Forgiving Patience (13 page)

Em and Jesse continued staring at
her, waiting to hear what happened next. “We talked—most of it not civilly, and
when I had heard enough, I turned and booked it to my car. The only problem is
that he caught up with me and stopped me.” Anna swallowed.
Can’t
stop now.
“He kissed me,
and I’m pretty sure I kissed him back.”

At this, both women were speechless.
They were not going to be able to keep this juicy gossip to themselves. Great.
Why had she opened her big mouth?

“So, let’s backtrack, just to make
sure we’re all on the same page…”

“Good idea, Em,” Jesse interrupted,
“we need to make sure we haven’t missed anything.”

“So, for Jesse’s benefit, Jake
interrupted your dance with the guitar player so he could ask you out on three
dates, and if you accepted, he would move out of your house for good. Then last
night y’all happen to be at the track at the same time. You think he’s
attacking you, when really, he was trying to get your attention…then he kisses
you, and you kiss him back. Does that cover it?”

“Well, I kicked him when he was
chasing me.”

“Right on, sister,” Jesse cheered
while giving Anna a high five.

“In the knee,” Anna added in a
subdued voice.

“Oh,” both of the other women said in
unison.

“I know. I never would have done
something like that to him, but in my defense, I didn’t know it was him.”

“Is he all right?” Em asked,
concerned.

“He looked like he was in pain at
first, but then he went right back to being a charming asshole. So I’m thinking
yes, he was hurt, but had too much pride to let it show.”

“Men,” all three women said this
time.

“What are you going to do?” Em asked.

Anna assumed she was talking about
the dates and the kiss since that would be the only thing on
Em’s
mind for years to come. “I’m not going out with him,
that’s for sure. As for the kiss—I can’t lie: it was nice, but it was a mistake
for me to kiss him back. I’ll deal with him for the sake of the wedding, but
afterward I’m done.”

Anna didn’t feel the need to
volunteer the information that Jake blamed her for leaving him. That was a hit
to the gut, and the memory was still raw. She didn’t know what to say or even
think about that. She knew it wasn’t her fault, at least she didn’t think so.
Maybe she had blinded herself by blaming him for everything that was wrong with
her life. Except, she didn’t blame him for everything. He got blamed for the
part he was responsible for. The rest of the responsibility resided with
others…herself included.

Jesse didn’t look all that convinced.
“Are you sure it will be that easy?” For some reason it made Anna remember the
way Jesse had been looking at the other Lawrence brother. Something deeper was
going on there, more than just a woman checking out a man, and she was becoming
intrigued by Jesse’s reason for staring at Bradley like he was more than a nice
male specimen. Did Anna look at Jake like that? No…no, she certainly did not.
She wasn’t sure what Jesse’s deal was, but her own was totally different.

“It’s no big deal,” Anna lied. “We
had a thing eleven years ago and shared a kiss last night, nothing more.”

“I think it’s more than that, Anna.
Jake was a big part of your life before you left, and now, here he is stirring
up those feelings again. If you ask me, you should beat him to the punch.” Em
smirked.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t let him decide what happens
between you two. If you want to have sex with him…have sex, if not, don’t let
any opportunity pass by without showing him how badly he royally screwed up.”
Em spoke quieter than usual, like she was telling her darkest secret. Who was
this person? First she was speechless and now she was talking quietly and
meaningfully. Her friend had evolved.

“I can’t do that. I don’t want to do
that.”

“Sure, you can,” Jesse said while
jumping to her feet. “I gotta get back to the farm, but it was a nice chat,
girls. Listen to my future sister-in-law, Anna. She might be crazy as hell most
of the time, but this time she might just be right about this.”

“Jesse…” Anna started.

“I know, I know. I won’t say a word.
I promise.”

“Thank you.”

“No prob. See ya.”

“So…” Em asked, “…what do you think
of my idea?”

“I think you’re out of your
ever-loving mind.”

Chapter Seven

Jake kept busy day and night for the
next three days. It was a good thing that he worked by himself. He hadn’t seen
anybody else in days and decided that was for the best…after all, he was in a
sour mood and would have been just as happy kicking someone’s ass as he was
hammering nails. The house saved him. Since coming back to Patience, he had
been bordering on becoming a drunk and a man who had a reputation for wanting
to pick a fight with every bastard he came into contact with. He had the
tendency to go after the biggest guy in the bar, and, while he missed the
adrenaline rush, his body was thankful for the absence of beatings it had been
given on a nightly basis.

In the blazing sun, he tried sweating
out his frustrations. Building a porch was damned hard work, especially with a
one-man show.

He welcomed the sun, and the heat and
humidity it brought. It beat on his bare back, probably leaving it a little
pink. A blue bandana was in his back pocket to wipe away the buckets of sweat
dripping from his face.

He loved the outdoors. What wasn’t
there to like? A couple of years ago, he’d eagerly worked outside most days and
nights. It was the best time of his life. For four short years, he’d gotten to
be someone who most young boys could only dream of being—a Major League
baseball player.

Now…instead of hearing the roar of
thirty thousand fans while he rocketed a ball over the left field wall, he now
had the pleasure of playing with the same group of people he’d first learned to
love to play the game with. His old job was just a really vivid dream, and his
job for today was to build this damn porch.

Singing along with the high-pitched
Aerosmith front man, Steven Tyler, he beat nails and wiped sweat away for the
first part of the day. He should’ve given in to his impulses and gone out on
the lake. Fishing would’ve been more relaxing, but he decided he didn’t have
the patience to fish. He needed the sweat and sun today, even if his knee was
crying out in pain. That would just have to be something he dealt with later. A
hot tub would be nice. That would cure a lot of his problems and add value to
the house.

Not that he was counting, but he
hadn’t seen Anna in three days. Touching her was a mistake he was now suffering
through. Just the thought of her made him instinctively go hard. The tears she
had been trying to hold back were what he fell asleep seeing every night since
then. He’d pushed her too hard. Fuck, he really was a jackass. Why couldn’t he
ever get anything right with her? He didn’t need or want this right now. His
motto over the past couple years was, take a woman—be honest with her, of
course—let her know sex was a one…two…or three-time thing, and then let her go.
It was simple and easy. The only problem with his great plan was he hadn’t even
been inside a woman in months.

“What’s up, bro?”

Just realizing he had company, Jake
turned down the radio and looked over his shoulder, only giving Bradley a
slight nod that said,
nothing, but I’m not in the mood
to be fucked with.

“What, I don’t get a ‘hey, how’s life
been since I fell off the face of the earth?’”

Bradley knelt down, rubbing a hand
over the two-by-four boards Jake had just measured and cut, looking happy as a
fool. The guy never seemed to get down on life, and it pissed Jake off. His
brother lived a single, simple life, and nothing pleased him more. Why couldn’t
Jake be that carefree? For the summer, Bradley’s hair was buzzed short, and to
shield him from the sun’s rays, it was covered with a straw cowboy hat. His
eyes were a few shades lighter than Jake’s—a feature he had heard all the woman
went delusional for. He was years younger, which as a kid, only gave Jake the
upper hand at whooping his butt every now and again.

As his brother continued running his
mouth, Jake considered doing the same thing right now. Bradley just didn’t know
when to shut his trap.

“You not talking today?”

“Do you ever shut up?”

“What crawled up your ass?”

Jake only gave him a warning stare.
He was itching for a fight, and it wasn’t going to take much for Bradley to be
the lucky victim.

“You’ve got woman problems, huh?”
There was nothing his brother loved more than women. Jake had once witnessed
him making a teenage school girl and Ms. Edna blush at the same time. And that
was saying something, because Ms. Edna hardly ever smiled. It only made sense
that this would be his first explanation for Jake’s piss-poor mood.

“No.”

“Now, don’t lie to your little
brother. You’re my role model.” Jake should’ve punched the cocky grin right off
of his face. He was sure the guy deserved it for something or other.

“I don’t have women problems,” he
growled.

“The way I hear it, it’s because you
don’t have any women. It’s really sad. You’re a Major League baseball player,
not to mention a Lawrence. You should have women bringing you casseroles every
day of the week.”

“Ex. I’m an ex-ballplayer, and I
don’t need advice about women from you.”

“I think you do. When’s the last time
you got laid? By the looks of you, I say…two, three weeks, if not more. If
you’re getting rusty, I can always help you out. I’ve got more women than I can
handle. You can take one of mine. We’ll call it an early Fourth of July present.”

“You don’t give presents on the
Fourth of July, you dick. And I don’t need your leftovers. I can pick my own
women, so butt out of my life, and I won’t say anything about yours.”

“Don’t turn this around on me.
Nothing’s wrong with my life. All is perfect with the Bradley show.”

“If you say so.”

“You know what? I know why you’re in
a foul mood. Anna’s back, and you can’t stop thinking about her. You’re mad you
screwed up with her all those years ago. That’s it, isn’t it?” It looked as if
a light bulb was going off, by the look on his kid brother’s face.

“Watch it.”

Ignoring his angry older brother,
Bradley said, “I saw her at Em and Tommy’s party, and I ran into her just
yesterday, and man…she is fine. That fair skin…and all that blond hair is
enough to make any man die of a hard-on. If you don’t do something about her, I
will. I think I just might ask her out.”

“Fuck you.” Bradley just went over
the line. Anna was off limits.

Jake was accustomed to being quick on
his feet, giving him the upper hand. He fought through the pain his knee was
giving him and attacked. Bradley never saw the blow coming that landed right on
his jaw, knocking him hard to the ground. When he sat up to ask what in the
hell was going on, Jake pounced on him.
 
They moved together, matching hit for hit. Blow after blow was given
before a jacked-up black Chevy kicked gravel up the driveway, throwing up a
cloud of dust behind it.

Neither brother stopped to give the
third man a glance. The man jumped from the truck, not even slamming his door.

“What the hell? You want to tell me
what this is about?” Tommy was pulling Jake off Bradley, but didn’t have the
strength to hold him for long. Jake shook Tommy off like a pesky fly—which only
proved how angry he was, because Tommy was a stocky guy—and had Bradley pinned
to the ground again. Bradley met the pin with a punch, bloodying Jake’s lip in
the process. Using both hands, Jake shoved his brother’s head hard against the
grass, sawdust, and dirt.

“What the fuck?” Tommy put an arm
around Jake’s neck, putting enough pressure on him that Jake was forced to
release his brother. “Break it up. Now.”

“Let go of me, Tommy.”

“You goin’ to stop this?”

When Jake didn’t resist after a
couple of minutes, Tommy released him, shoving him down on his ass at the same
time. Jake dabbed at the blood running down his bruised chin.

Chest heaving, Bradley asked, “What’s
your deal, dude?”

When Jake didn’t answer, Tommy took a
swipe at his side with a pointed cowboy boot.

“Nothing,” Jake grumbled.

“It’s sure as hell something with you
two. I pull up and all I see is arms, legs, dust, and blood
flyin
’
everywhere.”

“I said it was nothing. Now drop it.”

Tommy must have noticed a certain
look in Jake’s eyes, because he didn’t push Jake any further. “Fine. You two
shitheads want to ruin those pretty faces, then be my guest. I just stopped by
to tell you Knight needed to change the game time to six-thirty instead of six.
Something to do with one of them having to take his pregnant wife to the
doctor. You comin’?”