“That’s right.” His thoughts spilled out. “You never know if you’re going to get a real mean one that will turn on you in a matter of seconds. Or, if and when you do, you spend the next few hours of your life going around in circles, second-guessing your every reason for living.”
He thanked Julia for the coffee with a tilted grin.
But Liddy quickly understood the words. He was telling her, without telling her, something terrible happened to him down in Miami, something with his being a brilliant doctor. If she dug hard enough she would’ve been able to discover the buried skeletons of his past. However, she had much better things to do with her life; like dealing with her own. Not some stranger’s life, which happened to have dropped into theirs’ quite unexpectedly.
Jake and she had ten years of incredible waste to catch up on. She did not have time to deal with this newcomer. Nor, deal with any of Julia’s problems. As long as the man could promise her he would not hurt Julia while he was here, Liddy would be able to leave well enough alone—for now.
More than anyone else, she knew a man with a conscious only needed time to confess his sins. It was a lawyer’s astute reasoning trapped in her brain that made her feel this way. After all, take a good hard look at Jake. It took him a full ten years to confess his stupidity. Now they were getting remarried.
If Julia was being left in the dark, it was on purpose. Until Saber Patterson was ready and truly wanted to change this fact for her friend, it would have to be the way things remained. But Liddy wasn’t happy about it. Somehow, someway, Mr. Patterson’s secrecy might come back to haunt him.
**
No one would ever expect to be blind-sighted so early in the morning. Saber didn’t know what to make of it. First the kiss? Then the punch to his face? Now this?
He, like everyone, had skeletons in the closet, and none of them were totally dead as of yet. Until those ghosts turned to ashes, he was sticking with the rodeo.
His thoughts moved to a time when he hadn’t been happy with himself. Nor happy with what he’d done.
But, as was said, his past had been washed away like a summer storm flooding the cornfields. The waters might have muddied for a little while, exposing some of the more vulnerable roots, but in the end, the corn still grew tall. Eventually everything had a way of ripening; same as humans to a certain degree. Hiding out was the best he could do—as Mrs. Giotti had pointed out.
Even if it came down to where he got himself hurt in the process, he wasn’t ready to tell anyone the truth. Not until he knew exactly what that truth was. When he discovers this answer, hopefully it was one he could live with.
Julia took a sip from her mug and asked generally, “So? Can I trust the two of you not to rob me blind while I go find a large red book this man needs to sign? We didn’t quite get to that, did we?”
She moved her sight toward Saber, and for some strange reason he could barely glance her way.
“No, Little Darlin’. We certainly did not,” he mumbled.
Liddy interrupted any momentary reminiscing by clearing her throat. “Is there something that I should know about, something going on between the two of you?”
“No. Nothing,” Saber responded.
Julia turned beet red. He used this to his advantage, changing his guilt into something he could accept.
“She promised me a bed, but she says she’s not willing to share hers. Now I have to wait and see which one she’ll actually let me use for the week.” His dimples deepened. “Until she shows me a room, yours’ truly is to remain in limbo.”
It was almost comical to watch Julia’s eyes fill with shock.
“God! You are absolutely hopeless, Mr. Patterson. Has anyone ever told you that?” She set her cup on the low table. “But your money is as good as anyone’s these days; therefore, I guess I’ll just have to put up with you.”
Saber cocked a brow. “But I had thought…,” he started, pausing. What had he thought? His luck would change?
Seconds later, she was pointing an accusing finger at his massive chest. “I can very easily change my mind and charge you double for that room, Mr. Patterson. Think you can behave for at least ten seconds, and still get it for free?”
“Oh! Little Darlin’, I can be as good as you want me to be,” he promised, “and for much longer than the required ten seconds. But we’ve already discussed this fact while you were on top of me in that bedroom of yours.”
Liddy gasped to this uncensored admission. Her eyes skipped hurriedly to Julia. Her best friend had said on the phone that he was knocked out cold. Had Julia lied?
“He is just pulling your chain, Liddy,” Julia warned harshly. “Nothing happened in there. And nothing will!”
“Ah, come now, Little Darlin’. Don’t go sayin’ nothing will, when we both know it ain’t the truth. You’ll start to hurt my feelins’ calling me a liar.”
“If you can be this rude and arrogant, and do so in front of a total stranger, then you don’t have any feelings, Mr. Patterson. So, it is a damn good thing I am generously kindhearted and will allow you the stay; but I would expect you at least to try to behave yourself while here. I can always get my father to come back and remind me why I should lock you out.”
Saber playfully put a hand to his heart. “You wound me deeply, Little Darlin’.”
“If I am wounding you at all, take an aspirin and get over it.” She moved hurriedly toward her combination office-den.
“She always this mistrusting of folks?” he asked Liddy.
Liddy grinned from ear to ear. “No. Not usually. But Julia does like…,” she started, looking to have thought better of telling him about her friend’s personal life. “She tends only to like men who sport large-than-life tattoos. If you ain’t got one, then you ain’t worth the time of day to her.”
Saber’s smile increased tenfold. “Is that so?” His deep dimples formed as he eyed Ms. Hillard, who was coming into the living room carrying a large red book in her hand. “Then I guess she has no reason not to trust me.”
With quick movements, he pulled off his T-shirt right in front of both women. Each one gasped at his unexpected display of flesh. Not at what he’d done, per se, nor at why, it seemed, but at what covered a puckering scar that ran across his midsection from a very large gash.
Saber Patterson had a Boa constrictor tattoo on his stomach; a tattoo that had been recently mangled by a bull getting a little too close to him with its long horns.
“I have a tattoo,” he admitted. “A damn good one.”
Julia’s face turned a deep red while Liddy physically stared at his midsection.
“It’s a little worse for wear these days, but it’s still a tattoo. Or so I’m told.” He looked down at his washboard abs. “Like I said before, ain’t any reason not to trust me.”
**
It was nearly killing Liddy not to move over to Saber and examine the large Boa a whole lot closer. A snake tattoo nearly the same as Jake’s, it surely looked the same as Jake’s. They could’ve been twin tattoos—done by the very same artist. Jake had gotten his down in Sparta. And Saber likely got his while he’d been living in Miami.
Julia’s face, however, remained that deep shade of red as everyone in the room could see the anger filling her body from the inside out. She warned, “I already told you, I don’t do sympathy, Mr. Patterson.”
Seconds later, she tossed the registration book toward the low table between the sofas, knocking the last remaining muffin from the tray. “Apparently, you weren’t listening to me, as everyone else seems not to these days.”
She stormed out of the boarding house via the front door, slammed it into the faces of the two yet remaining in her late great-grandmother’s living room; both Liddy and Saber shocked by her actions.
Saber made to grab his carelessly tossed T-shirt and put it on over his head. “What the hell was that about?” he asked.
Liddy shrugged both shoulders. “I’m not quite certain. Maybe she doesn’t like large ug
ly snakes on a man’s incredibly toned body anymore. At least not anymore.”
He was already moving toward the slammed door in hot pursuit of the angry Julia, but as he pulled the door open he slammed on the brakes, stalling his good guy engine.
“What do you mean anymore?”
“My husband has nearly the same snake tattoo on his upper arm.”
“So?”
Liddy’s wayward gaze drifted back to his. “Seeing it like this, let’s just say Julia dated my husband for a bit, who, at the time, was still married to little ole’ me.”
Saber was stunned by Liddy’s admission, more so, than by anything else that happened in this particular house today.
“You …he …you were still married at the time?”
“It’s a very long, very complicated story, Mr. Patterson. One that I am sure when you have a bit more time to listen to, I will be able tell you about. Nevertheless, through no one’s fault but my own, I skipped town ten years ago; left without ever saying Good-bye. No one knew where I was, what I was doing, or if I was ever coming back. I simply dropped off the face of the earth.”
He listened as she shared her secret.
“Jake was only being Jake, until Gill stopped that hefty problem in a hurry. But you’ve already met that particular side of Julia’s overprotective father, haven’t you? Gill doesn’t like men who treat women so carelessly. It’s an unwritten rule of his. It never went very far. I guess you could say my husband and best friend’s conscious got the better of them.”
Saber’s hand held the doorknob, knuckles whitening. “She dated your husband?” It took a bit of time for him to get used to the idea. Julia did not seem like the type of woman to take another woman’s husband. Then, years later still are considered that person’s best friend.
“Like I said, it wasn’t her fault. I wasn’t around. They just assumed I wasn’t coming back.”
“That still don’t make it right,” he reasoned out.
He knew how it felt, and the sting remained deep to this day, buried in his gut.
“Maybe not. But who are you to judge, Mr. Patterson? If anyone should stand in judgment, it’s probably you. You’re a stranger among us. And certain things in Preacher’s Bend happen for a reason. No one is purely at fault. But none of us is the sweet, innocent angels others think we are. We all make mistakes. It’s part of being human, part of life.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “You’re right. I, for one, know what it feels like to be judged unnecessarily.” He added under his breath, “And hung.”
Saber had been judged in the worst possible ways: as a failure, as a phony, as a man worthless of pity due to great wealth.
He moved both feet forward and went in search of Julia, with, or without anyone’s permission. After everything he and Julia had been through today, he wasn’t going to leave it the way it suddenly ended. He was going to find her and apologize for his rude behavior. And, if she accepted his apology, it would certainly never happen again.
He was a changed man. He no longer used people for personal gain. He no longer wished them to think ill of his character. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to use Julia; not in the way anyone thought he likely would.
Nor would he use her in the way she somehow expected of him, simply by profession.
Saber wanted the slate clean. Start over. Do things right the first time. He’d thought he’d done that. Done it right. But a slammed door in his face told him otherwise. It hadn’t been right. His actions turned into a complicated mess, in a big hurry. A mess he must now clean up before it was too late.
Chapter Eleven
Julia put her head against the trunk of the old oak, and sighed. The hollowness was there. It was always there. The bitterness she couldn’t quite get rid of. She squeezed her eyes shut.
First, she was quite certain she was a certifiable fool. What in God’s name had she been thinking, storming out of the house, teasing Saber as she had? She wasn’t a tease. Not anymore. It took too much effort, and too much effort to make a man think there could be more took too much energy. She barely had enough energy to get her through her days, let alone tease a man in a purely sexual way.
Secondly, it had gotten cold outside; colder than she wanted it to be. Julia rubbed her hands up and down her arms to ward off the chill. Though midsummer, and the days long and hot, the afternoons in Preacher’s Bend cooled quickly. She’d left in a huff and hurry that she hadn’t taken her jacket with her. Then again, she hadn’t figured she’d be pushed into storming out of the boarding house because of a lousy tattoo.
The sun was starting to set at the far end of Preacher’s Bend—precisely down the center of Roundabout Road. Julia could see Liddy and Jake’s cozy little shack under one of Theodora’s large peach trees. Another twinge of jealousy crept inside. It seemed odd Liddy giving up everything she’d ever dreamed about: huge house, fancy clothes, and a sporty red convertible. Just goes to show love was very complicated when one least expects it to be.
But, at this time of year, a setting sun meant everything to Julia. It meant she’d made it through another day with diabetes. She was, for all intents and purposes, hiding in Theodora’s garden. The sweet summer scent of roses lingered in the air. The twinkling chirps of late afternoon birds were settling into the trees.
Too afraid of what she felt inside and too chicken to do anything about it, her plan was to stay in the garden until dark. Usually, she took whatever she wanted out of life and held onto it with both hands. Having to adjust to her disease a little over a year ago had thrown her for a loop. She was trying to adjust to the change, failing miserably, and wished only for a do-over.
Didn’t every woman wish for this?
Do-overs were right up there with a new pair of shoes. Then, when it never came, she could always blame someone else for its lack.
Her ears perked as the sound of a man’s heavy footsteps came her way. She could easily guess whose feet they belonged to. Again, a heavy sigh wrenched out unexpectedly.
Too bad for him if he thought she cared. Julia wasn’t going back to that stuffy old boarding house until she felt like doing so. Not because she was mad at anyone in particular; first at Patterson, secondly at herself. No. She simply did not like people telling her what to do. It was as easy and uncomplicated as that.
She’d been this way since birth; withdrew into a carefully guarded shell of denial whenever someone dared tell her what to do. It was the very reason she’d given Gill such a hard time while coming of age. As her father, Gill had felt it his duty to run her life; thereby, spun those wheels until Julia had been old enough to fight for majority control.
As the heavy footsteps sounded on the leaves and twigs crushed under his weight, she was acutely aware that this was going to be one of those moments where someone—other than her father—tried their damnedest to tell her what to do. He stopped directly at her side and without saying a word sat down beside her on the cold damp ground. He handed over a warm coat.
Very slowly, Julia moved her hand to take the coat from him.
Another thing she hated was someone knowing what was good for her, and then taking the liberty to rub this fact in her face.
“Boy! I dare say when a certain redheaded vixen wants to hide, she can really hide,” he conceded. “It took me nearly four hours to find you.” He looked at his watch and grimaced. ‘‘Course my search probably would’ve been much less than that, but I went back to your place to get you that.” His finger pointed at the jacket.
“I never asked you to find me,” she muttered out heartlessly.
“No. But a good guy doesn’t wait to be asked when he knows better.”
She turned her head toward his face. “Are you a good guy, Mr. Patterson?”
Okay. Snapping at the bit was uncalled for, but for some strange reason she couldn’t help getting angry with him.
“I had thought so.” He smiled back. “After today’s rather dramatic episodes, I’m not so certain any
more.” He heaved out an unexpected sigh as afterthought, perhaps doing a rewind to his character. He sounded as though he was trying to apologize to her, and so far she wasn’t in a very accepting mood toward the generous offer.
“What time is it?” she asked quickly.
Saber glanced at his watch and told her six o’clock.
Instead of another sigh, Julia groaned. Loudly. Then her stomach added its own repetitive chorus.
“Here.” He reached into his pocket, producing a granola bar loaded with mixed fruit and nuts.
She looked at the bar and grimaced. “What’s that? A peace offering?”
“No,” he said. “Sustenance.”
Julia took the considerate offering and peeled off the foil wrapper. She sank her teeth into its sweetness, savoring the taste of rich honey and almonds.
“You skipped lunch in your haste to get the hell out of Dodge. Now it’s almost suppertime, and your last dose of insulin was at nine o’clock this morning …Are you trying to kill yourself, Ms. Hillard? Or do you just have it in for me, in particular, to do so while on my watch?”
She glared at his face. “I never asked you to take watch of me. And no, I am not trying to kill myself, either.”
“No?”
“I’m adjusting,” she determined. “Besides, why do you even care? And why are you even here?” Her mouth was moving ahead of her brain. Apparently rewind of character was reserved for those who deserved the consideration.
“I care. And I’m here because being here is considered a good guy thing,” he answered brusquely.
His words had pulled her eyes up to his. “There is no such thing, Mr. Patterson.”
“It’s Saber, Julia. And there isn’t?” he suddenly teased. “In my book, there is.”
“No. Not in Preacher’s Bend. And certainly not in my life.”
Julia took another bite out of the bar and chewed, thinking about what her life had been thus far. One failed relationship after another. Men coming into that life, then leaving it once they found out about her incurable disease. Diabetes was an old person’s ailment. Not for one who was twenty-eight-years old and relatively healthy otherwise. Guys like their potential partners with no flaws. And never did any good guy ever stay in her life once he met her father.
Seduction of Saber (Saving the Sinners of Preacher's Bend #3) Page 8