Forgiving Patience (23 page)

“It was fine.”

“I thought with all that tossing and
turning you do, I might’ve found you on the floor this morning.” Even though
his back was to her, she could see him grinning at that very moment.

“I wasn’t on the floor, was I?”

“You’re not much on talking, huh?”

“No,” she said in irritation. “If you
don’t mind, I would prefer silence.”

Jake finally got the point and shut
up. Anna drank her coffee, loving the taste going down her throat, coating her
stomach.

He put a plate of bacon and eggs in
front of her. “Eat this. It will help with the hangover.”

The silence with her coffee didn’t
last long.

“What part of
no
talking
don’t you
understand?”

“Why don’t you start being a little
nicer to me and eat the damn food?”

“Fine.” She picked up her fork and
took a small bite of eggs. It was more to get some peace and quiet than really
wanting the protein. But to her disappointment—and Jake’s satisfaction—they
actually weren’t half bad. She ate more and more until they were gone.

“See. I told you they would make you
feel better.”

“You must’ve had a lot of hangovers
to know the secret to getting over them.”

“I’ve had a few.”

“Well, this will be my last one. I
don’t see why people drink, knowing this is how they will feel the next
morning.”

“You don’t always feel this way. You
just don’t know how to handle yourself.”

“I guess,” she admitted.

They sat in silence for the next
minutes, eating and drinking their coffee. It was kind of nice to sit at a
table with someone, having breakfast and arguing over hangovers, with one
telling the other to shut up. She wondered if this was how her life would’ve
turned out if things hadn’t gone horribly wrong.

No, she wasn’t going to think of
that.
Just
enjoy the day and the moment.

Part of the night had been okay, and
the morning wasn’t too bad, but after she left, she wouldn’t have moments like
this with Jake again. She couldn’t risk her heart, not ever again. She had two
dates to get through and
Em’s
wedding, and then she
would be gone.

Anna could hear her cell phone
ringing from the bathroom. It was still in her pants’ pocket from the night
before. She was in no mood to talk, so she let it go to voicemail, but then it
started ringing again. Who would be calling her this early? Everybody knew she
was not a morning person. Everyone except Jake.

“I don’t think they’re going to give
up. I’ll get it and tell them you’re asleep.”

Ahhh…he was figuring her out. She had
to admit it didn’t take him long. It was probably no one important, a wrong
number or something.

Whoever it was, they weren’t talking
to her this early in the morning.

* * * *

Jake walked to the bathroom to answer
Anna’s phone. She was like a hornet in the morning, and he didn’t want the person
on the other side of the phone to get their ass handed to them on a platter.
Nobody deserved Anna’s wrath when she was awakened this early. Finding the
phone in the second pocket he looked in, he answered it before the caller gave
up.

“Hel—” Before he could finish, a
high-strung female was hitting all kinds of notes he didn’t think existed.

When he found a break in her yapping,
he asked, “Hello. Who is this?”

“Who is this? Where’s Anna?”

“Anna’s barely awake. She’s drinking
her coffee.”

“Well, who are you?”

“Jake Lawrence, ma’am.” He tried
giving her the Lawrence charm his brother was always reminding him about, but
it didn’t seem to be working in this particular situation.

“What have you done to Anna? I know
good and well she wouldn’t be with you if her life was in jeopardy and you were
the only guy alive who was capable of saving her.” Her voice was so high
pitched that the only way to keep him from losing all hearing was to hold the
phone several inches away from his ear.

So the woman knew about his past
history with Anna. She sounded a little over-the-top for her to be a friend of
Anna’s, but what did he know…Em had been her best friend since grade school.
“Who is this again? I forgot.”

“I didn’t tell you my name, you
worthless bastard.”

All right, he’d thought he was pretty
good with women, but this one was a force to be reckoned with.

“I don’t know who you are, but I can
tell you that I’ve done nothing to Anna. She came home with me on her own…well,
sorta
…anyway, she is here by choice. You should be thanking
me. I took care of her last night.”

“I’m sure you did,” she said. And
Jake could almost see her rolling her eyes at him through the phone.

The woman was irritating him to no
end. What did she really know? “Okay, you’re really too much for me to handle
this early in the morning. Can she call you back later in the day? Thank
you…oh, and ma’am, have a nice day.”

Before she could get another word in,
he hit end, turned the phone on silent, and slipped the phone back in Anna’s
jeans. What a psycho. He hoped to God he never had to come face-to-face with
her.

“You know she’s just looking out for
me.” Anna was standing in the doorway, clearly having heard the whole
conversation with the crazy woman.

“How long have you been standing
there?”

“Long enough to know you just got an
earful from Liza.”

“You sure do have some opinionated
friends. I thought Em was bad…oh, no, this woman is a piece of work. Is she
single?”

“No. Why?”

“Just thinking she would be perfect
for Bradley. He needs a woman like that to keep him in line.”

“I like Bradley too much to let him
endure Liza.”

“Yeah, I figured out
how
much
you like Bradley
last night.”

Anna looked sexy as hell in his
clothes, holding a cup of coffee, leaning up against the door jam. She was
turning him on by just looking at him through sleepy eyes, but he couldn’t let
her get away with the whole Bradley thing. That was pretty low, even if she was
drunk. That hurt.

“I walked right into that. I don’t
remember much about what happened after I had my first couple drinks. Sorry.”

“Well, just don’t proposition my
little brother again.”

She winced. “I did no such thing.”

“Honey, you were so wasted you don’t
know what you did. I’m glad I was there, otherwise, you would be waking up in
Bradley’s bed instead of on my couch.”

“Was it really that bad?” she asked
in disbelief.

“Not going to lie—yes, it was that
bad.”

Jake walked the few steps to her,
leaning down to lay a kiss on her cheek. When she didn’t pull away, he decided
to go a little further. She was sober now and whatever she allowed him to do,
he would do in a heartbeat. Tilting her chin up with his pointer finger allowed
him to stare into her eyes. If he’d asked if he could kiss her, she might’ve
told him to go fuck himself, so he didn’t. Just going for it, and accepting the
fact she might slap him, he bent down and touched his lips to hers. The nipples
jutting from the white T-shirt she wore was proof she was responding to the
simple touch of affection. Sliding his tongue across her soft lips, he was
wetting them and preparing her for what he would do next. When a soft sigh
escaped from her lips, it felt like the sexy breath was wrapping around his
cock. Bracing both his arms on either side of her, he pinned her to the
doorframe. There was no way he could let her go before at least getting a small
taste of her. When her lips slightly parted, he knew she was going to allow his
tongue to enter.

A kiss had never done this to him
before. He had seen some beautiful women, but he hadn’t wanted one as bad as he
wanted Anna.

“God, I want you so bad right now.”
He groaned while pushing up against her body, making her feel what she was
doing to him.

“Jake.” Her voice came out as a
whimper against his mouth.

“Yes, baby.”

Anna put her hands up to his chest,
pushing him back a step. It took him a minute to figure out what she was doing.
If he hadn’t gotten the point by her pushing him away, he got it when he looked
at her face.

“What’s wrong? Did I go too fast? We
can slow down if you want.”

“No, you did nothing wrong. I can’t
do this. Last night was a mistake. I’m sorry for leading you on. I shouldn’t
have come out to your living room naked.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t ever be sorry for that. If you
hadn’t been drunk, I would have hauled you to my bed in a heartbeat. You know that,
don’t you?”

“It’s not that. I’m glad you didn’t.
It would only make things harder right now. I can’t be with you…ever. I was
drunk and not thinking right. You did us a both a favor when you turned me
down.”

“I don’t see how I did us any favors.
You’re making me regret my decision right now.”

“Me sleeping with you last night
would almost be as bad as me going home with Bradley drunk.”

“You’re fucking kidding me right now,
aren’t you? You’re telling me I mean as much to you as my brother does. Well,
isn’t that just great? I try doing the honorable thing for a change, and I get
shit on.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, Jake.”

“I don’t let you leave with my drunk
brother—who would’ve been down your pants before you made it out of
Em’s
drive—I bring you here to watch over you, you come in
my living room butt–naked, and even then I turn you down, being the good guy
I’m usually not, and now you’re telling me you should’ve just went home with my
brother. That’s fucked up, and you know it.”

He was livid. Was he really hearing
her right? What the hell kind of remark was that? He left her standing in the
bathroom and headed back to kitchen. When she walked in the room a couple
minutes later, he had his back to her. He was dumping food down the disposal,
throwing dishes around in the process, because it was the only way to let out a
little bit of the anger burning a hole in his gut. What he needed was to be in
the batting cage. In his baseball days he wasn’t known as a homerun hitter, but
right about now he could put on a show at a homerun derby.

“Jake, look at me.”

His head snapped around to face her.
The anger he knew all too well was rising in his chest, and it was just a
matter of time before he did something he wouldn’t be able to take back. Before
he could control himself, a plate went smashing into the wall across the room.
It was nowhere near Anna, but the sound echoed through the room, causing her to
jump back out of the way.

“This is fucked up. You want my
brother, go get him. I’m sure he’ll pencil you in sometime this week.”

Jake was still ranting when Anna slid
to the floor, gripping her knees.

* * * *

Anna couldn’t hear his voice or see
his face anymore. Her ears were ringing, and her sight was blocked with black
spots. There she was again—a young girl stuck, unable to do anything. The
darkness was coming, and if she didn’t do something she would only be giving in
to those feelings. No matter how much she inwardly screamed at herself to get
off the floor, she physically couldn’t move. Her heart was wildly beating, and
her skin was increasingly becoming drenched with sweat.

Not now—get up, Anna. Do something.
You have to do something…anything.

She could see it all over again. Her
mother was sitting in the same spot she was after her stepdad slammed her
against the wall. Her mother’s face was pale and blank. As a child Anna was
terrified for her mother, but was unable to do anything to help her. Anna
endured her own hell at night and wasn’t strong enough to face the same hell
during the day.

“Anna? Anna, you okay, baby? I’m so
sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. Can you stand?” Jake was pulling her
toward him.

“Don’t touch me!” She didn’t want to
be touched. It crossed her mind to just give up, crawl into a ball, and block
it all out. But she knew she couldn’t do that. Not this time. She needed to get
up and face the demons that scared her.

“Don’t touch me, you bastard,” she
repeated, her voice coming out weak, but holding the same intensity as if she
had spat it in his face.

He stared at her for a long, quiet
moment before speaking, “I’m sorry, Anna. I didn’t mean to scare you. When I
get mad, I lose my temper sometimes. I’m just so sorry.” He rubbed both hands
over his
stubbled
face, looking repentant for his
actions.

She was thankful when he backed away
from her and the wall she was leaning against. He moved to one of the kitchen
chairs, planted himself in it, and stared at the floor. She could tell he was
mad at himself, and she would have felt sorry for him if she wasn’t so pissed
at him.