She sighed and thought I look like crap. She brushed her dark hair back out of her green eyes and made a face at herself in the mirror.
Ami was 5’6 and slim with now jet black hair and her father’s green eyes. She’d been told she was beautiful by many boys and men since she’d hit puberty, but Amelia Collins wasn’t interested in men. She’d stayed away from them after what had happened with Corin. The only man that she felt she’d truly trusted in a long time was her father and he was gone.
Ami rolled up her window and grabbed her purse as she got out of the car. She pushed the button to lock the doors and stopped briefly to stretch before she headed towards the doors of the small diner.
When she pushed open the door, the smells of coffee and greasy food hit her almost immediately. A waitress approached her and said “Just one?”
Ami nodded. It was always just one with her. She’d made it a point not to get too close to anyone since she’d left home.
“Table okay?”
“Sure.”
Ami followed the waitress to a table in the corner. The diner was pretty much empty. Two older men sat at the counter, and there was a couple openly making out in the back booth. Ami hid a sigh. Normally she was able to keep her occasional feelings of loneliness tamped down, but sometimes they bubbled up.
“What can I get you to drink hon?”
“Coffee please.”
“Sure. I’ll be right back.”
Ami yawned as she opened the menu. She really needed to get some sleep she thought. The energy drinks that she’d drunk to get herself through the night were starting to wear off. She was hoping that she’d be able to find an apartment to rent today. Otherwise she’d have to stay in a motel until she could find one and that tended to get expensive. Regardless of where it was, today she was going to sleep. Tomorrow she would look for a job.
By the time the waitress had returned, she’d decided on the biscuits and gravy with a side of hash browns. The waitress dropped off her coffee and took her food order. By that time Ami was already wishing that she’d brought her book in with her from the car. She was getting bored and it was only serving to remind her of how tired she was.
The service was quick though. The waitress was back within ten minutes. As she started to walk away from the table Ami thought to ask “Are you hiring here?”
The waitress snorted out a laugh. “Honey we haven’t hired anyone here in longer than I like to admit. This was my Daddy’s place. My old man took over when he passed away.”
Ami hid another sigh. “Okay. Just thought I’d ask.”
“You just get to town?”
“Yeah.”
“Gabe’s Place was hiring last I knew. It’s a bar but it doesn’t get rowdy like The Lounge does. It’s about two blocks up on the right. Big neon sign. You can’t miss it. You need a place or you already have one lined up?”
“I was about to look after I left here actually.”
“I’m pretty sure old man Jenkins still has an apartment open. It’s small but the rent’s not too high. Only a few block from Gabe’s too.”
“Thank you. You’ve been very helpful.”
“No problem. Us women got to stick together. To get to the apartments, take a right then it’s about two blocks up. It’s a small building with a big parking lot, with a barbecue area.”
“Again, thank you. I really appreciate it.”
“You just call me if you need anything else okay?”
Ami nodded. She thought that she was lucky to find someone as helpful as the waitress. She’d moved around a lot, and people weren’t always so friendly.
The food was good. Ami felt that the three cups of coffee that she had drained would be enough to keep her alert through her apartment hunting. She had an air mattress in the trunk of her car and that would work for the day. She didn’t know how much furniture she’d bought and left behind over the past six years.
When the waitress returned with the check, Ami let her know how much she’d enjoyed the food and thanked her again, making sure to leave a generous tip. She’d worked as a waitress before and it wasn’t an easy job.
Brunton was a small town and she was able to find the apartment building easily. She pulled into the lot, got out of her car and headed towards the door marked office.
An old man was behind the counter, flipping through a magazine. He looked up at her and said “Help you?”
“The waitress at the diner, I’m sorry I didn’t catch her name, said you might have an apartment open?”
“That would be Glendene and yes I do. It’s small but should be fine if it’s just you.”
“Yes. How much is the rent?”
“Five hundred a month. Five hundred deposit. I cover $50 on the electricity, if you go over you cover the rest. Cash and money orders only. I been burned too many times to take a check.”
“That’s fine. Can I take a look?”
“Sure. Let me get the keys. It’s upstairs, the one closest to the stairs.”
Jenkins dug around and came up with a key ring. She followed him up an uneven but sturdy staircase and stood back as he went through the keys to find the right one.
He gestured for her to go inside ahead of him once he’d opened the door. The apartment was small. The kitchen was tiny and the bedroom looked like it could barely hold a dresser in addition to a bed. But it was clean and the rent was halfway reasonable. She’d paid less but she’d also paid a lot more, too. If she got the job at the bar and made good tips, she thought that she should be able to start putting away extra money again.
“I’ll take it,” she said. “Can I move in today?”
“Yeah. It’s not like we have a waiting list.”
“Great. Let me get my money and I’ll meet you back in the office.”
She followed him back down the stairs. Once at her car, she popped the trunk and dug around until she found the lock box that she kept her cash in. Right now it contained approximately $7,500. It had held as much as $10,000. Ami didn’t like to deal with banks. She did everything in cash and hadn’t had any problems.
She pulled out $1,500, figuring that it would be a good idea to pay for two months up front in case she couldn’t find a job. She stuffed the cash into her purse and made her way back to the office.
Jenkins was waiting with a one page application form. She handed him the cash and filled out the paper. She had to dig her cell phone out of her purse to get her phone number. She’d broken down and purchased both a pre-paid cell phone and a laptop the month before because both Lisa and her mother had been constantly bugging her about not being able to contact her easily enough.
Jenkins took the application and her license, making a copy on an ancient looking copy machine. He handed her the key and a copy of the rules of the building which were pretty basic.
No drugs, no excessive noise, pets only with permission and deposit.
Key in hand, she thanked Jenkins and went back to her car. She was headed up the stairs with the bag her air mattress came in and a duffel bag full of clothes and hygiene items when a male voice from behind her said “You need some help with that?”
She turned slightly and saw a hard looking blonde man who looked about her age. It looked like his nose had been broken and not set properly. He was giving her a look of interest that was somewhere between casual and an outright leer. She was used to men looking at her. She was used to men undressing her with their eyes. It didn’t mean she enjoyed it though.
Ami turned back towards the stairs. “No thank you.”
“You sure?” He stepped towards the stairs. “I’m Carson by the way. Let me take that for you please. It looks heavy.”
Ami turned and gave him what she hoped was somewhere between a friendly and a stiff smile. “I’ve got it, I promise. It was nice to meet you Carson.”
Carson shrugged and muttered something under his breath. She was almost to her door when he called up “What’s your name?”
“Ami,” she called bac
k. She wasn’t sure how long she could stay here with Carson around she thought.
She could almost feel his eyes roaming hungrily over her ass.
“I’m downstairs in the corner apartment if you need anything. Just knock on my door anytime, day or night.”
“Thanks.”
She wondered how long it would take Carson to get over thinking that his new neighbor would want to make a midnight bootie call and sighed. She didn’t dislike men. She just thought that they were much nicer to look at than to touch and actually getting involved with one; that wasn’t going to happen.
She put her bag on top of the dresser, and brought the air mattress out of the bag, plugging in the attached pump. She lit a cigarette as it started to inflate and opened the window. The apartment was clean but it felt stale, as if the windows hadn’t been opened in a while.
By the time she had finished her cigarette, her bed was almost inflated. She was very much looking forward to going to sleep and just sleeping until she woke up. She had discarded her cigarette in the toilet and pulled out the sheets for the bed, when she realized she had forgotten to bring her laptop in. She thought that it was probably safe in her car since it was locked, but she didn’t like to take chances.
She went to the living room window and parted the curtains, trying to see if Carson was lurking outside. She didn’t see anyone in the parking lot, so she figured she was safe.
Car keys in hand, she went down the stairs and had grabbed her laptop case out of the back seat when a voice startled her.
“Amelia?”
She turned and saw her landlord. “Yes?”
“I was sorry to hear about your father’s death.”
She couldn’t breathe for a moment. “You knew my father?”
Jenkins coughed. “Sorry. Guess I should have asked first. Your Dad is Charles Collins right? You’ve got to be some relation. You look just like him.”
Ami couldn’t speak for a moment. “Yes.”
“My younger brother went to school with him.”
“I see.”
“Have a good day Amelia.”
“You too. You can call me Ami.”
Jenkins nodded.
When he turned away, she went up to her apartment. She yawned again as she entered the apartment, locking the door behind her. She deposited her laptop on the kitchen counter. She could feel the caffeine from the coffee she’d drank with breakfast wearing off and decided that she was not awake enough to do much of anything.
Since the bed was fully inflated, she put the sheets on. She dug around in her bag and pulled out a pair of loose sweat pants and a t-shirt to sleep in.
She lay down, pulled the sheet over her and was asleep almost immediately.
Chapter 2
When she woke the next morning, Ami had a stiff neck because she’d forgotten to bring her pillow in.
She used the bathroom, and then headed back to the bedroom. She retrieved a clean set of clothes and her shower supplies and headed back to the bathroom, hoping a shower would clear her head.
She needed to get the rest of her stuff out of the car, and she needed to call her mother.
Ami did feel a little better when she got out of the shower. Dressed, she lit another cigarette and took her makeshift ashtray (an empty soda can) to the living room. She opened a window and pulled the beat up chair that had been left in the kitchen into the living room.
When her mother picked up the phone, she could hear her half brother and sister in the background, fighting. They were four and five so their fighting was nothing new. Ami had never met them, but she’d seen enough pictures to feel like she had.
The fact that her mother and Bruce had waited to have children until after she’d left home cemented the idea in her mind that Bruce hadn’t been broken up when she’d gone. He was starting a new family that she wasn’t a part of. It wasn’t something she’d discussed with her mother, but she felt it all the same.
“Just a second Ami,” her Mom said and then put the phone aside to yell at Jasper and Carissa. “I’m on the phone. Jasper, give your sister her book back. Cari you can share the crayons with your brother.” Once she returned to the phone she said “Sorry Ami.”
“It’s okay Mom. I have a few questions for you.”
Her mother’s voice was wary. “Okay.”
“Did you know that Dad had lived in Brunton before I told you I was coming here?”
The silence stretched on so long that she knew her mother’s answer. “Mom. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s not a conversation you want to have with your daughter when she’s calling from a payphone Ami. I got to talk to you five minutes at a time for most of the last six years.”
“So what exactly happened to Dad here?”
“I don’t know all the details. Something about him getting a girl pregnant when he was fifteen. His parents demanded she have an abortion. He said there was talk that she didn’t get one though. His parents dropped her off at the abortion clinic on their way out of town. She was older I think, twenty-one or something.”
“Are you kidding me Mom? How could you not find the time to tell me in all these years? You wrote letters. Long e-mails. You could have told me.”
Desiree sighed. “It wasn’t my story to tell. It was your father’s.”
Ami felt that her mother wanted her to say that it was okay, but she still didn’t feel that it was, so she didn’t say it. “Who was this woman?”
Desiree let out another sigh. “Sarah something I think. He supposedly had an affair with her later on. It was supposed to be what ended his marriage with Partrice.”
“No. Par left because she was screwing around. She got pregnant by that young guy remember?”
“I don’t know Ami. Your father and I didn’t talk much. Except about you.”
“I guess. So I have an older brother or sister out there somewhere?”
“I don’t know. Talk to Lisa about this. She would know better than I would. Have you talked to Lisa lately?”
“I talked to her before I left the last town I was in. Why?”
“She wanted to talk to you about taking custody of little Charles again.”
Ami sighed. “You know I can’t do that. He’s not safe with me as long as Corin still walks the Earth.”
“Corin is dead. Has been for six months.”
Ami lit another cigarette. She had an urge to throw her phone across the room and stomp on it. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t Lisa tell me?”
“”I just told Lisa myself. Your cousin Trinity is having some problems and might have to move back in with her. She wanted to know if you’d take Charles since Corin won’t be a problem anymore. Not that she minds having him of course, but she’s going to have three other little ones running around to worry about.”
Ami closed her eyes. She briefly pictured herself ringing her mother’s neck. She opened her eyes again and took a deep, calming breath. “You didn’t answer my question Mother. Why didn’t you tell me before now that Corin was dead? How did it happen?”
“Some bar fight out in Bristol. He tried to hit on the wrong guy’s girlfriend and wouldn’t take no for an answer. You know how Corin was. What matters is that he’s gone now. Talk to Lisa about taking Charles. I’m sure he’d be happy to live with his mother for the first time in his life.”
“I can’t believe you waited this long to tell me. I’ve been looking over my shoulder for seven goddamned years, waiting for him to find me and finish what he started. And you know I can’t take Charles right now. I have to get my life together before I can do that.”
“Do you need money Ami, is that it?”
Ami wanted to scream. It had never been about money she thought. She had the money that she carried with her, and she had a secret bank account that she hadn’t touched in years. She didn’t like banks much, but it was enough that she carried as much as $10,000 in cash with her. She didn’t want to carry twenty.
“It’s no
t about money. I have to be settled before I can take Charlie. I haven’t been really settled in years Mom. You know that.”
Desiree sighed. “You should really think about it Ami. That child needs his mother. Then maybe I might get to see him more often. Why don’t you come home? We have the guest house out back. You and little Charles could live there.”
Never mind that she never wanted to set foot in the guest house again because Corin had hit her for the first time when they were there, Ami thought. “You know why Lisa has been so careful about letting you see him.”
“But now you don’t have to worry anymore. Come home Ami. And bring my grandson with you.”
“No Mom. Bruce can barely tolerate me and you have two little kids of your own to worry about. I’ll figure out some way to get Charlie myself. Eventually.”
“Bruce has always loved you. It still bothers you that Charles looks so much like his father doesn’t it? He’s your son Ami. He won’t grow up to be like his father.”
“I know Mom. Listen, I’ve got to go. I have to look for a job.”
“Ami.”
“What Mom?”
“Amelia Lynn, please don’t leave it like this. I can’t stand it when you’re angry with me.”
“Yeah.”
“If you need money, I still have your college fund. I was going to set it aside for Charles, but if you need it to help you get him back, you can have it.”
“I don’t need it Mom, I swear. I’ll get Charlie back myself.”
“Do it soon Ami okay?”
Ami sighed. “Yes Mother. I really do have to go now.”
“I love you, Amelia Lynn. Always remember that.”
“I love you too. Tell the kids I love them. Bye Mom.”
“Bye Ami.”
Ami clicked end on her phone and threw it across the living room. It hit the wall and the back came flying off, her battery flying out.
She left her phone where it was and lit another cigarette. She was angry and disappointed with her mother. She couldn’t believe her mother hadn’t found it important to tell her that Corin was dead. She couldn’t believe that Desiree thought it would be so easy to take custody of Charlie either. He’d barely seen her his whole life. She’d been too nervous to take him by herself for long because she’d always been terrified of his father. Fighting tears, she took a deep drag of the cigarette.
Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set Page 73