Chapter Thirteen
Anita spent the next day setting up her studio in the sunroom. By the time Noah got home from work, she’d not only rearranged the furniture and set up the easel where it would catch the most light, but she’d made several pencil sketches of the hills behind the house. Her Julys had always revolved around her art more than the fling in the past, but this year, somehow the man had become more important than the art.
She wasn’t going to think about it right now, she was going to enjoy the rest of the month and not worry about what would happen later. It had been a long time since she’d just spent an afternoon relaxing with a sketchbook. She’d have to do it more often when she got back. July was running quickly through her fingers. Before she knew it, she’d be leaving Lakeside. She’d have to start making plans to return home.
No, she wasn’t going to think about that, either.
The front door opened, and her heart sped. So much freaking joy filled her chest she didn’t know what to do with it all. Her time with Noah was limited. She was going to take advantage of every moment. She tossed down the sketchbook.
He paused in the doorway to the sunroom. He looked so serious.
“What’s the matter?”
Noah blinked and seemed to snap out of whatever funk he was in. “Nothing’s the matter.” He sat beside her on the couch. “I have to tell you something.”
Anita shifted on the cushion. The joy fizzled, and apprehension took its place. “I don’t think anything good comes after a phrase like that.”
“It’s good. I think it’s good. Just hear me out.” He took her hand, stroked it as if to calm her because he knew she was going to be upset.
She was upset already, and she didn’t even know why. “What is it?”
“I’ve been thinking about how things are going to change when my girls leave for college. How much I love them. How much I’m going to miss them. And it got me thinking about how I would feel if I’d never gotten to speak to them. I talked with your father today.”
She snatched her hand away. “What? How?”
“We’ve been video messaging through Facebook.”
Her mind went blank. Or maybe there were so many thoughts bouncing around in her brain that she couldn’t focus on a single one. “I thought you didn’t know about that stuff. Oh, I know. Ginny showed you.”
Not that any of that mattered. Blood pounded in her ears.
“He wants to talk with you. So much.” Noah pulled his phone out. “He wants to see you. Can you at least talk to him for a minute? Let him see you all grown-up and so smart and confident and beautiful?”
She sat there with her throat closed up, unable to let a single word escape. Without waiting for her answer, Noah made the call with a couple of swipes and taps.
“No,” she murmured, but she didn’t move, remained frozen in place, when the video call was answered.
“Hello, Tony,” Noah said.
There was a pause. “Is she there?”
Noah tipped the screen her way, and she could see him. Antonio Delgado. His thick hair was completely silver. His dark eyes were almost exactly the ones she saw in the mirror every day. The lines on his anxious face didn’t stop her from recognizing the man she’d seen in the pictures on her mother’s bedroom dresser.
“Hello, mija.” The rumbling, lyrical voice touched something deep inside her, conjured up the image of a big man, cradling her in his arms and singing her a lullaby with that thick accent. Mija. He used to call her mija. My daughter. Too many memories she didn’t want.
She glared at Noah. “Why would you do this?”
“I—”
“I told you I didn’t want to talk to him.” She risked a quick glance at the aging Antonio Delgado on the screen in Noah’s hand. His apprehensive expression hadn’t changed. She didn’t care if she hurt his feelings. She’d been hurting for years.
“I think you should give him a chance.”
“Oh you do, do you?” Fury made her entire body shake. “You don’t know a fucking thing.”
“I know you’ll regret it if you don’t take this chance to talk to him. He’s your father.”
“He didn’t want to be a father for all these years. He can’t just decide to be one now.”
“One conversation, Anita,” her father said. “That is all I’m asking.”
Her blood was rushing through her ears so loudly, it was all she could hear. She refused to look at him again.
“If not now, Anita,” her father asked, “when?”
“I can’t believe you did this behind my back,” she ground out to Noah.
He silently pleaded with her to understand. All she knew was that he’d overstepped a boundary she thought had been clearly marked. He was just a fling. Not a husband, not even a boyfriend. Merely a fling.
He had no right.
Noah’s lips brushed her ear. “Don’t wait until all you have are scraps of paper to tell you about your father.” He shoved the phone into her hands. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
He was gone, and Anita was left staring at the man who’d abandoned her all those years ago.
“I like your Noah,” he said when she didn’t speak.” I’m glad you fell in love with a good man.”
“Didn’t he tell you?” she asked, not holding back on the sarcasm. “Noah and I are only having a little fling. We’re not in love.”
“The way he talks about you, mija? It sounds to me like he loves you.”
Noah had never said he loved her. He was smart enough not to fall in love with someone he knew wasn’t going to be around past the end of the month. “If that’s true, it’s too bad for him. I don’t want to fall in love.” That wasn’t a lie. “Love causes nothing but problems. You and Mom taught me that.”
She didn’t want to see her father’s pained expression. She wasn’t going to feel sorry for him. Wasn’t going to feel guilty for speaking her mind. If he’d wanted to talk to her, he should have expected it to go this way.
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am that things did not work out with your mother and me. Patty was the love of my life.”
“How can you say that?” She remembered the photos her mother had displayed on the dresser in her childhood bedroom. The names hidden in a drawer, written over and over with red hearts and hope. “You sure had a funny way of showing it.”
“You have to understand we were very young, and unfortunately, we knew all the ways to hurt one another. I regret that every day.”
“It doesn’t matter now. It’s over. It’s been over for a long time.” She couldn’t resist getting in one more dig. “And you didn’t only leave her, did you? You didn’t only hurt her.”
The anguish was clear on his face. “With the wisdom of age, I can admit I would have done many things differently. But it is impossible to change the past no matter how much I wish I could. I’m so glad I now have the chance to tell you how proud I am of you. You are a strong, beautiful woman. So talented. So intelligent.”
“And you had nothing to do with it.”
He winced. “Please give me a chance, mija.”
“Look. I know I’m supposed to be impressed that you contacted me after all this time, but it’s too late, Antonio. Back when I was six would have been the time. And when I was ten. And eighteen. And all those years in between.”
“I know.” Tony’s voice was rough. “You’re right, but—”
“I didn’t ever thank you for the trust fund,” she said, interrupting whatever it was he wanted to say. She didn’t want to hear it. “Thank you. I’ve been using it to see the world. That should make you happy. The rest…I can’t deal with it now. Maybe not ever. You’ll have to accept that.”
She couldn’t sit still any longer. She pushed herself to her feet. “Did Noah tell you about my mother? That she has Alzheimer’s? That she doesn’t remember me, and I doubt she remembers you.”
His eyes softened, filled with tears. “My poor Patty.”
Anita swallowed. “You got your conversation. I have to go.” Noah walked back into the room. She gave him back the phone. “I can’t believe you did this,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m not hungry. I’m going to bed.”
…
“I’m sorry,” Tony Delgado said when Noah took back the phone. “I shouldn’t have answered the call.”
“Of course you should have. I’m a father. I have daughters. I…I really thought she’d be happy to see you once she talked to you.”
“She might look like me, but she’s a lot like her mother. And grandmother.”
“Anita told me the women in her family are stubborn and don’t forgive easily.”
“Easily?” Tony shook his head. “Never is my experience.”
“Anita eventually forgave Aggie, so we may have hope.” Noah had expected her to be angry with him, but he’d forgotten the no-forgiving part.
“Aggie tried to apologize to Patty several times, but mi querida, she had too much pride. She thought it would be weak to forgive. To her, it was the same as giving in.”
“Great.” It had been a stretch to hope he and Anita would have a future together before he contacted her father. Now he’d probably blown that small chance all to pieces. “Maybe she’ll calm down once she has time to think.”
“Perhaps.” But Tony’s expression told him he didn’t hold out much hope.
For the next few days, Noah was extra busy with all his responsibilities at Colburn and Sons, as well as overseeing the renovations at Anita’s house, and with the impending mayoral race, too. He wasn’t exactly avoiding Anita. They’d come to an awkward truce. During the day they didn’t have much to say to each other, but when they came together in bed, their bodies forgave what their minds couldn’t forget.
He was getting nervous about the campaign. Ethan Bradford was continuing with the negative posts, and the comments on the village page seemed to be pretty much split down the middle. He wouldn’t admit out loud he was worried, but he’d come to realize how much he wanted to win the election. How much he wanted a chance to carry out his vision of what Lakeside could be.
And he couldn’t forget about Tony Delgado, either. One man to another, one father to another, they’d been talking daily. Noah hoped to get Anita to talk with her father again. What if his girls ever refused to talk to him? It would kill him.
He and Anita tiptoed around each other. The painting of her family on the porch by the lake was incredible. She was an amazing artist. An amazing woman. He was no psychiatrist, but he knew she’d never really be free to love him, to love anyone, unless she resolved things with her parents. He’d try one more time. Two more times. As many times as it took. As many times as she’d let him.
He strode into the sunroom, where Anita was sorting through some different colors of paint. “Sweetheart, I can’t stand us being this way. We don’t have much time left together, and I hate not being able to talk to you, share with you.” He took a step closer.
She surprised him by stepping into his arms and resting her head on his shoulder. “I know. I hate it, too.”
“So you believe me?”
She nodded. He wrapped her in a warm embrace and wished he could leave things this way. Kiss her and walk out the door and go to work. Kiss her when he came home and go back to that easy relationship they’d developed. But they’d never have a chance at forever if he did.
Noah let her go and took a small step away. “Your father wants to see you.”
Her eyes flared. “You talked to him again?”
“Yes.”
She began to chuck tubes of paint into a plastic box. “You have to keep overstepping, don’t you? Can’t mind your own damn business.”
It couldn’t get any worse, so he admitted the rest. “I told your father he could stay here for a few days if he wants to come visit you.”
She slammed the cover on the box before she whirled to face him. “How could you do that? This has nothing to do with you. He’s my father, not yours.”
“And I can invite him into my house.” How could she think what affected her didn’t affect him as well?
She headed for the stairs. “I’m getting my things.”
“What things?”
“This is your house, Noah. I’m not staying here. I’m going back home.”
“Wait. A couple more days.” A couple more lifetimes. “I got the call that the kitchen is done. They’re cleaning up this morning. They hope to start painting the dining room and living room tomorrow. Replacing the mantel will be the last thing. If not tomorrow, then the next.”
“I’ll have water and power now that the kitchen is done. I can live with the mess.”
“The open house is this weekend.” The culmination of the publicity stunt.
“I know.”
“But you were going to stay here until the work was done.”
“And you were going to be a fling.”
She turned, walked away and up the stairs. He stared after her, frozen in place. It couldn’t end like this. He hadn’t even told her he loved her. It couldn’t make the situation any worse than it already was. He had to tell her before she left.
He heard several car doors slam. Loud voices and laughter.
The girls?
By the time he reached the entryway, the front door burst open and Sarah and Hannah stumbled into the house laden with suitcases. “Hey, Dad!” They dropped the bags and rushed into his arms.
He hugged them tightly and kissed their cheeks. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? I would have picked you up.”
“We had a ride,” Hannah replied. She looked over his shoulder to the still-open door. “Surprise.”
He whirled around. Charlene stood in the doorway. “Hello, Noah.”
Her straight brown hair was streaked from the Florida sun. Her big green eyes and long, tanned limbs reminded him of the teenage girl she once was. The girl he’d fallen in love with all those years ago. But they weren’t the same people anymore. She’d broken their family apart, and there was no putting that back together.
He had enough to deal with today. “What are you doing here?”
She dropped her bags at his feet. “Can’t you at least say hello after three years?” Her voice was soft, the snark was gone.
“Hello, Charlene. Now what are you doing here?”
“She broke up with Bruce,” Sarah told him.
“She’s moving back to Lakeside,” Hannah chimed in.
He hadn’t seen that coming. “Really? Where are you staying?
“She can stay here, can’t she, Dad?” Sarah’s face was full of hope.
Charlene sent him that crooked smile he’d once thought was so cute. “Just until I get my bearings?”
God, he didn’t need this right now.
Her smile wavered. “Please. I’ll sleep in the spare bedroom, of course.”
Anita was upstairs, throwing all her things into her bag to leave him. Probably for good. “This isn’t a good time.”
“I know it’ll be awkward, but I need some help right now, Noah.”
It was bad enough things were awkward between him and Anita, how could he deal with Charlene, too?
Anita must have heard it all. She appeared at the top of the stairs, and all eyes turned to her. The twins’ jaws dropped, then they grinned at each other. Romantics, the two of them.
Charlene stared at him. “She moved in with you?”
“No.” Anita started down the stairs, her suitcase in hand. “Noah just offered me a place to stay while I had some work done on my house. I’ll be out of your hair in a minute.”
“Anita…”
She turned to the twins. “I know your dad is so happy to have you home.” She sent Noah a sidelong glance. “I’ll put this in my car and then be back for the art stuff.”
He took the suitcase from her. “Are you sure you can’t stay?” He was entirely aware they had an audience, but he couldn’t let her go without trying again. “I don’t want you to go. We can talk it out.”
“You know I don’t bother talking things out. Besides, it looks like you have your hands full.” Her jaw was set.
Noah gave her a jerky nod. “I’ll put the bag in the car.”
She turned away and headed for the sunroom.
Noah knew he’d screwed up big time. He’d barged in where he didn’t belong because he’d fallen in love with a woman who didn’t want love. He’d lost her before he ever really had her, and since history had a bad habit of repeating itself, he doubted he had a chance of ever receiving her forgiveness.
…
Anita refused to cry. Especially not in front of Noah’s daughters, who’d followed her into the sunroom. She had to hold on to her anger to get through this, but she didn’t want to wave it in front of his girls.
“Aren’t you Dad’s girlfriend?” one of the twins asked. Anita didn’t have a clue which one of them spoke. They were both tall like their mother, long legs, long hair, big green eyes. Bright smiles like their father’s. Noah never mentioned they were identical.
“No. We’re just friends.” Not even friends anymore. Friends didn’t sneak behind your back and do what they were told you didn’t want them to do.
“You were kissing each other. We saw the pictures online.”
“Hannah thought it was romantic,” said the other twin, which would make her Sarah.
“You did, too,” Hannah shot back. Luckily for Anita, they were wearing different colored tanks with their khaki shorts, so she could tell them apart.
They turned their attention back to Anita. “He said you were dating.” Sarah propped her hands on her hips. “We liked that he was dating.”
“We don’t want him to be lonely when we leave for college,” Hannah added.
“We went on a few dates, but we won’t be going on any more.” Anita liked these sweet, open girls. Noah had done a great job raising them. She was sorry she wouldn’t get a chance to get to know them. “Well, I have to pack these things up.”
“Did you and Dad have a fight?” Hannah asked.
“Something like that.” She scooped up all the rest of her supplies and dumped them in their case.
“Mom and Bruce had a fight.”
“She left him, too.”
“You and Dad should make up.”
“You totally should.”
Anita turned around, the canvas in her hands. With her back to them, she had no idea who’d said what. Their voices were very similar. She addressed them both. “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen.”
“Why not? He sounded happy when he was with you.” That was from Hannah, but Sarah nodded in agreement.
She’d been happy when she was with him, too. But that wasn’t the point. She froze as she was zipping up the bag. What was the point?
The point was, she was mad at him. The point was, this was a fling. She might have thought she loved him, but she didn’t. And even if she did, he didn’t love her. And why was she thinking about love anyway?
She picked up her bags. “Girls, it was nice meeting you. Good luck in college. And remember your dad loves you very much.”
Anita dashed out of the sunroom as fast as she could with the bags banging against her thighs. She was glad she didn’t run into Noah. It was going to be hard enough to leave without him waiting for her by the door. She stepped through the open front door and froze when she saw Noah and Charlene sitting on the bottom step of the porch stairs. Their hips were pressed together and their heads were tilted in.
She held her breath. Her hands hurt from clutching the bag handles so hard.
“I made a mistake,” Charlene said to him, her voice soft and sweet. “I see it now.”
Anita cleared her throat and banged her bags on the doorjamb as she pushed through. She and Noah were only a fling. She didn’t want to hear him agree that their divorce had been a mistake. Of course, he would accept his ex’s apology. Charlene and Noah had built a home together. Had two beautiful daughters together. Anita didn’t know much about Charlene, but she looked like she would be a great politician’s wife.
Anita would suck at that. She could never be a Helen Bradford. And why was she even thinking the word wife?
Noah and Charlene jerked apart when they heard her approach. He spoke her name softly, and it made her want to cry. But she couldn’t, not yet.
“Sorry to interrupt. I just need to get to my car.”
Noah jumped up and reached for her bags. “Let me.”
“I got them.” She rushed down the stairs with a bounce she didn’t feel, then nodded back to the stairs. “Carry on.”
“Anita.” He reached out for her, but she stepped away before he could touch her.
“Thanks for letting me stay here while the house was torn up.” She couldn’t think. Couldn’t feel. “Um…I know we had another week on our…um…agreement. But I think we can say that it was a success. No sense dragging things out.”
She closed her eyes for a second against the desperate look on Noah’s face. “Don’t go.”
“Go spend time with your girls. They’re awesome, by the way. Charlene, hi, just wanted to say you guys have a couple of great daughters. You should be proud.”
“We are,” Charlene said, her chin lifted.
Anita locked her gaze with Noah for one intense moment. “Goodbye, salvage man.” Then she walked away before she could turn and throw herself into his arms. What a stupid thing that would have been.
She glanced over her shoulder to see Charlene thread her arm through his. “Come on. The girls will want to tell you all about their summer.”
Anita stowed the bags in the trunk and pulled out as quickly as she could. Her head was throbbing. Her heart still raced. Tears prickled her lids.
Father. Lover. Ex-wife. Children. House renovation. House sale. Mother’s care. Painting. The election. How many things could she handle at one time? Right now, she’d love to keep on driving. Leave Lakeside and Noah Colburn and everything else far behind.
The workers were pulling out of the driveway as she pulled up. She’d have the house to herself. She’d been so excited to see the renovated kitchen, but right now, she couldn’t drum up the energy to care.
Her cell phone rang as she unlocked the door. She hung her purse on a hook in the hallway and pulled out the phone. She groaned. “Mr. Bradford, I asked you not to call me again.”
“Ms. Delgado, I understand you’re leaving Lakeside soon and that you haven’t found a buyer yet for your house. Just wanted to let you know my offer still stands, if you’d like to get this business taken care of before you leave.”
She leaned against the wall and dropped her head back. She almost hit it on one of the coat hooks. She did want to get the house sold. But not to Ethan Bradford, the man who reportedly wanted to tear her grandmother’s house down. Who was happy to catch her and Noah behind a tree. Who talked Noah down at every opportunity. How could she sell it to him?
“If you aren’t in a hurry, of course you can let the house sit here empty and neglected. If you don’t have the need for a lump sum of money…”
Could she afford to pass up a sure sale? Go back to worrying about the payments to keep her mother where she was right now? Continue to have something tying her to Lakeside?
She wasn’t that desperate yet. “Thank you for thinking of my welfare, Mr. Bradford, but I’m not interested in selling at this time.”
“I hear rumors that Colburn really screwed up the inside of that house. Something about veering too far away from the historic interior.”
She hadn’t checked the village page in the past few days, but that didn’t make any sense to her. “Guess you shouldn’t believe rumors, Mr. Bradford.”
Her phone rang again almost as soon as she’d disconnected. She couldn’t take anymore. She was going to power it down or toss it or… She checked the screen and answered. “Hey, Ginny. I can’t talk right now.”
“Noah didn’t answer his phone. I’ve got news.” Ginny sounded cheerful. Anita couldn’t deal with cheerful right now.
All she wanted was to down a couple of aspirins and collapse on the bed. She paused in the doorway of the new kitchen. It looked amazing, clean lines with bursts of color. Exactly how she’d pictured it. How could anyone be upset about this? As if anyone wouldn’t want an updated kitchen.
“Anita? Anita, are you listening to me?”
“Sorry. What did you say?”
“Can you tell him the poll I put up on the village page has him winning sixty to forty percent?”
She let out a laugh. “You know how often polls are wrong, don’t you?”
“Don’t talk that way. I’m taking it and running with it. Anyway, will you let Noah know? It’ll make his day.”
“Can’t. Sorry. I’m back at the lake house. Noah’s at his place with his daughters and his ex-wife.”
“What?”
“Yeah. I think she wants them to get back together.” Her stomach twisted at the thought when it had no right.
“You’ve got to be kidding. After everything she put him through?”
She couldn’t listen anymore. “I’ll talk to you later, Gin.”
“Don’t worry about Charlene. Noah doesn’t want to marry her again. He wants you. He loves you. I bet if you stayed, he’d want to marry you.”
No. No. No.
Anita’s hands trembled as she punched the disconnect button and set the phone down on the beautiful new countertop. She strode into the living room and picked up the baseball bat from where it was propped up against the fireplace mantel. Screaming out her frustration, she slammed the bat down on the scarred mantel with all her might.