Forgiving Patience (12 page)

Forget it, there was nothing she
could do tonight about Jake stealing her house or his kissing her. What she
really needed was a bath and sleep. She started stripping off her skimpy
clothes, folding each piece and placing them on top of her suitcase. She walked
into the bathroom that was nestled between the bedroom and kitchen and welcomed
the warm breeze that filtered through the open window, bringing the scent of
flowers, rain, and nature. It was comforting and very familiar.

A clap of thunder boomed, startling
her, but then caused her to laugh at how foolish she was being.

After taking out her contacts, she
jumped into the stand-up shower since there was no bathtub. She was still
fuming about not being able to take an actual bath. The sunburn she’d known was
coming had arrived yesterday, making it hard to stay in the shower for long.
After pat-drying her sensitive skin, she slipped on a camisole and matching
panties.

She flopped down on the bed.

The short cold shower hadn’t helped. Closing
the open window and lowering the air conditioner’s thermostat hadn’t helped.
Face it—she was hot, and from what she quite wasn’t sure yet. Hopefully, it had
everything to do with her sunburn and the short walk at the track and nothing
to do with her ex-boyfriend. She just needed to take her meds and forget all
about Jake…at least for the night anyway.

She stared at the little blue pill
before she placed it on her tongue. She hated taking medication, especially the
kind that takes over your body, giving you no control over your actions. But,
if she wanted to sleep, the blue pill was her only hope. Tomorrow she was going
to figure out a way to get him out of her house, and if she wanted to be
completely honest with herself…out of her mind, too.

To pass the hour or so it would take
for her meds to cloud her mind and ease her eyes shut, she picked up a new
romance novel she’d gotten at a bookstore between Linden and Patience. Her
friend Liza had recommended it, saying it was hot and heavy, and to be prepared
to need the touch of a man.

Speaking of—crap. She still hadn’t
emailed Liza to tell her that she was okay and not falling apart at the
seams…which was a complete load of crap.

Liza was one of the very few people
who knew her past and knew why coming back to Patience was going to be
difficult. She was also a therapist and as a counselor, understanding. But
let’s face it—if someone hadn’t actually lived it, there was no way in hell
they could completely understand the loss.

She got out of bed to retrieve her
laptop. She fired it up and started typing.

Liza,

Sorry I haven’t been in touch. It’s been a crazy
weekend. My plans have changed a little. Instead of staying in my childhood
home, I’m staying at my realtor’s apt. Sit down! Are you sitting? Brace
yourself—Jake is staying at my house. Yes—Jake the rat bastard. He’s been
fixing it up for some lame reason. Don’t worry. I’m already thinking of ways to
get him out.

Hope everything is good back home. Please check on
Aunt Lidia and make sure she’s taking all of her meds…you know how she can be.
I’ll be in touch.

Luv ya,

Anna

After she was satisfied with the
email, she hit send, put her laptop away, and picked up her book. It might not
have been what she needed at the moment since her love life was non-existent.
She needed some hot and heavy in her life, and getting it from a book was
s-o-o-o much safer. Plus, the man in the book could care less that she was
wearing ten-year-old glasses, no make-up, and had her wet hair piled up on her
head. It was perfect.

An hour later, before even getting to
the good parts, she drifted to sleep, still in an upright position with her
book resting on her chest.

* * * *

She heard the door creak
open, and through her squinted eyes, she could see a dim light spill into her
room. Her tiny heart started thumping at the trepidation of what was to come.
She tried to remain still and hope for once that her pretending to be asleep
would stop the devil from touching her. But just like every other time—it
didn’t. The door closed behind him, shutting out all light and hope. It was
only a matter of seconds now. The smell of Old Spice mixed with beer filled her
small room. She should scream. Why can’t I scream?

Anna jerked up on the bed with her
heart racing. She gripped her chest, trying to force her beating heart to calm.
She dropped her head on her drawn-up knees until she got her breath back. Over
and over again she told herself, “It was just a dream…it was just a dream…it
was just a dream.”

* * * *

“Ouch! Good grief, Em, be easy,”
Jesse whined, her head tilted back in the groove of the styling chair.

“Well, you’re getting your eyebrows
waxed. It’s going to hurt a little. Quit being a baby and let me do my job,” Em
demanded.

“So,” Em continued while standing
over Jesse, “we need to get all three groomsmen and Tommy to pick up their
tuxes. My cousin Melanie will get Sam, my little ring bearer’s, outfit. I’ll
get Tommy to go down to Mrs. Lena’s and get his final fitting. Anna, can you
deal with the groomsmen?”

“Sure. Just let me know how to get in
touch with them,” Anna answered.

“Michael is my cousin’s husband, so I
assume she’ll get him, but if you can, get in touch with Bradley and Jake.”

She had gone most of the day without
thinking about him—of course most of that day had been spent asleep in bed—but
still he had been off her mind. Was her contact with him ever going to end? It
didn’t look like it. As long as she was in Patience, Jake was bound to be in
her life. With fewer than three weeks left on her visit, she needed to get him
out of her house. And after
Em’s
wedding, he would be
out of her life. She just needed to get through the next two weeks.

“Okay, I can do that,” Anna said
softly, hoping the other two women didn’t notice her uneasiness with the simple
request.

“Mama is having the last meeting with
the caterer. We’re also going to get the band that played at the party Saturday
to play at the wedding. They were surprisingly good. Everyone seemed to like
them. I know Anna sure did.” Em smiled and gave a knowing look in Anna’s
direction, abandoning Jesse’s eyebrows for a second.

Jesse chimed in, “Yeah, the guitar
player had a thing for Anna. It actually was sweet, that is, until good ole’ Jake
ruined her dance.”

Anna didn’t know Jesse had been
watching her and Jake so closely, but then again, the whole room was looking at
her when she stormed out of the Banquet Hall. If the same band was going to be
at the wedding, at least she could apologize to Cam for Jake’s uncalled-for
behavior.

“I saw y’all leave together. How was
the reunion?” Em asked curiously, still hoping for any bit of information she
could try to sneak. She wasn’t the least bit subtle.

Anna didn’t answer.

“Come on,” Jesse pleaded, “we’re
between the sacred walls of ‘everything gossip’. If you can’t spill the beans
in the hair shop, where else can you?”

That’s what Anna was scared of. She
didn’t want her gossip to leave the shop and be the talk of Patience. Right
now, everything was stored away in her head. The only other person who knew
about the kiss was Jake, and though he could tell Tommy, which would result in
Em finding out, she just had to hope Jake wouldn’t talk.

Anna sat in her chair, ignoring Em,
Jesse, and their prying, while she flipped through a styling book.

“All done,” Em announced to Jesse.

“Thank God. Do I have any eyebrows
left?”

“I suggest you stop complaining
unless you want to start paying for your
waxings
and
cuts.” Em glared in Jesse’s direction. She cleaned up her mess and came back to
sit by Anna, drinking one of the Diet Cokes she’d offered everyone earlier.

“So, did you and Jake get it on after
my fabulous party, or what?” Em couldn’t hide the big smile spreading across
her face.

Her friend was dressed down for her
day off, but she still looked like she could replace her running shorts and
baby doll tee with a flashy dress and be ready to walk down a runway in an
instant. Her white-blond hair was straightened, making it look a couple inches
longer than what it actually was. Her makeup was flawless, with pale pink
painted lips. Anna would have felt inadequate if it wasn’t for Jesse sitting
there in Liberty overalls, wearing only a sports bra in place of a shirt.
Jesse’s body was toned and tanned. Even though she farmed most of the day,
which was what probably kept her in top shape, a farmer’s tan didn’t mar her
body. Maybe, instead of wanting to open up a coffee shop, she should get into
the farming business. She was never one to want to flaunt her body, but she had
to admit that if she had Jesse’s, she would have worn just a sports bra to the
walking track instead of her extra-large T-shirt. There was no telling what
Jake would have said about that.

“No, Jake and I certainly did not get
it on.”

Jesse asked, “So what was the rush to
get out of the stuffy party?”

“Hey…” Em cut in, “…my party was not
stuffy. You just wouldn’t know class if it was a snake and snuck up and bit you
on the butt.”

All three women went quiet before
Jesse broke out in laughter. “Really, Em? Did you just say that? That was
undoubtedly the worst and overused line ever.”

“Why don’t you just shut up…how is
that line?”

It felt good to laugh and be around
friends. At least that’s what she hoped Jesse was starting to think of her as.
The woman was fun to be around and kept Em on her toes.

“Now, instead of making fun of me,
let’s get back to Anna,” Em told Jesse.

Jesse stood, pulling her John Deere
cap down low. “You may as well just spit out your news, otherwise this one,”
she pointed to her future sister-in-law, “will just pry it out of you anyway.”

Anna knew she wasn’t going to make it
out of Cut & Curls without having to spill her guts. She didn’t know if she
wanted—or needed—to keep it to herself anymore. Maybe it would be best if she
asked what they thought about the whole situation. She’d gone over it in her
head for most of the night and still had come up with nothing remotely logical,
unless you counted the idea of sneaking in his back door and smothering him in
his sleep with his own pillow. If she didn’t talk to someone, she was liable to
kill him.

Gently closing her book, she began,
“This doesn’t leave these sacred walls, got it?”

Both answered in unison, “Got it.”

Anna took a steady breath. “Okay. I
didn’t rush out of the party because I couldn’t wait to have sex with Jake. He
made me a proposition, I refused, and I couldn’t be in the same room with him
any longer.”

Anna had never seen Em speechless,
but at that moment her best friend couldn’t muster up a single word. So, Jesse
took the lead. “What kind of proposition?”

“You already know this part.
Remember, Em? He said he would give me my house back if I went on three dates
with him.” Anna left out the part about them hitting the sheets. Nobody was
getting that piece of private information. Em and Jesse could beg all they
wanted, they were not hearing that little bit of juicy information.

“Oh, yeah,” Em recalled.

“Dickhead,” Jesse commented.

“What else?” Em questioned. “Has
something else happened I don’t already know about?”

She should’ve known her friend would
know she was holding something back. She had never been a good liar, having
nothing like
Em’s
abilities.

“After I left your house yesterday, I
went to the walking track just to clear my head and try to shed these twenty
pounds I’ve packed on. I had earphones in my ears, so when someone grabbed me
from behind, I thought I was being attacked—”

“Wait? You weren’t, though, were
you?”
Em’s
pale green eyes enlarged.

Laying a hand over
Em’s
, calming her friend’s fears, Anna said, “No, it was Jake.”

Em was the only person besides her
mother Liza, and her aunt, who knew about her past. She was thankful for her
constant friendship. Em had been there from the beginning, and if it wasn’t for
her, Anna didn’t know what she would be doing right now. Em and her family gave
Anna a way out of hell when she was a child and defenseless. The lump forming
in her throat was making it nearly impossible to finish her story. She was
touched by the thought of someone being worried for her. When Liza talked to
Anna, she would try to use facts and research to provide comfort. Her aunt
couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable. Anna didn’t blame her, it wasn’t exactly
something anyone would enjoy listening to, or want to be reminded that such
evil remains in the world.

“Jake?” Em asked, clearly confused.

“He said he tried calling my name,
but I couldn’t hear him because of the earphones.”

Her iPod—she forgot all about it. It
was still on the track somewhere. After Jake brought up their painful past, her
only thought was to get as far as she could away from him.