Before she realized it, she’d taken her last bite. No Nicholas.
She waited. Listened. No footsteps echoed in the marble tiled hallway leading from the kitchen.
Angelina carried her dishes to the sink. Rinsed and loaded them into the oversized dishwasher. She grabbed a disposable cleaning rag.
The doorbell rang. She walked back through the house and reached for the front door.
“Hey, Laurie—”
Lorenzo stood on the doorstep. Dressed in a Polo shirt, pleated dress pants, and men’s penny loafers with leather tassels, he looked as if he might have been filming a Ralph Lauren commercial.
“Beautiful Angelina.” His eyes sparkled with interest and appreciation. “How is it you are equally stunning in formal wear or blue jeans?”
He raised her free hand to his lips. She recognized the attempt and pulled back.
Still, he smiled. “Rita has told me of your troubles. We must prepare to sell your hard work here.”
She stifled a sigh, wishing she’d known Rita had sent him. “Come in, of course.”
She closed the door behind him. He followed her back to the kitchen.
“It smells as if you prepared a feast.”
“Not exactly.”
He stepped close. “Why did your husband do this to you?”
“I heard the doorbell.” Nicholas carried in his tray, then set it aside.
“Nicholas, this is Lorenzo. Rita’s brother-in-law—and I guess he works for her company. Lorenzo, my husband. Nick.”
As the men shook hands, Lorenzo kept his gaze on her. “As I said when we met at the wedding, I introduced Rita to Thomas. I have worked with her for almost two years now. She got your message and asked if I would come since she is still on honeymoon with Thomas.” He looked around the kitchen, then again rested his gaze on her. “I have seen pictures of your home, but as most photos, they do not do the subject justice.”
She knew he referred to his comment in Vegas, about Rita showing him a picture of her and asking him to keep a look out for her at the wedding.
“If you continue through that door and to the right, you’ll see the library,” Angie said. “That’s where Laurie and I started working yesterday. I’ll be there in a moment.”
“Then I shall go to the library.” He winked at her and left.
Angelina let herself breathe. She risked a glance at Nicholas.
“Breakfast was nice,” she said. “I really enjoyed the pancakes.”
“I’m glad.”
She could feel he was perplexed and fighting not to ask the question flashing behind his eyes.
And what could she do? Avoid being alone with either of them by hiding in the powder room until Laurie arrived?
He slipped the cleaning rag she’d forgotten she still held from her hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll clean it all up.”
The double meaning was clear, and no doubt intentional.
The doorbell rang again.
“That’s probably Laurie.” She hoped it was. “We’ll be in the library.”
***
Lorenzo kept looking at her the same way he had in the hotel suite back in Vegas. As if he couldn’t take his eyes off her and didn’t want to try. Long, studying looks as if he were committing her features to memory.
The attention stirred her, but not the same way it had last week.
“I’ll be right back,” she told Lorenzo and Laurie. “I remembered some volumes in the nightstand upstairs.”
Without intending to, the naïve romantic inside her fantasized about Lorenzo following her. Saying he’d thought of nothing but her since last Friday. Reaching for her with abandon because he’d felt the same instant, visceral connection she had thought she felt and could wait no longer to finish what they’d started.
Yet the image didn’t shine. Rather, the edges were as tarnished and blackened as cheap jewelry. What had she been thinking in Vegas?
She located the books and noticed the fully-made bed. She hurried from the room. If she lingered and Nick found her there, he’d surely pressure her to sleep there tonight with him.
Something inside urged her to silently approach the library. Without knowing why she thought to do so, she went through the parlor to the side library entrance and listened at the doorway.
“You have an untouched, unforced beauty,” Lorenzo said to Laurie.
“That’s kind of you to say.”
“I regret when Angelina introduced us, I didn’t use the occasion to kiss your hand.”
“Since I’m not sure how I’d respond to that, maybe it’s better you didn’t.”
“Ah. You Americans. Always keeping your—how do you say?— personal space.”
“I wasn’t thinking of personal space. I was thinking of my husband.”
“He would object to another man kissing your hand when he meets you?”
“I think he might.”
“But it is only a hand.” Lorenzo lowered his voice. He murmured to Laurie.
“Excuse me a moment.” Laurie hurried out, nearly walking right into Angelina.
Their eyes met with understanding. Laurie motioned her to the other end of the parlor.
“We’re a pair,” Laurie said. “You don’t want to be alone with your husband, and I think I’d rather not be alone with Lorenzo.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, my goodness, did you hear him? He really lays it on thick, if you know what I mean.”
“I found the books,” Angie said, grateful Laurie had no clue how terribly gullible and stupid Angelina had been in Vegas.
“I think I’ll use your powder room. You okay going in there by yourself?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
Angelina steeled her expression as she’d learned to do in dozens of beauty competitions and entered the library.
“These complete the set.” She motioned to a stack near the window.
“You ladies have done well organizing the sets apart from the solo first editions. You have a larger collection than I’d envisioned. No matter, I’m certain we can sell them all for a very good price. I know a couple of collectors and dealers. Although we will have to photograph and catalog them. I brought a digital camera for that purpose. It is in my rental vehicle.”
“I’ll walk you out to get it,” Angie said.
She needed to know. Although her instincts told her to be very careful, she wanted to be one hundred percent certain now she’d been one hundred percent mistaken then. Not only about his intentions last week, but also about him.
She purposely walked a little too close. Purposely let her arm brush against his as he held open the front door. They walked to his van—the type of vehicle he’d chosen surprised her—and he used the key fob to unlock the double doors. He opened them, and she stepped with him into the private alcove they provided, should someone look out from the house.
“You would like to pick up where we left off, no?” He moved to nuzzle her hair.
She backed away. “We’re not alone. My husband’s here.”
“Ah. You’d rather indulge your indiscretions away from here, in secret.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said.
“Then you have forgiven him for not going with you to Rita’s wedding? No more punishment is needed for Nick?”
“I wasn’t punishing him.”
“So you did want some fun while you were alone and in Vegas,” he said.
“But you knew I was married.”
“If you did not have an open marriage, why invite me to your room unless you planned to cheat?”
She wasn’t about to admit to him how lonely she had been, or any other steeped-in-fairy-tales thought she’d had about him.
“We could have had a great time that night. I promise you.” He motioned with his head. “I always rent a van when I travel to clients, in case I need to move items to ship. But a nice, flat surface can serve other purposes, no? Trust me, the risk of being caught raises the excitement.”
She wanted to be disgusted bu
t couldn’t fault the man for correctly reading her signals in Vegas and thinking she’d be happy to see him here. Angelina knew Rita well enough to know if she had suspected Lorenzo would take advantage of Angie, she wouldn’t have asked him to watch for her in Vegas nor sent him here now. No, Angelina alone had put herself at risk in Vegas. If Nicholas hadn’t called when he did …
A chill ran through her, giving her clarity of mind as if she’d been doused with ice water. This man was neither in love with her nor was he a piranha. He was simply shallow and open to sharing his bed with any willing woman. All she needed to do was keep their interactions light and on the surface. He’d consider her rejection to be simple non-interest and focus on the next possible partner.
“Laurie is a pastor’s wife.”
“No.” His dark eyes flashed with mischief, then if possible, chagrin. “I have never had an American pastor’s wife.”
Well, that was good to know.
“She’s my pastor’s wife.”
“Ah. I see. You returned from Vegas at your husband’s arrest, and now find comfort in American religion and rules.”
“I …” Angelina winced at the shame rising within. “I shouldn’t have tried to find comfort in you. I’m sorry.”
“Why?” He shrugged. “I would have enjoyed it.”
***
“I’m so glad he’s gone to check into his hotel.” Laurie slumped into a leather club chair and covered her eyes with a hand. “I’m honestly embarrassed for him. I don’t think I could have taken an entire afternoon of ‘You have hurt your beautiful finger. Would you prefer I kiss it or find a bandage?’”
Angelina let out a laugh, as they’d both wanted to do all morning.
“You were playing chicken with me,” Angie said. “Looking at me behind Lorenzo’s back to see if I’d laugh first. That was not fair. That wasn’t very pastor’s-wife-like.”
Laurie laughed, too, long and hard. She caught her breath.
“Oh, wait. I’m laughing so hard I hurt.” Laurie’s voice was high, and she wiped tears from her eyes. “Bless his heart, he has no clue how he sounds. Or maybe he does and thinks every woman he meets wants what he’s offering. I feel bad for him. Or I will. After I stop laughing.”
“I wouldn’t have thought we could be friends. But you’re fun to have around. And I mean that as a compliment.”
“I’ll take it as one.”
“Can I confess something?” Angie asked. “For some mysterious reason, I believe I can talk to you, and I actually want to, if you’re game.”
“I’m game. Just please don’t try to kiss my hand.”
They broke into renewed laughter.
“I’m being serious!” Angelina said. “I’m having a moment, here. Maybe even a spiritual one, and you’re being disruptive.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Laurie straightened her face. A giggle escaped, and she bit her lip. “Go ahead. I’m here for you.”
“I met him at Rita’s wedding.”
“I gathered that.”
“Nicholas wasn’t there.”
“I knew that, too, from the fact he was arrested here while you were there.”
“With the condition my marriage is in, I couldn’t sit through the ceremony. Lorenzo followed me out and up to my room. To be honest, I more or less invited him in. No, I did invite him in.”
As Angelina had hoped, sympathy filled Laurie’s eyes. Imagine that. Laurie might actually understand.
“You must have been desperate,” Laurie said. “I’m not laughing. I’m not. I can imagine how his standard lines would have sounded to you right then.”
“I thought—this is terribly embarrassing to admit—I thought we had an instant connection, you know? I felt so disconnected from Nicholas, so abandoned. Lorenzo was there, and I tell you in a manner of minutes I’d conjured a fantasy in my head like a scene from the best romance novel. Even his winks were evidence we were destined to be together.”
“Oh, dear. You were in a bad place, weren’t you?”
“You know what I see now? I was convinced I knew the truth about that man. I was absolutely certain I knew his heart inside and out. I knew he was the one I’d been waiting for all my life. I couldn’t have been more wrong about him. And I’m starting to wonder if I’m wrong about Nicholas.”
She shared everything he’d done that morning.
“I take it that’s unusual.”
“You bet. By now, after any disagreement between us he’s normally asking me to commit to his new plan, making promises and extracting promises from me. I’ve never seen him take responsibility for damage to our marriage for more than a day or two. And he’s never followed an apology with a change in behavior.”
Angelina shifted in her seat and leaned closer to Laurie. Then she shared about Nick walking her to the carriage house.
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It’s freaking me out. He gave me a gift. I have a thing about gifts; I generally don’t like them. He caught me so off-guard, I couldn’t look at him. Then he asked that I let him walk me there each night and accept other gifts.”
“Did you agree?”
“No. He told me I didn’t have to answer him yet. He asked me to consider it. It’s like an alien has invaded my husband. That’s just not Nicholas.”
“Maybe it is Nicholas without the forgetfulness and manipulation,” Laurie said. “Maybe it’s him when he’s putting you first like you always wanted.”
“How do I know which Nicholas is real? Which one is the true Nicholas? I was abysmally wrong about Lorenzo. This Nicholas almost seems as much a stranger. How do I know what’s true and what’s not?”
“At the risk of sounding lame,” Laurie said, “I’m proud of you. Because you, my friend, are asking the right question. What is true? When I faced a near-catastrophe in my marriage a couple of years back, God continually directed me to Philippians 4:8, where believers are instructed to think first about what’s true.”
“I’m not sure I’m a believer. I’m definitely not a strong one.”
“Have you ever opened your heart and life to God?”
“Yes. When we stayed with Daniel and Kay right after we first married. But …”
“But what?”
She looked at Laurie. “This is when you’ll probably stop being my friend.”
“There’s a challenge. Try me.”
“God isn’t fair. He asked too much of me. Nicholas is supposed to be the spiritual leader of our home. He should have grown and changed with me. But he never did, not for any length of time. Yet God always wanted me to forgive. To love him even after he hurt me, and forgot me, and neglected me.”
Just thinking of it all, saying it all together like this, made her angry. She rose. “Why should I have had to give first? Give all? Love first every time when he kept doing things wrong? I should have been getting more back.”
“I take it you chose not to do what God asked.”
“What He asked wasn’t fair.”
“You’re right. God isn’t fair when He asks us to love like He does. Constantly reaching, pursuing, and risking rejection is not fun. It’s work, and it’s tough, and very often, it hurts. I know it hurt me to do that with Pierce. But in those days when I had to give without receiving and love without getting what I wanted and needed, God taught me things about His love and presence I wouldn’t have learned otherwise.”
Angelina turned away, crossing her arms, drawing herself in. Don’t break. Don’t crumble. She’ll walk away at any moment.
Laurie’s hand rested on her shoulder. “Do you know God loves you that way? Enough to reach first? Give all first? Constantly risk your rejection?”
“I don’t know how to believe that,” she whispered. “Nicholas is the only person I gave a chance to love me long-term. When he didn’t stay, I couldn’t imagine anyone staying, especially a God who makes unfair demands. A God I can’t see and touch.”
“I think, now, you’ve gotten to the truth.
Yes, your marriage has been a painful one. But it’s your spirit that aches most. You’ve been longing for God. You’re hungry for what only He can give. Here’s something to ponder: Even if your husband had loved you well and grown toward God, if you’d refused God’s leading and hadn’t grown, wouldn’t you have the same distance between you and God, between you and Nicholas as you do now? God’s Word is true. We reap what we sow. You sowed distance, so you reaped distance.”
Angelina closed her eyes and saw. Every time God had told her to reach for Nicholas. Every time she’d been encouraged to do what Scripture taught, to forgive. She’d said no, and had chosen distance.
“How can God love me now?” After all she’d done. After all she’d refused to do.
“He loves you even more than you hoped Nicholas would all these years.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“I imagine you do.”
But she wanted it to be true. Oh, how she wanted it to be true.
She took a chance. A huge, frightening step for her, and reached up to grasp Laurie’s hand still resting on her shoulder.
It wasn’t enough. More! her spirit screamed. I need more love. More acceptance.
She turned to Laurie and let herself be held. Let herself touch unconditional love from God, from a friend. Let herself receive comfort and support without judgment.
Warmth and light seemed to pour into her soul.
After long moments, she pulled away.
“My happy tears are soaking your beautiful hair,” Laurie said.
“Believing God loves me this way isn’t easy for me. But I really want to.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Nicholas found the watch in a Ziploc bag in a rarely used side pocket of his briefcase. Bracelet style with jade stones in gold settings. The clasp, broken. He’d promised Angelina he’d have it repaired at the jewelry store where he’d purchased it in Birmingham. Probably three or four years ago.
Now he held it in his hand. Still broken.
He’d heard Lorenzo leave and had felt instant relief.
He’d heard the women laughing hysterically and had felt longing and even happiness for Angelina. Making friends was hard for her. Laurie seemed to be a great, if unlikely, match.
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