Responsibilities
by Layne
Chapter 2
The door of the tavern swung open amidst loud laughter that Richie could hear all the way across the large room. Maximus, Cort, and John Biebe came in, laughing and talking about a movie they had all watched the night before.
Upon catching sight of Richie and Anna, the three started for the booth they were occupying. Richie sighed inwardly. Dammit! He liked these guys, but didn’t they know enough to stay out of the way when he was tryin’ to pick up a girl?
“What’s up, guys?” he asked as they approached, trying his best to let them know with his eyes that they weren’t welcome right at the moment. He was shooting a look at them that had made some of the toughest criminals in Jersey and New York break down and confess. From the expressions on their faces, he could tell that they got the message and were ignoring it on purpose. He’d have to dream up some big-time payback for this.
John Biebe looked purposefully at Anna and pointedly cleared his throat.
“Guys.” Richie didn’t have to work at putting an aggravated note in his voice. Right now, it was there naturally. “This is Breanna Lawson.” He nodded toward her.
“Anna,” she told them politely, as first John and then Cort took her hand, and Maximus kissed it briefly. They introduced themselves all around.
“Yes, I know all three of you. I’ve seen all your movies. It’s so nice to meet all of you in person.” Anna turned her pale blue eyes on each of them in turn, looking back at Richie last.
Well, that was a disappointment! She knew these guys, but she didn’t know him? And his was the most recent movie!
On the other hand, he thought to himself, that might be a good thing. American Gangster dealt with his sexual proclivities pretty openly. This girl might be turned off by that. It was probably better that he could approach Anna without her having any advance knowledge of all that. Now, if only these guys didn’t blow that for him!
“Do you enjoy horses?” Maximus was asking Anna.
“I’ve ridden a couple of times in my life,” she answered with a smile. “I’m far from being the world’s best.”
Cort chimed in. “I’ve been trying to get Richie here to learn to ride, but I haven’t had any luck so far. Maybe you can talk him into it.”
“You really should come down to the stables,” Maximus told her. “We have some very gentle horses. I’m sure you would enjoy it.”
“Max is always trying to show off the horses.” John rolled his eyes at her. “You’d think he didn’t do anything else around here. Like work with the vineyards and run the training grounds.”
“The horses will always be my first love,” Maximus protested. “What about you, John? Trying to get everyone who visits to take up skating and ice hockey!”
He and Cort began loudly extolling the virtues of the horses and the stables, with John throwing in comments about his skating pond. Anna was watching them in amusement. It was fun to watch three guys she’d only seen before in the movies actually having a friendly argument in front of her eyes. She sipped her tea and leaned back.
Richie was starting to feel left out--and annoyed. “Uh- Guys. Guys!” He tried to get a word in edgewise, but it wasn’t working too well.
Finally, Cort noticed the look on his face, and decided to heed Richie’s warning looks, if a little late. “Let’s go find a booth and order some lunch, guys. I’m starving’,” he announced abruptly, giving Richie a you-owe-me-one look.
“It was nice meetin’ you, Anna.” He tilted his head in her direction. “Come on down to the stables any time you like and we’ll fix you up with a horse,” he told her, as he led John and Maximus off toward another booth, amid a chorus of goodbyes and nice-to-meet-you’s.
When the three of them were finally seated at a booth across the room and the place was semi-quiet again, Richie looked at Anna across the table. “Sorry about that. Some of the guys here can get a little loud sometimes.”
“It’s okay,” she told him, smiling. “It’s so weird seeing them in front of me, after seeing their movies.”
He noticed the way her smile made the freckles across her nose seem to dance. Funny, he’d never seemed to find freckles that attractive before. Or maybe he was just gearing himself up for this new challenge he’d found.
“So, would you like some lunch, Anna?” Richie asked, sitting back and playing with the rim of his glass, as he looked at her. “They do some pretty good sandwiches in this place.”
“Actually, I ate earlier.” Anna was packing up the rest of her things, as though she were getting ready to leave. “I had skipped breakfast this morning, so I went ahead and had a sandwich. And you’re right. They do make good ones here.”
“Not leavin’ already, are you? We were just gettin’ acquainted.”
“Well-” She obviously was leaving. “I have an appointment with Tina. I came here to talk with her about an educational group she wants to start for some of the women who live here. I’m supposed to meet with her in about fifteen minutes.”
Richie reached out and took her hand, held it still from the packing she was doing. “How’d you feel about some dinner tonight? There’s some nice restaurants up at the hotel.” Normally, he asked a woman for drinks, not dinner. But then, this woman wasn’t the usual type he got together with.
Anna looked at him uncertainly. “I really came here for work. I probably shouldn’t.”
“Now, who says you can’t have a little fun mixed in with the work?” He grinned at her. “Do a little relaxing. You can’t be working and eating at the same time!” He didn’t know what made him say that. He’d done it plenty of times himself--in the office, on stakeouts. But he needed to keep her here until he got her to agree to dinner, and he was saying anything he could think of at the moment.
Looked as though she were wavering a little. “I’ll pick you up at six.” He pressed home the advantage he thought he saw, acting as though she had already accepted. “What’s your room number?”
“Three-twelve.” Anna gave in. After all, she had to eat, and she might as well eat with him. He was good-looking, likeable, and she was really enjoying listening to that accent.
“Good!” Richie stood up as she did and reached for her backpack. “Now, where you meetin’ Tina? I’ll help you carry this stuff.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she protested. “I’m used to carrying it myself.”
“So, this is one time you won’t have to.” He might not be much of a gentleman in some ways, but he could fake it very well in others.
“We’re meeting in her office in the hotel.” Anna found herself giving in again. Richie Roberts had something of an overwhelming personality.
As he shouldered the backpack with her books, Richie wondered how she ever carried this thing very far by herself. Felt as though it were full of bricks. He was glad he still lifted weights in the gym here at Crowe’s Point.
As they walked toward the hotel, Anna looked apologetically in Richie's direction. "Listen- I'm sorry I didn't know your name. I know you're one of the brothers, but there are some of the movies I haven't seen."
"Hey, don't worry about it," Richie shrugged. "It's prob'ly good for me. A guy could get a swelled head with everyone comin' here knowin' who he is." He grinned.
Anna smiled back, a relieved look on her face. "So, what was your movie?"
"American Gangster," Richie revealed, somewhat reluctantly. "Came out last year."
"Oh, that explains it," she said thoughtfully. "I've barely seen any movies at all in the last three years."
"Grad school been that rough on ya?" he asked teasingly. She seemed smart. He couldn't imagine it being that hard for her.
"Grad school. Working. Raising a child." Anna said all this in a matter-of-fact voice, as though she was used to all of it.
Richie was taken aback at that last part. Was she divorced? At her age? More likely a single parent. "You've got a kid?" he asked, in a surprised tone.
"Yes." Her voice was firm and no-nonsense. Apparently, she'd gotten that surprised reaction from people before. "You have a problem with that?"
"No. Course not." Richie thought he might have sounded more surprised than he'd meant to. Dammit, he was gonna blow this himself without any help from the other guys! "I've got one, too. Michael. He's ten. Oh- No. Sorry. He's nearly twelve now." He ran his hand distractedly through his hair.
"Time in this place really messes you up." Now it was his turn to look apologetic. "They say us guys don't age, but Michael would and it- It just gets confusin' sometimes, ya know?"
Anna felt some sympathy for him. From what little she knew about Crowe's Point, she thought it must be hard for the characters. Especially the ones who had to leave families behind.
"You must miss him a lot," she told Richie, her voice softening as she looked at him.
He liked that soft voice, that sympathetic look in her eyes. When women felt sorry for a guy, they tended to be a lot more receptive to- other things.
"Yeah," he said, turning to face her. "I do still go back and visit him sometimes, but it gets rough. Didn't really know what I was missin' til after his mother and I divorced." He'd started out playing for her sympathy, but he was really starting to miss Michael more in just the last few minutes. Now, how had Anna gotten him to do that?
They'd reached the hotel. In the lobby, Kim Barrett was behind the desk.
"My name's Breanna Lawson. I have an appointment with Tina," Anna told him.
"Oh, yes. She told me to send you back when you got here," Kim said. He eyed Richie Roberts somewhat distastefully. "And how are you today, Mr. Roberts?" His voice held a touch of sarcasm.
"I'm fine, man. Thanks for askin'." Richie knew sarcasm when he heard it, but he preferred to just ignore it most of the time. Made life easier. Barrett loved gettin' on people's nerves and Richie hated guys like that.
"If you don't need this, I can just leave it here for you." He indicated Anna's backpack.
"That'd be good," she told him. "It'll be one less thing to carry for awhile."
"Good deal. Take care of this, would ya?" He handed the backpack to Kim and watched, grinning with quiet satisfaction as Barrett pulled and grunted and finally managed to manhandle the thing behind the desk.
When Richie looked at Anna, he saw that she hadn't missed Kim's smug sarcasm or his difficulty with her backpack either. She smiled at Richie.
"I guess I'll see you tonight then." Those freckles danced on her nose as she smiled again.
"Six o'clock," he reminded her with a broad smile of his own. "I'll pick you up. See ya' then."
Richie watched her go into Tina's office. Then, he gave Kim Barrett a satisfied grin. "Good seein' ya, Kim," he said cheerfully, knowing it would drive Barrett nuts.
He headed for the tavern again, having decided to hit the gym for awhile. If Anna added another book to that bag, he might not be able to lift it!
Anna. Richie decided he liked that name. He liked the freckles on her nose and her red-gold hair and her blue eyes. He liked the fact she was a smart girl, going to graduate school. He loved the fact that she had seen right through Kim Barrett.
The one thing he wasn't too sure he liked was the fact that she had a kid. But what does it matter anyway? he asked himself, changing into shorts and heading for the gym. You're plannin' on gettin' her to bed and that's all. What difference does her havin' a kid make?
He started out on the barbells. Kept thinking about Anna as he did his reps. For some reason, her sympathy toward him had made his thoughts of Michael much stronger, much more sharp than they'd been in awhile.
He did go back to visit his son--not on any kind of regular basis--but occasionally. Richie liked throwing the ball around with him, reliving the happy father-son moments in Michael's childhood, which now seemed to have happened all too infrequently.
Of course, visits with Michael invariably meant visits with Laurie too. And seeing her wasn't nearly as pleasant. He didn't hate Laurie or anything. But it agitated him to see her, to hear her complaints again and again about the life he led. About how he neglected her and Mike. When he really made himself think about it, he supposed they were all the more bothersome to him because they were true.
Standing and lifting the dumbbells for his curls, he tried to shake off those feelings. It was the weekend in Crowe's Point. He had a date with a nice-lookin' babe tonight. They'd have dinner and drinks in the hotel and then... Dessert in his room. His favorite part of the meal.
Things were going really well for Richie Roberts right now. If he could just keep his son and his ex-wife off his mind for awhile and think about a certain pretty redhead.
To Be Continued...