Forgiving Patience (4 page)

She looked like she was in her early
twenties. The bumble-bee yellow dress with matching earrings seemed to fit the
woman’s mood and bubbly personality. Her stylish, sleek bob cut made her look
almost childlike. Instead of heels, she wore white
Keds
.
It seemed like an odd choice, especially on the overly excited woman.
Keds
seemed boring, and boring wasn’t the word to describe
the person in front of her.

“Oh, you must be Anna. I’ve been
waiting to meet you. Come in.” The woman squealed with excitement, clapping her
hands at the same time. Anna didn’t know where this enthusiasm was coming from,
because it couldn’t have anything to do with her being back in town. “Do you
need anything—juice, Coke, water?” Anna was finding it difficult to get a word
in.

“No, I’m fine. What’s your name? I
don’t think we’ve met?”

“I’m sorry. I always forget to tell
people that. I moved to town about a month ago, so nobody knows me very well
yet. My name is Georgia
McKinnley
. I was raised in
Georgia, so my mama gave me the name. It’s kind of cool, I guess.”

Anna thought the woman could have
been Garrett’s girlfriend but highly doubted it. In high school, he’d always
been very soft-spoken and most of the time, stayed to himself. Why he became a
realtor, Anna didn’t know. She’d never really thought of him as a people
person.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Georgia.
Is Garrett around?”

“Yes. Let me get him. He’s in his
office in the back. Be back in a sec.”

Georgia scurried to the back of the
office. The front room was neatly furnished. A small desk sat by the door with
two chairs in front of it. A couple more high-backed chairs sat off to the side
with a small end table that held a small lamp and a few magazines. No pictures
hung on the walls, but she noticed a few on the small secretarial desk. They
were of Georgia and what appeared to be her family. Georgia must work for
Garrett. Now, that made more sense. In one frame there were seven kids with an
older man and woman. If Georgia had just moved to Patience like she said, Anna
figured it was hard on the woman to leave her family. A pang shot through
Anna’s gut. She’d always wished for a big family. She was thankful when she
heard footsteps. It brought her back to reality. She stood up straight, not
wanting to seem like she was snooping.

“Anna, it’s nice to see you. I wasn’t
expecting you for another week or so.”

“Em and Tommy’s bride and groom party
is tonight.”

Georgia chimed in, “I met Em about a
week ago, needed to get my hair done and all. She was just going on and on
about her wedding. She said something about a friend coming up for it, but I
didn’t know it was you she was talking about. You must be so excited. Me—I love
weddings and all. They’re so romantic.” She brought both hands to her chest,
her round face lost in the thought of love.

Anna couldn’t help but smile. Georgia
was like a ray of sunshine, inside and out. Even though Anna didn’t believe
everyone could find love and happiness, she liked the woman’s childlike look on
life. She could see that Garrett was becoming annoyed with Georgia.

“Yes, Em is my best friend. You know
what? Why don’t you come to the wedding, since you love them and all. I know Em
wouldn’t mind. In fact, she would insist that you come. You two seem like you
would hit it off. You can be my date.” Anna didn’t know why she’d just invited
someone she didn’t know to a wedding that wasn’t even hers, but she liked
Georgia and wanted her to feel welcomed. Plus, she wasn’t lying; she did think
Georgia and Em could be friends. The only problem would be they both would be
talking so much they probably wouldn’t hear what the other was saying.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to impose
since I just met Em and you and…well, everyone.”

“You wouldn’t be imposing. Like I
said, you can be my date. It will save me from being the only girl going alone.
The old women around here like to talk. At least now they can’t say, ‘Oh look
at that Anna Kelly, she came here alone. Must not have found her a man yet.’
Now they will just think I’m into women. That makes for more interesting
gossip.”

A giggle escaped Georgia. “Well, if
you insist, consider me your plus one. I think you and I are going to be good
friends.”

“Me too.” Anna really believed that
for some reason. The woman seemed genuine, and she liked that.

Cutting in, Garrett asked, “I must
have forgotten about the party. You want to come back to my office? I figure
you have a lot you want to discuss. That is, if you have time?”

Garrett sent Georgia home for the day
and showed Anna to his office in the back. His personal space looked very
similar to the front area Georgia occupied. He had a few plaques hanging on the
beige walls, showing some of his accomplishments and his state license. A
desktop computer and the usual office supplies—a stapler, tape dispenser, cup
of pencils, and lots and lots of sticky notes sat on top of his desk. A house
plant that had seen better days sat in one corner of the room, but everything
else was something you would see in every business office. The office held
nothing more than what was needed.

If—no, scratch that—
when
she got her own office, she wanted
to be wrapped in the solitude of green walls with splashes of burnt oranges,
reds, and chocolate browns. In her mind, she envisioned a simple black desk,
although nothing as massive as the one Garrett sat behind, a built-in bookshelf
housing all of her favorite novels so that on late nights when she needed a
break from paperwork she could pick up a romance novel and lose herself, and of
course, she needed a couple of filing cabinets and some actual office supplies.
She wanted to feel at home there. A place that represented her.

Garrett took his place in an
executive-style chair behind a large walnut desk while she took the guest chair
across from him.

“How was your drive? It’s a scorcher
today.”

“It wasn’t too bad. Just long.”

“Have you been by to see Emilee yet?
I know she’s looking forward to your visit.”

She could tell he was just making
small talk but she decided to play along. He looked nervous, and she sort of
felt sorry for him. “No, I’m going to see her tonight. I just wanted to stop by
here before I go back home and throw myself together.”

“Oh—right. I forgot you mentioned the
party.”

“It’s going to be over at the City
Banquet Hall. I think everybody Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw have ever talked to will
be there. Of course, Em always likes having the excuse to throw a big party. I
think she just loves the attention.”

“You’re probably right. She’s always
struck me as a woman who loves to be the center of everything.” As if realizing
that he had just described how vain Em could sometimes be, he stopped. Anna
could see the sweat settling in the creases of his forehead. “I didn’t mean it
like that, it just came out. I just mean—”

“It’s fine. I know how Em can come
across. Don’t worry about it. Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve thought the same
thing a time or two.”

Garrett seemed to relax at Anna’s
admission. She was glad. There was no need for him to get all worked up over a
comment most people likely thought and maybe even said directly to
Em’s
face.

“How’s your aunt?”

“As crazy as ever. She definitely
keeps my life exciting.”

He was tapping a pen on a notebook
pad, barely looking her in the eyes as he asked his array of questions.
Something wasn’t feeling right. It was more than him just being nervous. In all
the years she’d known Garrett, he’d never asked about her personal life. There
was no reason for him to find interest in it now.

“What’s going on, Garrett?”

Finally getting the courage to
approach the issue, he said, “I take it you’ve been by the house, otherwise you
wouldn’t be here on a Saturday afternoon when you have other places you have to
be.”

“Yes, I’ve been there. I just had to
get away. Jake happened to be there, and I just needed to take a drive and…I
ended up here.” Wait—why was Jake at her house? And why was she just now asking
herself that question?

“I’m really sorry, Anna. I was going
to tell you. I wasn’t expecting you this early.”

The rosy-cheeked guy wore a sheepish
grin, pulling at his tie, looking as if he was about to be sick.

“Tell me what? I wanted to come by
and tell you I was in town and get an update on the house. Plus, I wanted to
thank you for the updated paint job. It looks beautiful. Is there a problem?”

He frowned. “I take it you didn’t
look around the rest of house…or even inside?”

“Oh, I looked around it when I wanted
to beat Jake and his truck with a ball-buster.”

Apparently confused and a little
worried, Garrett asked, “A what?”

With a wave of her hand, she eased
the uneasy expression paralyzing his face. “It’s nothing. We were just getting
reacquainted. So what’s up?”

“Well, I don’t know how to tell you
this, but remember I was thinking of you when I agreed.”

“What is it, Garrett? You’re killing
me here. Just spit it out.”

“Jake lives there.” Garrett released a
gush of air.

“Excuse me? Please don’t tell me what
I just heard you say is right, because I think you just said the cocky, now
brooding Jake Lawrence is living in my house?”

“He made an offer you couldn’t
refuse.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Garrett,
it’s my house, and I get to decide what’s best.” She put both elbows on the
desk, curious at this offer. “What was the offer?”

“Please don’t be mad.”

She wanted to reassure him she
wouldn’t, but that would’ve only been a lie. This could not be happening—what was
happening. Jake in her house?

“What did Jake offer?” she demanded,
no longer concerned about how uncomfortable Garrett was looking.

Garrett slowly. clearly dreading
every word coming out of his mouth, explained, “He said he would fix up the
house if I let him live there for one year. After his lease is up, he said he
would leave.”

“Why would he want to do that?”

“I’m not sure. After he was injured
and his mom died, he seemed restless and angry at the whole world. He started
drinking way too much, which then resulted in him getting into a lot of bar
fights. I don’t know why he wanted to stay at your place, but after he moved
in, he became a different person. A man who changed for the better.”

“That’s what guys do sometimes to let
off steam, Garrett. They drink, get loud, and fight.” Except Garrett didn’t
look like a man who would do any of those things.

“Not like this. He was getting into
fights every other night of the week. He was out of control. It was to the
point where Bradley couldn’t even tame him.”

She knew that this had to be a
painful time in Jake’s life, as well as his brother’s, but that didn’t give him
the right to involve her. She had her own set of problems, and she sure as hell
didn’t—or wasn’t—involving him in them.

“Well, I want him gone…tonight.” Anna
didn’t know what made her the maddest. Was it because Jake was in her house, or
because he and Garrett had decided what was best for her without her knowing?
She refused to let a man take care of her and tell her what she needed to do.
She answered to herself—no one else.

“Anna, he signed a lease. You can’t
just kick him out.”

Her first day back to Patience and
Jake was already invading her life and recruiting Garrett in the process.

“Well, what am I supposed to do now?
Go live at the Inn? Did you ever think of that when you were looking out for
me?” She couldn’t stay with Jake; she knew that the first time she saw him
again. The two of them together equaled a very bad idea.

“I have a small studio apartment
behind the office here. I lived there when I first opened my realty office.
It’s fully furnished and move-in ready. I had it thoroughly cleaned for you,
and you can move in right now if you like.”

“You thought of everything, didn’t
you?” She was in control of her life. Not Jake and not Garrett. Jake was moving
out of her house, no matter what she had to do.

* * * *

Jake took a long pull on his first
beer of the night. After a long day his aching and worn body screamed for the
scald of a shower. This forced him to enjoy his beer at the same time.

The aging house, above other things,
had kept most of its water pressure. His body was feeling the strain he was
putting on it daily. But he had to work—he was working on finding and keeping
that inner calm, something he’d found so effortless while he was getting to
play out his little boy dream.

A maximum of three or four beers in
one day was his limit nowadays, though he wished that commitment had been made
after
today. It would be so easy to skip
the party he was required to attend, go to Ollie’s, and order the hard liquor
that brought a strong-stomached man to his knees and worshiping the white
throne the next morning.