Choosing Happiness (11 page)

“If you’re sure...” her mother trailed off, sounding uncertain.

“I’m sure, I’ll be fine once I get some more sleep, but that’s not going to be till tonight.”

Her mother sighed. “All right. You take care of yourself. You don’t need to get sick.”

“I will Mom and I’ll try to get by there this evening.”

They rang off and Andrea turned off her phone, assured that her family wouldn’t panic since she’d already spoken with her mother. She felt a little guilty about avoiding Jake again as she finished pulling her hair up and out of her way. She needed to get her own head on straight before she could explain to him what was going on. She needed to figure out exactly where her own heart and mind stood before she could share either with him.

J
ake hit the end call button on his phone and almost threw it across the room. He didn’t know what was going on with Andrea, but he knew it was something serious. She was shutting him out and it tore him up. His chest ached as he thought about what it could be.

“Something wrong?” a familiar voice asked.

Jake turned and saw Ramon approaching. “I’m not sure. Andrea’s acting strange.”

One side of Ramon’s mouth tilted upward. “She’s a woman. They’re strange by definition.”

Jake gave him a halfhearted smile. “I mean seriously strange. She left me a message about something having come up and needing some time and she’s refused to talk to me since.”

“Well, now, that could be serious. You checked with her family?”

“No, I didn’t want to bring them into something between us.”

“Well, from what you’ve told me, her brother has no trouble getting in between you. Why don’t you call him and see if he’s heard from her?”

Jake looked at the phone still in his hand. “All right, I’ll do that.”

“I’ll give you a few minutes then, and see you in the car in say ten?”

“I’m sure this won’t take long, ten is good.” Jake watched Ramon leave before dialing Ben’s number.

“Yo?” Ben answered the call.

“Have you heard from your sister in the last few days?”

“Not in a couple days, why?”

“Because yesterday morning she left me a message canceling our evening. She said something had come up and she needed some time. She won’t answer my calls and she won’t let me in when I go by.”

“Shit.” There was rattling on the other end of the line. “Let me make a couple calls and I’ll call you back.”

“Do you know something I should?”

“I don’t know. Let me make some calls. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“I’ll be waiting.” Jake hung up and headed out to the car. Who knew how long it would take Ben to get back to him.

“How’d it go?” Ramon asked as he got in the car.

“He didn’t know anything but he’s gonna make some calls and get back to me.”

“You don’t look good.”

“I’m worried about her. Something is wrong and I don’t know what.”

“That’s life with a woman.”

Jake gave him an unhappy look then turned to stare out the windshield. Ramon pulled out of the yard and they started their day. About an hour later Ben called him back, told him that Sophia had spoken with her this morning and she was all right. Ben said he’d try to talk to her when she got off work that afternoon, but he didn’t know if he could get her to talk. Jake spent the rest of the shift with only half his mind on the job, the other half was worrying about Andrea and what might be wrong.

When he got off work he found he had a voicemail. He hadn’t even heard the phone ring. It was from Andrea.

“Hi Jake, I’m sorry I’ve been shutting you out. I just need some time to think. We’ve been moving awfully fast and I need to be sure of my feelings before either one of us gets hurt. I’m sorry again, please understand.”

He sat on the bench in the locker room staring blindly at the phone in his hand. What the hell was going through her mind and who the hell had planted it there? He had a good idea of the second one, though he wasn’t quite sure of the first. Either way, he knew how to handle it.

CHAPTER TWENTY

"Hey, man, what gives?" Jake tromped in the big bay door at Ben's shop.

Ben looked around the hood of the 1969 Dodge Charger he was working on. Seeing Jake, he grinned. "Hey man, what's up?"

"What gives?" Jake repeated.

"What do you mean?"

"What gives with you trying to convince your sister that she's better off without me?"

"Whoa, whoa, buddy." Ben held his hands up in front of him, as if warding off a blow. "That's not what I said."

"What exactly did you say?" Jake folded his arms over his chest, his face growing darker.

"Well," Ben said slowly. “I told her she needed to be sure you are what she wants before it ends ugly and makes things awkward. Because, bro, I'm not letting you take off if that happens."

Jake was standing right in front of Ben, but he moved so quickly that Ben never saw it coming. Jake hit him with a right hook then in the same movement stepped back out of reach, his guard up.

"What the hell was that for?" Ben touched his lip gingerly with the back of his wrist, as his hands were covered in grease, checking for blood.

"For sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong." Jake dropped his guard, when Ben didn’t try to retaliate. "Stay out of my relationship with your sister."

"I didn't mean to cause problems."

"No? What the hell did you mean to do?"

"Just make her think about things, I don't know. I wanted her to be sure she was doing the right thing."

Jake was starting to calm down. "I don't know if what we're doing will last, or if it's right, but right now, it’s damned good. Even if it's not, it's our mistake to make."

"All right, I get you, man. I'm sorry I said anything."

Jake pointed his finger at Ben. "Just remember, stay out of it." He turned and headed out of the shop. "Now, I have to go see if I can fix this with her."

***

J
ake pulled into Andrea's driveway half an hour later. Her car in the driveway told him she was there. He knocked on the front door and waited, hoping she would answer. Her refusal to talk to him for the last two days stung. He only hoped he could convince her to at least listen now.

"Jake." She said simply after opening her door.

"Ten minutes, just give me ten minutes." He was relieved she’d opened it this time.

"All right." She took a deep breath and pushed the door open farther to let him inside.

"I went and talked to Ben." He flexed his fingers remembering the sharp sting when he’d hit the other man.

Andrea's eyebrows lifted.

"He says he wasn't trying to break us up, he just wanted you to think about it. To be sure." Jake watched her carefully.

"Yeah, I know." She looked at the floor instead of at him. He could tell by the set of her shoulders that she was still not sure.

"Well, let me tell you how I see it. It doesn't matter if what we have lasts forever. It only matters that we're happy now, no matter how long it lasts. The way I see it, we have to enjoy what we have as long as we have it." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before starting again. "I've learned the hard way that life is short. You have to take what happiness you get and enjoy it while it lasts.

"I don't want to give you up, Andrea. You make me smile. You make me laugh. You make my life brighter just by being you. I don't want to lose that. Please don't throw what we have away because of someone else’s doubts or some ideal that what’s between us has to last forever.”

Andrea looked at the floor, her face drawn and miserable. “It’s not just Ben, Jake. I’m just not sure this is going to work.”

"I'm not going to push for an answer right now. I just had to say my piece. You know where to find me if you change your mind.” He lifted her chin with one finger so he could look into her eyes. “I miss you, Andrea." Jake walked away, letting himself out, and leaving her there, thinking about his words.

A
ndrea watched Jake leave. She wanted to run after him, stop him, beg him to stay, but she couldn't. He was right, she needed to decide what she wanted. She tried to go about her evening as though he hadn't knocked on her door, but his words kept circling in her mind, they’d joined her brother’s cautions as well as Heather’s concerns.

Jake had a point about life being too short. She needed to talk to someone. Someone she knew would be objective and give it to her straight. She grabbed her purse, made sure her keys were inside and hurried out to her car.

***

T
wenty minutes later Andrea pulled into her parents’ driveway. She still wasn’t sure if she needed to talk to her mom or her dad. Her best bet was to go inside and see who was available. Her mom was sitting in the front room, watching an old movie and knitting.

"Hello, dear, what brings you around again so soon?" Sophia paused her movie.

"I need to talk to someone." Andrea sat in her father’s recliner so she was next to her mom, but not looking at her. It would be easier this way, if she didn’t have to look her in the face while she talked. "Someone who will be honest and tell me if I'm being an idiot."

"Of course you're not being an idiot, but let's hear what's going on anyway and I'll see if I can help."

Andrea watched her mother knit, the rhythmic movement of needles and yarn slowly creating whatever Sophia was working on this time.

"I can't help if you don't tell me what's bothering you," Sophia prompted.

"Well," Andrea took a deep breath and let it out. "You probably don't know it, but Jake and I have been seeing each other."

"Of course I know, dear. I'm neither blind, nor dead. Besides, you know you can't do anything in this town without it getting back to me."

Andrea gave her a wry smile, she had known that since she was twelve, but for some reason hadn’t considered it this time. "Well, we've been getting along great. I want to spend every moment I can with him and I think he feels the same way."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Well, Ben came home. Jake sat down with him and told him we were seeing each other. Ben did his usual act of trying to scare off Jake and it didn't work. So, he came to me. He went into this long thing about me and Jake and is this really what we want. Do I want someone like him, someone who's lived the life he has, seen the things he has.” She paused, looking for the right words.

“Honestly? I don't care about all that, but it made me think. But, then I had lunch with Heather. She wondered if I wasn’t jumping into something too soon after William. Normally, I’d brush it off, but on top of what Ben said, it's thrown me for a loop. What if it doesn't work out? Wouldn't it be better to end it now than to continue and lose myself to him more and have it all fall apart?"

Sophia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Dear, you know I don't condone violence, but someone needs to punch your brother in the mouth. You know how I feel about Heather, too. I know you like her but she is not nice to you. She only seems to be. Under her pleasant surface she does everything she can to undermine your self-confidence."

"I kind of suspect Ben may have already been taken care of." I gave her a small smile.

"What makes you say so?"

"Well," Andrea looked at her lap for a moment. "I screwed up. I didn’t know how talk to Jake about my concerns and I screwed it up. I cancelled a date and refused to talk to him for a couple days. I avoid his phone calls and wouldn’t answer the door when he came by."

"Oh, dear." Sophia was sympathetic.

"This afternoon he knocked on my door and I answered this time. He asked for ten minutes to plead his case and I let him in. He told me he'd gone to see Ben, from the way he flexed his fingers then rubbed the back of his hand when he said it, I suspect he may have done exactly what you suggested."

"Well, you're brother's a big boy. He'll live, I'm sure," Sophia said. "What else did Jake have to say?"

"He said he's learned the hard way that life's short. Too short not to take what happiness you're offered or to worry if it will last forever."

"That's one smart guy you've found"

"I know. I know he's right. I still have reservations but I needed to talk it through."

"Sounds like I raised a pretty sharp girl myself."

"Yeah," Andrea stood. She bent to hug Sophia. "Thanks for listening, Mom. I've got to go give Ben hell for messing with my mind and I've got to figure out a way to make it up to Jake."

"Show up at his place, dear, and simply say you're sorry. That's all you need.”

Andrea nodded. She believed Sophia but still wanted to do more.

“Are you going to say anything to Heather?” Sophia asked.

“No, what good would it do?” Andrea shook her head. “She’ll never change.”

“Perhaps you’re right.” Sophia looked back down at her knitting a slight frown marring her forehead.

"Thanks again, Mom." Andrea let herself out, feeling much better than when she'd arrived. On the way to her car, she wondered the best way to tell Jake exactly how she felt.

A
ndrea's next stop was Ben's shop. She parked her car on one side of the building and walked in through one of the big bays doors, looking around for her brother. She spotted him lying on a dolly, half under the front end of a shiny black Dodge. She wasn’t sure of the year but she knew it was a classic muscle car, it was beautifully restored too. Marching up beside him, she kicked him in the hip without warning.

"OUCH!" Ben rolled out from under the car to see who'd kicked him. "What the hell was that for, Andy?" He sat up, grabbing a nearby rag and wiping the worst of the grease from his hands before getting to his feet.

"That was for your little mind games." She got a good look at him for the first time. "I assume that fat lip's from Jake?"

"So he's been to see you already?"

"Yeah, and I've been to see Mom. She'll be glad to know someone's already popped you in the mouth. That’s what she thought you needed."

"That's harsh."

"But true." She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself enough to be able get what she needed to say out. "Ben, I'm almost thirty years old. You have got to stop treating me like the flighty girl I was at thirteen. I know who Jake is, maybe not as well as you do, but I haven't had time to learn all his secrets yet. Just like he hasn't had time to learn mine. Jake's right, Ben, and you know it.”