78
Chad drove his truck back toward Woodfield, Annabel seated beside him. The snow was still light, but it was starting to stick to the roads. The state trucks were already out, spraying salt and sand from side to side.
“Could be a nor’easter,” Chad said. “You’re in for quite the experience, if the storm turns out to be as big as they’re predicting it might be.”
Annabel visibly shivered. “I’ve been worrying about being snowbound at the inn ever since we decided to move up here.”
Chad smiled over at her. “But you’ve had big snowstorms in the city, too. I remember reading about that big one a few years ago where days later they found people in cars that had been piled over by snowplows.”
“Oh, sure,” Annabel told him. “But you see, in New York, you have other people in your building. You can go next door, talk to someone. You’re not isolated. You can go down to the sidewalk and you can crunch through the snow to a market that’s managed to open. Even in the worst storms, some enterprising shopkeeper always manages to open his doors.”
Chad sighed. “Okay, I hear you. That’s certainly not the case here. In Woodfield—in a lot of western Mass, in fact—things just shut down during a nor’easter. Power can go out and stay out for a week.”
Annabel groaned. “Oh, great.”
“You ought to maybe think about getting a generator as part of your renovations,” Chad suggested.
“Yes. That’s a good idea. A very good idea.”
They were quiet for a few moments as they drove.
“You know, Annabel,” Chad said, breaking the silence, “whatever’s going down back at the inn, if you need my help . . .”
She looked away, out the window. “Of course, I need your help, Chad. I can’t rewire electricity and knock down walls myself.”
“No, what I mean is . . .” Chad struggled to find the words. “With everything that’s happened, you know, with the police being there and conducting a search, well, if I can do anything . . .”
Annabel turned back and looked at him. She offered him a small smile.
“Thank you, Chad,” she said softly.
He liked her. He found himself really liking her a lot. Chad had never been attracted to a married woman before. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with his feelings. Since the breakup with Claire, he hadn’t had much interest in dating. He hadn’t had much interest in women, period. A really gorgeous woman could walk right by him and Chad would barely notice. He remembered not so long ago, Paulie—poor old Paulie—looking at him as if he were crazy. Chad had been reading the newspaper, oblivious to anything around him. “Dude,” Paulie had said. “That was a major babe who just passed by and you couldn’t even pull your nose away from the Patriots’ score long enough to notice.”
But he sure noticed Annabel.
She was hot, no doubt about that. Her shiny auburn hair, her tiny waist, her perfect figure. And she was married to a major-league asshole, if Tammy’s story was true—and Chad believed it was. What if Jack Devlin had something to do with Paulie’s disappearance, and the disappearance of that English lady? Annabel could be in real trouble in that house.
“Listen,” Chad said, as he switched on the blinker to take the exit toward Woodfield, “I’m serious. You have no idea what you’re dealing with up at that old house. Too much weird shit has gone down there over the years. I’d like to be around to take care of you if—”
“You are very sweet,” Annabel said, cutting him off, “and more than chivalric. I appreciate your offer, Chad. I really do.” She looked away again, back out the window. “But I think I’ve got to learn how to take care of myself.”
“Well, sure, but if things get rough . . .”
He could see that she was smiling, though she didn’t look back at him.
“Oh,” Annabel said, “things have been rough for a while. Jack said they’d get easier here, but they haven’t. I’m not surprised.” Finally, she looked back at him, giving him a smile and a flash of her pretty eyes. “So I’m used to things being rough.”
“As rough as all this?” Chad asked, as the truck rattled onto the main road leading into Woodfield. “A dead man’s hand being found on your property? Two people going missing from your house? The cops searching the place? Can you handle all that?”
Annabel’s smiled faded and she looked away again. “We shall see,” she said softly. “We shall see.”