Date with Destiny Collection: Angel Romance Series: Books 1 - 4

by Rachel Taylor

  “Oh,” Risse replied, puzzled. How could it be a money laundering scheme if the nursing home actually used the money? Maybe Cheydan just didn’t research it enough. Risse felt terrible for assuming the worst about Jake and his father.

  Risse’s excitement had been soured by regret, but at least she was doing something to make it right. Now that the hard conversation was out of the way, the next two should be easier. She dug in her pockets to make sure she had the candy she knew her friends would be wanting then gave a quick knock before swinging open Dominion’s door.

  “Risse! Come here, you little darling, and give this old codger a hug. I’ve missed you!” The old man squeaked as she poked her head in the doorway.

  “I missed you, too, Dominion.” Risse beamed as she squeezed his fragile shoulders, simultaneously dropping a pile of candy on his bed.

  “Woohoo! Making up for the whole week, huh?” Dominion sifted his fingers through the candy like a pirate with treasure.

  “So, tell me what’s going on with that boyfriend of yours, Rissey.” Dominion patted the bed. “No one around here can remember anything long enough to gossip!”

  “Boyfriend?” Risse quirked an eyebrow.

  “What? Haven’t you guys figured it out yet?” He said around a mouthful of chocolate.

  “Figured what out?”

  “That you belong together.” Dominion’s eyes twinkled mischievously.

  “You really think so?” Risse settled herself on the edge of his bed, her eyes curious.

  “I am the Dominion.” He shrugged, grinning. “I’ve performed an awful lot of weddings. That’s gotta count for something.”

  Risse chuckled and squeezed his paper-skinned hand, tracing the extruding veins with her fingers. She didn’t know his exact age, but she knew he had over a hundred years of wisdom hidden in that frail body.

  “Dominion, do you think you could help me with something?”

  “Help you, or help Jake?” He asked, knowingly.

  “I guess both,” Risse admitted, smiling.

  “I’d love to.”

  Risse strode confidently from Dominion’s room to Rebecca’s, hopeful that she would have the same attitude. Rebecca lay with her back to the door, and she didn’t bother to roll over when Risse announced herself.

  “Ms. Anderson? It’s Risse. Can I talk to you for a few minutes?”

  “What do you want?” the woman mumbled, scowling.

  “Ms. Anderson, Jake’s in trouble.”

  The name motivated Rebecca to roll over, but her scowl didn’t soften. Risse took it as a sign of interest, though, and approached the bed gingerly. She pulled up a chair so that Rebecca could see her face without having to move.

  “Jake was volunteering here because he had to; it was a community service assignment. He got in some trouble at school, and this was his punishment. After what happened last week, he has to see the judge on Friday, and he’s liable to end up in juvenile detention if he can’t resume his community service. Mrs. Hariden has agreed to let him come back as long as he doesn’t interact with the patients, but I thought having a few character witnesses might help convince the judge that he deserves another shot.”

  “Are you asking me to vouch for him after what he did to me?” Rebecca grumbled.

  “I know you two had developed a relationship. He liked you, I could tell, and I’m pretty sure you liked him, too. It would go a really long way with the judge if you’d stand up for him. Besides, I thought you said it was all an accident?” Charisse countered.

  “I guess it wouldn’t kill me to help him. But how am I gonna get there? I’m not exactly mobile.” Rebecca rolled her eyes as she glanced at her useless body.

  “Don’t worry about a thing, Ms. Anderson. I’ll take care of it!” Risse beamed and squeezed the woman’s hand before jumping up from her chair.

  “On one condition!” Rebecca hollered as Risse made her way to the door. Risse halted and turned towards her, eyebrows raised in question.

  “I wanna go out for pizza afterwards!”

  Risse giggled and nodded. “You got it, Ms. Anderson. Every celebration should have pizza.”

  Chapter 14

  Jake changed his clothes three times Friday morning, trying to decide which outfit was most appropriate for what was probably his last day of freedom. Would a suit be enough to convince the judge to give him another chance, or did it just look like he was trying to look less guilty? Charisse would probably have some good advice; he laughed darkly. Was there a blog post on what to wear to a hearing?

  He wished, not for the first time, that he had asked her to go out with him last night for one more thrill before his sentencing. She had seemed distracted all day, though, and Jake assumed she was trying to distance herself from him in anticipation of his upcoming absence. He looked at his phone, hoping she would at least text him something encouraging, but the screen stayed blank.

  Finally, it was time to leave, and he took one last long look at his room, wondering when he would next see it. Was going to juvie like going to jail, where they took you away in handcuffs? Would he be allowed to have his laptop?

  The ride to the courthouse with his father was silent. James Henley’s disappointment in his son couldn’t be more palpable if it was a slimy green monster perched between them. They arrived a few minutes early and took a seat in the back of the courtroom. Every little sound reverberated off the hard wooden benches and tile floors, and Jake felt assaulted by the cacophony.

  Jake alternated between looking at the clock on his phone and watching the courtroom doors swing open as more people filed in for their hearings. A strange noise caught his attention, a loud rubbery squeak followed by a grunt and a shuffle, and he turned his head towards it.

  His eyes popped open as he recognized the woman in the wheelchair. Rebecca Anderson was lolling in the seat as Dominion used the wheelchair as a walker. Their eyes scanned the crowd as they entered, quickly landing on Jake and his father. Charisse followed close behind them.

  Jake rushed to their side, his eyes asking a million questions. “What are you doing here?” was the one he voiced, and Dominion was eager to answer it.

  “Risse said you needed a few character witnesses, so here we are!” The old man’s excitement shone in his toothy smile.

  “You did this for me?” Jake asked incredulously, his face twisting with emotion as he stared at Charisse.

  “Mrs. Hariden agreed to let you come back if the judge okays it.” She handed him a sealed envelope with a Sunnybrook label. Her soft smile was the most beautiful thing Jake had ever seen.

  Eventually, his eyes dropped to Ms. Anderson’s, and he was shocked by the strange look on her face as she stared at his father, but he didn’t have time to ask her about it before the judge called his name. He approached the bench nervously, clutching the envelope with sweaty hands and resisting the urge to straighten his suit.

  “James Henley, Jr., you are here because you have failed to complete your community service sentence at Sunnybrook Retirement Community, and have, in fact, been terminated by the director there for misconduct. You have also been expelled from Indianapolis Preparatory High School for said incident. Is that correct, Mr. Henley?” The judge looked over his heavy, black reading glasses, giving Jake a scowl that could melt the pattern off his necktie.

  Jake gulped and presented the envelope, now damp and wrinkled. “Sir, I was terminated by the director of Sunnybrook for an incident that took place there, but Mrs. Hariden has since agreed to reinstate me, as you will see in this letter. I’ve also brought some character witnesses to vouch for my behavior while I was there.” Jake thought he did a pretty good job of sounding like somebody from Law & Order.

  The judge quirked an eyebrow at the strange collection of people congregating behind Jake and tore open the letter. After a few moments of scanning, he set the paper aside and grunted.

  “Character witness?” he asked Charisse, and she quickly nodded and approached him.

  �
��My name is Charisse Arella, and I’m a volunteer at Sunnybrook, sir. I work closely with Jake, I mean, James Henley. He works hard and does everything asked of him. All the residents like him and miss him.”

  The judge nodded at her words and motioned for Dominion to approach him next. The tiny, old man tottered slowly to the bench and smiled widely.

  “I am Connan Daniel Uriel, and I’m a resident at Sunnybrook Retirement Community. I think James Henley is a fine, upstanding boy with a bright future. I trust him explicitly and look forward to having him back at the home.”

  Finally, the judge motioned for Ms. Anderson to approach the bench, and Jake held his breath, not sure what to expect from her.

  “My name is Rebecca Anderson and I have ALS, so I can’t talk right, but my brain works just fine,” she announced, and everyone twittered.

  “I’m a grouchy pain in the butt, but Jake takes good care of me. It’s my fault he got kicked out of Sunnybrook; I went crazy on him, and he smacked the sense back into me. I hope he doesn’t hold it against me, and I hope you don’t hold it against him, either.”

  The judge waved Jake forward and removed his glasses. “Mr. Henley, do you agree to finish your service assignment at Sunnybrook Retirement Community?”

  Jake nodded eagerly.

  “Then I will expect to see a report detailing your service when your hours are complete. You are dismissed.”

  Jake released his breath explosively, allowing the tension to go with it. He turned to Charisse, whose proud smile called to him like a siren, and he grabbed her in his arms and hugged her, lifting her off the floor as he swung her body in happiness.

  “Thank you, Risse,” he whispered, burying his hand in her hair and pulling her head closer.

  He desperately wanted to kiss her, and when she pulled away he saw the same desire reflected in her face. He reached up to cradle her cheeks as he pulled her face close again, this time pressing his lips to hers. She returned the kiss, sliding her hands up his body, tightening their embrace.

  When their lungs demanded they separate, Jake took a quick glance behind him to gauge the reaction of their audience. He was surprised to see Ms. Anderson deep in conversation with his father, her usual scowl fiercer than ever. He glanced back at Risse, and she seemed just as puzzled, so he laced his fingers through hers before pulling her over to find out what was happening.

  “Dad? Rebecca? What’s going on?” Jake asked.

  His father turned to him, a guilty look marring his otherwise perfect appearance.

  Risse put a hand on Rebecca’s shoulder. “Ms. Anderson, is Mr. Henley bothering you?”

  “No more than usual,” she barked.

  “Wait, you two know each other?” Jake glanced curiously between them.

  “She’s your mother,” Mr. Henley announced with a sigh, and Jake’s universe exploded.

  Everyone stared in stunned silence as the revelation played across Jake’s face — first shock, then denial, then anger.

  “You heartless bitch!” he hollered, and stormed out of the courtroom.

  Risse raced after him, but he disappeared into the parking lot before she had a chance to reach him. When she returned to the courtroom, she saw Ms. Anderson deep in conversation with Jake’s father, so she sat on the bench and waited, giving them their privacy, even though she desperately wanted to know what they were saying.

  “He doesn’t even know me and yet you’ve turned him against me?” Rebecca’s anger could be easily understood, even if her exact words couldn’t.

  “I didn’t try to, Becky, I swear. I’ve never even talked to him about you. I told him you left when he was a baby and that’s all.” Guilt twisted James Henley’s face, even though his words denied any.

  “So you left out the part where you lied, and manipulated, and bribed the lawyers and the judge so you could have full custody of my son and leave me with nothing?”

  “You were cheating on me, Becky! Remember? That was your choice.” James sneered.

  “That’s because you quit loving me the minute I got sick!”

  “I didn’t know you were sick; all I knew was you weren’t the woman I married anymore. You were behaving erratically, running around with another man, and tarnishing the reputation I was working so hard to build.”

  “Your reputation was more important than your family?”

  “My reputation is critical to my success! My business thrives or fails based on the relationships I make with my clients. You were never interested in the work I did to provide for us. You never supported me, no matter what I did. But yet you wanted me to support you!” James waved his arms erratically as he spoke, pulling his shirt from his tailored slacks and bunching up his suit sleeves.

  “I just wanted you to spend more time with me and your son, James. But all you cared about was making money.” Rebecca’s mouth twisted around the word like it tasted vile.

  “I was trying to provide for our family, to make a good life for you. You’re the one that destroyed our family, Rebecca, the minute you slept with another man.”

  Rebecca’s head dropped with guilt at his words, and her hands began to shake against the armrests of her wheelchair. “I know James; I’m sorry. I didn’t purposely set out to betray you, I was just lonely and feeling like you didn’t care about me anymore, and David was there, so willing to give me what I needed.”

  Her head rose up, and her eyes hardened as she spoke again, her voice dark and brittle. “But I didn’t deserve to lose my baby over it, James. You had no right to take him away.”

  “I know. That was wrong of me, and I’ve regretted it a million times. He needed a mother, and he didn’t have one, and that was my fault.” James ran his fingers through his hair, musing his perfectly-gelled style.

  “But what kind of mother could you have been, Becky? You’ve been in one nursing home after another for most of his life.”

  “So you’ve been keeping tabs on me, huh?” Rebecca snarled. “Making sure I was no threat to you and your sterling reputation?”

  “It wasn’t like that, Becky. At first, maybe, yeah. I wanted to make sure you weren’t going to cause me any trouble. But after I realized you were sick, well, I wanted to make sure your needs were met.” He dropped his head and his hands and inched closer.

  “I’ve been paying for your care for the last 15 years, through a charity I set up when I found out you had ALS.”

  Rebecca’s eyes popped open as his words sunk in. Her mouth gaped, and for once she was at a loss for words.

  “I thought about bringing Jake to see you so many times, but you deteriorated so fast, I didn’t think it would be good for either one of you. I questioned over and over again whether it was the right call. They told me you probably only had a few years to live. He didn’t know you, so I figured he wouldn’t miss you when you were gone. I thought it would be better that way. Maybe I was wrong. When Jake got assigned community service, I asked the judge to send him to Sunnybrook. I guess I was hoping you two might connect.”

  “I didn’t know it was him, James. I didn’t recognize my own son. He told me his name was Jake. Why do you call him that?” Rebecca asked, her words dull with pain and sorrow.

  James laughed bitterly. “That was all him. He’s always hated me, I think. We never connected like a father and son. Maybe I was too distant, maybe I was too hard on him.” James shrugged at the mystery of his tattered relationship with his teenage son.

  “When he was twelve he decided he didn’t want to be named after me and insisted I call him by his middle name. He’s been Jake ever since.”

  “It suits him.” Rebecca gave a wry smile, her lifeless lips twisting her face.

  “He’s more like me, anyway. We get along pretty well. Or at least we did.” Her expression soured as she thought about Jake’s reaction to the news that she was his mother. What was going through his mind? Did he hate her for abandoning him? Would he feel differently if he knew the truth?

  Chapter 15

  Charis
se dragged her Coach loafers, probably scuffing the toes, as she trudged down the hall of Sunnybrook Retirement Community on Saturday evening, pushing the heavy meal cart by herself. She tried to console herself with the knowledge that Jake wouldn’t be helping her deliver meals even if he had shown up today. He would be stuck in the kitchen, doing dishes or scooping lumps of mashed potatoes instead, since he wasn’t supposed to have contact with the residents.

  But he wasn’t doing that either, because, despite the fact that she had gone out of her way to get Mrs. Hariden to accept him back at Sunnybrook, despite the fact that she had managed to provide three character witnesses for him at his hearing, despite the fact that the judge had actually given him another chance to redeem himself and finish his community service hours instead of going to juvie — despite all that, Jake still hadn’t bothered to show up here today.

  To say Risse was a little bit irritated would be the understatement of the century. Risse was pretty sure she was acting like the complete opposite of a half angel with a supernatural gifting of kindness, but she really didn’t give a rip.

  She would be at home, giving Jake a piece of her mind right now instead of serving dinner to the residents, but he couldn’t even be bothered to pick up his phone. She’d tried calling him a dozen times since he stormed out of the courtroom Friday morning, but he’d ignored her every time.

  “Whoa, Rissey, you’re going to knock that rack over if you don’t calm down a little bit,” Dominion squeaked as Risse shoved the rickety cart roughly past his doorway, the trays rattling and threatening to slide off as she came to a sudden stop.

  She grabbed the tray labeled with his room number and stomped into the room, slapping it down on his table and pushing it forcefully towards his bed.

  “Can I assume this anger is actually directed towards Jake Henley and not towards that meal tray, whose only offense is a tendency to offer bland and tasteless food?”

  “I’m sorry.” Risse sighed as she plopped herself in the chair by his bedside and propped her feet up on the bed. Her head lolled back as she stared at the ceiling, willing her eyeballs not to leak.