Her Name Was Annie, Beth Rinyu [fox in socks read aloud TXT] 📗

Table of Contents

Her Name Was Annie

Copyright

Also by Beth Rinyu

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Epilogue

Author’s Note

Her Name Was Annie

Copyright © 2021 by Beth Rinyu

All rights reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Beth Rinyu, except for the use of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Cover design by: Amy Queau Qdesign (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1746943402255030/?fref=nf)

Editing by: Lawrence Editing (https://www.facebook.com/lawrenceediting/)

Proofread by: Judy’s Proofreading (https://www.facebook.com/judysproofreading/)

Formatting by: C.P. Smith

Also by Beth Rinyu

The Exception To The Rule

Drowning In Love

Blind Side Of Love

An Unplanned Lesson

An Unplanned Life

A Cry For Hope

A Will To Change

Easy Silence

When The Chips Are Down

Two Of Hearts

Straight To The Heart

A Right To Remain

Keepin’ The Faith

Thursday Afternoon

When Autumn Ends

Miss Demeanor

I’ll Be Seeing You

The Night We Met

The People We Meet Along The Way

Find Beth on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BethRinyu/)

Join Beth’s Reader Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/615284398516306/)

Chapter 1

November 2019

THE WAVES PUMMELED the shoreline like a scorned woman taking out her frustrations on an unfaithful lover. To say I knew how that ocean was feeling at that moment wouldn’t have been a lie. Ashamedly, I had let out my own frustrations a time or two in the same manner. Time had moved on, and my heart should have as well. But every now and then, I’d reserve a pity party for one with a bottle of wine on the beach that held so many memories.

The stilted house that sat behind me had been built by my parents when I was a little girl. My mother and I spent every summer in that home. Long, happy days on the beach, making sandcastles and playing in the waves, then staying up way past my bedtime. There wasn’t a care in the world back then. It was a tradition I had continued with my own daughter, hoping she had formed the same sense of solace I had growing up. Those fond memories of summers gone by were now just a flicker of happier times I would never get back.

Lifting my wineglass to my lips, I took a long, slow sip of merlot, savoring the soft, sensual texture as it slid down my throat. A squall of air shot down the beach, blowing the sand like a storm in the desert. A strand of windblown hair stuck to my face, dampened by the misty salt air, as I gazed up at the ominous sky, watching the dark clouds move at warp speed overhead. It was an eerie sight, like a scene from a movie where the world was about to end. Was it a sign or just my feelings at the moment?

There was no doubt, the anniversary of today was a hard one for me to face, but lately it seemed as if every day was getting a little harder to get through. Time was moving on whether I liked it or not, and just when I was starting to get back in this game of life, the rules were changing once again. My baby was a senior in college, and I had celebrated my forty-eighth birthday a few months ago. The dating pool was slowly drying up with most men in my age group either looking and acting like old men, married, or even worse yet—never been married, which always led to the question of “why?”

I had found out the answer to that question more than my fair share of times. Either they were egotistical playboys who still had the mindset of a twenty-year-old and preferred the company of much younger women, or they were much too set in their ways to even entertain the idea of a woman changing things up on them. I had been in one serious relationship and a few casual dates since Jack and I had divorced, not because I really wanted to, but because I felt like I needed to do it to prove I had moved on.

The only person I was fooling was myself because after eight years of being divorced, I still felt stuck in a world that wasn’t mine. I had always had my daughter, Kara, to keep me busy and keep my mind from wandering to places it didn’t want to go, but now she was away, just beginning her life, which gave me more time than I needed to delve into my head.

I picked up the bottle of wine, pouring myself another glass. Grabbing a handful of sand in my fist, I sifted it through my fingers while sifting through the years gone by like a movie in my head. Jack and I had been high school sweethearts. My parents always thought I could do better, but their opinions were no match for young love. We married shortly after we graduated from college, both fortunate enough to land jobs in our respective career choices right away. Me as an elementary school teacher, and him in law enforcement. Fast-forward twenty-five years, and I was still working at that same school I started at. Some of my very first students were now married with children of their own, while Jack had moved himself up to the upper echelons of the FBI.

Life always seemed to work out that way. It was always the woman who sacrificed everything. I never regretted one moment of not trying to advance my career to become a guidance counselor or a school administrator like I always said I was going to do. Once Kara came along, she became my world, and any thoughts of career advancement halted. She wasn’t planned, but she was the best