Pieces of My Heart (3 page)

“She’s trying!”

“I know. I’m sorry. I know she is. I just . . . I don’t like this. You sure you don’t want me to toss him out on his ass?”

“I’m sure. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. I just . . .” Tugging my blankets up, I snuggled deeper into my hard mattress.

“Hey. You can call me anytime. About anything. You know that.”

“I know. Thanks, Cal.”

“Do me a favor? Keep the phone near your bed. If
anything
happens, anything at all, you call me. Right away. No matter what time it is, okay?”

“Okay. Good night, Cal.” My eyes slipped closed and his voice dimmed.

“Good night, Angel.”

I don’t remember hanging up with him. I’m not even sure that I did. The phone was still wrapped in my hand when I slipped into unconsciousness.

Two

“Triple venti, half-caf, nonfat caramel macchiato with whip. To go.”

Venti macchi . . . what? Was that even English?
The only word that even sorta pierced the haze of panic clouding my brain was caramel.
Super
. Where was that cheat sheet Rebecca made me on my first day?

I hated to admit it, but Mom was right. Hell, DJ was right—for once. What good was algebra doing me now? Physics? American history? Any of it? None. I was about to lose my job. A job I desperately needed for things like food and shelter.
Real
things in the
real
world. And that high school diploma sitting on my dresser wasn’t doing a damn thing for me.

“Breathe, new girl.” A hand wrapped around my wrist as I reached for the sleeve of foam cups. “I got this. Can you make the guy at the end a tall decaf, two sugars?”

Attempt something within your realm of capability and leave the complicated stuff to those of us with half a brain in their heads.

“Sure.” I shrank away from his grasp, taking a tall cup with me. “I can do that.”

When a simple morning beverage had become something closer to a science experiment, I had no idea. But watching Simon mix and swirl and steam as I filled my cup with coffee and carefully measured out two sugars, I was starting to think that maybe this wasn’t the job for me. Not that there were any other jobs out there. I’d looked—for
months
—before finding this one. Months that I couldn’t afford to spend looking for another.

“How do you remember all of that?” I watched him top the concoction with a generous amount of whip cream and pass it off to the gorgeous brunette waiting across the counter with a wink.

“It’s not as hard as it looks. You’ll get it.” Taking the cloth I was using to wipe counters, he tossed it at the sink. “Relax. We’ll take care of that later. How long you been working here, anyway?”

How much longer before I have a competent person to share the workload with?

I shrugged. “A couple weeks.”

“That long?”
How do you still have a job?
“How have I not seen you before?”

I fought the urge to shrug again. It was going to start looking like I had a twitch. “This is only my third shift. They don’t have a lot of hours for me, yet.”

More hours obviously meant more money. I needed more hours. I’d been promised more hours when I started. But they couldn’t exactly put me on the schedule more often if the best I could manage was a tall decaf, two sugars.

I’d studied the cheat sheet for my past two shifts, but it was like trying to read another language. The power button was about as close as I came to being able to use any of the equipment and I didn’t even know what half of the ingredients were, let alone where to find them.

“Well, we can fix that. Come here.” Simon snagged a cup from the sleeve and handed it to me. “Triple venti, half-caf, nonfat caramel macchiato. Let’s start there.”

For the remainder of my shift, every gap in customers—of which there were many—was spent wasting untold supplies, making practice drinks of every kind imaginable. Simon was patient and a good teacher. It didn’t seem to faze him one bit when it took me four tries to master the espresso grinder. The more he talked, the more I
listened
and the less I
heard
.

“You did really well for a beginner.” That was a compliment, not
an insult. “It took me over a month to get all this stuff straight. No worries. You’ll get there.”

“Thanks, Simon. You saved my job.” And that wasn’t an exaggeration. I was certain his training had just secured my only source of income. “I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”

“I do.” The gleam in his eye sent my stomach into a freefall. “With a kiss.”

“Wha—?”

He couldn’t . . . I couldn’t . . . But before I knew what was happening, he’d snapped up my hand and pressed his lips to my knuckles.

I think I stopped breathing. Not in a good way. In a pure panic, what-the-hell-am-I-supposed-to-do-now sort of way.

“Oh, jeez, you’re not at it again, are you?” Rebecca breezed through the front door, rolling her eyes in our direction.

“At what?” Simon sounded innocent enough, but the wicked grin on his face said otherwise.

“Harassing your co-workers.”

“I’m not harassing, anyone. You don’t mind, right, new girl?” He looked to me and all I could do was gape at him.

Rebecca rounded the counter. “Do you even know her name?”

“Of course I do. It’s . . .” I’d told him at the beginning of our shift, but he’d been calling me ‘new girl’ ever since.

“Jade,” I filled in his blank.

“Jade. Right. That’s exactly what I was going to say. New girl Jade.”

“Uh huh.” Rebecca wasn’t buying it as she twisted her long black hair up in a neat bun and dropped an apron over her head. “Well,
Jade
, you’re off, so get out of here. And ignore him.” She tipped her head toward Simon who was leaning up against the counter, smirking at her. “He’s an incurable flirt.”

Oh . . . well . . . incurable flirt . . . okay.

Gathering my jacket and bag from the office, I dug out my phone to find a missed call from Caulder. I wasn’t surprised. After last night, I would have been surprised if he hadn’t called.

“Good night, guys.” I waved to Rebecca and Simon on my way out the door.

My car was built when things like GPS and Bluetooth sounded like alien technology, so I waited until I was parked outside my apartment to listen to Caulder’s message.

“Hey, it’s me.” His voice sounded tight. Strained. “Just calling to check on the situation. Do me a favor and call me back when you get this, please . . . Alright . . . I’ll talk to you later.”

Short and to the point. How very . . . Caulder. Smiling, I hit the call button and listened to it ring twice before his voice reached me.

“Hey, Angel.” He sounded more at ease than in the message. “Hanging in there?”

“Hanging. Sorry I didn’t call you earlier. I just got out of work.”

“How’s it going?”

“Work?” I cracked my door and hit the power lock button before leaning over the seat to manually lock the back door that didn’t like to be told what to do remotely.

Cal didn’t answer. I knew what he was talking about. And he knew that I knew. Sighing, I dropped my keys in my bag and headed for the lobby door. “I think he’s gone.”

“You
think
?”

“Well, he wasn’t there when I woke up this morning. Mom was gone, too. I thought maybe she tossed him out and then went to find a meeting or something.” Yeah, and if wishes were fishes . . .

“Good.” An audible sigh carried down the line.

“Are you okay? You sound tired.” And I was beginning to sound winded as I dragged myself up three flights of stairs, actively avoiding the sections I knew were dangerously close to caving in. I didn’t live in the most structurally sound building on the planet.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night,” he confessed.

“Why?” Dumb question. “Cal, you don’t have to worry about—” I’d made it to the top of the stairs when a loud crash sounded from down the hall. “What the—?”

“What’s going on?” Caulder sounded worried, but I could only concentrate on the continuing noises. More banging and a loud thump. From my apartment.

“Mom!”

“Jade, what’s—?” The phone fell away from my ear as I burst into the apartment and stopped dead in my tracks.

The living room was trashed. Lamps overturned, furniture out of place, and beer bottles . . .
everywhere.
Mom was pushed up against the wall and Michael was all over her. As in,
all over her
. Hand up her shirt, the other in her hair. And hers . . . good Lord. She did
not
have her hand down his pants!

Oh, ick. Yuck. Ew. Gross. On so, so many levels.

Mom’s eyes snapped open and she glared at me with that old familiar hatred that made my heart sink faster than a brick in the ocean.

“What the hell do you want?” Dammit, her words slurred.

“Mom? What’s going on? What are you doing?”

“What does it look like, stupid?” A blow to the chest would have been less effective at winding me than her words.

“I suggest you get the hell out.” Michael didn’t even bother lifting his lips from her throat to speak to me. “Unless you wanna stick around for the show.”

Oh.
Oh, hell no. Backpedaling so fast I nearly tripped over my own feet, I pulled the door shut behind me and found myself standing shell-shocked in the hallway.

“Jade? Jade! Talk to me, dammit!” Oh . . . right . . . Caulder.

“Hello?” My voice sounded weird even to me.

“What happened? What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Something. Talk to me. What’s going on?”

I was not about to tell him I’d just walked in on my parents having . . . bleh!

“Tell me or I’m coming over there to find out.”

Um, no. No, he was not.

“Nothing. I just . . . I can’t go home right now.”

“Why the hell not?”

“My mom and Michael—that’s my dad—they’re . . . busy.”

“He’s still there? I thought you said he left?”

“I thought he did.” Finally allowing some of the shock to wear off, I made my way back to the stairs and down enough flights that I could no longer hear the skin crawling noises from above before sitting.

“What do you mean they’re busy? What could they be doing that you can’t . . . Ohhhh. Ew.” The mild humor in his voice made my anger flare.

“Yes, ew. Quadruple ew, Cal!”

He unsuccessfully choked back a laugh and I frowned knowing he wouldn’t be laughing if I told him the rest. But I couldn’t. I’d laid my problems on the Parks before and they’d gotten me this far. I could take it from there. This was only a minor setback, and it wasn’t the first. We’d handled them in the past and we could handle it now. I just needed to give Mom the chance to realize what she’d done. She’d apologize, get her act together, and go to a meeting. And everything would be fine.

“Where are you?”

“What?” I’d almost forgotten Caulder was still on the line.

“Where are you right now?”

I glanced around at my oh-so-homey surroundings. “On the stairs.”

“In your building?”

Where else would I be? “Yeah.”

“Stay put, I’m on my way.”

“Cal, you don’t have to—” The dead air signaling he’d ended the call sufficiently silenced me.

The thin carpeting did little to cushion my seat and my butt began to ache after only a few minutes, so I dragged myself the rest of the way downstairs to meet Caulder when he arrived. He was coming up the walk when I stepped outside.

“You alright?” His gaze drifted over me as though he expected to find some kind of damage. The only damage done wasn’t the kind he could see, though. The kind that might require some serious therapy. And possibly a complete mind wipe.

“I’m fine. You didn’t need to—”

“Yeah, I did. Come on.” Taking my arm, he started to lead me back to where he’d parked.

“Where are we going?”

“Dinner.” He pulled open the passenger side door and helped me in. “You need to kill a couple hours and it’s getting late. I’m hungry. How do you like seafood?”

Food was food, and I pretty much ate what I could get. My stomach rumbled loudly at the thought of anything filling it, and Caulder shot me a look that dared me to argue. I wasn’t that dumb. “Sure.”

We’d been driving for ten minutes, listening to the sounds of Aerosmith and The Eagles coming through the speakers when Caulder leaned over to shut off the radio.

“When is he leaving?”

I’d been wondering the same thing myself. I doubted he’d like the conclusion I’d come to any better than I did. “I’m not sure that he is.”

“Angel . . .” Caulder rolled to a stop and glanced my way. “I’ve never met the man, but I’m getting the distinct impression this is a step in the
wrong
direction.”

“I know that. But what am I supposed to do about it?” As nice as the idea sending Michael packing sounded, it’s not like I could really kick him out. I was outnumbered. And, let’s face it; I’d never been able to stand up to my mother in my life. That much hadn’t changed.

The light turned green and Caulder scowled at it before hitting the gas. I knew what he wanted to say and was relieved when he opted to keep his mouth shut instead. He wanted me to let him fight this battle for me, the way I had in the past. But I was stronger now. Strong enough to know I couldn’t keep relying on others. Strong enough to know I needed to stand up for myself. And yet, not strong enough to actually go through with it. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, doing my best not to get flattened.