Forgiving Patience

by Jennifer Simpkins

  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? Pl
ease 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.

  Yeah, that would make me feel good for the night, but it would be a bonehead move.

  He’d promised himself, and some other overbearing people, that he would no longer self-medicate himself with alcohol and ass-kickings. That meant no more liquor that soothed an aching heart and broken body and no angry bar fights with big-ass motorcycle guys sporting grand reaper tattoos who were double his size. It was time to face what had been taken away from him. It was time to quit taking the easy way out.

  He wanted to be that man who found it satisfying to be able to rocket a ball over the fence in left field when hitting it with the meat of the bat. He wanted to not doubt that he could still ground a ball and make a smooth play to first base like the best of them. And shit, he wished his legs moved as fast as they once had so he would be able to beat out the ball being bulleted home and score the game-winning run in walk-off fashion.

  Tonight he had to go to a party and support two of the best people he knew. Tommy and Em had helped take care of him when the drapes stayed shut for days at a time and sleep overtook his aching body after an all-nighter spent guzzling a bottle dry. Tommy had woken at least one night a week to come pick his drunken ass up at the bar after last call was announced. And Em—well, she was just Em. She hounded him and would’ve kicked his ass before any of the guys, but deep down she just couldn’t kick him when he was already down, with no intent to get up. She did, after all, have her moments of sweetness.

  Bradley had mentioned picking him up and riding to the Banquet Hall together, but Jake knew the guy wouldn’t be alone. He’d decided against that idea all together. He didn’t feel like playing third wheel to his brother and whichever chick he’d chosen for the night. Ideally, it was always a different woman every night. The guy’s motto was no need to wear out a good thing. Jake was sure he would have run out of women after the past ten years.

  Not yet.

  He also didn’t want to hear Bradley ragging on his ass all night about how he was a disappointment to the Lawrence family name. For the most part he let his kid brother talk because he’d saved his sorry ass more times than Jake could count over the past two years. Bradley was the only family he had left, and even though Jake didn’t deserve him, the guy always had his back.

  No matter what Bradley thought nowadays, Jake had no problem getting women—after all, he did have the Lawrence charm to his advantage. He just hadn’t wanted to bang the typical bar chick in a roach-infested room above Ollie’s lately. Yeah—attractive women dressed in scanty miniskirts showing long, tanned legs and big breasts covered with only thin tops just didn’t do it for him anymore.

  What was he thinking? He was becoming a sorry excuse for a man.

  Maybe he wasn’t feeling the bar scene because he was still recovering from a hard-on caused by the hysterical blonde from earlier. No matter what everyone else thought of him, if one woman caused his dick to rise, he didn’t go out and stick it in some other willing woman. Unlike his brother, he had some standards.

  The imaginary short brunette was replaced by a long, honey blond woman. High cheekbones, sea-green eyes a man could lose his soul in, full, kissable lips on milky skin made up most of her gorgeous face. The hourglass flare of her hips made her jeans fill out in all the right places—accompanied by her swelling breasts filling out her thin, snug T-shirt—and made his shaft harden and push toward the zipper of his jeans. She was natural, a woman who had come into her own.

  Jake had almost been too rough earlier. He could hear the shock in the ragged breath that escaped her wet, waiting lips. But he couldn’t control himself. He had to feel those sexy curves pressed up against him. Her skin was smooth—much like he expected—and her sweet smell invaded his head, making him forget about everything that had sucked in his life. Not wanting to hear about how he purposively meant to run her off the road…which he hadn’t, he’d grabbed her. And he sure as hell didn’t want to bring up his failure to take responsibility. He wanted to look, which resulted in him wanting to touch. It was unfair to wave candy in front of a man and expect him not to want it.

  One touch—like many other appetites, it couldn’t go unsatisfied for long. But she was out of the question. That appetite was just going to have to go unsatisfied. He wasn’t into serious women. H
is type was simple: no muss, no fuss. Anna Kelly definitely could never be that woman. His best bet was to stay clear of her. She was better off without him around.

  She was here for her best friend, and he had no right to interrupt her plans. Except he had. He was surprised when she didn’t ask why he was there at her house. But he had surprised her, that was noticeable. Nonetheless, she was so caught up in the shock she never wondered why he was standing on her front porch. She probably ran off so quickly because of the rattling effect he had on her. She would find out about the deal he’d made with her pushover realtor soon enough.

  Jake knew her wrath would come down on him again when she heard about him living in her house, but he found her kind of cute when she got all demanding and tested her take-charge attitude on him.

  It was wrong, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that tomorrow wouldn’t be another dreary day—which normally left him feeling hopeless and watching those around him live out their lives. He had to see her, even if it was only for a couple weeks. For the first time in years, he felt something he’d thought was lost forever and it was because of her.

  Fuck.

  Time to party.

  He allowed himself to linger a couple more minutes in heaven before stepping out of the shower and dressing in the clothes Em had demanded he wear. Damn women. He was a grown-ass man. He’d been dressing himself for a long time.

  He grabbed his keys and let the new screen door slam behind him.

  Chapter Three

  The bridegroom’s family went all out for the bash honoring the upcoming nuptials. Expenses had not been spared, allowing the chef to put his best creations on the buffet. Mrs. Lena’s Flowers and Gifts had decorated the Banquet Room with bundles of wildflowers, expressing Em’s lively personality. A small band played tasteful country music and was actually pretty good, considering Mrs. Bradshaw had found them in the paper at late notice.