Sara's Promise (22 page)

"Yes, Annie did work hard on this party," Sandy agreed. "And she even went to Sam's award ceremony, even though she had to get ready for her photo shoot on Friday. But all Dad could do was complain that she didn't pick up his suit from the dry cleaners."

William frowned at his daughter, angry she'd brought up the fight he'd had with Annie.

"William, why ever would you expect Annie to pick up your dry cleaning?" Caroline asked, looking over at her son with surprise in her eyes. William's mother was a petite woman with soft blue eyes, short silver hair, and a kind face. But she still had the ability to make William feel ten years old again when she looked at him in that motherly way.

"That was a personal conversation that Sandy shouldn't have mentioned," William said, shooting an annoyed look at his daughter.

Sandy merely shrugged. She thought her father had been wrong to treat Annie that way, and she wasn't about to let him off the hook.

"Dear, you can't expect a woman like Annie to run all your errands for you," Caroline said. "She's a career woman. Her job is as important to her as yours is to you. You can't expect her to take care of your every need like Sara did."

William stared at his mother, frowning. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, dear, of course Sara was wonderful. She was a devoted wife and mother, and she always put her family first. But she had to put aside her own interests to take care of all of you," Caroline said.

"Sara enjoyed taking care of her family. She didn't resent it," William said, growing defensive.

Caroline reached across the table and patted her son on the arm. "I didn't mean to say that Sara didn't enjoy taking care of all of you," she said warmly. "It's only that she was such a talented artist, too, but she never had time to work on it. I think it's a shame, actually, that she didn't have the time to pursue her painting. Imagine how far she could have gone with it."

William could only nod his agreement to this. Sara had been talented, and he knew that she had always hoped for more time to work on her paintings. That old guilt crept up on him again. Would that feeling ever go away? Would he always feel that it was his fault that Sara hadn't had the opportunity to pursue her talent?

Later that evening, while lying all alone in his bed, the house quiet except for the sound of the wind brushing against the windows, William pondered his relationship with Annie. If they continued their relationship, would he eventually take away from Annie the things she loved most like he had from Sara? Would he expect Annie to become exactly as Sara had been, making him the center of her world? Or, if she continued her photography, would he grow to resent it? He had fallen in love with Annie just as easily as he had with Sara years ago, yet was his love for her enough? As William fell into a fitful sleep, he was afraid that the answers to his questions just might not lead him down the path of finding a forever with Annie.

Annie came home Sunday feeling revitalized by the incredible days she'd spent shooting photos of the trail and waterfalls. This was what she lived for, that exhilarated feeling of capturing the perfect shot, a moment in time that couldn't be caught again, for people to see and enjoy.

She'd brushed aside her argument with William during each day's shoot but had trouble keeping him out of her thoughts at night. And the dream didn't help to ease her mind. The dream that had once left her feeling warm and safe, now had transformed into a troubling disruption of sleep, leaving her with a feeling of being haunted instead of comforted.

Each night, the dream had become more intense. It always started the same, with the colors enticing her to rise and touch them, and the golden glow beyond warming her to her very soul. But now the being in the dream—who at first had held her softly and whispered lyrically in her ear,
"It's you. You're the one.
"— was becoming more insistent. She grabbed Annie's hand and tugged her down, trying to get her to understand what she needed from her. But for some reason, Annie resisted. "I want to stay," she said to the ethereal being in the dream. "I want to touch the colors." The being only tugged harder, pointing to the scene below, saying, "You must go back before it's too late. They need you."

Now, safe in her own home, Annie shivered as she thought of the dream. What did the being in the dream mean by "before it's too late"? And who needed her? If the being in the dream really had been Sara, where had she intended to take her?

Annie's thoughts were disrupted by the sound of her phone, and she knew immediately from the ring tone that it was William. She hadn't heard from him all weekend, so she was surprised he was calling her now.

"Hello William," she said softly when she answered the phone.

"Hi," William said from the other end. "How was your photo shoot?"

"It was fine," she told him, still not quite sure how to react to his call. Had he decided to just forget their fight? She doubted that very much.

"The party was absolutely perfect," he said, his tone solemn, not excited as it should have been. "Everyone complimented me on it. Thank you for making Sam's special day even more wonderful."

"I'm glad it turned out well," Annie said, feeling awkward. The entire conversation seemed forced, like they were strangers sharing niceties.

Silence ensued. Finally, William said, "I'd like to talk but not over the phone. Can we meet for coffee tomorrow? Maybe around ten o'clock at the coffeehouse?"

"Um, sure," Annie said, not sure what to think of his words. William's tone had been serious, but that didn't necessarily mean anything bad.

"Okay. I'll see you then," William said softly before hanging up.

Annie didn't let herself ponder too much over what William's phone call meant. Just because he wanted to meet didn't mean anything was wrong. He probably only wanted to talk things through. She was too tired from her long weekend to let herself get upset over a simple phone call.

When she met up with William on Monday morning at the coffeehouse, she noticed how serious and solemn he looked. The place was fairly quiet with the morning rush over, and he'd already ordered and had two large cups of coffee sitting on the table of their favorite booth. As Annie walked past the counter, Cherise caught her eye and smiled, giving her a hopeful thumbs-up. Cherise must have thought this meeting was a step in the right direction.

William slid to the edge of the booth and stood to greet Annie with a soft kiss on the cheek. After they'd both sat down, there was several seconds of awkward silence before he finally spoke.

"I'm sorry for the way I treated you," William said, his brown eyes finally meeting Annie's blue-green ones. He noticed how her eyes sparkled, as if the weekend away had re-energized her to the woman he'd met months before. She looked cute in her summer T-shirt and jeans, her brown hair straight and tucked behind her ears. She looked exactly how he liked her, unpretentious, approachable, and happy.

"I'm sorry I overreacted," Annie said, relieved that they were going to talk this through. "I'm sure you didn't mean to make it sound like you expected me to run your errands. I was so stressed that week that I think I took what you said too personally."

William slowly shook his head, his eyes sad. He looked so tired and defeated that Annie wanted to cross the chasm between them and hold him close. But she only sat there, watching helplessly as William spoke.

"No, you didn't overreact. You were right. I was treating you like a maid. I was treating you exactly as I treated Sara."

Annie stared at him, stunned. She didn't know how to respond to his words. William spoke again before she could think of what to say.

"I'm afraid old habits die hard, and I became so comfortable with our relationship that I let it slip into the same pattern as my relationship with Sara. I was wrong then, and I'm wrong now. I'm so sorry I did that to you, Annie. You deserve much better than that."

Annie couldn't bear the tortured look in William's eyes any longer. She reached across the table and grasped his hand in hers, holding it tightly. "It's okay, William. I understand. We can get past this."

William shook his head once again and sat back in his seat, pulling his hand from hers. Annie could only stare at him in shock.

"No, Annie. I don't think we can get past this so easily. At least, I'm not sure I can. I don't want to do to you what I did to Sara. I took her away from the thing she loved most—her painting. I don't want to do that to you. I don't want to make you feel you have to cater to me and slowly lose yourself in our relationship. I can't bear the guilt of doing that again to someone I love." William ran his hand through his hair in frustration. He loved Annie. He wanted to be with her more than anything else in the world. But he didn't want his need for her to change the life she loved.

"It doesn't have to be like that," Annie insisted. "We can be together and still do the things we love. We can work around the problems, I know we can." She sat there, fighting back tears. She didn't want to lose William. She believed he was a good man, and she knew they could have a good life together.

"I'm sorry," William said. He reached for her hand and drew it up to his lips. "I'm so sorry." Before Annie could say another word, William walked out of the coffeehouse, and her life.

Cherise came over to the booth immediately after seeing William leave. She slid into the seat that he had just vacated. She didn't have to ask what had happened. The look of shock on Annie's face told her everything she needed to know.

"He's gone," Annie said as a single tear broke free and slid down her cheek.

Cherise looked at her friend with big, sad eyes. "Oh, Annie. You've lost your happily ever after," she said, tears filling her eyes.

"There's no such thing as happily ever after," Annie insisted softly, brushing away the lone tear on her cheek. "This just proved it."

Chapter Twenty

June slowly faded into July, and the warmest days of summer brought tourists and locals alike to the beaches of Seaside. The coffeehouse's business was booming, as was the ice cream shop, and the gift shops that lined the streets. But Annie didn't notice any of it, because she immersed herself into her work and tried to put William out of her mind. It wasn't easy. Her dreams were haunting her even more than usual as the ethereal Sara was trying to tell her something Annie just didn't understand. She'd wake up at night, startled and confused, not knowing what Sara was pulling her toward and why.

Annie was thankful for her work. The editor at
Travel Washington
loved the proofs Annie had sent from the Lewis River Trail assignment and booked her for several upcoming photo shoots throughout the next year. From their recommendation, she'd also heard from two other travel magazines interested in having her do photo spreads for them. Between the new jobs popping up and the assignments she already had booked, Annie was going to be very busy now and through to the summer of next year.

All the new work helped to keep her mind off of William. She hadn't seen him since the day he walked away in the coffeehouse, not even by accident. Sandy had called her the very next day after the breakup, and they'd met for coffee twice since then. Annie knew Sandy was angry at her father for breaking up with her, and the last time they'd met, she'd told Annie how sad and lonely he was.

"It's his own fault," Sandy had said that day over coffee. "He has some stupid idea that he'll ruin your life if you stay together. All he has to do is change his expectations, but he doesn’t see it that way."

Annie hadn't known how to respond. She agreed with Sandy but didn't know what to do about it. If William didn’t think he had it in him to maintain a relationship with her, then there wasn't much else to say.

"He does still love you," Sandy had said softly that day, after she was done ranting and raving about how stupid her father was acting. "He needs you, too."

"But he doesn't want me," Annie had said. Sandy tried to tell her that wasn't true, but Annie wouldn't listen. William had walked away from her and that was all she knew. She was used to losing people in her life, and she'd survive this loss like she had all the others.

William sat in his den, trying to work on the Santa Barbara house, but instead, he was distracted by thoughts of Annie. The house was quiet. Sandy was gone to work, and Sam was at the golf course. July would soon turn into August. Before he knew it, Sandy would be back in Portland for school, and Sam would be long gone to San Diego for his first year of college. William would be all alone in this big, empty house.

Sandy was right. He was an idiot. How could he have pushed Annie away like he had? Was he so incapable of changing his way of thinking that he preferred to stay alone than to be with the woman he loved?

William stood, stretched, then headed to the kitchen for coffee. After turning on the coffeemaker, he reached into the cupboard by the stove and pulled out his mug. That was when he saw the yellow mug sitting behind it. Carefully, he pulled it down and set it on the counter. Sara's mug. Annie's mug. How could something so simple bring back so many memories?

"Why are you looking at that mug?" Sandy asked as she walked into the kitchen.