Anna: You're Never Too Old: Book Two of the 'Never' Series Trilogy

Anna –

You’re Never Too Old

By Linda Kane Paavola

Copyright 2013 Linda Kane Paavola

Smashwords Edition

Cover photo: Linda Kane Paavola

Cover design: Heather M. Paavola

Cover model: Melissa Boehler Glatman

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to my best friend and loving husband who puts up with me having either a laptop, tablet or phone in my lap at all times writing or jotting down notes. He’s given me encouragement and support for whatever I want to do. There’s nothing we can’t accomplish together!

Also, I would like to shout out a huge thank you to my initial readers, my husband and longtime friend Kathi Pukas for all the written, verbal advice, laughs and encouragement given me throughout this journey. Kathi’s comment after reading this book was, I can’t wait for the next book! was the best compliment ever. You guys are the best!

Other Books by Linda Kane Paavola

The ‘Never’ Series:

Remie – I’ll Never Forget You

September 2013

Anna – You’re Never Too Old

October 2013)

Pepper – Never Say Never

(Coming December 2013)

Table of Contents:

May 2009 – Waverly, South Carolina – Anna

October 2008 – Scottsdale, Arizona - Anna

November 2008 – Scottsdale, Arizona - Anna

December 2008 – Scottsdale, Arizona - Anna

December 2008 – Milan, Italy, New York City, New York and Waveryly, South Carolina – Pepper and Shannon

Two days before Christmas Day 2008 – Waverly, South Carolina – Anna, Pepper and Bailey

End of December – 2008 – Anna, Pepper and Shannon

January 2009 – Milan, Italy – Pepper

January 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Anna

February 2009 – Milan, Italy – Pepper

February 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Anna

February 2009 – Waverly, South Carolina – Bailey

February 2009 – Milan, Italy – Pepper, Anna and Bailey

March 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Anna

April 2009 – Milan, Italy – Pepper

May 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona and Waverly, South Carolina – Anna and Bailey

May 2009 – Waverly, South Carolina – Evin

May 2009 – Waverly, South Carolina – Anna

May 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona - Anna

June 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Anna

Early July 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Anna

Mid-July 2009 – England to Northern Norway Cruise – Anna, Bailey, Pepper

August 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Anna

August 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Anna and Bailey

August 2009 – Milan, Italy – Pepper

September 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona – Anna

October 2009 – Milan, Italy – Pepper and Shannon

October 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona and Waverly, South Carolina – Anna and Bailey

November 2009 – Scottsdale, Arizona - Anna

December 2009 – Waverly, South Carolina – Anna and Bailey

About the author

Connect with me online

Preview of Book Three in the ‘Never’ Series

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Anna – You’re Never Too Old

May 2009 – Waverly, South Carolina – Anna

Anna Hollister had noticed the mysterious man looking at her for several days while she was walking along the boardwalk. She loved her afternoon walks along the beach. It was a little warmer temperature than in the mornings when Bailey went running. The day was gorgeous. The wind was not very strong and she loved the salt-scented smell of the ocean as it was rolling onto the sand. There were quite a few families on the beach now that it was May and the water was warming up a bit. Some families didn’t care if the water was a bit cooler than it would be during the height of summer. Their children still loved playing in the sand, some even wading into the water. She loved hearing the children giggling and watching the families share in the fun.

All of a sudden, she noticed he was coming toward her. If she hadn’t been watching the families playing in the sand, she would have noticed him earlier, turned and ran home. It was too late now. He seemed to slow down as she came alongside him. When she didn’t stop, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that he made a U-turn and he was now following her. She started jogging a bit. She took a chance and looked over her shoulder. He had upped his speed too. Anna didn’t like the feeling of being followed. She didn’t know if she was being followed or stalked. She then thought back to all that her daughter, Bailey, had gone through and began to worry if this had anything to do with Bailey’s situation. What if this man was connected with her ex-husband, Jared, and the extremist group that he was involved with? He might be here to revenge the detainment of the members of his group. There was no way she wanted to be the reason that they found out where Bailey was. She was not going to do anything to put her daughter in danger again.

The first off-shoot from the boardwalk was coming up soon. Anna looked over her shoulder again quickly. She was further ahead of him now but he was still jogging. If only she could make the turn and lose herself inside one of the stores she wouldn’t be found. She had to do something, anything to keep her daughter and family safe.

Anna quickly turned off the main boardwalk and just as she was making the next turn she saw the man turning off the boardwalk toward her. She had to lose him quickly. She ran into the third store. That was as far as she could go before the man would make it to the next turn and see her. She quickly made her way to the back of the store and found a clerk that was folding t-shirts. She told him she was being followed and asked him if there was another way out of the store. He told her there wasn’t. He could tell by the shakiness of her voice and the sweat dripping down her face that she had been running and was very scared. He blocked any view of her from the front of the store. He told her to go into one of the dressing rooms and said he would take care of it.

The clerk turned towards the front of the store and saw a man peering into the store as though he was looking for someone. The clerk walked towards him and asked if he could help the man. The man asked, Did a woman with long, red hair just come in here? The clerk shook his head and said he hadn’t seen anyone like that. The man continued to the next store.

Anna didn’t know how long she stayed in the dressing room. The next thing Anna knew, the clerk was handing her a bottle of water and telling her to drink. People were so kind in this area. He said, Just sit here as long as you need. Is there anyone you can call to come and get you? Anna thought and decided she would call to see if Josh would come down to pick her up. She called him and explained the situation. He said he would be right there.

As Anna was sitting there, she thought back to her previous days of running or walking when she had noticed the man. Luckily, she had never gone directly home those days, so she couldn’t have taken him back to Bailey. She was going to either have to change her walking times while she was here or she would have to stop them altogether.

*****

October 2008 – Scottsdale, Arizona - Anna

Anna was back in Scottsdale after a wonderful spur of the moment vacation with her daughters, Pepper and Bailey, to Waverly, South Carolina. After thirty-three years of thinking she would never see her beautiful daughter, Remie (Bailey’s birth name), Pepper had made the reunion possible. She could not get it all out of her mind. She didn’t want to get it out of her mind.

Anna’s husband, Lawrence, had taken one of their twin daughters when she was only three months old and disappeared with her. She never heard from him again. Never, that is, until after his death and she received a million dollar check from the distribution of his will. When he left and took Remie with him, he had left a forged but totally authentic looking death certificate for him and a birth certificate for Pepper showing her as a single birth. That way Anna would have a good excuse for his disappearance and she would be able to get a passport or anything else that might require another signature for Pepper. No divorce papers ever came and neither Anna nor Lawrence had any desire to remarry. They both had their daughters to care for.

After Lawrence’s murder, Anna did try to find Remie several times. She had always just missed her. Finally she hit a road block. After September 11, 2001 it seemed as though she had fallen off the face of the earth. As it turned out, Remie’s husband had been a part of the terrorist group that hijacked the planes causing so much damage on that fateful day.

Remie was in the process of leaving him, but before she left, she wanted to know what he had locked in the drawer of his desk. After totally mutilating the desk in order to get the drawer open, she found some evidence of his involvement and turned it over to the FBI. Because of that, the FBI also found several other members of the extremist group that were involved and they all were arrested and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

Because FBI undercover agents had heard rumblings of revenge toward Jared’s wife, the U.S. Marshals placed Remie into the witness protection program. That is how she became Bailey Lynn Holden instead of Remie Christine McAllister as she was named at birth. She was relocated from Arlington, Virginia to Denver, Colorado. After living her life looking over her shoulder for quite a while, she finally started coming out of her self-imposed shell and began to live again.

It took her a long time to totally trust anyone. Joshua Blake broke through her shell completely and after nearly a year from the time that they met, they were married. Now they have two beautiful children, a handsome little three year old, Hunter and an adorable little one and a half year old, Allie.

Even though Bailey was told not to keep in touch with anyone from her past, she couldn’t break off contact with the only family she had left (or so she thought) after her father was murdered. George and Helene Hancock had become like parents to her. George bought the Total Gems Classic Cars dealership from Bailey after her father had been murdered there one evening. Bailey had known George from the time she was just a young girl. George was her father’s first sale at the car dealership and he had been over to their house for dinner every time he was in town. Bailey had not mentioned anything about the car dealership or George and Helene to Jared, so she felt relatively safe contacting them after she was given her new identity.

After Pepper finally found out the secret about her twin sister who had been taken when she was only a baby, Anna and Pepper hired a private investigator to find Bailey. When the private investigator couldn’t find anything more about her whereabouts, Pepper’s best friend, business manager and sister-in-heart, Shannon, had a fantastic idea. The private investigator had told Pepper that he had a feeling that George knew something about Bailey but he wasn’t giving anything away about her. Shannon’s idea was that if George did know anything about Bailey and her whereabouts, Pepper should go in to the dealership. He might give the secret away by thinking that Pepper was Bailey and then they would know for sure.

Sure enough, it worked. It did take a lot of talking, explaining and convincing on Pepper’s part with George even though he gave himself up immediately by calling Pepper Bailey and talking to her so familiarly. He was convinced after hearing her story that she was telling the truth and told her where to find Bailey.

Pepper went up to Waverly, South Carolina and shocked Bailey when she answered the door and was ultimately looking at herself staring back at her. After fainting, then hearing Pepper’s story, she understood why all throughout her life she felt as though she was missing someone or something in her life. Pepper called her mother after that to join her for a spur-of-the-moment mini-vacation in South Carolina. Her mother made airline reservations for the next day. That was the day that life as she had known it changed forever. She finally had her twin daughters together again.

Well, they weren’t really all together. Anna was in Scottsdale, Arizona. Bailey and her family were in Waverly, South Carolina. Pepper was in Milan, Italy. But, they were still together because they had each other now. She had her long lost baby back.

After Anna’s hit and run accident earlier in the year and being away from work for nearly three months, Anna saw how well her assistant manager, Andie, had handled covering THE CLOTHES HANGAR store in Scottsdale. Anna owned a chain of THE CLOSET HANGAR stores. There were eighteen in all at this point. The majority of the stores were on the East coast but Anna had also opened several in the Midwest, Texas, Monterey, California and the one she now managed in Scottsdale, Arizona. Maybe Anna should start thinking about retiring. She didn’t know if she could sit around and not do anything. When she was recuperating from her accident she was going bonkers. Maybe, she could slow down a bit, do more traveling, retire or open another store….Hmmm….

Anna was thinking it would be really nice to be closer to Bailey and start bonding with her and her family now that she was back in her life. She now had grandchildren to spoil. She certainly didn’t intend to move in on them, but maybe find a little house nearby. That beach scene definitely was very inviting! She couldn’t imagine opening one of her stores in Waverly though. It certainly wasn’t a large enough city to support one of her stores. She would have to be in Charleston for that. She didn’t want to move to Charleston however. She didn’t have anything against Charleston, but Bailey wasn’t there. Anna decided that she didn’t want to jump into anything drastically. She would have to think about it for a while.

She and Pepper were going to be meeting at Bailey’s house and spending Christmas with them. In the meantime, she had some major Christmas shopping to do between now and then. Four more people, very special people, on her Christmas list. She was going to be able to buy children’s toys and clothes for a change. She was so excited. Bailey warned her not to go overboard with presents because she said the kids didn’t need that much and she definitely did not want them to think they could have everything. She made her mother and Pepper promise, three times no less, and cross their heart that they would not overdo with presents for the kids. Anna told Pepper on the way to the airport when they were leaving, I think she really meant it when she told us not to overdo with presents for the kids. I finally have grandchildren and I can’t overdo! What am I going to do? Pepper said, You can give yourself. That’s what they need and want the most.

Since Anna had just returned from South Carolina and was back at work it didn’t take her long to get back into the swing of things. Andie had done a wonderful job getting it stocked well for the coming holiday shopping season. The store was doing amazing business, better than before she left.

Anna still went out every morning before getting ready to go out for work, but most of the time she would go for a fast walk or slow jog now. After her accident, she hadn’t done much running. She found she got just as much exhilaration from walking as she did with running. An added plus was that she met more of her neighbors this way. She ran into Janice Lien, the woman that helped her out after her hit and run accident. In fact Anna and Janice would meet and walk together quite often.

Because of the help that Janice had done for her after the accident, Anna told her there was a gift certificate waiting for her at THE CLOTHES HANGAR store. When Janice went to the store and asked for Andie to get the gift certificate, she was in total shock at the amount it was for. Janice told Anna that she had gone in looking for a dress to wear to her daughter’s wedding that was the end of June. Not only did she find the most beautiful dress she could have imagined, she was also able to get a new wardrobe for a cruise they were going to be taking over Thanksgiving through the Panama Canal. She was so excited about the cruise. It was going to be the first time she and her husband were going on a vacation without one of their kids along. Now that they were all grown and on their own, they finally had the ability to go on a vacation all by themselves. It was such a novel experience for them.

Since Anna and Pepper had done a similar cruise together, Janice was pumping her for information on excursions they did and if they would do them again and the towns they stopped at. Anna really enjoyed talking about it because it brought back wonderful memories of her time with Pepper. It also made her think that they should try to get Bailey to go with them on their next vacation. Anna suggested they stop back at her house after their walk and Janice could join her for coffee and look at a few pictures she had taken on their cruise. Janice thought that would be great. She knew she wouldn’t be able to stay long because both of them had to get to work not too long afterwards.

After Janice looked at the pictures Anna showed her, she was more anxious than ever for the cruise. She said her goodbyes to Anna after she finished her coffee as both women needed to get ready for work.

At lunch time Anna usually stayed in her office and had a bottle of water and a carton of yogurt from the fridge. Today, however, she decided to walk the mall to find a children’s clothing store. Before she had left Waverly, she had asked Bailey what size clothes the kids were wearing. She decided to look for the summer clothes they could grow into for Christmas gifts. She had already missed their birthdays for this year, so Christmas would be the first opportunity to buy them gifts.

The clothing store had mostly winter clothing on the racks but in the back of the store the sale racks were bursting with summer clothes. Anna had so many articles of clothing thrown over her arms as she was going through the racks that she finally decided she needed to pare down her selections. She laid them all out and chose her four favorite summer outfits for each child. She walked out of the store a very happy shopper. She still wanted to buy at least one toy and some books for each of them. She remembered how much they enjoyed being read to each night while she was there. At this rate, she would have all her Christmas shopping done for the kids before the end of the week.

As she was walking back into her store, several of her employees made comments about her overflowing bags. One of her employees said, Anna, are we going to be selling children’s clothes here soon? Anna just smiled and shook her head no. She hadn’t told everyone yet about her newly-found daughter and her family yet. She was sure it would get out but she wasn’t about to go around and tell everybody one by one.

Andie, her assistant manager, did know the story however, including all the heartbreak that occurred up until she actually was connected with Bailey. Andie just said, Christmas shopping has begun I see. Anna couldn’t help but smile and say, I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for Christmas in my whole life as I am this year. Andie said, Children do make a lot of difference during the holidays. Anna told her that she needed to get her shopping done early since Andie would be gone for three weeks over Thanksgiving and she doubted she would have any time or energy to shop then or afterwards with the Christmas shopping being in full force. They usually put in many more hours at the store during that time so she wanted to be done with all her shopping before all that started.

Anna had been in touch with Bailey nearly every day since she and Pepper had left them. Anna was so thankful that Bailey didn’t hold any grudge against her for letting her father take her away from her when she was a baby. Bailey said she definitely missed having her mother around when she was growing up but at least she got to have her father. She felt badly that Pepper didn’t have that opportunity.

Anna needed to get out the agenda for the monthly manager’s conference call that was going to be the following Monday. She liked to send the agenda out early in case any of the other managers had something they wanted to add that they needed to discuss. Just as she was starting to put the agenda together, her security head called her on the radio that was sitting next to her on her desk. He asked, Ms. Hollister, would you mind coming up to the front checkout counter. We are having a slight problem up here. Anna answered, I’ll be right there.

Anna saved the agenda on her hard drive and locked her computer. As she was walking to the front checkout counter she greeted several regular customers. When she was closer to the front checkout, she was wondering what was going on. There was her store’s head security guard standing, holding the hand of a young boy about nine or ten years old.

Hi Dan. Who have you got here? Well, Ms. Hollister, we have a young man here who decided to help himself to some jewelry. I didn’t want to bring him back to the office in case one of his parents was looking for him. answered Dan. Dan, just like all the security guards that worked for her stores was dressed just like any customer might be dressed. If a parent came along at this time looking for the young boy he was holding hands with, it would appear as though he was trying to help a boy find his parents by standing at the entrance but not moving around.

Anna asked the boy, What’s your name. The boy said, My mom said I wasn’t supposed to tell strangers my name. Anna smiled and said, That’s a very good rule and your mother will be very proud of you for doing as she told you. Did she tell you that you should not take things that don’t belong to you or that you haven’t paid for? You could get into a lot of trouble doing that. It is good that Mr. Dan saw you do it to keep you out of trouble. The boy didn’t answer but all of a sudden he seemed to find the laces on his shoes very interesting. Anna asked, Was there a reason you took the jewelry that you did? The boy did look up to her then and said, I wanted to give it to my mom for Christmas and I don’t have enough money yet. I thought if I waited I would forget which one she liked or it wouldn’t be here anymore. I was going to come back and give you the money when I got it. Anna then asked Dan what it was that he was walking out with. Dan showed her the necklace he was holding in his hand.

Anna thought for a moment. She had never had this problem before. The boy said, My mom was in here a little while ago and was looking at it but said she needed to get some new shoes for me instead. I told her I was going to the bathroom but instead I came back to get the necklace. Anna said, My name is Anna. I like to know the names of people I’m doing business with. Would you tell me your first name? The little boy then said, My name is Timothy Hale. Anna then asked, Well, Timothy, do you get a weekly allowance? Timothy said, Yes Ms. Anna. I get two dollars a week. If I don’t make my bed every day I get ten cents less for every day it’s not made. I can get more if I do extra chores. Anna smiled and said, Do you realize that this necklace will cost you ten weeks of allowance? Timothy frowned and said that he didn’t know it would be that much. He still wanted to get it for his mom though. Anna asked, How would you be able to pay us for the necklace without your mother knowing you are doing it? Timothy thought about this for a while. He then smiled and said that he could have his dad help him save his allowance money and when he had enough he could have his dad bring him in to pay for it. Anna said, I think that sounds like a very good idea. We will hold the necklace for you under your name in my office and when you have enough money bring your dad in with you. We will even wrap it nicely for you to give your mom for Christmas. You should be able to earn enough to get it before Christmas if you make your bed every day and do a few extra chores each week. I will write a note to your father with our agreement and you can show it to him when you get home. My name will be on the bottom so you will remember to ask for me. How does that sound? Timothy smiled a wide smile and he held out his hand and said, Shake on it? Anna said, Yes, we’ll shake on it. They shook hands. The clerk at the front checkout had been writing out a note as they were talking and Anna signed her name on the bottom. She said, Very nice doing business with you Timothy. Do not try to take anything from stores without paying for them from now on though. Promise me? Timothy said, I promise.

Now Anna had to figure out how to rejoin him with his mother. Timothy told her his mother was sitting in the food court while he was supposedly in the bathroom. Anna asked Dan to go back with him and just explain to his mother that he had taken the wrong turn. As he was walking away, Timothy turned and waved good-bye to Anna. Anna waved back.

Dan handed the necklace to Anna before he left. She walked back to the display it came from to grab the empty box. She admired the necklace as she placed it back into the box. It’s good his mother chose something in his allowance price range. She took it back to her office and placed a sticky note on it with ‘Timothy Hale’ written on it. She was very interested to see if he came back for it.

Now she had to return to the agenda for her monthly manager’s conference call. Before she even had her computer unlocked, she received an inter-store buzz on her phone. It was the clerk from the front checkout. She said, Ms. Hollister, I just wanted to tell you that the way you handled that little boy was the nicest thing I’ve ever seen. You were so kind, but I think you also taught him a good lesson. You are a great role model and I’m proud to work for you. Anna said, Thank you, I’m glad to have you work here, too. Anna hung up the phone and thought, This is why I love this job. How could I have been considering retirement just a while ago?

Her agenda was finally finished and she emailed it out to all her managers. It was one of the shortest agendas she had sent out since there wasn’t that much they needed to discussed this month.

All of a sudden she received a ping on her computer indicating she had an incoming email. She opened it and noticed it was from her Washington, D.C. manager, Shanda Merick. She was one of the newer managers because her manager moved to open the Monterey, California store for Anna three years ago. She had been Hannah’s assistant manager and moved up to manager when Hannah left. Her email threw Anna for a loop.

Shanda’s email stated, "Anna, This morning a gentleman came into the store and asked me if the owner would consider selling the store. I explained to him that the store was part of a large chain throughout the United States, many along the East Coast. He said he was only interested in the Washington, D.C. store. I gave him your name, email and your cell phone number and told him he would have to contact you. His name is Thomas Michaels. He said to tell you that you might be sorry if you didn’t sell the store to him. I hope I did the right thing. Just my opinion, I would hate to see this store be removed from THE CLOTHES HANGAR chain. This is such a wonderful store to work at. Regards, Shanda"

Anna quickly shot an email back to Shanda. "Shanda, You definitely did the correct thing by passing my information on to Mr. Michaels. I have no idea what he has in mind, but I certainly plan to find out what’s going on. I will let you know as soon as I find out. Rest assured, I am NOT planning on selling out that store and removing it from my chain. It is managers such as you that make our stores work so well. Thank you for the head’s up on this situation. Regards, Anna."

Anna sent out another quick note to all her store managers telling them what Shanda had emailed her about and told them if anything like that happened at their store, they were to do the same thing Shanda had, give him her name, email and cell phone number and nothing else.

What on earth was going on? She was anxious to hear from this Thomas Michaels and find out what he is thinking. He was not going to come in and attempt to take over a store that she and her employees had worked so hard to establish a great clientele and then he would reap the benefits. There was no way. How dare he? Now she was definitely ready to hear from him and give him a piece of her mind!

She needed to get out of her office for a while after that email. She was fuming! She grabbed her radio, attached it to her belt and walked out. Walking around her store, talking to the customers and helping them always soothed her emotions. Immediately she ran into a customer with a question. She ended up spending about an hour and a half with this customer, but in the end she left a very happy customer with three garment bags over her arm.

That customer helped Anna’s mood immensely. She had another hour before she would be finished for the day, so she just did a quick walk around the store to see if anything needed straightening or refilling. It looked as though her salesclerks were on top of everything in that respect. She went back into the office to finish some paperwork.

She checked emails and there was one from Pepper with her latest design. It was gorgeous as usual. Pepper never seemed to amaze her with her creativity. Even though she had gone to college and majored in fashion design, she could never hold a candle to Pepper. It was good her career turned out the way it did because she didn’t think she would have had the tenacity in the design field that it would take in order to make it big. Pepper had made it big, big time! She quickly emailed her comments back to Pepper adding a few extra comments about her young shoplifter wannabe.

Anna let Andie know she was leaving for the day and she would see her tomorrow. As she was walking down the walkway of the mall to the entrance where her car was and carrying her bags from the children’s store filled with her Christmas presents for Hunter and Allie, she past one of her neighbor stores. As many times as she had passed this store, she had never been inside. She remembered that Pepper had been in there when she was in town the last time. Pepper showed her the jewelry from there that she purchased for her best friend, business manager and adopted-in heart sister, Shannon and also for her haute couture manager, Ciara. The pieces she had purchased were gorgeous and very southwestern in style.

Anna thought that might be a good place to find a little something for Bailey. It would be something uniquely from where Anna lived and not something she would find in South Carolina. Bailey was a little more on the casual side than Pepper so she had to keep that