Broken Road (15 page)

If she could choose between Jarrod, who was healthy, strong, and extremely handsome and might make it to the big leagues someday, and Tim, who was equally healthy and strong, but not as physically blessed in the looks department, but who would someday definitely take over his father’s highly successful restaurant business, whom would she pick? That was simple. She would pick Jarrod. Jarrod was a thousand times better looking. Plus, the life of a professional baseball player’s wife seemed much more exciting than that of a local restaurateur. But how was she to get Jarrod back? She should probably first end things with Tim, but what if she did and Jarrod didn’t want to reconcile? Then she would lose both men.

Plus, now there was the matter of Angelise. Sparks were definitely flying between the two of them the other night. She would somehow have to take Angelise out of the equation. But how? She’d already asked her numerous times not to see him, but she had never agreed. Then again, Morgan never did ask. She demanded. Perhaps she should go about it differently. Maybe what she needed to do was appeal to Angelise’s more sensitive, familial side. Yes. That was it. She would appeal to her sense of honor and loyalty to her family…

“I want Jarrod back.”

Angel had been looking down at a magazine when she heard Morgan speak and looked up immediately upon hearing those words.

“What?” Angel asked warily.

“I said I want Jarrod back.”

“All of a sudden you want him back? What about Tim?” She closed the magazine and laid it next to her on the bed. She’d have to get back to all the dramatic, tension filled madness of Teresa Giudice’s latest antics on
The Real Housewives of New Jersey
later.

“I’ve been thinking about it for awhile. I mean, I’ve been missing him. I think…no…I know I made a bad decision in breaking up with him. I now realize that I love him. I always have.”

She walked over to the bed Angel was sitting on and sat down facing her. She took both of Angel’s hands in her own, looked down at them for a moment, and worked hard to well up a tear or two, but failed miserably, only being able to achieve a glassy-eyed look.

“I’ve made a terrible, terrible mess of things. I love him so much and I need to be with him. We were meant to be together. He misses me as well. I can tell. Don’t you see why he paid so much attention to you? He’s hurt and angry at me for breaking up with him, and he wanted to get back at me. What better way to achieve that than to make a play for my own cousin? I’m just so sorry that he used you that way.”

She grabbed a tissue from the box on the nightstand and wiped away a nonexistent tear. In the meantime Angel was so hurt and shocked by what she had just heard that all she could do was stare at her cousin, wide-eyed and openmouthed.

“Please don’t be too angry at him,” Morgan said. “He’s usually very nice. It must be the pain that I caused him that made him do it.”

Angel wanted to take her cousin by the shoulders and shake her until her head fell off, but her body wouldn’t respond. She wanted to scream at her at the top of her lungs and tell her that she was a mean-spirited fool and an idiot to boot, but her mouth wouldn’t allow the words to escape.

“As far as Tim goes…well, I just don’t know what to do. He’s so sweet and he doesn’t deserve to be hurt, but what choice do I have? I know that he loves me and I do care for him, but just not the same way I care for Jarrod. Angelise, what should I do? You’re so kind and thoughtful, I’m sure you would know what would be the right thing to do.”

“I…you…I…” Dear God, what was the matter with her mouth? Why couldn’t she just say what she was thinking and how she was feeling?

Morgan stood up and walked toward the door. She turned toward Angel and said, “I’m sorry. I know I just threw a lot at you. I mean, here you are thinking he was interested in you and now here I am telling you that I still love him and need your help in getting him back. I’ll leave you alone for a bit. Maybe you can think of a solution to my problem. I just can’t seem to think anymore.”

As she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her, she smiled as she thought of the Academy Award performance she had just given. She wanted to laugh out loud when she realized how easy it was to fool Angelise, thus ensnaring her in her web of deceit and stratagem.

Angel sat there for a long while thinking and doing her best to fight back tears, but that seemed to be a battle lost. How could she have been such a fool? The one time she felt a physical and emotional bond with someone, it turned out he had just used her to hurt her cousin. Yet, something still just didn’t feel right. He hadn’t known they were cousins when they had met. Or had he? Was it possible he had set the whole thing up and had purposely bumped into her? Her head was spinning. She didn’t know what to think. She liked him. But, yet, her cousin was in love with him. They were once a couple and she had heard it said many times that where fire once burned, embers lingered. What if she had gotten to know Jarrod better, maybe even fallen in love with him, and then he left her to be with Morgan again?

Damn it, she was just getting ahead of herself. He hadn’t even called, and it had been a full three days since they had met. He probably had never even planned on calling. Morgan must be right. He did make a point of glaring spitefully at Morgan when he took Angel’s phone number. What a fool she had been by assisting him in his evil plan by egging Morgan on. And to top things off, she had winked at him. He probably hadn’t called her because he was still too busy laughing at her ridiculous stupidity.

There was nothing left to do but forget they had ever met. She told herself she was fine before she met him and she would be fine now. She didn’t need him in her life. She would just have to forget how he made her feel. And forget the gentle timbre of his voice that reminded her of the soft, muffled tones of a musical instrument. And she would have to force herself to forget about ever coming across his inordinate blue gaze, which made her heart skip beats. And most of all, she would have to forget the feel of his tender lips on hers and the passion he’d awoken in her as he deepened the kiss…oh wait…that part she had just imagined. But nonetheless, she would have to forget it.

Later that evening, during dinner, Aunt Helen noticed Angel barely touched her food. She tried, for her aunt’s sake, to eat a few bites, but she had absolutely no appetite. She continued to move the food around her plate with her fork.

“Is something the matter, Angel?” asked Aunt Helen as she looked at her niece with concern.

“No, I’m fine,” she responded with a spiritless smile.

“I’ve noticed you’re not eating much tonight. I thought you loved steak.”

“I do and it’s delicious. It’s just that my stomach is bothering me a little,” she lied.

“I’m sorry, sweetie. If you don’t feel well, don’t force yourself to eat. Would you like a cup of tea instead?” asked Aunt Helen sweetly. She truly loved her niece. Angel was like a rare gem as far as Helen was concerned. Her outward appearance sparkled like a diamond, but her inner beauty was more gentle and serene, similar to the beauty of a precious and treasured pearl.

“No thanks. I’ll be fine,” replied Angel.

“You overcooked the meat again,” Morgan commented dryly.

“No, I didn’t. I cooked it medium rare, just like you like,” responded Aunt Helen. “There’s just no pleasing you.”

“Then you bought the cheap meat again, because it’s dry and tough, just like I hate. No wonder Angelise won’t eat it,” Morgan said callously.

“That’s not true. The meat is fine. I’m just not feeling well. Really, Aunt Helen, your dinner is delicious as usual.” Angel tried to make amends for the hurt Morgan was once again causing her aunt. Sometimes Angel just couldn’t understand how wounding Morgan could be. She never seemed to take anyone’s feelings into consideration other than her own. How she turned out that way, Angel would never know. Aunt Helen was such a sweet, kind, and loving person. She always went out of her way to please others, even at her own expense. Even when things had been difficult for her, like when her husband abandoned her and their two-year-old daughter for another woman, she had never been bitter and had never turned hard. She worked two, sometimes three jobs, so she could give her daughter the best she could; yet her efforts were never appreciated.

Morgan constantly demanded the best of everything. It began when she was just a toddler demanding the most expensive and hard-to-find toys, and still had not stopped when she recently informed her mother she wanted a new car, because she simply could not be seen driving around town in her mother’s beat-up Toyota. While Morgan wore designer labels, her mother was forced to shop at consignment shops for her own clothes. It did not go unnoticed that while she and Morgan were served steak tonight for dinner, Aunt Helen’s meal consisted of a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of canned tomato soup. That thought brought Angel back to reality, and she began to feel guilty for not eating the steak.

“Aunt Helen, why don’t you eat my steak instead of the sandwich? I wish so much I could eat it, but I’m just a little nervous that it might not sit well.” Angel hated to lie, especially to Aunt Helen, but she knew if she didn’t, she would never accept the steak.

“Are you sure, love?” asked Helen.

“Absolutely.” She passed the plate to Aunt Helen, who immediately pushed the plate sitting in front of her aside and began to dig in to the steak.

“Angelise, did you happen to give any thought to what we were talking about earlier today?” Morgan asked.

Angel abruptly looked up at Morgan, shocked that she would bring something like that up in front of her aunt.

“Morgan, I’m not feeling well enough right now to get into such a deep conversation. Aunt Helen, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go lie down for a bit.”

“Of course, hon. Go ahead and rest. I’ll come check on you in a bit.”

Angel stood up and glared at Morgan while Aunt Helen continued to enjoy her repast. As she turned to walk away, she could have sworn she heard Morgan giggle.

Chapter Fourteen

 J
arrod sat on the edge of his bed holding his cell phone in his hand. He sat there for nearly ten minutes simply staring at it, sometimes breaking up the drab monotony of that by switching the phone from one hand to the other. Alec entered his room and promptly sat down beside him and watched him do this for a few minutes without saying a word. Finally Jarrod said, “I’m going to call her now.”

“You mean you haven’t called her yet?” exclaimed Alec. “It’s been over a week.”

“I thought it might be best to take it slow.”

“If you take it any slower, you’ll both be collecting Social Security checks down the pike. The only thing you may have achieved by taking it so slow is to have given Morgan time to poison Angel’s mind.”

Jarrod hadn’t thought of that. Why should Morgan care or do something like that when it had been her decision to end the relationship in the first place? Plus, what could she say to Angel that could possibly poison her mind? He had always been honest, respectful, polite, and courteous to her the entire time they had dated. Jarrod cringed when he realized that the description he just gave of his courting graces better described a Boy Scout than a boyfriend.