A Fine Mess Read Online Free PDF Page B

Annie relaxed, however marginally.
    “Well that’s a relief! Heaven forbid my baby be married by one of those other kinds of fellows!” She looked at her husband. “We should celebrate, Paul. Why don’t you get out those crystal wine glasses and bring us all some grape juice.” She looked at Ian and said, “Of course you know that none of us drink.”
    “I don‘t either.”
    “Good. Paul, are you going to go get the juice?”
    “Certainly, Sweetheart. I’ll be right back. Annie, could you help me, please?”
    “Sure, Dad.   I’ll be right back, M-.” Ian hugged her again and hissed,
    “Ian!” Aloud he said,
    “Hurry back, Annie!”
    “I will, I-Ian.”
     
    ~~~~
     
    “What do you think you‘re doing, Annie?” her father demanded as soon as they reached the kitchen. He was opening cupboard doors looking for the glasses while she pulled a bottle of juice from the corner cupboard. “You’re not marrying my boss’ son!”
    “I am, Dad, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me,” Annie said in her most authoritative voice, sitting the bottle on the counter with a thud.
    “ No , you’re not . Because I know why you’re doing it and it‘s for the wrong reason. I’ll not have you giving up your life because I broke the law.” Having found the glasses, he sat them beside the juice. Annie started filling them up.
    “Can you get the silver tray from over the fridge, please? And you don’t have a choice. I‘ve made my mind up and I‘m doing this.” She sat the glasses on the tray and walked to the refrigerator to get the rest of the hot fudge cake out, anticipating her mother’s next request.
    “This is no reason to get married!”
    “It is. I prayed about it, Dad. The only answer I got was to go talk to Ian. This is the solution he came up with and I have to trust him, because I don't believe God wouldn’t have sent me to him if there had been another way.”
    “You don’t even know the man, Annie!” Paul continued to protest.
    “I know him better than a lot of women in the bible knew the men their fathers arranged for them to marry. In fact, even today there are women marrying men they‘ve never met, or barely know, because their parents arranged it. Some of them from the cradle!”
    “Yeah. You know him well enough to say hello to at a picnic.”
    “Dad, I love you and Mom and this is a small price for me to pay for all that you’ve both done and sacrificed for me all of my life.”
    “Annie-”
    “Stop it, Dad!” She turned from placing pieces of cake on pretty little saucers and glared at him. “Do you really want Mom to find out what happened? Do you? If the cancer doesn’t kill her, the love of her life being sent to prison will!”
    “I am so sorry-”
    “I know,” Annie said gently, her anger fading as she wrapped her arms around him for a quick hug. “Now carry this out to the living room for me, okay?”
     
    Chapter 3
     
    Before she went to bed, Annie packed a small suitcase. When she’d walked her newly acquired fiancé’ out to his car, he’d informed her that he would be picking her up at six the next morning. He was using the company jet ,, and had hired a pilot for the day, so everything was in place for a seven o‘clock take off.
    Apparently that would make their arrival time in Las Vegas somewhere around two in the afternoon. He thought they would be back in town sometime between midnight and one o’clock Sunday morning, at which time they would drive directly to his apartment.
    They would iron out the rest of their plans during both flights.
    When Annie hit her knees that night, she prayed with a fervor she hadn’t felt since the days immediately following her mother’s diagnosis. Not that she didn’t continue to pray several times daily for her healing, and always with enthusiasm, but the Lord had granted her some measure of peace as time wore on.
    He probably wanted to grant her complete peace, but she found it hard to accept the fact that,