Unbearable (Undescribable) (31 page)

I let out a long sigh. She could still message me
from another number, but that was good thinking on Slade’s part. “Thank you.”

He stands up and bends down, planting a small kiss
on my forehead. “Are you ready to go home?”

“Yes,” I answer, getting up and walking my plate
over to the kitchen sink. I turn around and Slade steps in front of me, placing
his hands on the counter on either side of me, pinning me in.

“I’m sorry for keeping it from you,” I whisper,
feeling like a total idiot, thinking I could handle it all on my own.

“Don’t worry about that.” He reaches up and lifts
my chin. “But I do have one question.”

I nod my head, giving him the go ahead to ask.

“Do you think she was the one who broke the window
in the truck?”

“No,” I say, frowning. “I’ve been trying to get a
hold of her.”

“Like calling her?” Slade asks confused.

“No. Like I went to her house and I’ve called her
work.”

“What?” he questions, surprised. “Why?”

“Because I wanted to beat the shit out of her,” I tell
him in all seriousness.

He bursts out laughing. I place my hands on my hips
and glare at him.

“What? Don’t you think I could take her?”

He continues to laugh as he pulls me closer. “There
is no doubt that you could take her,” he says before kissing the top of my head.

I smile. “Anyway, her job said she was on
vacation.” I shrug. “I guess she could be in town, but where would she be
staying? Why wouldn’t she be working?”

“Hmm,” he says still in thought, “there’s no
telling.”

“I still haven’t figured out where she got all the
pictures.” I bite on my bottom lip as I rack my brain for answers. Like always,
I come up with nothing.

“Come on. We can think about this all day and it
won’t get us anywhere,” Slade says taking my hand. “I want to forget about
everything Jessica.”

I’m more than happy to comply with that.

“Are you going to tell me what happened between you
and Tate last night?” I ask as he pulls out of his parents’ driveway.

“I was just being an idiot.” He slides a look over
to me. “It was nothing personal toward Tate.”

I nod my head in understanding. I know how guys can
be, and I’m sure they shared a few words first that added to an already bad
situation.

As we’re driving down the highway, I look up to see
that he has passed our exit. “Where are we going?” I wonder aloud, looking out
the window, watching the passing of our exit sign.

He looks over to me with a grin on his face. “I am
taking you shopping.”

“For what?”

“I think we need to redecorate our bedroom. That
was your intention when you bought the new sheets and comforter, right?”

I bob my head, slightly embarrassed that he figured
it out so easily.

Holly had confessed last night to telling him. She
told me that it was an accident and by the tears in her eyes, I could tell she
never meant to let it slip.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks in a soft voice.

I take in a deep breath, knowing this conversation
was going to happen. I’m just glad he’s sober now. “I was afraid of where it
was going to take us.”

He stays quiet as he pulls off of the highway and into
the parking lot of the home store. Once he parks I start to open the door but
he grabs a hold of my arm to stop me.

“What do you mean, ‘where it was going to take us’?”

“I was afraid that if I showed you those pictures
and video it would make you miss that life. Make you want something more than
what we have.”

He pulls my arm until we are face to face. He
reaches up and softly cups my face in his hand as his baby blue eyes bore into
mine. “No one could ever give me more than what we have, Angel. I can’t explain
that enough to you.” He closes his eyes for a brief second and lets out a long
breath. He then opens his eyes and searches my face. “I love you and you love
me. Those words alone hold more power than anything someone from my past ever
had over me.”

I give him a little smile and lean closer into him,
giving him a soft kiss. I get out of the car and he walks over, taking my hand.
“Now, let’s go get some new furniture to break in.”

I laugh as he pulls open the door for me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

As Angel picks out new
furniture for our bedroom, my mind wanders over recent events. I woke up this
morning to all kinds of messages, and each one had a different story of what
they had heard, none of which were the truth. I called Josh, Tate, Micah, and
my father. I apologized to them for my behavior and just the situation in
general. They all said it was okay and that they understood. I spoke to Tate
the longest. We both apologized and said we were going to act like it never
happened. Angel already has enough shit going on, and I know he is important to
her, so I needed to rectify that part of last night.

“Do you like this bed, baby?” Angel calls, getting
my attention.

I look up at the four-poster bed. It’s similar to
the one I already have, but has more of a classy feel to it. It’s white wood
with a canopy that hangs over the top. The white sheer fabric drapes down all
four posts and touches the floor. I smile as I imagine using those to my
advantage.

“I think it’s perfect.”

“Perfect,” she says turning to look at the
salesman. “We’ll take it in a king.” She then starts pointing to the dressers
and nightstands that go along with it.

I knew she would sleep in this morning so I dragged
my hung-over ass out of bed and had a cup of coffee out on the back porch. When
that didn’t work, I went for a drive. I needed some time alone to go over the
events from last night. I needed to figure out what I could do to stop Jessica.
I’m pretty sure she wants me to contact her so she could run to Angel and tell
her I’m going behind her back. Well, that isn’t going to happen.

Angel brings me out of my thoughts as she hooks her
arm through mine. “Were you even paying attention?” She giggles.

“Absolutely,” I say as I watch the man write down
all the numbers that belong to the furniture.

“So, what all did I pick out?” she asks, putting
the other hand on her hip.

“All of them,” I respond without hesitation.

“You were paying attention.” She smiles brightly.

It’s not like it was a hard guess. Of course, she
wants all of it.

The man tears off a piece of paper and hands it to
me. “Take this up to the counter.”

“Thank you so much for your help,” Angel says
excitedly, and I can’t help but grin.

We walk up to the counter and I hand them the
paper. “Are you sure you liked it?” she asks, hesitant.

“I loved it.”

She smiles and digs through her purse for her
wallet. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting my wallet out to pay.”

I shake my head. “You are not paying, Angel.”

“I should pay. It’s my fault that we’re getting new
furniture,” she whispers.

“No it’s not.” I pull her close to me. “Now put
your wallet away. I’m going to buy you
our
new furniture.”

She slowly puts her wallet back and gives me a
small smile. “Thanks baby.”

“No need to thank me.” I kiss her on her head
before I turn around to check out.

They inform us that delivery is scheduled for
tomorrow afternoon before we finish up the paperwork.

“What do you want to do for your birthday?” she
asks as we get into the car.

“Nothing.”

She looks sideways at me. “We have to do something
for your birthday.”

I reach over and grab a hold of her hand. “Let’s
just stay home and watch a movie.”

“We can do that any night.”

I’m about to tell her we can do that tonight when
my phone starts ringing. I dig it out of my pocket to answer.

“Hello?”

“Slade. This is Officer White. We believe we have a
suspect in custody regarding your break-in.”

“Really? What makes you think so?” I ask looking
over at Angel.

“He was caught about an hour ago breaking into a
house just a mile from your home. He confessed to us that he has hit several
houses in the last few weeks in the area.”

“That’s great.” That is the best news I have heard
in a while.

“We thought you would like to know. If we find out
anything else we will contact you.”

“Thank you,” I say before hanging up.

“Who was that?” Angel asks looking over at me.

“That was the police. They have the guy that broke
into our house.”

She smiles brightly and for once, I feel like
things are going to get back to normal. They have the man responsible of the
break-in behind bars and Jessica can’t contact Angel anymore. Everything is
going great.

“Does that mean I can go back to working nights?”
she asks excitedly.

And there goes the good mood. “I don’t think so.”

“Come on.” She gives a little laugh. “One night a
week won’t hurt.”

I let out a sigh. What’s the harm in it anyway? She
wants to work a night shift then I’m not going to stop her.

She doesn’t even wait for me to give her a verbal
answer before she is pulling out her cell and dialing Holly’s number to ask if
she needs help tonight. And of course, Holly tells her to come in.

As I drive us home, I realize that maybe this is a
good thing. This is what we need. We need things back to normal. With Jessica
off of her back and the intruder behind bars, things can do just that.

I smile as I see Tate walk
into Larry’s.

“Hey, Sam,” he greets, making himself comfortable
at the bar.

“What are you doing up here?” I ask, leaning forward.

“Just thought I would come hang out with you.”

“How did you know I was working?”

“I called Slade earlier to let him know when the
window for the truck would be in. He told me about the police station calling
him, and how excited you were to get back to work.”

I don’t know if I should be worried or happy that
he and Slade seem to be getting along with last night’s events. I pull out a
Bud Light and open it up for him.

He starts to speak but I look up to see Holly
making a mad dash for the women’s restroom. “I’ll be right back,” I tell him as
I chase after her.

I walk into the bathroom to find Holly rinsing out
her mouth in the sink. “Are you okay?”

She nods. “It’s just a bug going around. I think I
got it from the Halloween party.”

I look down at my watch and see that we only have a
few more hours of work. “Why don’t you go on home? I can close up.”

“No. I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

“It will be fine. I promise. Go home, get some rest,
and I will come by to check on you tomorrow.”

She looks like she wants to argue, but she ends up
running back into a stall instead.

After several more minutes of hugging the toilet,
she agrees to go home and get some rest. I wasn’t going to take no for an
answer, work was the last place she needed to be.

Once I help her cash out for the night, I make my
rounds to check on all the remaining customers.

I walk back over to Tate and sit on the barstool
next to him. I haven’t had the chance to sit down and talk to Tate other than
the meeting we had about my mother. I want to get to know him again.

“When did you decide to become an ink junkie?” I tease
with a smile.

He lets out a little laugh. “I got my first one
when I was eighteen.”

“And which one was that?” I ask looking at all the
tribal work on his left arm. It starts at his wrist and works itself up his arm
and under the sleeve of his shirt.

“My side.” He motions to his right side. The same
side where I had seen some sort of writing the day he opened his front door in
only his boxers.

“I remember seeing it the day I visited you.”

He nods.

“What does it say?” I ask, curious. I didn’t get
the chance to read it then. I also didn’t want to just stand there and stare at
him.

He looks at me and I see something in his blue eyes
that I have never seen before, something dark and cold. “I felt I needed a
reminder,” is all he says before he breaks eye contact and takes a drink of his
beer.

I bob my head in understanding. I can respect that
he doesn’t want to tell me. I had felt the same way when Slade asked me about
the tattoo I have on the back of my neck.

I decide to change the subject. “How are you and
Missy doing?”

He almost chokes on his beer as he wipes away what
he spit out of his mouth that spilled down his chin. “There is no me and
Missy.”

“She likes you.”

He gets a ghost of a smile on his lips before he
smoothes his features. “She is not my type.”

“So, you prefer them covered in tattoos like you?”
I laugh and he shakes his head. “What’s wrong with Missy? I really liked her.
She seemed so nice.”

“She is really nice. But stop it.” He points a
finger at me.

“Stop what?”

“I can see the wheels turning in your head. Stop
trying to play matchmaker. It won’t work.”

“Okay. What about the girl that was in your house
the day I came by? She seemed…interesting.”

He lets out another little laugh. “Yes, she was.”

I frown, knowing that wasn’t an answer. “Is that
why you won’t go after Missy, because you’re with that woman?”

He shakes his head.

“What about Little Bo Peep?”

He scowls down at me. “You’re being awfully nosy.”

I smile at him. “I just want to know how things are
going with you.”

“My love life?” He leans up, takes a drink of his
beer, and then speaks. “Trust me, that is not interesting.”

I don’t understand why he wouldn’t want to date
Missy. She is adorable and super sweet. Much cuter than the girl who walked out
of his house that morning and the girl from the Halloween party combined.

I sit back in my seat as I start connecting the
dots. “You’re like Slade,” I announce before I even realize it.

He looks at me with a blank expression. “Not
everyone is looking for love, Sam.”

I sit up and give him a hard look. “I wasn’t
looking for love after Jax. It just happened. I didn’t force Slade to love me
or want a relationship with me. But you are using women.”

“Like I said before, not all women are looking for
love either.” He shrugs. “Some just want to have fun.”

I roll my eyes. “Spoken like a true player,” I
mumble.

He lets out a laugh that breaks the tension between
us and I drop the subject. “I’m going to do some cleaning so I don’t have to
stay late tonight.”

Once it’s closing time I start ushering customers
out the door. Once I shut it, I turn to see Tate still sitting at the bar. “You
have to leave, Tate.”

He shakes his head. “I’m not leaving until you head
home.”

“What is this? Did Slade send you up here to spy on
me?” I place my hands on my hips. That is so like him. My first time back
working nights and he sends a babysitter.

“No,” he says, sounding offended. “Slade is not the
only one allowed to care about you.”

I roll my eyes and begin cleaning off the dirty
tables from the customers I just kicked out. Other than that, the bar is
already clean.

As I finish up, I turn to face him and he stands.
“I’m parked out front. I’ll meet you out back in a bit.”

I frown, confused as to why he didn’t just say,
“Goodbye, I’ll see you later?”

I let him out the entrance and lock up the door
behind him. I pick up my purse and walk out the back door, locking it behind me
as well.

I look down to grab my keys out of my purse as I
walk to the Tahoe. I had just wrapped my fingers around them when I feel a hand
on my right shoulder.

I go to turn around thinking it is Tate, but don’t
get the chance. The hand on my shoulder pushes me forward, slamming the front
of my body into the Tahoe door. I start to panic and try pushing back but I
can’t move. I feel the hand start to pull on my purse.

I slam my head back and make contact with their
face.

“Shit!” they hiss, removing their hand from my
shoulder. I turn around to kick them, but they grab a hand full of my hair and smash
the side of my face into the window. I feel lightheaded and my knees give out a
little as blood fills my mouth.