Father Of The Brood

Annie flinched at her sister’s matter-of-fact mention of her dead husband. Yes, Mark had been gone for a long time now. But she couldn’t possibly forget about him as quickly as Sophie evidently had. Nevertheless, she countered, “I have gotten on with my life. Quite nicely, in fact. I don’t want or need a man in it.”

“Yes, you do,” Sophie assured her with another quick scan over the new bachelor’s vital statistics. “And I’m going to buy you one. It’s the whole reason I insisted you come with me tonight. It’s the only reason I came myself.”

“I thought it was because you think St. Bernadette’s Children’s Hospital is a deserving charity.”

Sophie waved her hand at her as if Annie had just made a quaint little joke. “Silly. Come on, get an eyeful of this guy. He’s exactly the kind of man you need. You want him and you know it. And I think you should have him.”

Before Annie could say a word in protest, Sophie lifted her hand at the auctioneer’s request for three hundred dollars. She lifted it again when the bidding went to five hundred. And again when it went to seven hundred. And then to one thousand. And two thousand. Annie didn’t try to stop her sister, simply because she couldn’t believe Sophie was going to go through with it. Then she reminded herself that her sister was everything she wasn’t—assertive, confident and married to lots and lots of money. If Sophie got it into her head that she was going to buy a man for Annie, then she would and could sit here and bid all night.

When Sophie started to raise her hand in agreement to a bid of three thousand dollars, Annie grabbed her wrist in an effort to stop her. But Sophie only raised her other hand instead, and shouted out, “Five thousand dollars!”

“Five thousand!” the auctioneer repeated on a gasp. “My goodness, Mr. Guthrie, you are greatly desired.” She tittered prettily at her double entendre.

For the first time, Annie took a moment to consider the man her sister seemed determined to buy for her. She glanced up onto the stage to find that the bachelor in question was very tall, very blond, very well groomed, very good-looking, and, as all the other bachelors up for bids had been that evening, doubtless very wealthy. In other words, he was everything she didn’t want in a man. As she opened her mouth to warn Sophie to knock it off right now, Annie noticed that the bachelor onstage was also staring back at her sister without even trying to mask his unmistakably sexual interest in her.

And that was when Annie really got mad.

Okay, she couldn’t fault a man for looking at Sophie like…like…like that, but this guy was about to burn down the building with his incandescent gaze. So what if Sophie’s henna-stained auburn hair and pale green eyes caught the edge of the spotlight as if born to it? So what if her sapphire evening gown was virtually cut down to her navel and nearly every body part sparkled with gems? So what if her bright red smile suggested any number of unearthly delights? So what?

So why couldn’t the man onstage look at Annie that way, too?

The question exploded in her brain before she even knew what hit her, and for the life of her, she could understand none of it. Helplessly, she looked down at her own modest, long-sleeved, black cocktail dress, and at the simple, sandy-colored braid that fell over one shoulder nearly to her breast. Almost unconsciously, she brushed a hand over the pale freckles on her nose and cheeks that had survived her adolescence along with her well-scrubbed, gee-whiz complexion. And although she did have green eyes like Sophie’s, Annie’s were rounder and less remarkable without the added enhancement of shadow.

All in all, she knew she looked like the wholesome, sensitive kind of woman a man would want to talk to about the other women in his life. Other women who could very easily include her own sister. Annie had been through that scenario often enough, after all.

Of course the man onstage would be looking at Sophie, she told herself without an ounce of envy. What man wouldn’t? Who cared if he was ignoring Annie and focusing on her sister as if Sophie were the answer to a prayer? Annie wasn’t interested in him anyway. If it wasn’t for the fact that Sophie was already happily married, she would. wish her sister and the bachelor the best. Unfortunately, Sophie’s five grand wasn’t paying for a man for Sophie. It was paying for a man for Annie. And maybe that was what was really making her angry.

“Sophie, you don’t have to buy me a man,” Annie told her sister in a grim whisper. “I can find one for myself. I mean, I could find one, if I wanted one. Which I don’t.”

“Not like this one, you couldn’t,” Sophie countered. “Not working with the kind of people you work with.”

“Underprivileged children,” Annie reminded her sister, trying to tamp down her irritation. “I work with underprivileged children.”

“Exactly. Which means you couldn’t meet a decent man to save your life. The men you meet are all social workers and family counselors and public servants and the like.”

“In other words, decent men.”

“That’s not the kind of decent I mean and you know it. You don’t need a decent man, Annie. You’ve got all the decency you can handle in that overgrown, do-gooder heart of yours. What you need is an indecent man.” She smiled mischievously. “The more indecent the better.” She nodded toward the bachelor onstage. “Just look at that guy’s nether regions. He’s going to be perfect for you.”

Annie declined her sister’s instructions and looked at the man’s eyes instead. They were cool, distant and still fixed on Sophie. “Even if he likes Byron?” she asked absently.

“Especially if he likes Byron. Byron was pretty indecent himself, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. I minored in English, remember?”

Instead of answering, Sophie nodded with satisfaction at the auctioneer’s announcement of “Going…going… gone for five thousand dollars!”

“Come on,” she said as she tugged on Annie’s sleeve. “Let’s go get your man.”

“He’s not my man,” Annie said, remaining seated steadfastly in place. “You bought him. He’s yours.”

Sophie smiled wryly, “And what am I supposed to tell Philip?”

Annie shrugged. “Tell him you’re going to lovely, romantic Cape May for the weekend with one of Philadelphia’s most prominent architects and indecent bachelors.”

Her sister gazed at her mildly. “And then Philip will divorce me. Is that what you want?”

She shrugged again. “You’re the one who bought Mr. Wonderful up there, not me. I’m not going anywhere with him.”

Sophie stared at her sister for a moment through slitted eyes, as if she were carefully considering her options and thoroughly unwilling to let five grand go to waste. Because, naturally, Sophie would consider a charity donation an unnecessary expense. Then Sophie began to smile. A decidedly evil smile that Annie didn’t like one bit.

“So what you’re telling me,” Sophie began, “is that I just paid five thousand dollars for an attractive, successful, intelligent man who is going to take you to spend the night in one of the most beautiful towns in the United States, and that you refuse to go.”

“That’s right,” Annie told her. “I refuse to go.”

“How about if I bribe you?”

Annie narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “What kind of bribe?”

“How about if I double the amount I just paid for him and donate it to Homestead House? Then would you go?”

Annie stood to meet her sister’s gaze levelly at that. “Ten thousand dollars to Homestead?”

Sophie nodded, her smile growing broader.

“That’s a low blow, Sophie.”

“Yes, I know, but hey, it’s tax deductible, right? Philip wouldn’t care. He’d think it was a sweet gesture for me to make. Besides, it will work, won’t it?”

Annie didn’t have to think twice. Homestead House was a juvenile home that she and her husband had started ten years ago and that she had kept going after his death. She had met Mark Malone in college, where they were both studying social work. Upon graduation, they’d scraped together personal funds, found a few backers, and won a few government grants, and had pooled the money to buy an old, dilapidated house in one of Philadelphia’s less-thandesirable neighborhoods. They’d brought it up to code, and had then turned it into a haven for kids who got lost in the system and had nowhere else to go, no one left to turn to.

Even during the best of times, Annie had to scramble to make ends meet and keep Homestead House open. Ten thousand dollars would buy a lot of the things she needed.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” she agreed. “But only because of Homestead.”

Sophie shook her head in amazement. “Little Annie Malone,” she muttered in the way that Annie had always hated. “Still thinks she can save the world from itself after all these years. Well, let me tell you something, little sister. Something I learned a long time ago. The world’s a brittle, ugly place, and nothing you can do will ever change that. You better get yours while you can and enjoy it, and then watch your back. Because nothing in this life is worth much, but there’s always someone who wants to take it away from you anyhow.”

Annie nodded, not in agreement, but because this was the same philosophy Sophie had been spouting since they were adolescents. “Maybe that’s what you believe,” she said softly, “but I see things a little differently. You’ve got your life, Sophie, and I’ve got mine. As brittle and ugly as you think it is, I find it very rewarding.”

Sophie smiled. “Not as rewarding as the one this guy could give you,” she said. “Just you wait. One night with him, one little taste of the good life he has to offer, and you’ll want more. And the more you see of his way of life, the more you’ll like it. Just you wait, Annie. You’re in for a treat. Once you’ve sipped his wine, you’ll never go back to that crummy tenement you call home again. I guarantee it.”

Sophie turned then to cut her way through the crowd and pay for her purchase, and Annie followed obediently behind. Her sister was wrong about her life and her life-style, Annie knew. But there would be no arguing with Sophie about that tonight. At the moment, all Annie cared about was the ten thousand dollars she’d be depositing into the Homestead account Monday morning. She decided to start her shopping list with athletic equipment and work her way through the alphabet to the zoo trip she’d always wanted to take with her kids but had considered too frivolous. By the end of the week, she thought with a smile, she was going to have some very happy children on her hands.

She would also be packing for a weekend that was certain to wind up being disastrous. Oh, well, she thought. Ten grand was ten grand. She’d walk over fire to get that much money for her kids. How bad could a weekend in Cape May be, even if her companion would more than likely turn out to be a jerk? If nothing else, the fresh ocean breeze would be a welcome change over the stale, stagnant city air she was so used to breathing. And it would be nice to walk along the beach again, moonlit or not.

Fresh air and a view of the ocean, she marveled as she watched Sophie carelessly write out a check for five thousand dollars and hand it to the cashier. Two things that brought pleasure without costing a dime. It was a lesson her sister could stand to learn, and, judging by the high price tag on his offered date, something the bachelor onstage might benefit from, too.

But it wasn’t up to her to teach that lesson, Annie thought. It was only up to her to watch out for her kids. And like a protective female animal stalking the wild, she’d do whatever she had to do to make sure her brood was protected. Above all else, Annie Malone would always make sure her kids came first.