An Engagement: A New Pioneers Short Story by Deborah Nam-Krane Page A

stone?"
    "Do you think they’d kill each
other? I hadn’t thought of that."
    "Sorry, Belle. If Lucy doesn’t
think Jim’s good enough, she won’t think Alex is. And he’s not
ready to settle down yet."
    Alex made it a habit of being seen
with a different beautiful woman every week. She made a face
thinking about him appearing in the "Society" section of the
tabloids. Why had her father hired him?
    "No accounting for taste," she
murmured as their food came.
    ~~~
    They took a walk through the Public
Garden after lunch. "So where are we going to live?" he said as he
took her hand.
    "You have a perfectly nice
house."
    He tightened his grasp around her
hand. "Are you joking? It’s my father’s house."
    "I’m not afraid of your
father."
    "Then you’re a fool."
    No , she thought, I’m just
not a teenager . "Fine, we’ll live with my father."
    "Perfect, because your father
doesn’t want me around you. Why don’t we get our own
house?"
    "What kind of a house could we
afford?"
    Stephen sighed. "Couldn’t we ask
Jim for a loan?"
    "And pay him back with
what?"
    "I’m not entirely destitute. I do
have my income, and Alex has been nudging me to make some changes
to my investments — "
    "Do not listen to one word that man
has to say about money."
    "Anna, it’s his job."
    She put up her hands. "Why don’t we
go on a long honeymoon and wait for your father to die?"
    He laughed, then she laughed. He
brought her hand to his lips. "This is why I love you."
    She stroked his cheek. "And here I
thought it was because you thought I looked like Jackie
O."
    "Added bonus."
    She came closer to him and kissed
him. "Stephen, you worry too much. It’s going to be alright, I
promise."
    He wasn’t smiling now, and
Annabelle’s heart tightened in her chest as she saw the sadness in
his eyes. It was always there, even when he was smiling.
    He kissed the top of her forehead.
"It already is," he whispered.
    ~~~
    Gerald liked to give the impression
that he arrived late and left early, but the truth was that he
usually stayed at his firm until six o’clock. Jim, on the other
hand, got into his office early and left on time. Annabelle always
had thirty minutes alone with him before their father came
home.
    She jumped out of her seat when Jim
came through the door, took his coat and handed him a drink before
he could say anything.
    He grinned over his glasses. "Hello
to you, too."
    "Um, how was work?"
    "Stop, start. Hurry up and wait.
The usual. What’s going on?"
    "Stephen asked me to marry
him."
    Jim put down his drink and hugged
her. "Congratulations! And let me guess, you want me to break it to
Dad?"
    She pulled away and shook her head.
"Of course not. I’m a grown woman. Which is exactly what I’m going
to tell him."
    "I don’t think that’s going to be
his problem."
    "Oh, Jimmy, do you really think
it’s going to be a problem? I don’t want Daddy to pull one of his
little aces out."
    "Anna, it’s 1980. What could he
do?"
    "Cut me out of his will, and then
Stephen would be dependent on his father even after he’s
dead."
    "I won’t let that
happen."
    "You’re taller than Daddy, but I’m
afraid that’s all you have going for you in a fight with
him."
    "If he did something pig-headed
like that, I’d make sure you and Stephen were taken care of and you
know it."
    Annabelle hugged her brother again.
He was kind like their late mother and intelligent like their
father, but she had no idea where his decency came from. "How come
I’m the only woman in Boston who knows how wonderful you
are?"
    Jim groaned. "Don’t you start in on
me too!"
    Annabelle stepped back. "Did Daddy
say something to you today?"
    He nodded. "He hasn’t given up on
Lucy."
    "Don’t listen to him. She’s
cold-blooded."
    "She’s doing a lot of fundraising
for her alma mater."
    She scoffed. "You mean her little
family university?" It had been Lucy’s grandfather’s idea to buy
himself a little credibility by establishing a university in Boston
so people