Page 77 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

“Just my pride,” Annie said. “I can’t believe that it was Henry all the time and I never even suspected.”

“Tell me about it,” Fisher said as he headed north on Central Avenue. “I should have suspected him, but I never gave him a second thought. I’m so sorry, Annie. I made a rookie mistake. I just...I’m so sorry.”

“There’s no need to be. He fooled us all. Could you drop me at my sister’s?” Annie asked. “I need to let her know I’m safe.”

“Sure,” he agreed, even though he didn’t want to part with her.

They were silent as he drove toward her sister’s house. Annie pointed and Fisher steered, but neither of them said a word. The air in the car crackled with tension and awareness. Fisher wondered which of them would break the silence first.

When he pulled into her sister’s driveway, Annie spoke. “Fisher, did you mean what you said earlier today?”

“What did I say?”

She studied her hands. Her fingers were clenched so hard that her knuckles were white. “That you would marry me for real.”

He studied her bent head with her long strawberry curls spilling forward obstructing his view of her face. He had nothing to lose by telling the truth. “Yes, I meant it.”

“Oh.” She snapped her head up and her eyes studied him as if not sure what to make of him.

“Annie!” Her sister banged out through the front door of the house. “Annie! We’ve been so worried.”

Annie slid out of her car to greet her sister and Fisher watched her go. He put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway, wondering if the next time he went home there’d be an eviction notice waiting for him.

It’d been three days of taking testimony, interviewing witnesses and writing reports. Eric and Dotty Balsowitz were going to be locked away until Eric’s bad taste in clothes came back into style again. The only time Fisher saw Annie was when he and Brian were taking her statement. He missed her. He missed the way she moved at the speed of light, the sound of her voice, the sound of her laugh, the sight of her long red hair, the way she talked to herself and the feel of her body against his. He missed her more than he’d thought possible. When had she become a part of him? The other, the better half, of him?

He arrived at The Coffee Break well after dark. All of the lights in the shop were off and the Closed sign was up. He parked in back, next to his parents’ psychedelic van and trudged up the stairs to his own apartment. He wanted to knock on Annie’s door, but he was afraid. He was afraid she’d remember that they needed to annul their marriage. He supposed it was crazy, but he didn’t want to do it. He wanted to stay married to his delightful redhead.

He opened his apartment door to find the lights on. His father was pacing the length of the room with Harpy riding on his shoulder. He was wearing a black suit coat over his usual tie-dye.

“Where have you been? Everyone is waiting for you,” his father snapped. “Put these on. We’re late already.”

“Late for what?” Fisher asked, catching the wad of clothes his father threw at him.

“No questions,” Swift said. “You’ll have to dress in the car. Come on.”

Fisher followed his father and Harpy out the door. He knew better than to question his father. Swift would tell him what he wanted to know when he wanted him to know it and not before. Fisher sat in the back seat and unfolded the clothes. It was a tux.

“Why do I have to put on this monkey suit?” he asked.

His father didn’t answer. Fisher shrugged and began to change in the cramped quarters of the car. He’d just finished knotting his tie when they pulled up to the front of a church. It was a small chapel set amidst a grove of orange trees. The evening was cool, and Fisher paused to take a deep breath.

“Okay, Swift, what are we doing here?” he asked.

“No time,” his father said and strode toward the church.

“No time,” Harpy repeated, watching him from Swift’s shoulder.

When they entered the church, his father rushed him up the aisle, hardly giving him a chance to greet the people he knew that filled the pews. Brian was there with his wife Susan and their baby. A bunch of guys from the Bureau, including his boss Paul Van Buren along with their wives and girlfriends. He saw his sisters Piper and Wren with their husbands. Tony and Eve Iannocci were there. Tony sent him a thumbs-up sign and Fisher smiled. Across the way he saw a cluster of regulars from The Coffee Break. In front, sat Annie’s mother with a young Nordic type who must be her current spouse, and a young woman who was probably Annie’s latest stepmother.

His father stopped at the front of the church, but when Fisher would have sat down, Swift grabbed him by the elbow and propelled him next to the altar. Just then the organist in the balcony of the church began to thump out a processional, and everyone rose to face the back of the church.

Fisher felt someone fuss with his collar and he turned to see his mother. A single tear ran down her cheek. She wiped it away and smiled. He heard a sigh echo throughout the congregation and looked down the aisle to see Annie, escorted by her father, walking toward him. She was a vision in white gossamer.

He felt his heart beat once and then twice really hard. He couldn’t catch his breath, and then he thought he might faint. He was at a wedding. His wedding to Annie!

She must have been watching his face, because she beamed at him from beneath a filmy veil. If the minister and one hundred of their closest friends and family hadn’t been standing there watching them, Fisher would have grabbed her and kissed her within an inch of her life. Heck, he might anyway.

When she and her father reached his side, Annie tossed back her veil and looked at him from beneath her lashes. Her cheeks were pink and she whispered, “I hope you meant it.”

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