Dad raised an eyebrow, considering Anne’s words and, I feared more so, considering her odd behavior.
“I do know some incredible people out on the coast, but I fear you are correct. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting any East Coast Johnsons. Well, until now, of course!” Dad had a gift for smoothing over awkward conversations. It was almost as amazing as his gift for make conversations awkward to being with.
Impressively, Anne managed to stay graceful despite her obvious discomfort. She laughed lightly, although I could see that the happiness didn’t quite reach her eyes. I was sure that my father would notice that as well.
“I’m going to take Anne up to the rooftop. She’s not super familiar with Denver, so the view should be a pretty cool thing to see.” I slid my arm around her waist and began to slowly guide us towards the exit we had been so close to reaching before. I knew it was kind of a rude move, but I also knew that my father was well aware of the line he had decidedly crossed in asking Anne for more specific information about her family.
She was already guarded, and my father was nearly a perfect stranger to her. For that matter, so was I.
I was less than pleased with his intrusion.
“Well, you kids enjoy.” Dad took the obvious insult nobly, never losing his smile for a moment. The most obnoxious thing about that was the fact that I knew he wasn’t faking.
The man could watch a twenty-car pile-up happen right in front of him, and still remain completely calm. It was normally a trait that I admired in him. But not tonight.
The second that the elevator doors closed I smacked a hand to my forehead. “Anne, I’m sorry. My dad... I mean, he’s a writer. He loves learning new information about new people. He means well, I promise.”
Anne giggled and waved a hand in the air. “It’s just my last name, Penn. He didn’t ask for my blood type or anything.” Anne could hide everything except for her fear. It was in her eyes. It was always in her eyes.
“Okay then. So. Anne Johnson. Nice to meet you,” I held out a hand, and she shook it playfully.
“Nice to meet you as well, Penn Hardick.”
We stepped out of the elevator onto the smooth cement of the roof. There were tables and chairs set up randomly all around, half-finished drinks sparkling in the lantern lights.
“This is so pretty,” Anne breathed, taking in her surroundings with wonder-stricken eyes. The rays of lights from all across the skyline made her shiny hair glow like a halo, and I wanted to tell her that she – she – was the prettiest thing up here.
“It’s definitely not New York, but yeah. It’s worth seeing,” I pulled her gently by the hand to two abandoned chairs, and as we sat, the relief was clear on Anne’s face. “See? I got ya out of there in ten minutes flat. Wasn’t so bad, right?”
Anne smiled, her eyes locked on the view. “Your family seems super nice. It wasn’t bad at all.”
I swallowed and decided to take a chance. “What’s your family like?”
Her head whipped quickly towards me. “Why?”
Again. The alarm on her face. I understood that I’d asked something big, but I had no idea why. Asking any other human the same question had never earned me a look quite like the one I was currently being presented with.
“Um, cuz I like you? I want to know more about you?” I laughed a little, searching her face for the smallest hint that maybe she would find the humor as well.
She did not.
“I don’t have a family, Penn. My parents died when I was very young, then my grandparents raised me until they died too. I spent most of my childhood – the parts that I was actually old enough to remember – in foster care. When I turned seventeen, I was officially on my own. How’s that for a fairy tale?” Anne did smile then, but it was a sad smile.
I felt awful. “Anne, I am so sorry. I had no idea. I just wanted to – you know, I just wanted to get to know you better. I didn’t mean to bring up anything painful or... I’m sorry.”
“Hey,” she grabbed my hand, “don’t be. It’s not your fault, and it’s not a big deal. I’m used to it, you know? I was used to it a long time ago.” Her eyes were doing their emerald green twinkle dance again.
I wanted to kiss her then, for many reasons – the biggest one being that she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my entire life.
But it was more than that. Picturing Anne getting shuffled around in the system, only to end up completely alone at just seventeen years of age... There was a certain tragedy involved in that image that struck me deeply. I’d lost a lot and experienced my own pain, of course. But I’d always had family. A big family. I’d never actually had to be on my own, no matter how you looked at it.
I was beginning to understand the sorrow that lived in Anne’s eyes.
She wasn’t scared of new people – she was just used to being on her own. Sharing her story was probably the last thing she wanted to do – ever. I’d completely misread her.
“This is going to sound like a total come-on, but I promise you it’s not. I don’t mean it in like, ‘a way’. But how about we just ditch the party? My dad already saw me here, so I’m in the clear. I introduced you to all my brothers. There’s nobody else down there that I wanna see or would put you through meeting.” I waited for her response.
“Where would we go?” Anne asked me calmly.
“I dunno. Back home. Somewhere that isn’t swarming with people? I could drive you back to your place. We could just, be normal. And talk.” Everything about the night, outside of Anne’s sweetness, seemed overdone and ridiculous to me. I could only imagine what it looked like through her eyes.
“But the truck –”
“I’ll have it sent for.” I spoke the words before my brain could process the fact that normal people didn’t talk like that.
Anne’s eyes were wide for maybe the eight millionth time that night. “Sent for?”
“I’ll take care of it, okay?” I hoped I could slide past answering her actual question swiftly.
“It’s not even my truck, Penn. It’s Kate’s.”
“Your boss?”
“Yep.”
“Then I’ll have it returned to the store. It’ll be there before she even wakes up. No worries.” I waited, not knowing if I’d been successful in convincing Anne or not. It was possible I’d only freaked her out more.
“You don’t even know where I live.” Anne cocked her head and raised an eyebrow.
“So. Tell me where you live.”
It seemed simple enough, and Anne must have been softening because she grinned and said, “Just drive to the store. It’ll be close enough.”
I could handle mystery a lot easier when it surrounded a gorgeous girl with a smile on her face.
“Alright. I’m gonna get us out of here, but you have to follow me really closely if you wanna avoid all those people. And trust me, you want to avoid all those people.” I gave her a playful thumbs up, and we began our escape.
For the most part, it really was just sneaking out the back exit and running down a few alleys. I’d purposely driven my own shitty truck in protest of the event’s fanciness, and the sight of it seemed to calm Anne considerably.