Read Online Forgiving Patience by Jennifer Simpkins - Free Book Online

just ask?”
    “Fine. I’ll bite. What are you
suggesting?”
    “Let’s just say…suggesting can mean
so many things.”
    “Just get to the point,” she bit out.
    “The way I see it, we have some
things we need to work out that are way overdue. You go on three dates with me
and I’ll move out of your house, not asking for a cent of the money I’ve put
into it.”
    “You’ve got to be kidding…right?”
    “What do you think?”
    If it hadn’t been for Ms. Edna’s gaze
and the stares of probably everyone else who had nothing better to do, she
would have run from the room. Run far, far away and planned never to return.
She would throw her bags in her car and drive just as fast as she did the first
time she’d sped away from this town.
    Was he joking? Blackmailing wasn’t
the right word, because he had nothing on her. Hostage negotiation, that’s what
he was doing. He was holding her house hostage unless she did what he wanted.
    “We have no business together, if
that’s what you want to call it. What makes you think I would ever subject
myself to you again?”
    “Because you want your house back.”
    “I could just wait until your lease
is up and not have to worry with you at all.”
    “Now, we both know you won’t do that.
You’ve probably already been to Garrett trying to find a way to get me out. You
want that house right now for some reason, so you will go on three dates with
me. Want to tell me why it’s so important to you now?”
    She pulled her body from his hold
with more strength than she thought she had. Turning her back to him, she
didn’t care about the old women scoping out the newest drama. She couldn’t
stand there listening to his crap any longer.
    She quickly walked half ran, past a
waiter holding a full tray of champagne glasses. When she swished past him, it
took all of the waiter’s effort to keep the tray from tipping forward. That
would’ve been just great if the champagne glasses went crashing to the floor.
Patience would be talking about it for years to come.
    She hurriedly walked past the buffet
spread, dancing couples—including Em and Tommy—and all the eager eyes watching
to see what was yet to come in the next chapter of Anna and Jake.
    Anna was quickly out of the stuffy,
overbooked hall and escaping into the night air, filling her lungs. She stepped
off the last step onto the pavement leading to the parking lot. She took a second
to look up at the vast sky—a little too long of a second, because a hand
circled around her arm, forcing her to turn around.
    “Jake, I’m through listening to all
your crap. If you want to be a stand-up guy and keep my house,” she said
sarcastically, “then so be it, I can’t stop you. But I will fight you every
step of the way. As for this little idea you have in your pea-sized brain that
I will go on a date—let alone, three of them—with you…well, let’s just say No
way in hell . Now, if you
don’t mind, I would like my arm back.”
    She stood her ground, and he finally
dropped her arm. He gave her a major headache but at the same time caused her
heart to beat rapidly because of the depths she could see in his eyes.
    “I’m not intending to upset you. I
was just coming up with a way for you to get your house back.”
    “How generous of you.” She crossed
her arms, trying to resist stomping her foot again.
    She turned her back to him, making
her way to her parked car. He jogged after her, catching her arm before she
could open the car door. She wrestled it free.
    “Anna, will you please listen to me
for one damn second without throwing some hissy fit?” He raked a hand through
his unruly hair, looking frustrated as hell.
    “Hissy fit—hissy fit…do you hear
yourself when you actually talk?”
    “Can you be calm, please? I was just
thinking we could go on a couple of dates and maybe get tangled up in the
sheets?”
    She narrowed her eyes. “This just
keeps getting better. So now I have to sleep with you to get you