Chapter 26 I'm Okay on My Own

Anna stopped outside the door and pulled John to a stop. She took his face gently in her hands and kissed him. Her mouth moved over his and she deepened the kiss running her hands through his hair not caring who saw. She pulled back breaking the kiss. John leaned in trying to follow her departing lips and she smiled as he opened his eyes and stared at her curiously.
“What was that for?”
“Trying to be my knight in shining armor.”
“Well if I knew that was going to be my payment I would do more of it.” He said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Hey are you okay?” she asked smoothing her hands over his shoulders. “You look like somethings bothering you.”
“Nope, just some things I have to take care of.”
“Can I help?”
“I love that you asked that,” John said with a nip to her lower lip. “You constantly amaze me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive, now I think there was some mention about lunch? How about the Biltmore estate?” Anna smiled and nodded as they walked away and slid inside her car. She knew he had something on his mind, she just had to find out what it was and help him.
***
The white linen table cloth and silver wear seemed to shine in the early afternoon light. The fireplace painted a beautiful cream with grey stone facing, was blazing merrily right beside their table and Anna was sure she’d never seen anything more beautiful. They ordered and sat back enjoying the fire and each other.
“Thank you again for trying to help me at the store.”
“You looked like you could use it.” He said easily taking a sip of his water. “Seline always was a bit of a pain in the butt in school.”
“I actually was about to take care of it myself,
“I saw how you were going to take care of it.” John snorted loudly “I was probably going to have to bail you out of jail.”
“It wasn’t going that far.”
“Really? I did see your hands fisted and you did threaten her nose job.”
Anna grunted but couldn’t really protest. She had really wanted to hit her. Maybe making her nose crooked would have made her feel better.
“Okay I did want to hit her, but I had it.”
John sat back and smiled, Anna looked contrite but there was a fire in her eyes that made him realize that she was serious. John was overcome for a moment as an image of 5-year-old Anna came to mind. She had been so helpless then. Now the image merged with the strong woman before him and he couldn’t help but be amazed at her.
“You really did.” He agreed as he took her hand “I was so proud of you. I am so proud of how strong you have become, soon you won’t need me at all.”
“That will never happen.” Anna said softly as she grabbed his hand “I will always need you, I just want to accomplish more things on my own.”
“I can see that I was glad to see that you were okay though, I was worried about you.
“Why?”
“I actually heard you fighting with Isabel this morning and she was really awful to you. Something about the way she stared at you after you left worried me.”
“Worried you how?”
“Something about her seems unstable and I’m worried that she will do something crazy.”
“You have no idea.” Anna thought as she took his hand.
“What can we do?”
“We can figure it out together.”
“That sounds like a plan, “Anna said with a small smile designed to make him feel better.
“In the meantime, II had an idea. It will keep you out of the house more so we can all be a little saner.”
“What’s that?” Anna said leaning forward jerking on his hand.
“I thought that you might want to use your degree and come to work for me at my company.”
Anna sat back staring at him as the waiter dropped off their appetizers. John had always kept his business life separate from her for as long as she’d known him. He always said he wanted her to not worry about his work concerns. Now here he was inviting her into that world.
“Why now?” She asked as she picked at her coconut shrimp.
“Well, honestly I thought it was time. You are just as qualified as anyone else at the agency and I trust you.”
“Is this because you think I might kill your mother, May or Isabel if you leave us alone at home together?”
“No,” John laughed, barely keeping his shrimp cocktail in his mouth, “I just want you to have something that you are proud of.”
“Would we be working directly together? Because everyone will assume I got the job because I’m sleeping with the boss.”
“Not if you don’t want to.”
Anna considered it and realized that if she were going to have something of her own she needed to work independently from him.
“I think I want to work on another team so I can do it on my own. Are you sure you’re okay with that?”
“Am I going to miss my chance to chase you around my desk, sure?” He said with a smirk “But if it’s what you want I’ll put you on the other team across the building.”
Anna grasped his hand and squeezed it. “Thank you, but you can chase me around the desk after hours.”
“Hmm.” He grumbled smiling as he dug into the main course. He was smiling but Anna could see that his smile no longer reached his eyes. She wanted to have something of her own but she worried that John might mind her independence more than he was letting on and it made her stomach turn with worry.
.
.