"He loves his nature enrichment class." A strand from Candace's hair extensions was sticking to her lip gloss, but she didn't seem to notice. "We're teaching him to recycle."
"It's amazing how well coordinated he is for a three-year-old," Adam said. "He's going to be quite an athlete."
Kate puffed up with maternal pride. "Doug and Adam were swimmers."
Annabelle had been a swimmer, too.
"Annabelle swam, too." Kate hooked a sickle of blond hair behind her ear. "Unfortunately, she didn't take to it like her brothers."
Translation: Annabelle had never won any medals. "I just had fun," she muttered, but no one was paying attention because her father had decided to enter the conversation.
"I'm cutting down my old seven iron for Jamison. It's never too early to get them interested in the game."
Candace launched into a description of Jamison's academic prowess, and Mr. Charm made all the right responses. Kate regarded her sons fondly. "Both Doug and Adam were reading by the time they were four. Not just words, but entire paragraphs. I'm afraid it took Annabelle a little longer. Not that she was slow-not at all-but she had a hard time sitting still."
She still did.
"A little attention deficit disorder isn't necessarily a bad thing," Annabelle said, feeling the need to interject. "At least it gives you a broad range of interests."
Everybody stared at her, even Heath. It figured. In less than half an hour, he'd deserted the loser's lunch table and taken up permanent residence with the cool kids.
The agony continued as the appetizers arrived and they resettled around the table, which was set with white linen, pink roses, and silver candlesticks. "So, Spud, when are you coming to St. Louis to see the new cardiac wing?" Adam took the seat next to her, his date on his opposite side. "Funniest damn thing,
Lucille. The last time Annabelle visited, somebody left a cleaning bucket in the hall. Annabelle was talking as usual, so she didn't see it. Splat!"
They all laughed as though they hadn't heard the story at least a dozen times.
"Remember that party we had before our senior year in college?" Doug snorted. "We mixed everybody's leftover drinks together and dared Spud to down the whole damn thing. God, I never thought she'd stop puking."
"Yeah, those are some great memories, all right." Annabelle drained her wineglass.
Fortunately, they were more interested in grilling Heath than in torturing her. Doug wanted to know if he'd considered opening an office in L.A. Adam asked if he'd taken on any partners. Her father inquired into his golf game. All of them agreed that hard work, clear-cut goals, and a smooth backswing were the secrets to success. By the time they dug into their entrees, she could see that Heath had fallen as much in love with her family as her family had with him.
Kate, however, still hadn't satisfied her curiosity about why he'd shown up as her escort. "Tell us how your hunt for a wife is coming along. I understand you're working with two matchmakers."
Annabelle decided to get it over with. "One matchmaker. I fired him."
Her brothers laughed, but Kate regarded her severely over her dinner roll. "Annabelle, you have the most bizarre sense of humor."
"I'm not joking," she said. "Heath was impossible to work with."
An embarrassed silence fell over the table. Heath shrugged and set down his fork. "I couldn't seem to stay on task, and Annabelle doesn't put up with a lot of nonsense when it comes to business."
Her family gaped, all except Candace, who'd finished her third chardonnay and decided it was time to launch her very favorite topic of conversation. "You'll never hear it from any of them, Heath, but the Granger family is old, old St. Louis, if you know what I mean."
Heath's fingers curled around the stem of his wineglass. "I'm not sure I do."
As much as Annabelle appreciated the change of topic, she wished Candace could have chosen something else. Kate wasn't happy, either, but since Candace had decided to misbehave instead of Annabelle, she merely asked Lucille to pass the salt.
"Salt leads to high blood pressure," Lucille felt duty bound to point out.
"Fascinating." Kate reached past her for the shaker.
"The Grangers are one of St. Louis's original brewery families," Candace said. "They practically settled the town."
Annabelle stifled a yawn.
Heath, however, abandoned his prime rib to give Candace his full attention. "You don't say?"
Candace, a natural-born snob, was more than happy to elaborate. "My father-in-law waited until he graduated from college to announce that he intended to go into medicine instead of beer. His family was forced to sell out to Anheuser-Busch. Apparently, it was quite the news story."
"I can imagine." Heath gazed across the table at Annabelle. "You never mentioned any of this."
"None of them do," Candace said in a conspiratorial whisper. "They're ashamed of being born with money."
"Not ashamed," her father said firmly. "But Kate and I have always believed in the value of hard work. We had no intention of raising children with nothing better to do than count the money in their trust funds."
Since none of them could touch the money in their trust funds until they were about 130, Annabelle had never understood why it was such a big hairy deal.
"We've watched too many young people get ruined that way," Kate said.
Candace had another tidbit to disclose. "Apparently quite a dustup occurred when Chet brought Kate home. The Grangers saw it as marrying down."
Far from taking offense, Kate looked smug. "Chet's mother was a horrible snob. She couldn't help it, poor thing. She was a product of that insular St. Louis socialite culture, which was exactly why I tried so hard-and so futilely, I might add-to talk Annabelle out of being a debutante. My family might have been working class-God knows my mother was-but-"
"Don't you dare say one bad word about Nana." Annabelle stabbed a green bean.
"-but I knew how to read an etiquette book as well as anyone," Kate went on smoothly, "and it didn't take me long to fit right in with the high and mighty Grangers."
Chet regarded Kate with pride. "By the time my own mother died, she cared more about Kate than she did about me."
Heath hadn't taken his eyes off Annabelle. "You were a debutante?"
Her spine stiffened, and her chin came up. "I loved the gowns, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. You got a problem with that?"
Heath started to laugh, and he kept at it so long that Kate had to dig a tissue from her purse and hand it over so he could wipe his eyes. Frankly, Annabelle didn't see what was so gosh darned funny.
Candace unwisely permitted the waiter to refill her wineglass. "Then there was River Bend, the house where they all grew up…"
Heath gave a snort of amusement. "Your house had a name?"
"Don't look at me," Annabelle retorted. "It happened before I was born."
"River Bend was an estate, not just a house," Candace explained. "We still can't quite believe that Chet talked Kate into selling the property, although their home in Naples has to be seen to be believed."
Heath started laughing all over again.
"You're annoying," Annabelle said.
Candace went on to describe the beauty of River Bend, which made Annabelle nostalgic, even though Candace neglected to mention the drafty windows, smoking fireplaces, and frequent infestations of mice. Finally, even Doug had heard enough, and he switched the subject.
Heath loved the Grangers, every one of them, with the exception of Candace, who was a self-important pain in the ass, but she had to live in Annabelle's shadow, so he was prepared to be tolerant. As he gazed around the table, he saw the rock solid family he'd dreamed of as a boy. Chet and Kate were loving parents who'd dedicated themselves to turning their kids into successful adults. Her brothers' teasing drove Annabelle crazy-they did everything but give her noogies-but as the youngest child and only girl, she was clearly their pet, and watching Adam's and Doug's not-so-subtle competition for her attention was one of the highlights of his evening. The complexities of the mother-daughter relationship were beyond him. Kate was a nag, but she made excuses to touch Annabelle whenever she could and smiled at her when she wasn't looking. As for Chet… His fond expression left no doubt who was Daddy's Little Girl.