Читать книгу Second Chance Reunion - Merrillee Whren - Страница 12

Chapter Four

While Annie and Ian walked to his office, he didn’t say a thing. He didn’t look at her. He didn’t even acknowledge her presence. What was he thinking? She probably didn’t want to know.

He opened the door and motioned for her to go in, still giving her the silent treatment. If he wanted this meeting, he needed to say something. Even if he didn’t trust her, and she had to prove a lot of things to him, she wasn’t going to let him treat her like some timid little mouse. She wasn’t going to jump when he said jump.

Annie stood in the middle of the room. When he looked at her with those intense gray eyes, her resolve weakened.

“It’s okay to sit down.” He wasn’t ordering her to sit, but it sure seemed like it.

Annie stared at the nearby chair. This was silly. He was only being polite. Why was she making it into something it wasn’t? She hated feeling dependent on Ian. For some reason Melody didn’t make her feel that way, even though Annie depended on Melody for all kinds of help. Maybe it was the sisterly relationship that had developed in the short time she’d been at The Village.

Annie finally settled on the chair. “I thought you said the other attorney wasn’t coming until after lunch. What are we doing in the meantime?”

Ian put the folder on his desk, but he didn’t sit in the chair behind his desk as Annie thought he would. Instead, he sat in the chair next to hers and turned it until he was facing hers. “We’ve got some things to discuss.”

“What things?” Annie swallowed a lump in her throat as she also turned her chair until they were sitting face-to-face. Was he going to bring up her long-ago transgressions?

Ian stared at the floor as if he was gathering his thoughts. When he looked up, the uncertainty in his eyes surprised her. That was not the Ian she had always known. He’d been confident, sometimes even cocky. He’d known what he wanted, and he went after it. She’d always liked that about him.

“I had a meeting with my dad last Friday, and I told him you were here.”

Oh, great. Annie wondered whether Ian’s dad had given him another ultimatum to pass on to her. During Ian’s recovery from his accident, Annie had actually felt close to Jordan Montgomery. He seemed to care about her, but she’d come to believe it was an act. Annie stared at Ian. Did he want some kind of reaction from her? What was she supposed to say?

“Annie, are you afraid of what I’m going to say?”

Was she? “I don’t know. This whole situation with you and me is very awkward.”

Ian smiled wryly. His shoulders relaxed as he settled back in his chair. “That’s for sure. I feel like I’ve been walking through a minefield since you got here.”

Ian’s honesty surprised Annie. “That pretty much describes the situation. So what did your dad say?”

“He thinks Melody’s idea to have you on the finances team is a good one.”

If Annie hadn’t been gripping the armrest of her chair, she would have fallen out of it. Her mouth hanging open, she stared at Ian. She shook her head to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. “He really said that?”