Jailbird Read Online Free PDF Page B

loathed
more—Charlie, or me. Introductions were made and everyone pretended
to be pleasant enough. But the animosity roiled in their eyes. Part
of me wanted to recoil from their anger. The better part of me was
filled with a righteous indignation of my own. My grip on Charlie’s
hand tightened and I straightened my shoulders.
    They didn’t need to know I was a convicted
murderer who’d known their former son-in-law for two days. Let them
think I was a normal person madly in love with the man their
daughter had tossed aside. With a little luck, it would get back to
the one who’d let him go and she’d feel just a fraction of the pain
she’d caused.
    My display might have been meant for Julie’s
parents, but it certainly hadn’t been missed by the Torres family.
Anjelita and Manny exchanged approving glances. There’d be no
living with them after this.
     
     
     

Chapter Five
     
    “Don’t read too much into things,” I sighed
for what felt like the one hundredth time that evening.
    “I’m just so happy,” Anjelita squeezed my
shoulders again.
    “Don’t forget that less than a week ago, I
was just a vagrant you showed kindness to,” I snapped the last pea
and stood to stretch my aching back before moving to rinse the
bowl.
    “Don’t keep hiding behind your past,” she
admonished, taking the bowl from my hands. “If you want to talk
about it, fine. But don’t hide behind it.”
    Oh to be as sure as Anjelita. Maybe I could
be, if my life were as steady as hers.
    “I have a past, too,” Anjelita frowned a
little, her eyes never leaving the potatoes she scrubbed.
    Had she read my mind?
    “Your expressions speak volumes.”
    Dang, she did it again.
    “Don’t think because this is the life you see
now, this is the life I’ve always had.”
    “I’m sorry,” I felt a little ashamed to be
caught in my assumption.
    “No, it’s okay. I want you to hear this. I
grew up in a little border town in Texas. My parents died when I
was young. My aunt took me in, but I hated her. She was such a
bitter, miserable woman. So, I ran away the first chance I got. I
did whatever I had to just to survive. And I do mean whatever.”
    “Anjelita…,” I stilled when she placed her
hand on mine.
    “Manny wasn’t much better off. Sure, he had
Mamá Torres, but his papá took off when he was young. He’s always
worked to support his family; when there wasn’t legitimate work to
be had, he found more creative ways to take care of them. And if he
wasn’t working, he was in a bar. He got into a lot of fights. Goofy
man spent more time in jail than out of it.
    “Somehow we found each other in a sleazy
little bar in Oklahoma. At first, it was all about the sex. It was
really good sex.”
    I’d never considered myself uptight. But if
there had been a hole nearby, I would have crawled in it at that
moment.
    “But then Manny nearly got himself beat to
death when he picked a fight with the wrong person. Suddenly I had
something other than my own survival to fight for. I nursed him
back to health and we left that life... left and never looked back.
Now we have a family and a good church and this amazing life that’s
better than we ever could have imagined.”
    “I’m glad it worked out for you.”
    “We’d still be in that life if we hadn’t been
shown grace,” Anjelita smiled and went back to scrubbing
potatoes.
    “So now you are showing me grace,” I
connected the dots in my mind. She was helping me because someone
had helped her once upon a time.
    “Could be,” she handed me a potholder and
motioned for me to grab the chicken out of the oven. “Just remember
we all have a past and none of us are as pristine as we seem.”
    “Do I even want to know what you are telling
her?” Manny appeared, his tall frame filling the doorway as he
leaned against it.
    “Probably not,” I quickly sat the baking dish
down. It didn’t take long for heat to find its way through
threadbare potholders.
    “No one’s ever going