Roundabout Road (Saving the Sinners of Preacher's Bend Book 2) by Jevenna Willow Read Free Book Online Page B

Right
in the middle of the parking lot to Rachel’s Café she looked both ways, then slowly
hung her head. Her shoulders followed suit.
    A woman with no luck at all? Shit. That was her.
    She couldn’t even begin to put a cost to how screwed she
was, because it was far more than she’d thought she could afford, and certainly
more than she’d be willing to pay from this point on. Even a mouse down a rat
hole wasn’t as screwed as she was.

 
    Chapter Five
     
    Jake, without catching on to what he was doing,
watched with fascination his walkabout wife. She seemed to be waiting for
something, but what ? More importantly why? Hadn’t they said all that was
going to be said to each other, without involving lawyers?
    Yet there was something telling him he shouldn’t pull
his gaze away. Though his brain was telling him to do so, and do so quickly,
his heart wouldn’t listen to this demand.
    Expensive briefcase clasped in her one hand, large
leather purse slung over her left shoulder, head hung low; her chin was practically
touching the coarse cracked pavement. He’d never viewed the woman looking so
dejected.
    In an unexpected moment of weakness an overwhelming
wave of conscience hit him. Then it passed. When a second, stronger wave hit
him right where it hurt, dead to center in the heart, Liddy was still standing
in the same spot a full minute later.
    He turned his head from the sight of her and redirected
his attention to his food, to the very reason he came into Rachel’s before
checking in with Debra. But his eyes were yanked back to the window as if by
string. No matter how badly their separation had come about, or even the
reasons to why it happened, Liddy could still turn his head her way. She looked
totally defeated, as if no amount of energy could force her feet a single inch
forward.
    Ah, h ell!
    Jake held back his groan from becoming audible. It was
bad enough he’d aired out his dirty laundry in the café, but to claim stupidity
aloud?
    His conscience was eating him alive. At not only what
he’d done to her, but to what he was going to do about it now. Ten years had
turned him into a bitter man. But Liddy shouldn’t have had the brunt of his
anger thrust upon her so quickly, or so publicly. She was a fragile sort of
being. He should’ve thought of this before now.
    His wife was more a China doll than his comparison to
GI Joe. She could crack when least expected. Perhaps her presence in Preacher’s
Bend should’ve had the proper time to sink before he ripped her to shreds. Maybe
then he wouldn’t have been so harsh and judgmental to a woman he hadn’t seen in
years.
    Christ! How could he not be judgmental? She destroyed
his life . . . and everything they ever had.
    He took an extremely large bite of his hamburger,
signaled for Rachel to wrap up the remainder, and with the utmost regret rose
from his booth to move toward the cafés exit.
    Liddy’s high heels were firmly planted on the cracked
asphalt.
    Jake did not have to walk far to reach her. He came up
to her left side, and could already hear his wife’s sobbing from three feet
away.
    He might be incredibly angry—with not only her, but at
what she’d made him do two years prior—damn, he still felt human, at times.
There was still a chance for redemption, still moments left to grab hold of.
And if not? Well, life for a man was always an uphill struggle, wasn’t it?
    He turned his wife’s body toward his, placing his
hands on either of her shoulders, and caught sight of the look in her eyes
where no mere words need be spoken to tell him exactly what was wrong. She’d reached
the plateau of absolute disillusion.
    Liddy slowly tipped her blurred vision toward his face
and sobbed even more. Without thought, Jake put his arms around her, drawing
her to his chest. She placed her forehead against him and let it all out. Ten
years of incredible hurt, ten years of shameful regret for leaving him as she
had, and for leaving him without saying Good-bye