Forgiving Patience Read Online Free PDF Page A

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