Forgiving Patience (15 page)

He threw his head back and laughed
while sprawling out beside her on the bleachers, long legs crossed at the
ankles, resting his cleats on the bottom next row. His pants stretched over his
strong thighs. His damp shirt clung to his chest. Ringlets of hair curling out
from under his cap were dripping with sweat. He was a hot mess…but he was HOT,
even with the puffed-up lip. That must have been a result of the fight he’d had
with Bradley yesterday. Em had mentioned that Tommy drove up on them rolling
around, throwing punches in her front yard. Men.

“He only made an error or two.”

“Errors equal runs being scored,”
Jake said very matter-of-factly. She had a feeling he was a real butthead on
the field. It probably had nothing to do with Bradley and had everything to do
with Jake.

“No harm done. You won the game.
Isn’t that all that matters?”

“Yeah. But he’d better straighten up,
or I’ll bench his ass.”

“Can you do that? I mean, are you the
coach too?”

A mischievous twinkle lit his blue
eyes. “No, but I’m his big brother.”

Humor fading, he hesitated before
saying what was on his mind, “I’m sorry about the other night at the walking
track. I was the one being an ass, and I had no right to say those things to
you.”

He didn’t apologize for the kiss, and
that was a relief. It was never a good thing when a guy said he was sorry for
kissing you. In her opinion that meant he regretted it, and she didn’t want
that. She was mad after it happened and was totally out of her mind with
confusion for much of the week, but she didn’t regret it.

“It’s fine, really, Jake. Don’t worry
about it. I’m not mad anymore.”

“No, let me do this. I was a jerk to
you and I want to tell you I’m sorry.”

Why did she have a feeling he was
saying
sorry
for a lot more than just telling her
she left him over a decade ago? No, they were not talking about this tonight.
She wouldn’t have it. She wasn’t ready to tackle the Cara and Jake
situation—she didn’t know if she ever would be, or ever want to. He was right,
he had been a jerk and she ran away. Nothing left to discuss.

She shook her head. “Stop. I don’t
want to talk about it. It’s over, so let’s please drop it. Okay?”

Agreeing and looking a little
relieved, he said, “Okay”.

“I’ve been thinking about your clever
idea of giving me my house back. I’ve decided to take you up on the three
dates.”

He stared at her in surprise. “Wait,
what? You want to date me?”

“Only for my house, nothing more,
Romeo.”

“Romeo, huh? Did you already grow
tired of slugger?”

Busted. She hadn’t even caught
herself on the nicknames she was throwing out left and right. “You caught
that?”

“Yep.”

“Well, I just didn’t want you to feel
left out. You seemed pretty hurt when I used my dance partner’s short name.
Just don’t want to bruise your ego, is all.”

“Is that so? So what about you
wanting to go on a date.”

She held up a finger. “Correction,
you wanted to go out with me. Let’s not forget that.”

Playfully, he looked as if he was
wondering if he was still up to it. How had she made this decision without
knowing she’d made it? She was just digging herself into a bigger hole when it
came to Jake. There was no way she could survive being around him for three
dates. He looked yummy drenched in sweat after playing six innings of ball, how
was she supposed to handle this clean-shaven, hard-bodied man? While his look
was playful, it was also dangerous.

“What about dinner at my...” he
corrected himself, “your future place tomorrow night?”

“That will do, but there will be—no
sex.”

Chapter Eight

Em was tapping her foot and staring
at her watch at the same time. She clearly was upset about something, and Anna
doubted it was because she’d lain down for what ended up being longer than a
twenty-minute power nap. “Hi, Em.”

Anna had always found it unfair how
beautiful and made up Em was. No matter what time of day, the woman looked
immaculate. Tonight was no different, except for her looking tense and having
that scary look in her eye that only came out when trouble was looming. She’d
brought many men to their knees with that look.
Oh God.
Something has…or will be happening.
A long time ago, Anna learned you weren’t supposed to get in
Em’s
way when her eyes deepened to a color that
resembled emerald more than her natural color of pale green.

This wasn’t going to be good.

Em pushed by Anna and walked into the
apartment. She was dressed in a form-fitting red dress that stopped a little
above her knee. Her hair was straightened, like she usually wore it, so it
reached the middle of her back. Open-toed pumps and big hoop earrings rounded
out her friend’s look for hitting the town. Not good. She thought it was about
ten o’clock at night—Anna still wasn’t sure about the time—her only question
was why Em would want to leave her soon-to-be husband to go out to some party
or club. And why was she banging down Anna’s door looking like she was out to
get revenge on an ex-lover?

“What’s going on, Em?”

Em plopped down on the couch.
Ignoring the dent-free coffee table, she threw her feet in their high heels up
on it, burying her head into her hands. Her falling blond hair covered both
sides of her face, making it impossible to see what she was feeling. “Em, you
can tell me. You know that, don’t you?”

After a sniffle, she lifted up her
head. “It’s Tommy. We got into some kind of fight over nothing important.”

“If it was nothing, then why do you
have tears filling your eyes?”

“See, after the game he told me he
wanted to go out tonight with Bradley, and I wanted him to stay home with me. I
was going to try to cook some kind of chicken casserole his mama always makes
for him and beg until he agreed to watch
Twilight
with me again. And he…”

Big, whopping tears fell from her
heavily mascaraed eyes. If Tommy did anything to hurt her friend, he was going
to have to deal with her. Men were getting on her last nerve this past week.
She had sympathy for none of them.

“Men are just jackasses sometimes,
Em.”

“And we love them anyway, don’t we?”

Anna didn’t know if she would go that
far. She didn’t know any man she loved—jackass or not. She figured this was
Em’s
time. It was best to just humor her. “Yeah, sometimes
I guess women do.”

“What did Tommy do, Em?” If the mood
had been lighter, she might have added
or what did you
do to Tommy?
but she
knew Em wouldn’t care for the comment, even if it might have been true.

With brimming eyes, her hurt friend
choked out, “He walked out. Left. He’s never done that before. We always talk
things through and then he figures out that my way was actually better. I don’t
know what happened tonight. Do you know what he said to me? Let me just tell
you…he said I was being crazy and that he was leaving no matter what I said.”

What could Anna say? The poor guy had
to agree with Em
all the time
. How he did it, she would never
know. What was the best way to handle this? Did she break the best friend rule
and side with the guy, tell her she was being selfish, or did she just say
he’s
an asshole, just give it some time. He will figure out what he’s lost.
She figured she needed to do what
was right. They were not in high school anymore.

“Em, I’m going to tell you this as
honestly as I can. I know I’m not an expert on men, but what I do know is that
sometimes they have to go out and hang with the guys. Just like we have girl
time…guys need to be around other guys so they can pick their noses and tell
lies about how many girls they’ve bedded. It’s all innocent. You’ve got to let
him make some of the decisions. He is a man and he is prideful just like the
rest of them.”

“I know you’re right. I just hate the
fact that they all go down to Ollie’s. You can’t even imagine the type of women
that hang out there.”

“Em, listen to me. Tommy loves you.
Only you. He’s not going to this Ollie’s place to find women. He is there to
drink a few with the guys—that’s all. Now if he makes a liar out of me, we will
get my ball-buster and beat him with it.”

“I don’t know what a ball-buster is,
but I already know I like it.”

“We’ll have to get you one. All women
need a ball-buster.”

“Will you do me a monster favor?” A
smile formed on her friend’s face, softening her dark eyes, bringing them
slowly to their natural state.

She was afraid to ask. “What?”

“Will you
pleasssse
go to Ollie’s with me?”

“Won’t that be like checking up on
him? I don’t think guys appreciate that too much.”

“Not if you go with me. We can play
it like you wanted a girls’ night out. Please, please…”

“I love you, Em, but I can’t. Look at
me.”

“Don’t be silly. If you don’t go I
will have to go down there and make a complete ass of myself. I need you.
Please.”

She might have a backbone now, but
she couldn’t use it on her best friend. Maybe it was due to guilt because she
had missed out on so much of
Em’s
life over the past
decade, but she could feel her defenses wearing down. She could feel herself
giving in to
Em’s
pleas.

“Fine.”

“We’re going to have so much fun.
Now, go get dressed, you look a mess,” Em demanded, oblivious to the fact that
she wasn’t making Anna feel any better about the upcoming events.

* * * *

“Minny, can we get a couple more
beers over here?” Jake wanted something stronger than just beer. He wanted Jack
Daniels with a splash of Coke—something that burned going down, coating his
belly. Not that long ago he had let the amber liquid cloud his mind every
night, making all the decisions for his disgusting way of life. His mornings
had mainly consisted of strong coffee and sweating through the haze from the
night before. But he had decided that was no longer an option. He worked damned
hard to not get caught up in his self-destructive ways again. Beer had to be
good enough.

“Sure thing, Jake.” The pink-haired
bartender hollered out above the Thursday night crowd. Minny was a cute little
strange-dressing girl in her fishnet tights, black leather mini skirt, and hot
pink T-shirt that was the same shade as her hair. She never hit on him, and
they got along pretty well. He liked that she didn’t take shit from any drunk
trying to catch a feel. She was a tough one, but on nights like tonight, when
most men were drinking a little too much and talking about the softball games
that had just taken place, he always kept a concerned eye on her. She was,
after all, only five-three and maybe a hundred pounds. In his opinion, she
needed a bouncer around to keep a watchful eye out for her. Drunks could be
assholes. He should know, because he was one for almost a year.

The spunky bartender set down three
uncapped bottles—one for him, one for Tommy, and one for the woman who
continued to hang on his arm, proving that he could have a willing woman if he
wanted one.

It had taken ten minutes of driving
around before he realized there wasn’t much to do except go nurse a beer and
head back home. He was letting the jukebox, laughter, and smell of fried food
distract him from whatever was making his blood boil because he had gotten what
he wanted. He couldn’t believe she’d agreed, but he wasn’t going to try to
change her mind. It took everything he had to keep his emotions in check.

There weren’t any lights on in
Garrett’s apartment when he did a drive by. He was disappointed and had even
thought about moving up their date to tonight. But it was only because he
wanted to see her.

Maybe that was what caused his foul
mood, because ever since leaving the park, his mood had fallen from bad to
leave
me the fuck alone
. Why
he had come out, he really didn’t know. He just couldn’t sit in his house
thinking about—no, take that back, it was Anna’s house. He couldn’t sit in her
house and brood about everything he’d lost in the past couple years.

Minny had made it known Bradley had
already left with a brunette about an hour ago. At least Jake didn’t have to
listen to his speech about using the Lawrence charm and good looks to get a
woman. He didn’t want a woman, especially not the woman clinging to his arm.
Why women were so clingy, he didn’t know.

The day he limped his butt back into
town he’d met Carly at Ollie’s. It was the middle of the day, and he’d thought
it unfit to see a pretty woman ruining her pretty face, crying over a
light-beer. He took the barstool next to her and laid on some of that family
charm Bradley talked so much about—only to be turned down on his ass.
Apparently, a woman like her didn’t associate with a drunk, out-of-work nobody.
It stung, but it was exactly what he expected. No woman wanted a washed up
ball-player. Except…Carly hadn’t known that was what he was. She’d thought he
was just another unemployed Joe who hadn’t amounted to much after high school.
Every day since, she’d bent over backward to try to apologize, make him feel
all better, and had done whatever other crap she thought might work herself
into his bed. He knew all about women like her, and while he had bought her a
beer when she insisted, that was as far as he was willing to let things go with
her. He knew what Carly was sniffing for, and he wasn’t going to be the man to
give it to her. After finishing his beer, he would send her over to the table
of men who made it annoyingly clear what they had their eye on—and it wasn’t
the muted game being played on the television suspended from the wall above his
head.