“You are never lonely.”
“Well, that sounds nice. Now tell me something bad.”
“You are never lonely,” she said with a wicked grin.
Nick smiled but Annie could see shadows behind his eyes. She knew he was lonely. He’d locked himself up here on his island and had spent so many hours alone since his wife had died that it was a small wonder he still knew how to speak to other human beings at all.
He did speak to her, though. He spoke straight to her heart—with words or without. She could feel his pain in her chest right now.
But she knew she wouldn’t be the one to break the spell on him. What he needed was some sophisticated blond princess, not a scraggly redheaded Irish kid from the poor side of town.
“Why do you spend all your time alone, Nick?” she asked brazenly, trying to break his bad mood. “You’re like a prince who’s been put under a spell. It seems you should have friends…and girlfriends. I can’t understand why you don’t.”
“My friend…the one woman who was my only girlfriend and my wife…died,” he said softly. “It would dishonor her memory if I…” He stopped and looked guilt-stricken.
“You don’t have to tell me, Nick. I really don’t need to understand. It’s your life.” She watched the deep blue in his eyes turn stormy. “But I’m a good listener in case you need one.”
He hung his head and silently stared down into his coffee cup.
“My grandmother is a very great lady,” Annie hurriedly told him with a small laugh. “And really old. She always says that it’s good to talk about people who have gone on to heaven before us. Talking about them keeps their memories fresh and alive. Telling stories about lost loved ones is a way to see them clearly in your mind and to bring them closer to your heart again.”
Nick gave her a small shake of his head but didn’t look up or make a sound.
“Of course, Gran doesn’t just tell stories about family and friends,” Annie added. “Once she starts the stories, she goes on to tell the ones she learned in her childhood in Ireland. Those are wonderful stories about mysticism and magic—elves and sorcerers. I could…”
“I met a woman with magic,” Nick interrupted. “It was in New Orleans six months ago right before I hired you.”
Annie silently gave a sigh of relief. He was actually talking again. Thank heaven.
“She was an old gypsy and she gave me a book,” he added with a scowl.
“A book?”
Nick nodded once and his eyes became glazed. “It was the oddest thing. She gave me this obviously expensive and antique book and said it was my destiny. But then she disappeared before she told me why.”
“What kind of a book?”
“The cover says it’s the original Grimm’s stories.”
“The fairy tales?”
“I suppose so.”
“But you haven’t opened it?”
“No. I didn’t think that fairy tales were my kind of reading material.” He’d said that softly, almost wistfully, and it made Annie more than a little curious.
Interesting—and completely confusing. “So how do you know this old gypsy woman had magic?”
“I…I’m not sure. I just felt it. I think the book is magic, too.”
“But you haven’t read it yet?”
“You may read it if you want. I’ll let you see it sometime.”
He was somehow nervous about the magic, she thought with a sudden insight. But considering her background, she wasn’t afraid of gypsies or magic. Just curious.
Nick had actually told her about something important to him, though. Annie thought that might be some kind of breakthrough, so she tried a friendly push to keep him talking.
“I’d rather hear your story than read one,” she told him. “Tell me about Christina. Talk about how you two met.” She’d put her hand on his forearm to let him feel how much she cared, but the electric shock she felt when she’d touched his skin made her draw the hand back in a hurry.
Annie got up and began to casually clear their dessert dishes with feigned indifference. She knew she was probably being pushy with a man who was her boss, and she didn’t want this to seem like an interrogation. But he needed to talk.
And she needed to get over whatever these odd feelings were toward him. Even though he was sometimes infuriating, he was a nice man and obviously hurting. And she just wanted to help—not jump him.
“Um…well, Christina’s father and my father were old friends—more business partners than friends, I guess you would say. My father does not cultivate friends that serve no purpose.” He’d said that with a rather strangled sound in his voice, but Annie had her back to him and couldn’t see his expression.
She let him talk while she busied herself at the sink.
“Anyway, Christina and I knew each other all of our lives,” he said quietly. “When I was old enough to leave Europe for the United States to attend university preparatory school, Father informed me that our families would be well served if the two of us were joined.”
He took a deep breath, and it was all Annie could do not to turn around to see his face. “I understood his point completely and recognized my obligation,” he began again. “And spoke to Christina about our future so that we would have an understanding before I left Alsaca.”
That did it. Annie spun around. “You became engaged as teenagers? Just like that?”
He looked up at her with slight confusion in his eyes. “Yes, of course. I know that isn’t the way it’s done in the United States, but in Europe it’s quite common for two prominent families to join like that.”
“But what about love?”
“Christina and I had a close relationship. We had always been friends. It was just natural.”
Natural, maybe, Annie thought. But definitely not romantic. She sighed softly. What about the magic? But she managed to kept her mouth shut.
Nick got up and moved to the sink to stand beside her. He picked up a towel. “If you’ve changed your mind about washing the dishes now, may I help?”
Annie looked down at the sink and realized she’d been washing and stacking the dishes while she listened to him talk. “I guess so. If you really want to.”
“Yes. The time goes by faster if you stay busy.”
How right he was. Annie had learned that lesson early in a home where too much time on your hands only brought more teasing from older siblings.
“So how long were you two married?” she asked as she handed him a dish.
“We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary right before…”
Oops. “Four years?” she broke in hurriedly. “Boy, that’s so short a time. But you didn’t have any kids?”
“No.” The answer came slowly, almost as if it pained him just to admit it.
Annie figured she’d managed to make one more mistake with her big, fat mouth. But never let it be said that she knew when to just shut up.
“I’ll bet you two were so busy with your lives and being newlyweds that you didn’t want children to intrude on your happiness. Kids can be a real pain.”
“On the contrary, Christina…we…wanted very badly to have a child. The doctors told us it would be impossible for either one of us to have a natural child of our own.”
He