Forgiving Patience (25 page)

“I’ve got one other man in mind. I’ll
let you know when I see him. I’ve heard he is
extra
good with his hands…if you know what
I mean.”

“Now shush, here comes Bradley. Let’s
see how much Jesse is willing to throw down.”

“How can you be so sure Jesse will
spend her hard-earned money on a guy who’s never had a relationship longer than
a week?” To Anna, Jesse seemed like a stern woman who wouldn’t allow any man to
run over her. Bradley just didn’t seem to fit. Not that he wasn’t handsome and
even more charming than his brother. It just didn’t seem likely that Jesse
would waste her time on a guy who was so dead set on never settling down. At
least that was the way Jake made him sound.

“Just watch. Believe me, I know these
things. She doesn’t think I notice, but she’s had a longing for him for years.”

Em was right. Jesse was up to six
hundred dollars on the man looking comfortable in tight pants, work boots, and
button-down shirt revealing half his chest. Damn Lawrence boys. He tipped his
straw hat when he saw her and Em, flirting in his own way. He probably didn’t
even know it was flirting. It was just what he did to all women, young and old.

“…eight hundred…nine hundred.” A girl
up front yelling out above the crowd was causing Jesse to up her bidding price.
Jesse wasn’t the only one who couldn’t resist the Lawrence charm. This girl
looked not even twenty, probably didn’t even have the money. Mouth open wide,
it looked like the girl was in a trance or something. “Nine hundred and fifty
dollars.” The principal hit her podium with the palm of her hand. “…sold to the
woman up front. Have fun.”

Anna and Em simultaneously turned
back to the spot Jesse had been standing in at the beginning of the auction.
She was gone. The hardheaded woman was probably spitting mad at the thought of
losing to some young girl who had spent her life savings on a one-night stand
that would result in Bradley forgetting the girl’s name by sunrise. Her heart
went out to Jesse. It took a lot for her to open up and bid on her crush, only
be shut down. Even though Bradley didn’t do the stomping himself, it still had
to hurt the same. But Anna doubted Bradley was innocent when it came to Jesse.

“Shit. Jesse is going to be pissed.
She doesn’t like to lose, particularly not to another woman—and especially when
it comes to Bradley, whether she wants to admit it or not.”

“Jesse knows Bradley takes a new
woman home every other night. Why would this be any different?”

“There’s a big difference. Usually
Jesse is flirting and rubbing a little too close to other guys in front of
Bradley, showing him what he will never get. Tonight she put herself out there—alone,
and she just got her pride stomped on. We might not wanna get in her way for a
while. It could be ugly.”

“You’re planning a wedding to her
brother. We can’t exactly ignore her.”

“Right. Well, that sucks for us.”

“Now, ladies, we saved the most beloved
and heart-breaking bachelor in Patience for last. Let’s start the bidding at
two hundred.”

A man wearing a faded gray T-shirt,
jeans that were neither tight nor loose—just fitting in the area that mattered
to most of the women in the room, and the usual ball cap shading his dangerous
eyes waltzed on the stage. Jake just got better and better looking each time
she saw him.

Her mouth went completely dry.

The women in the crowd started
yelling. You would think he was some rock star, but duh, he used to be a major
leaguer, and women liked that thought. He also was very easy to look at.

“Anna, get it together here.” Em was
snapping her fingers, bringing her back from the same trance she’d seen the
young girl have with Bradley.

“What?”

“Start bidding. It’s already up to
three hundred. Bid four.”

“You’re joking, right? I can’t bid on
Jake. How’s he going to help you with a wedding?”

“We’ve already discussed this. He’s
the best with using his hands.” Em looked like that was completely a obvious
fact. “Now start hollering out numbers.”

“No. If you want him, then you start
handing out the money.”

“We had a deal, Anna. It’s my wedding
and I deserve to have whomever I want. Please do this for me. You don’t want me
to be the center of town gossip, do you? Because that’s what will happen if I
do the bidding.”

This was going to be worse than Jesse
losing her guy to that
googly
-eyed girl.

What the hell—just do it and get it
over with. It’s not like I have to take him home. He will be helping Em, and
that is it.

Before she could talk herself out of
it, she was yelling—a little bit too loud, “Five hundred.”

“Come on, say six. Carly is eyeing
him and is willing to pay a small fortune for the talented baseball player.”

As if the woman in question could
read
Em’s
mouth moving, Carly hollered over all of
the groaning single women who couldn’t afford the high amount, “Nine hundred
thirty-dollars and sixty-two cents.”

“Wow—did she just spend her last
cent?” Em asked.

“I think she did.” Even Anna was
astonished. The idea of losing like Jesse was too much. The thought of him
going home to another woman would only cause her to toss and turn all night. As
hard as it was to admit, she couldn’t stand thinking about him and other women.
He might be an overly cocky bastard most of the time, but like Em said, they
couldn’t lose to Carly.

“Sold!” All the women parted ways,
some complaining, others congratulating one another.

What just happened? She looked around
the room, looking for something that made sense. It couldn’t have been over…she
wasn’t done yet.

A tap on the shoulder had Anna
turning a little too quickly around to face the problem she didn’t even know
she had—Carly. Her tight black dress allowed little room for anything else
underneath. Who dressed like that to come to a high school for a charity?

“Hope there’s no hard feelings. I
didn’t know you still had a thing for Jake…honestly. We made plans to go out
sometime, so I just picked the time. Pretty good strategy, huh?”

Was this bimbo serious? Okay, Anna
didn’t know if Carly really was a bimbo, but at the moment she didn’t care
about her accuracy. For one, she didn’t have a thing for Jake. And two, he was
the one making her go out with him, and it must not be just her because
apparently he had made plans with Barbie here. She couldn’t talk. The room fell
silent even though she could see mouths moving.

Finally Em saw she was having problem
and covered for her friend, “Oh, it’s no problem. Anna was getting Jake for
me.”

“You?” Carly held a hand up to cover
her mouth. “Are you and Jake…you know?”

“Now, Carly, do you think I would
really tell you something like that?”

“Right. Anyway, have a nice night.
Too bad you didn’t win a guy, Anna.”

It was a sly remark that pissed Anna
off and must have made Em even hotter because before Carly could stroll away to
claim her prize, Em hollered out above the women near them, “Just so you know,
if Anna really wanted Jake, he wouldn’t be leaving with you right now.”

A sense of dread washed over Anna.
She had embarrassed herself more than Jesse had, and to make matters worse, Em
was announcing to a crowd of gossipy women that Anna probably wanted a reunion
with Jake.

Em didn’t notice the effect losing
Jake had. If she did, she knew better than to bring it up. Goodbye hugs were
given. Em left to help her mother with more wedding preparations. Anna’s car
was parked in the back gravel lot that she had used when she was a teenager. It
was a surreal feeling to be walking out of the same doors to the same parking
spot. The only difference was that now she was an independent woman who got to
call the shots when it came to her life.

The night breeze drifted over her
skin with the top down on the car. Speeding out of the lot, she couldn’t help
but feel a longing to be the woman that had ended up with Jake tonight. He had
only given her a taste of what he was capable of, and that hadn’t seemed to
satisfy her. This kind of passionate desire for Jake wasn’t going to go away by
just spending a few hours curled up with her nighttime reading material.

She bet Jake was an amazing lover,
and like Em loved to point out, she knew he was amazing with his hands. God,
she just needed to shove these feelings down to the point where they could
never resurface. What she needed was to do something un-Anna-like, and she knew
exactly where to go to do it.

* * * *

After a quick drive through town, she
was seated at an oversize table facing the only television in the bar. She had
never really drunk anything besides a glass of wine before coming back to
Patience. Now it seemed like she could be a bartender. Tonight she wanted
something different. She didn’t want anything to make her plastered and
embarrass her any more than she had earlier in the night, but something that
coated her insides and made her forget about her life—for just a few hours.

She didn’t want to think about Jake
and the woman he was taking back to her house. He was more than a little angry
over her being drunk and hitting on Bradley, but he could take a woman home and
nothing would be said about it. Men were jackasses. The thought of him and
Carly together made her sick, but she pushed it aside and concentrated on the
thing she could control—herself.

The nightmares from the last couple
of nights had rattled her more than she liked to admit, and she needed a
distraction…something other than Jake. Maybe being out with strangers and
having a few drinks would help take the pressure off. If others could have a
drink or two to help them unwind, then she could too.

Alan Jackson blaring on the jukebox,
balls cracking at the pool tables, and laughter were the only sounds she could
hear. The scents of greasy foods and cigarette smoke filling the air caused her
to remember what she was doing. She’d never been to a bar alone, but it was
freeing to not need anyone.

A round, balding man taking her drink
order suggested the perfect drink for her. She ordered two with a large order
of chicken wings. Because she didn’t want to draw attention to herself, she
kept her gaze locked on the flat screen—which of course was playing an Atlanta
baseball game. She picked up a handful of peanuts and tossed them in her mouth.
Sitting there watching the franchise Jake had once played for was complete
torture. Not to mention her team was playing just a channel away.

Ollie, the owner, brought her order
with a little wink. It wouldn’t hurt to ask. “Hey, Ollie, you know it would
mean a lot to me if I could watch the Yankees game.”

Patience was a die-hard baseball
town, and she didn’t know what more Ollie would want when it came to changing
the channel. Her simple white tank was cut low and snug. When she bent over
just a bit to retrieve her drink, Ollie’s gaze dropped to her chest. She showed
him just enough to make him agree. Wow, that was a mistake, but it got the job
done. She should feel dirty, ashamed…something, but instead she just didn’t
care if the old man got a
looksy
. It wasn’t like he
was a pervert. He was just a man who appreciated women and everything they had
to offer. What was the harm?

“Sure thing, honey. Now if a riot
breaks out, I’ll have to change it back, you see?”

“I understand. You’ve just made my
night.”

Now, this was going to be a good
night. The first sip of her amaretto sour made her nose turn up a little, but
after the next couple of swallows, she could feel her mood lighten, and she
began enjoying the game, food, and drinks. Pulling her hair back in a tie, she
grabbed a wing and gave the television her complete attention.

“Good God, ump, do you not see that
ball was way off the plate? Damn it!” Her man, Derek Jeter was at the plate,
and the damn ump had just called strike three. Her team was down by two, which
wasn’t a big deal seeing that it was only the sixth inning. The Yankees were
known to do their best work in the ninth.

Only a few murmurs were spoken after
her little umpire-bashing rant, but other than that, no one cared about the New
York game being on. Good thing, because she would have fought any man in the
place.

One day she was going to be in those
stands…cheering on her team…one day.

“Is this chair taken?”

Anna was so wrapped up in the double
play happening that she didn’t even look up to see the man towering above her.
She kicked the seat out, never allowing her focus to leave the screen.

“Do you always come to bars alone?
It’s not safe for a woman like you to be alone in a place like this.”

Chapter Thirteen

Jake knew it was going to be an
interesting night when he walked into Ollie’s to see Anna slouched back in a
chair, drinking some girly drink, and forcing chicken wings down her throat.
She’d even talked Ollie into changing the channel. The girl was good, because
nobody had ever accomplished that before. But then again, nobody in Patience
would dream of watching another team.