Taking On Twins. Carolyn Zane

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СКАЧАТЬ snapping with anger, Annie had tossed her wild coppery mane out of her face and fired a fistful of silverware at the soapy container at her side. “Hey, buddy, I’d like to see you get it all when the belt is going a hundred miles an hour.”

      Enjoying the break, their more experienced co-workers had settled in to watch the show. At the same time, students attempting to turn their trays in poked their head into the dish room to see why the belt was off and what the shouting was about.

      “Nobody else seems to have a problem keeping up.” Wyatt knew that wasn’t exactly true, but he’d had a hell of a day and with midterms coming up, he was in no mood to deal with this rookie.

      “Baloney. Nobody wants this stupid job. That’s why I got it before the ink was dry on my application. This is my first day, so you can just cut me some slack!”

      Wyatt stared at her. “This is your first day on the job and you’re yelling at me?”

      “Yes!” The little veins stood out on her neck and she fairly pulsed with frustration.

      The humor of the situation suddenly struck him and Wyatt threw back his head and started to laugh. Soon, everyone but Annie was laughing. Then, lips twitching, she’d cracked and they’d all howled until the boss came in to see why trays had stacked up waist deep in the cafeteria, just outside the dish room.

      The next time Wyatt had seen Annie was at the time clock a week later on Valentine’s Day.

      “Hi,” he said as she punched out. He glanced at her time card. “Annie.”

      “Hi.” She glanced at the card he held. “Wylie.”

      “Wyatt.”

      “Whatever.”

      She was a smart aleck. As casually as he could, Wyatt draped an arm over the time clock and winked. “So. It’s the fourteenth. Where’s my Valentine’s kiss?”

      She snorted. “Are you off your rocker? I barely know you.”

      “Aw, c’mon. We’ve already had our first fight. Surely it’s time to move on to a kiss.”

      “Forget it.” Her smiling green eyes belied the stern tone of her voice.

      “Just a little one.” He puckered up and waited.

      She giggled. “Are you always so delusional?”

      “You wound me.” He thrust out his lower lip and pretended to pout.

      Noisily, she exhaled. “Okay. One kiss. On the cheek.”

      He wasted no time in presenting his cheek. “I’ll take what I can get.”

      As she stood on tiptoe to press her full lips to his cheek, Wyatt turned at the last instant and caught her lips with his own.

      She’d recoiled and shrieked with laughter. “You cheater,” she squealed, “I can’t believe I fell for that old trick!”

      In a flash, she spun on her heel and tore through the industrial kitchen, pushing stainless food carts in his way as he gave chase. Cat and mouse they ran and played, darting out of the kitchen and into the now nearly empty dining room.

      “Come back,” Wyatt yelled.

      “Never,” Annie yelled back.

      He admired her spunk. She was fast for such a short little thing. As she plunged into the great outdoors and sped down the sidewalk toward the dorm across the street, Wyatt had shouted after her, causing passing students to stop and stare.

      “Someday I’m gonna kiss you proper, Annie Summers, just wait and see.”

      And he had.

      Two

      One month after that first Valentine kiss, Wyatt lay on a blanket in the Memorial Union Quad, Annie curled at his side, her head resting on her backpack. She was close enough to set him on fire with desire, but not close enough to kiss. Oh, yeah. Wyatt released his frustration in a long, slow breath directed at the high clouds that scudded by.

      That was Annie for you.

      It was a beautiful spring day. Here in Prosperino, the college campus by the sea was a riot of color and the fragrant aroma of a landscape in bloom. A perfect day for lovers. For kissing. For ducking off into the bushes for a little “hot and bothered.”

      Wyatt stripped off his T-shirt to better work on his tan. He glanced at Annie. She was studying her biology.

      For crying out loud, didn’t she ever give it a rest? He had some biology he’d like to show her. He flexed a biceps and watched her from his peripheral vision to see if she noticed. She didn’t. He flopped over onto his back.

      Annie was a nice girl. The type of girl a guy brought home to mother. Even the kind of kooky, hormone-ravaged woman his foster mother, Meredith, had been lately.

      Yep. Annie Summers was the kind of girl a guy married.

      The renegade thought shocked him and he nearly choked on his gum. Married? Where had that come from?

      The pink tip of her tongue protruded from her mouth as she scrunched her brow and highlighted endless paragraphs of proton/neutron-type information. He groaned, low in his throat. She was driving him batty.

      Overhead, seagulls wheeled and cried, begging the students for leftover crumbs from lunch. Annie was such a sucker for the noisy critters. She called them “baby” and “honey” and enticed them with bits of her sandwich. She didn’t even do that for him, he thought grumpily.

      He called the stupid, noisy birds “air-rats” and shooed them off. They reminded them too much of himself as a boy he guessed. Always begging for food.

      He fired a pebble at one now, and without looking, Annie reached up and smacked his hand. He chuckled. She was so cool.

      They’d been dating for nearly a month now, and it had been the slowest, most torturous month of his life. Courting this woman took finesse. Savoir-faire. A patience born of wisdom and maturity.

      A veritable sainthood.

      Hell, he’d be a monk by the time she got done with him. So far, she’d given up three dinky little good-night kisses and some hand-holding at the midnight movie. He’d relived every moment of these whisper kisses a million times after each successful union of their lips. But always, she’d push him away, shyly claiming that she needed time.

      Time? Time for what? he wanted to know.

      Normally, he’d have moved on to greener pastures by now, but this was Annie.

      Annie was different.

      Annie was his soulmate. He’d known that from the moment his lips had touched hers back there on Valentine’s Day and a clap of thunder had gone off in his head that left him deaf to any kind of rhyme or reason when it came to one flame-haired, fiery-tempered, good-humored, overly studious Annie Summers.

      “Hey.” СКАЧАТЬ