Tennessee Heat Read online

  “I don’t need the damn hospital girl, what I need is some rest. It’s all the work I have to do around here, looking after you and the cooking and getting everything ready and doing all the house-work, and going out cleaning other people’s houses every blessed day.” Annabelle took umbrage to the blatant half-truths but held her tongue on that one but not the other.

  Her mother hadn’t cleaned anything in their apartment in years. She guessed the other woman forgot her decree when she Annabelle was ten, that if she had to clean up other people’s shit she’d be damned if she was gonna come home to more of the same.

  “I don’t think that’s the problem mom, lots of people work. I think it’s the liquor. You really need to ease off the bottle or you’re going to end up hurting yourself.”

  How many times had she told herself not to go there? The last time she’d tried an intervention Ms. Scacci had exploded in a rage and thrown her empty whiskey bottle at her head, barely missing hitting her.

  “If I don't have a drop of liquor, to pull me together, I’d end up in jail for killing your stupid ass. How dare you talk to me like that? After all I’ve done for you.” Ms. Scacci was one of those mothers who seemed to think that their kids owed them some sort of recompense for being born.

  Annabelle left the room and went back to fixing breakfast before things deteriorated into an all out brawl. She pulled her phone from her pocket and pulled up Chase’s number.

  She didn’t dial it, just took comfort in knowing that he was just a dial away. She put it away when she heard her mother making her way down the hallway towards the kitchen.

  The toast was ready so she buttered it and poured the last bit of juice for them before taking a seat at the table. They never had much to eat in the morning, which was fine by Annabelle since it meant less time spent with her mother and her early morning moods.

  Ms. Scacci nibbled on the corner of her buttered toast and gulped down her juice. “You working today?”

  “Yes mom, I work every Tuesday.” The other woman remained silent for a bit, then said: “I don't think I can make it in to work today. This headache is really bad and my arthritis is acting up. I think you should go in for me today.”

  It wasn’t the first time she’d asked her daughter to fill in for her, but she must’ve got her days mixed up. She usually pulled that stunt on Annabelle’s day off.

  “Sorry mother, no can do.” Annabelle got up to wash her glass and put it on the sink to dry. If she didn’t get out of there soon she was going to lose her shit.

  “I hope you weren’t planning to hang out with your friends again tonight, because I need you home to cook dinner.”

  “Mom, you know I work late on Tuesdays. And since when do you need me to make you dinner?” Her mother usually drank that particular meal.

  “Well, it's the least you can do considering all the shit I did for you when you were young. Do you know how long I was in labor bringing you into the world? Now you can’t take the time to cook me some mashed potatoes and corn?”

  Annabelle checked her watch and started towards the door. There was no use arguing with her mother when she got like this, nothing will satisfy her.

  “What have you done with your week's pay, Annabelle? You didn’t waste it all on that fancy dress did you?”

  “I put it where I always put it,” answered Annabelle feeling defeated. She should’ve known the stupid dress was still sticking in her mother’s craw. She’d been aware for some time now that her mother was jealous of her and was always finding reasons to find fault.

  “And where’s that”' asked her mother.

  “Where do you think mom, the bank.” She knew that would start another war. Her mother didn’t have an account of her own and resented the fact that her daughter wouldn’t put her on her account.

  She’d been dumb enough when she first started working to let her mother open an account for her because she was too young to do it herself and that had been a disaster.

  ''I don’t understand why you had to go down there and change that account. You act like I want to steal your money.” Annabelle ignored that particular fire starter.

  “Well, don’t have nothing to say? Why did you take my name off the account?”

  “Mom I’m going to be late.” She really didn’t want to have this argument now; not again.

  Ms. Scacci grew pissed. She sat up in her chair, her eyes shooting sparks of fiery anger at her daughter. “I know why you did it, you … you!” She released a barrage of colorful epithets each one worst than the last.

  “You think I'd steal it,” she went on. “I know that’s what you think! Do you think I'd go and steal from my own child?”

  “Well, mother,” said Annabelle, “the last time your name was on the account money just seemed to disappear.”

  “Just what the hell are you implying?”

  “Nothing mom, just that there were only two people on the account and I wasn’t making any withdrawals.”

  “Well, I had to feed and clothe you didn’t I, what did you expect?” Annabelle didn’t answer because there was no point.

  Her walking away and heading for the door only seemed to enrage her mother further.

  “You dirty slut, you,” she said, “I know all about the man in the fancy car. She eyed her daughter balefully.

  “If you think you’re gonna move uptown and leave me here after all the sacrifices I made for you-you can forget it! You owe me. You should be giving me your pay every week instead of saving it up for a school that don’t want you and spending it on all sorts of crap while I have to work myself into the grave to keep a roof over your head.”

  “You know, mother, if I didn't have a little bit saved up, we would always be short when you run out.” Ms. Scacci's money always ran out on Tuesday, and Annabelle had to keep things going till the following Saturday when she got paid again.

  It never fails, and since today was Tuesday, Annabelle figured all this was just a lead up to begging her for money.

  “Oh, excuse me Ms. Big shot!” Proceeded Ms. Scacci. “When I was a girl I gave all my money to my mother. She never had to ask me for nothing. On Saturday when I came home with my wages, I gave her every dime.” Her words grew more slurred.

  “That's what a daughter is supposed to do. I can tell you one thing, I never disrespected my mother; I appreciated her. She didn't have to ask me for a couple bucks to get a pint of beer.”

  Annabelle wasn’t stupid and she was over it; she held her tongue, and opened the door.

  “Now, you're just gonna leave me here sick and alone. I could die from this damn headache, fat lot you care.” She was really putting it on thick this morning but Annabelle wasn’t moved, she’d seen and heard it all before.

  She made her escape and gave a sigh of relief until she saw what else was waiting for her this morning. Her spirits dropped even farther and she wished she’d taken out her phone and called Chase after all.

  Leaning against the wall of the house across the way was Tim; he came towards her before she could duck back inside or find some other means of escape.

  “Hello!' she said grudgingly, as he came toward her. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was waiting for you to come out, Annabelle,” he answered. She looked at him quickly. “I don’t have time this morning Tim I have to get to work. Mom already held me back.”

  “I’ll walk you to the bus stop.” He walked in step beside her and she felt odd after what she’d said to him last night. With each step she promised to never put herself in this uncomfortable position again.

  “So, you gonna be here for the block party this coming Saturday?” Annabelle barely restrained herself from making an unappealing sound. No wonder they thought she was stuck up, but no way she was hanging out with those thugs.

  “I don’t think so Tim, you know that’s not my scene.”

  “I don’t see why not, you live here you know.” Don’t remind me she thought, but didn’t say it out loud.


  “Na, I can't.”

  “Why not? You got a date with that guy with the car?” There was a hint of resentment in his tone and she looked at him sharply.

  “That’s really none of your business is it? Besides I don’t have anything to wear.”

  “Wear that dress you had on the other day.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  They’d reached the bus stop and she was grateful to see the trolley coming towards them. He tried reaching for her hand but she pulled it out of his reach. “Look Tim, I can't go on being your friend… after what happened last night.” It hurt her to say it, but it was for the best. He just didn’t seem to be getting the message.

  “That’s bullshit, I told you I won’t try to force anything on you.”

  “I think it’s for the best Tim, besides, if you’re not hanging around me all the time maybe you will find someone else. Someone that you really like and would really like you.”

  She nodded to him, and stepped on the trolley when it pulled up. She felt like the most awful person, but what was she supposed to do? Pretend to have feelings for him when she didn’t?

  To take her mind off of him and the nasty feeling in the pit of her stomach she took out her phone and called Kimberly. She hadn’t spoken to her friend since the party.

  Kimberly answered the phone laughing. “Girl I thought you ran away with my brother, no one has heard from either of you since Saturday night.”

  “What? Why would you think that? You know your brother doesn’t feel me like that.” She didn’t want to give too much away lest things went south and nothing came of her and Chase’s flirtations. So as much as she would’ve liked to share with her friend, she wasn’t quite brave enough yet. “So you say, I beg to differ.”

  Annabel did more listening than talking because she hated speaking on the phone in public, especially on the trolley where she had a captive audience.

  But listening was no hardship, since Kimberly went on and on about Chase, which was what Annabel’s poor soul needed right then. Something to take the bitter taste of that last conversation out of her mouth.

  They stayed on the phone until she got off the trolley and walked the few blocks to her job. She was on pins and needles all day, worrying about the trip back and if she’d see Tim.

  She did get one phone call from Chase later on in the day, but he sounded distracted and the call didn’t last too long. She tried not to let it bother her but she had to admit that the day had turned out just as the morning promised. A disaster.

  13

  For the rest of the week she only heard from Chase a handful of times, each time shorter than the last and told herself the honeymoon was over. She’d never been so miserable in her life. And no matter how she told herself that she was lucky she didn’t give her heart to him, it was no use.

  She may tell herself that all she wanted but she knew it wasn’t true. That even though his attraction hadn’t lasted it was too late for her to pull back. Those few days spent as the center of his attention had been her undoing.

  It was just her luck, she surmised. That just when she was softening towards him, just when she’d decided to close her eyes and jump into the deep end of the pool, he’d pulled back.

  It was for the best that he’d shown his true colors now before she’d gone to bed with him. She must’ve told herself the same thing a thousand times but at night alone in her bed, she missed him something awful.

  While she was making herself miserable she had no idea that like most of the country he’d been following the progress of the hurricane that was heading for the country and was busy making plans in case he had to leave town.

  Or that the reason he’d been so distracted is because he was beyond worried about her and leaving her behind if worse came to worse and he had to follow his team once again into the eye of another storm.

  He was working hard to find a way to get her into his house and out of that neighborhood for her sake and his own peace of mind, but so far he couldn’t come up with anything.

  Each night when he called her in between conferencing with the guys from his rescue team who were also keeping an eye on the coming storm he always felt inadequate because he couldn’t talk her into moving from that place.

  She could have no idea what it did to a man like him, a man whose every instinct is to protect his woman. And he didn’t want to fight with her this soon before he had to go away, so he restrained himself, which only ended up pissing him off. Ergo the short phone calls.

  It was killing him as the storm raged on across the sea, making landfall here and there with its projection headed for a part of the country that had already been hit by a previous storm. It was slated to make landfall in the states sometime early the following week.

  That Saturday, Kimberly called and invited her over, and she gladly accepted because her mother was driving her nuts with her batshit bullshit. And she missed Chase so much she was ready to climb the walls.

  Plus, there was the added hope that she just might see him there. She wished she felt confident enough to call him up and tell him she was headed to his parents’ place. Or even that she was dying to see him.

  She took the trolley to the bus and walked the rest of the way to her friend’s house and was surprised to see some of the other girls there as well. Kimberly rolled her eyes when she commented on their presence. “That fool Lisa invited herself and I couldn’t come up with a good enough excuse fast enough to tell her to get bent.”

  Annabelle felt a bit self-conscious. She was dressed completely different from the last time she’d been there and she always felt poor when in the presence of the fashionable Lisa who always looked like she was ready for a photo shoot.

  She was dressed in a short red skirt and an old red and blue peasant blouse that had seen better days and on her feet she wore the same Tom’s knockoffs that she’d worn the past two years, which had once been white but now not so much.

  “Come on in, I need you to tell me all about why my big brother has been ringing my ears off with Annabelle this and Annabelle that. Just what exactly happened between you two when he drove you home last weekend anyway?”

  She said it loud enough that the others in the backyard heard and Lisa’s reaction was priceless. She looked like someone had shot her ass out of a canon. Annabelle pretended not to notice and let the door slam behind her.

  “You’re really bad. You know she heard you right.”

  “Sure I do, that’ll shut her up about my brother. She’s been going on and on about him like she thinks she stands a chance.” Kimberly made a face of distaste as she spoke of the other girl.

  “Well now that you’ve lit the fire I’m just gonna go feed the swans and the ducks and stay out of her line of sight.” She grabbed a carrot slice off the plate Kimberly was about to take out to the pool and held the door for her friend.

  Lisa gave her a nasty sneer when she happened to look in that direction but Annabelle ignored the other girl and headed down to the gazebo after accepting a cool drink from Kimberly, leaving the others by the pool where they were hanging out to combat the heat.

  She felt almost listless being there without him now that things had changed between them, when she never had before. In fact, this whole week she’d been like a duck out of water, not finding comfort anywhere.

  She had her back to the house and was watching the birds on the water, and daydreaming about him, as she fed them with the food Mrs. Worthington kept there for them, when she heard his voice behind her. Her pulse raced and her breath grew short as she heard him coming towards her.

  She closed her eyes but refused to turn around, her face would definitely give her away and she was sure her pleasure at his presence was written all over it. Her heart beat so loudly in her chest she just knew it could be heard.

  “Morning sunshine!” She turned around and saw him standing there. She took in his masculine good looks in the polo shirt and cargo shorts with moccasins on his feet. Must he always look so p
icture perfect? Even that morning after she’d spent the night, she didn’t recall him looking anything but perfect.

  She took in his muscular arms beneath the short sleeves and noticed that he was, in fact, a big man. Tall and broad shouldered, more like a football player than a businessman.

  If that wasn’t enough, along with the Adonis physique he had a face that was almost pretty except for his chiseled jaw, which swung him back hard into the manly man category.

  “Morning babygirl, you okay?” he greeted her again, and she shook her head as she realized she’d just been standing there staring like a ninny. “Well, you needn't look as if I’m going to take you down right here and mount you” he said. He had a wicked twinkle in his eye as he teased her.

  ''I wasn’t thinking any such thing, for shame.” Her face was ten shades of red, she could feel the embarrassment in her cheeks.

  “Then why is your face so red? Exactly what were you thinking while staring at me like that?” He asked pointedly as he took the last few steps towards her.

  She was dumbstruck and couldn’t come up with a ready lie, but just stood there staring at him and chewing a hole in her lip while her face grew hotter.

  Chase had been starved for the sight of her. Each night after he hung up the phone he’d lay awake thinking about her. He couldn’t even do the falling asleep to her breathing thing because it only made him miss her more.

  He’d been miserable until he called his sister and told her to make the plans for today. He wasn’t sure what answer she would’ve given him this time if he invited her back to his place, but he was sure she’d accept his sister’s invitation.

  Now she was standing in front of him looking better than he remembered and he was fighting himself not to rush her. Each time he saw her, the need grew stronger until she was an ache beneath his skin.

  Annabelle drew in her breath when he cupped her cheek, but she couldn’t resist turning her face into his palm. And the move melted his heart, taking his hunger to a higher level of need.

  “How hard will you slap me if I kiss you right now?” Her breath hitched and she stared into his eyes. He leaned in the last few inches and brushed her lips with his.