Half Moon Hill by Toni Blake Page A

. . . normal.
    But then she bit her lip and faced the truth. Nothing between them had been normal so far, so what were the chances of it suddenly getting that way now?

 
“ . . . by affecting excessive interest in outside matters, strove awkwardly to hide from each other the one thought of their hearts.”
Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera
    Six
    A nna found herself back at Under the Covers. She’d told herself she wanted to pick up some classic and popular paperbacks for the inn—she hoped to grow one of the small sitting rooms on the east side of the house into a library of sorts, where her guests could come for reading material, and this seemed like the obvious way to start. Though she knew she was really just running away from Duke.
    Well, not completely. Yet there was no denying that it was at least part of the reason she’d driven into town. She’d worked near him some yesterday afternoon after his haircut, and again this morning, but . . . damn it—the man was suddenly too good-looking. Scar or no scar. Somehow losing the beard, and the fact that she’d unintentionally given him a far shorter haircut than he’d had when she’d known him last summer, had turned him . . . shockingly gorgeous. Which made the not-kissing-him thing a little harder. And the working-with-him thing a little tougher. And so taking the rest of the day for a trip to town had seemed like a good idea.
    She’d told him she needed to run some errands. So she’d figured she’d better come home with something in a bag in case he was still there when she got back. But hopefully she could kill enough time here that he’d have knocked off for the day by the time she made the return trip to Half Moon Hill.
    “Are you ever going to plan that wedding, Amy? Tick tock and all that,” she heard Sue Ann say from the front of the store. When she’d arrived, Amy and some of the girls had been congregated in the easy chairs near the entrance, big coffee cups in hand. They’d invited Anna to join them, of course, as they always did—and despite that even both her brothers’ wives, Tessa and Rachel, were there, she’d politely declined, saying maybe after she selected some books. Secretly, she hoped the party would break up before then.
    “I know, I know,” Amy said. “Weird, isn’t it? I’ve wanted to plan a wedding my whole life, but now that I have one to plan, I just can’t decide what I want.”
    Rachel chimed in then, too. “Well, if you’re still shooting for fall, Sue Ann’s right—you need to get crackin’. So sayeth the maid of honor.” As Anna understood it, Rachel, Amy, and Tessa had been best friends their whole lives, and they’d agreed to trade off maid of honor duties—Tessa had been Rachel’s, Amy had been Tessa’s, and now Rachel would be Amy’s.
    “Hope you’re gonna be able to do your job,” Amy said teasingly. “You’ve been so under the weather lately.”
    “I’m fine now,” Rachel said emphatically, “so don’t you worry about me doing my duties.” Though Anna glanced up the aisle where she stood shopping in time to see blond, stylish Rachel make a face and press a hand to her belly. “Mostly fine. Stupid summer bug.”
    “Well, I’m glad you’re finally getting well,” Amy said, more sincere now. “I was starting to be concerned.”
    But as Rachel swiped a hand down through the air, confidently brushing off the worry, Tessa said, “And speaking of decisions . . .”
    Everyone went quiet, clearly waiting for her to go on—and Anna waited, too, wondering exactly what decision her sister-in-law had made. Only that was when the door to the small bathroom in the rear of the store opened, and Anna looked down the aisle of bookshelves in the opposite direction to see Jenny Brody come out, her expression haggard, her posture tired. She shut the darkly stained wooden door, then turned around to lean back against it, shutting her eyes, and letting out a visibly sad sigh.
    Anna felt