to him.
Dan resisted for as long as he could, wanting to prolong this moment for both of them. Once this lyrical dance was over and the passion spent, who knew the next time they would come together as one.
But he could only hold back for so long. And when Annie opened for him, her silent invitation clear, the last of his restraint shredded.
He entered her, his mouth sealed to hers just as his soul had been sealed to hers all these years.
He began slowly but the rhythm sped quickly with each moment, each thrust, until they were racing breathlessly toward the culmination of this union.
Racing toward the top of the mountain and to journey’s end.
As the goal was finally reached, as stars exploded and rained down all around them, they held tightly onto one another. Euphoria wrapped itself around them, curtaining them in a private world of sensation and ecstasy.
They held reality at bay for as long as they could. Each was willing to freeze time at this very second while life-affirming sensations made their blood rush and their heads whirl.
Dan held Annie to him so tightly he could literally feel her heart pounding against his. In that moment all he could think of was that he should have returned to Rust Creek Falls a lot sooner.
Because Annie—and this—was all that made life worth living.
He felt her sighing against him and knew that she was coming back down to earth, same as him. Even so, he wanted to hold her a little longer, pretend a little longer that this was how it was supposed to be—and had been since the beginning.
When she stirred, all he could think of was that he wanted to do it again, wanted to make love with Annie again.
And again.
And again after that, until he expired in her arms. Because right now, he couldn’t think of a better way to go than in Annie’s arms, making love with her.