only it was that easy. If only she could zing back a one-liner that would singe his hair. If only she could tell him to take a hike, that she could just darn well take care of that herself. But she didn’t have her car and she didn’t have any friends she could call. So unless she wanted to walk across town as night set in, she would have to let Matt drive her home.
She closed her eyes for a moment, making a silent promise. As soon as she could, she was going to get out of this mess. And once she was back on her feet, she was never, ever going to put herself in this kind of dependency again. One way or another, she was going to take control of her life.
Cruising slowly down the side street and turning on Main, Matt glanced at Annie. Somehow she managed to look as if she were perched on the edge of her seat despite the seat belt that had her securely strapped in. A casual observer would have thought she was being abducted. She looked ready to wrench the door handle open and leap from the car once she got the chance.
Shaking his head, he stifled the impulse to let her know how annoying it was to be treated as if he were conducting a shanghaiing operation. But he was pretty sure complaining would only make things worse. He couldn’t yell at someone to stop being so scared of everything. That didn’t ever work.
He wasn’t sure how he’d ended up taking care of her anyway. He was too busy for this. He’d only gone into Millie’s to grab piece of pie and a cup of coffee that was supposed to keep him awake while he worked late at his office at Allman Industries, and the next thing he knew, he was volunteering to take charge of another stray being.
That was what she reminded him of: an injured animal. As a boy he’d been famous for bringing home lost things—puppies, kittens, a garter snake, a baby skunk. He remembered a wounded bird he’d once found. He’d carried the poor thing around in a shoe box, doing everything a ten-year-old kid could think of to help it heal. He’d lavished all sorts of attention on it, trying to get it to eat and drink, and it had learned to stay still in his hands. But the look in its bright black eyes was always wary, as though it was sure, despite all his kindness, that he was probably going to hurt it in the end. And that was the look he saw in her eyes as well.
He felt a quick stab of anger at whoever had done this to her. A woman just didn’t get this skittish without cause. He wanted to soothe her, tell her not to worry, but he knew that anything he said might just make things worse.
“So tell me, what made you head back to Chivaree?” he asked, hoping he sounded casual.
She glanced at him sideways. “I told you. I lived here when I was a kid.”
“Did you go to Chivaree schools?”
“Off and on.”
This was like pulling teeth. She’d dropped the smart-aleck attitude, but now she was being so stingy with her answers, he almost wished she’d come back with another good insult.
“How about your baby. Boy or girl?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t asked.”
He looked over at her, puzzled. “You don’t want to know?”
“I’ll know soon enough.”
He grimaced, his eyes back on the road. “You’re keeping your distance, aren’t you? Trying not to get attached.”
She turned away. She wasn’t going to get into this with him, especially knowing how he felt about it.
“How about you?” she asked instead. “Have any children?”
He didn’t answer right away and she looked at him, surprised.
“I’ve never been married,” he said at last.
She shrugged. “Neither have I.”
Turning the car off Main Street, he headed toward the side of town she’d told him to aim for. Chivaree had changed a lot over the last few years. Used to be the place had a lonely, wind-swept look that wouldn’t have seemed out of place in an old-fashioned Western. But lately the population had surged and new subdivisions were going up on the hills around the town. Chain stores and restaurants were opening up near the highway. Growth was good but it carried with it the inevitable costs.
“Turn left at the next stop sign,” she told him.
He nodded, then frowned as he made the turn. He didn’t much like the look of the neighborhood. He hadn’t been on this seedy side of town for a while. Things had gotten worse in this crime-infested area.
“You living with somebody?” he asked hopefully. He didn’t want to face the possibility that she hung around here alone.
“No.”
“You’re all on your own?”
“Yes.”
“You should have someone else with you.”
She gave him what sounded almost like a snort. “That’s a nice theory. But the fact is, I don’t have anybody. I’m fine on my own.”
Fine on her own, huh? Then why did she sound so defensive?
She glanced at him sideways. He couldn’t help admiring that flash of her dark eyes and the way her thick, chocolate-colored hair swirled around her face.
“Here it is. Pull over behind that red car.”
He pulled over and turned off the engine, grimacing as he looked at the grungy building she had indicated.
“Thanks for everything,” she said with a breezy tone he knew she was forcing. “I’ll see you at Allman Industries in the morning.”
“Wait a second. I’ll walk you to the door.”
She flinched as though that startled her.
“No,” she said quickly, that wary look on her pretty face again. “Don’t.”
He frowned at her. “Why not?”
She ran her tongue across her lower lip nervously. “The neighbors will see you.”
“The neighbors?” He stared at her incredulously. “So what?”
“They’ll talk.”
“They’ll talk? Just because I act like a gentleman and—”
“They don’t know from gentlemen around here.” She pulled her things together and released her seat belt, ready to fly. “The men they see around here are no gentlemen.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you telling me—?”
She glanced at him. “Yes. They’ll think—” She shrugged and looked away. “Just let me go alone. I don’t need to be fodder for gossip.”
He bit down on his tongue. Anger was threatening to take over if he didn’t smother it fast. Taking a deep breath, he turned and challenged her.
“Annie, what the hell are you doing living in this kind of neighborhood?”
She lifted her chin defiantly. “The rent’s cheap.”
“Sometimes cheap is the most expensive of all.”
“Listen, Matt. I don’t come from money. I was raised by a single mother who did what she could, but couldn’t do much. I’ve lived in places like this lots of times in my life. I can handle it.”
Giving him a reassuring look, she slipped out of the car and walked quickly toward the entrance to her building.
He sat where he was, staring after her. He didn’t like it. This was no kind of neighborhood to bring a newborn baby back to. He shrugged away the fact that she was considering putting her baby up for adoption.
Assuming, for the sake of this argument, she would be bringing a baby home from the hospital, how was she going to cope in a place like this?
Well, maybe she had some friends.