Tangle of Strings Read online

  Copy right@2016 by Ashley Farley

  Cover design: damonza.com

  Formatting: damonza.com

  Editor: Patricia Peters at A Word Affair LLC

  Leisure Time Books, a division of AHF Publishing

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, establishments, organizations, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to give a sense of authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 Ashley Farley

  All rights reserved.

  E-book: 978-0-9982741-0-2

  Paperback: 978-0-9982741-1-9

  Contents

  By Ashley Farley

  ONE: Annie

  TWO: Eli

  THREE: Annie

  FOUR: Eli

  FIVE: Heidi

  SIX: Annie

  SEVEN: Cooper

  EIGHT: Eli

  NINE: Annie

  TEN: Heidi

  ELEVEN: Cooper

  TWELVE: Heidi

  THIRTEEN: Annie

  FOURTEEN: Faith

  FIFTEEN: Eli

  SIXTEEN: Faith

  SEVENTEEN: Annie

  EIGHTEEN: Cooper

  NINETEEN: Annie

  TWENTY: Heidi

  TWENTY-ONE: Faith

  TWENTY-TWO: Eli

  TWENTY-THREE: Annie

  TWENTY-FOUR: Eli

  TWENTY-FIVE: Cooper

  TWENTY-SIX: Annie

  TWENTY-SEVEN: Faith

  TWENTY-EIGHT: Annie

  TWENTY-NINE: Heidi

  THIRTY: Annie

  THIRTY-ONE: Cooper

  THIRTY-TWO: Eli

  THIRTY-THREE: Annie

  THIRTY-FOUR: Eli

  THIRTY-FIVE: Faith

  THIRTY-SIX: Annie

  THIRTY-SEVEN: Cooper

  THIRTY-EIGHT: Eli

  THIRTY-NINE: Annie

  A Note to Readers

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  By Ashley Farley

  Sweeney Sisters Series

  Boots and Bedlam

  Lowcountry Stranger

  Her Sister’s Shoes

  Adventures of Scottie

  Breaking the Story

  Merry Mary

  Also by Ashley Farley

  Saving Ben

  For Women’s Fiction Fans

  ONE

  Annie

  Annie checked the clock on the dashboard. She had eight minutes to change into her work clothes, grab a snack, and still be on time for her after-school job at Captain Sweeney’s Seafood Market. She turned off the main road and zoomed down the wooded driveway toward the house. When she rounded the last bend, she saw Heidi leaning against the hood of her vintage turquoise Mustang. Annie slammed on the brakes, her Honda Accord skidding sideways on the gravel. Her anger surged at the sight of those ridiculous cat’s eye sunglasses her mother wore. Heidi’s white blonde hair was piled high in a messy bun on top of her head, while hot-pink lipstick accented her dazzling smile. Who did she think she was? Was she auditioning for Sandy’s role in a remake of the movie Grease? What was she doing here, anyway? Annie had asked Heidi repeatedly not to contact her. Couldn’t she take a hint? Annie thought about running her over, and then realized that pelting her with a spray of gravel as she peeled out of the driveway might be a better choice. Heidi stepped in front of Annie’s car preventing her from doing either. Not that she would have. She was not a violent person. Her mother just made her crazy.

  Removing her house keys from her purse on the passenger seat, Annie jumped out of the car and marched toward the front door. “Please leave, Heidi. I told you I don’t want to see you.”

  Heidi followed her up the brick steps. “I need to talk to you, Annie. Please. It will only take a few minutes.”

  “I don’t have a few minutes,” she said, fumbling to insert her key into the lock. “I’m late for work.” Her heart pounding against her rib cage, Annie locked the bolt once inside and slumped back against the door. She forced herself to inhale deep gulps of air until her breathing slowed.

  She walked down the hall to her bedroom where she changed into her work polo and blue jeans. She tied her honey-colored hair into a pert ponytail at the back of her head and slipped on her high-top black Chuck Taylors. Grabbing from her closet a hoodie the same shade of moss green as her polo, she went to the kitchen for a snack. She snatched a banana from the bowl of fruit on the counter and rummaged through the refrigerator for a drink, finally settling on one of Bitsy’s juice boxes. She started for the front door, and then stopped in her tracks. So what if she was late for work. If she took her time, maybe Heidi would get tired of waiting and leave.

  Leaning against the kitchen counter, she peeled her banana and pinched off a bite. She stared down at the miniature cockapoo, her cute little face eager for attention, in the doggy crate on the floor near her feet. “I’m sorry, Snowflake. I have to go to work. I don’t have time to play with you.”

  Santa had given the puppy to her little sister for Christmas. Snowflake barked a lot, but everyone in the family loved her. The family that was Annie’s in every way but name.

  Annie stuffed the rest of the banana in her mouth and sucked all the apple juice out of the box through the tiny straw. She removed a dog biscuit from the glass jar on the counter, broke it in half, and fed it to Snowflake through the metal door. “Be a good girl, now.” She stroked the puppy’s silky ear with her finger through the mesh. “Bitsy will be home to play with you soon.”

  Straightening, Annie slipped on her hoodie and walked back through the house to the front door. Heidi, her jean jacket held tight against her midsection, waited for her at the bottom of the porch steps, blocking the way to Annie’s car.

  “Honey, please. I really need to talk to you. If you’ll just give me a chance to explain.”

  Annie glared at her. “You gave up the right to call me honey, or any other term of endearment for that matter, when you abandoned me.” She tried to brush past Heidi, but she grabbed her by the arm.

  “That happened a long time ago. I was a different person then. I made a bad decision. But I’m trying to make it right now.”

  Annie yanked her arm away. “The decision was right for you at the time. A very selfish decision, I might add. You took off to Hollywood to chase your dreams of becoming a big movie star, and left me with a man who didn’t know how to scramble an egg or balance his checkbook, let alone raise a little girl.”

  Heidi’s cobalt eyes glistened with tears. “Was your life really that miserable, sweetheart? I didn’t know—”

  “Because you never bothered to find out.” Annie clenched her fists. “At least Daddy loved me, which is more than I can say for you. But he wasn’t a good provider. For the first time in my life, I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay for groceries. Or who’s going to cook dinner. The Sweeneys care about me. They ask me about my day. And help me with my geometry homework. Faith buys me new clothes. Bitsy loves having a big sister to take her places. Mike gave me a car for Christmas, for crying out loud.” She flicked her wrist at the silver Honda Accord in the driveway. “Don’t mess this up for me, Heidi. Just go away and leave me alone.”

  Annie stalked off toward her car, but Heidi teetered after her on spiked-heel booties. “You and I were getting along so well together back in December, before you found out who I was. We were becoming friends. We share so many things in common. I know we can build a life together based on that friendship. You can come live with me. I recently signed a lease on the second-fl
oor apartment in a newly renovated old home down on Broad Street, on the Battery. I think you’ll like it. I even have an extra bedroom for you.”

  “God! You’re not listening to me.” Annie said, her face scarlet with anger. “I told you I’m happy here. I don’t want to move to Charleston. My life is here, in Prospect.”

  Annie moved to open her car door but Heidi blocked the way. “You’d love Charleston, if you’d give it a chance. There are so many great restaurants. The place is alive with college kids your age. I hope to start my own business, but I can’t do it alone. I need you by my side.” Heidi brushed a stray strand of hair off Annie’s forehead. “You have to admit, it sounds appealing.”

  Annie slapped her hand away. “I’d rather die than work in the same kitchen with you.”

  “Please, baby. Don’t be this way.”

  “I’m not your baby! You abandoned your baby sixteen years ago.” Shoving Heidi out of the way, Annie jumped into her car and struggled to fasten her seat belt. As she shot off down the driveway, she watched her mother slowly disappear in the rearview mirror. She careened onto Creekside Drive with barely a glance in either direction. Tears blurring her vision, she smacked her palms against the steering wheel. “Ugh! I hate her!” The stoplight ahead turned red and she slammed on her brakes. She removed her cell phone from her bag and thumbed off a quick text to her new best friend: “Heidi ambushed me at home. Why won’t she won’t leave me alone?” She flung the phone onto the floor of the passenger’s side.

  When the light turned green, Annie took a sharp left onto Main Street instead of going straight toward Captain Sweeney’s. She punched the accelerator and sped through the business section of town, oblivious to the pedestrians milling about on the sidewalks and window-shopping despite the crisp February chill.

  She was driving too fast to react when a Chrysler minivan veered over the line from oncoming traffic.

  TWO

  Eli

  Lieutenant Eli Marshall usually left the responsibility of writing parking tickets to his rookie officers, but he couldn’t let the owner of the red pickup truck with Texas license plates get away with parking in a designated handicap space without a permit. He was tucking the ticket beneath the windshield wiper when a car roared past on Main Street behind him. He looked up from his ticket, and then did a double take. Annie?

  He hopped in his patrol car and pulled in behind Annie’s Honda. He didn’t want to have to give her a ticket. But Annie had gotten her license only a few months ago, and Mike had just given her the car for Christmas. A speeding ticket would be a lesson well learned if it saved her life one day.

  He engaged his blue lights, preparing to pull her over, when the accident happened. Tires screeched and a horn blasted as the minivan swerved into Annie’s lane. The sounds of metal crunching and glass shattering filled the air as her Honda hit the front end of the minivan, bounced off the curb, flipped over, and landed on its roof.

  Eli shouted, “Oh my God almighty! Annie, no!” With shaking hands and racing heart, he maneuvered his cruiser through the wreckage to the side of the road and pulled in as close as he could to the overturned vehicle. He pressed the talk button on his headset and barked out orders to dispatch, summoning police backup as well as the fire and rescue departments. He jumped out of the cruiser and raced to Annie’s side. The driver’s window was broken, the shattered glass scattered all over the pavement. The air bag on the steering wheel had deployed, pinning Annie’s body against the seat. She would surely have been ejected out of the car if she hadn’t been wearing her seat belt. Blood gushed from a gash in her forehead and her left shoulder was cocked at an unnatural angle. He removed his bandanna from his pocket and pressed it to the wound, the blood quickly turning the blue-and-white fabric red.

  “Annie, honey, it’s Eli. Can you hear me?” When she didn’t respond, his fingertips searched her neck for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief. “Hang in there, sweetheart. Help is on the way.” As the sound of sirens grew louder, Eli whispered words of encouragement to Annie’s unconscious body. He heard boots pounding the pavement and a hand grabbed him by the elbow. “We’ll take it from here, Officer,” said the owner of the boots, a beefy paramedic who appeared strong enough to lift the car with his pinky finger.

  Straightening, Eli stepped away to allow the paramedics and firemen access to Annie. He surveyed the scene, searching for his backup who had yet to arrive. He saw the driver of the other vehicle, a woman in her midthirties, dazed and weeping beside the twisted wreckage of her minivan. Her entire front end was smashed, the engine hissing and a stream of green fluid running from beneath the car. Her air bag had also deployed, and as he approached her, he noticed minor lacerations on her neck and face. “Do you need medical attention?”

  “I’m fine.” She dropped her head and stared at the ground, her mouse-brown hair a curtain around her freckled face. She pointed a trembling finger at the other car. “Is she…” The woman gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. “Is she dead?”

  “She has a pulse. That’s all I know for now.”

  The woman whimpered and her body began to shake uncontrollably.

  “Here.” Eli removed his coat and draped it over her shoulders. The coat swallowed her petite frame. “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “I was on my way to pick up my son from day care.” Her hand gripping her cell phone, she gestured at the church building down the street.

  “Miss, were you texting when the accident happened?”

  Nodding, she bit down on her lip. “I was texting my husband. To tell him our son is sick.”

  “You may very well have cost the other driver her life. You realize that, don’t you?”

  Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I only took my eyes off the road for a second.”

  Eli sighed. “That’s all it takes.”

  He was relieved to see the strobe of police lights arriving on the scene. In a matter of minutes, his reinforcements had taken control by setting off flairs and redirecting traffic. Luke Tanner, a rookie on the police force, strode toward them with a blanket in his hand. He removed Eli’s jacket from the woman’s shoulders and handed it to him. “What a mess. What happened?” he asked as he wrapped the blanket around the woman.

  “Actually, I saw the whole thing. This woman veered across her lane into oncoming traffic.” Eli pointed at the overturned vehicle. “The driver of that Honda over there didn’t have time to stop.”

  “Because she was driving too fast!” the woman cried. “She could have killed me.”

  Luke removed his notepad from his top pocket. “Is that true?” he asked Eli.

  What good would it do to write Annie a ticket now? She’s learning her lesson the hard way. “She may have been driving a little over the limit, but let’s not lose sight of the real issue. This woman was texting when the accident happened.” Eli jabbed a finger at Luke’s notepad. “Be sure to put that in your report. Can you take over for me here? I need to go check on Annie.”

  Luke’s head shot up. “Annie? I hope you’re not talking about Sam’s Annie.”

  All eyes traveled to the overturned vehicle where the paramedics and firefighters were carefully extracting Annie’s body from the wreckage.

  Luke’s mouth fell open. “Oh God! That is Annie.” He gave Eli a gentle shove. “By all means, get over there.”

  As he hurried back to the overturned Honda, Eli clicked on his wife’s number from his favorites list and pressed the phone to his ear. Sam answered on the fourth ring. “Where are you?”

  “At Sweeney’s. Waiting for Annie. I need to run some errands, but I can’t leave until she gets here.”

  Eli drew in a deep breath. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, honey. But I have some bad news. Annie was involved in an accident a few minutes ago.”

  Sam gasped. “I heard the sirens. Is she okay?”

  He craned his neck to peer over the paramedics gathered around Annie. They had placed her on a gurney and were preparing he
r for transport. She had an oxygen mask strapped to her face. “She’s alive. That’s all I know. Do you have any idea where Faith and Mike are?”

  “Mike is already at the hospital, thank goodness. And Faith took Bitsy to a friend’s house for a playdate. I’ll call her now. Should we come there or meet you at the emergency room?”

  The paramedics began to wheel Annie toward the ambulance. “Why don’t you go straight to the hospital. I’ll see you there.”

  He saw one of Annie’s black Converse tennis shoes on the ground near her car. He scooped it up, stuffed it in his pocket, and stepped in line beside the paramedic with the muscles—Hank, according to his nametag. “How is she?”

  Hank made a so-so gesture with his hand. “She’s in and out of consciousness.”

  At five feet eight, Eli felt height challenged standing next to the beast. “May I speak to her? We’re family.”

  Hank shot him a sideways glance. “Family how?”

  “I’m her uncle. Her mother is my wife’s sister.”

  Hank slowed the gurney to a stop at the back of the ambulance. “You can try, but she probably can’t hear you.”

  “Hey, Annie baby, it’s Eli. Can you hear me?” He wanted to touch her body, needed to feel the warmth of her skin for reassurance, but he was afraid he’d hurt her. She looked so pale and frail with her head braced between two supports and the bandage on her forehead already seeping with blood.

  Annie’s lids fluttered open and her brown eyes grew wide with fear.

  He stroked her cheek to the right of the oxygen mask. “I know you’re scared, honey. But you’re gonna be okay. Mike’s at the hospital. He’ll take good care of you.”

  “Who is Mike?” Hank asked, as he prepared to lift the gurney into the ambulance.

  “Her father, Mike Neilson. He’s an ER doc.”

  “I know Mike. He’s a good man.” Hank climbed into the back of the ambulance behind the gurney.

  “Will you radio him ahead and let him know you’re coming?” Eli asked.