Surrender to Love

4

Patti glanced at the clock on the back of her stove and cursed low under her breath. She was running late! After snatching her purse and phone from the coffee table, she spent several more minutes combing the couch cushions and crawling around on the floor in search of her car keys. After finally finding them next to the toaster on the kitchen counter, she raced out the door with little time to spare.

Thankfully, it was Sunday and a lot of people, like her mother, were either still in bed or sitting in a church pew. On this day in particular, she knew exactly where her mother would be.

“Good morning, Momma,” she said solemnly, pressing the phone to her ear as she drove down the open highway.

Her mother sounded tired and withdrawn, which worried her a little. “Good morning, sweetie.”

“How are you?” Patti asked, concerned.

“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’m more worried about you. Are you still insisting on going up there?”

Patti’s jaw clenched. Every year her mother asked her the same question, and every year her answer remained the same. “There’s nowhere else I’d be,” she responded. She guessed they had both fallen into somewhat of a pattern over the years, and to be perfectly honest, it was somewhat comforting. Patterns were good. They were predictable. She didn’t have to guess what was coming next, which was exactly what appealed to her most.

Her mother sighed sadly. “I wish you’d let it go, sweetie. I don’t know what you expect to find there.”

“I don’t expect to find anything, Momma. It’s just something I need to do.”

There was a beat of silence, where Patti drummed her fingers on the steering wheel while she waited for her mother to come up with some excuse to keep her away. To her surprise, she didn’t. “Okay,” her mother breathed in resignation. “Just make sure to take your mace and be aware of your surroundings.”

Patti rolled her eyes because her mother was such a worrywart, but she couldn’t help smiling because it also meant her mother cared. “Sure, Momma. Got it right here in my purse.” She patted the black bag resting beside her in the passenger seat. Although, she wasn’t sure how handy it would be for where she was headed.

“Make sure to keep it on your person, Patti,” her mother scolded gently. “You won’t have time to go digging for it if some crazy person decides to attack you.”

Turning off the main road, she steered the car through a pair of tall iron gates. She had to work to push away the intense feeling of sorrow that spilled over her. “I have to go now, Momma,” she said in a garbled whisper.

When her mother responded, her voice was as strangled as hers. “Okay, sweetie. Be careful and…” She paused and took a deep breath. “And say hello for me.”

“Okay, Momma, I will.” Tucking her phone back in her purse, Patti followed the long and winding path to her destination, coming to a slow stop just under a large maple tree standing like a silent sentinel over the grounds and its many residents.

Patti stepped out of the car, taking in the expansive rolling green lawn, inhaling the sweet smell of freshly cut grass and soaking in the absolute quiet that came with being in a place like this. As she stood there, building up the courage to move forward, a cool breeze gusted up, weaving its fingers through her hair, and gave her a gentle nudge forward. Her feet carried her through the damp grasses to the spot that made her body tremble with grief, yet provided her with a tremendous amount of comfort.

Dropping to her knees in front of the cold, hard stone that reflected her stricken image back at her, she reached out a trembling hand and traced the etched lettering. “Hi, Daddy.”

Patti’s heart held a dull ache as she set herself back on the road and glanced in her rearview mirror at the retreating graveyard. She always felt a marked sadness when she left there, as though she were turning her back on her father. She knew that was ludicrous. It wasn’t as if he were really there, but even four years after he’d passed, she couldn’t seem to wrap her head around the fact that he was really gone.

Hoping to tune out the dark thoughts, Patti started up her favorite CD and scanned to the song that never failed to brighten her day. She blazed a path down the highway, the GTO growling fiercely as she fed it a little more gas. When her exit appeared in the distance, her good mood deflated a bit, but she turned up the stereo, determined to hold onto it a while longer.

The line at the red light crept forward as the cars in front of her took turns pausing and going. When it was her turn, Patti continued to belt out lyrics along with David Coverdale as she turned her head to assess the oncoming traffic. Her foot had just left the brake when something slammed into the back of her. The force of the collision drove her body forward, and the lack of air bags ensured that she got a nice split in her lip when she face-planted the steering wheel. She moaned as she dropped her head back against the seat.

“Shit, are you okay?” The sound of a man’s voice shouted outside her window a moment later, carrying over the blare of music and penetrating the fog as Patti lifted her head and touched her fingers to her swollen mouth. They came back red, and seeing the damage, the man’s eyes rounded and he wrenched her door open. He was in her face before she could blink an eye. “Here, let me take a look.”

Dazed, Patti showed no reaction at all, not even an increase in heart rate at finding herself face-to-face with Jon. One would think, after witnessing such a beefcake walk away with a couple of bimbos on stilts for legs, she wouldn’t have remembered such a minor detail as a name, if only out of need for self-preservation. But no, Patti remembered everything about him. Why, oh why, did she always go for the uber sexy player-type? It must be a mental deficiency of some sort. It certainly wasn’t genetic, considering her mother’s obvious good taste in men.

So, here she was feeling as if someone had attempted to punch her teeth down her throat, and all she could manage to do was stare at the beautiful man kneeling before her. As he inspected her face, she soaked in every detail of his. With the benefit of natural sunlight, she could see that his eyes were much more than the muted light color she’d observed in the darkness of the club, but were a gorgeous shade of aqua framed by thick, dark lashes. Short, dark hair turned nearly black by hair product teased his forehead, which was now marred by tiny furrows of worry. She could feel the tension radiating from him and she could see it in the firm set of his smooth, square jaw and the tight line of his full, very kissable lips.

“Can you hear me?” Jon was saying. Patti blinked away the fog as best she could and realized he had turned those intense blue eyes on her. “Do you know where you are?”

“In my car,” she answered smartly as she began to gather her wits.

His head tipped forward once in agreement. “How many fingers am I holding up?” He flashed two, so she said four. His eyes grew wider.

“I’m just fucking with you. Two,” she said as she struggled to sit up straight. As it turned out, the driver’s side of a car was only meant for one body at a time. With some annoyance, Patti placed her hands on Jon’s very nice, very wide shoulders, and firmly but politely shoved him away from her vehicle.

“I don’t think you should move,” Jon said cautiously as he backed away and watched her climb out of the car. She stumbled a little and his hands shot out to catch her before she could fall, but she slapped them away.

“I’m fine,” she snapped. The last thing she wanted just then was a man touching her. She’d had enough of those for a while. It didn’t matter if that fleeting moment of contact completely set her on edge, or that it made her stomach tumble to her feet. In that second she chose to follow the “Just Say No” motto.

Moving past him, she made her way to the back of the car and cringed as she got a load of the damage. “What did you do to my baby?” she screeched.

It was horrific. Worse than anything she had ever seen. The bumper was buckled in on itself and the paint job was completely trashed. Okay, maybe not the worse damage she’d ever witnessed, but it was a fucking tragedy to her.

“Damn shame,” Jon said, his eyes sweeping over its sleek body appreciatively. “But it could always be worse.” His mouth turned down in a frown as his eyes fell on his own car. “Besides, you’re not the one calling a tow truck.”

Patti glanced at his car and the smoke and various fluids leaking from under the hood. “Well, that’s what happens when you drive foreign pieces of shit.” Logically, she knew she was one to talk since she owned a Toyota, but from her point of view, that was her crap car. Nothing beat good old American-made muscle.

“Piece of shit?” Jon’s face screwed up in offense. “Lady, that’s a BMW. Do you have any idea what that car costs?”

“More than I could hope to make in a lifetime, I’m sure,” she complained. “But even if I had the funds, I’d never waste them on something like that.” With a sad shake of her head, she went back around to the driver’s side and leaned inside. David Coverdale was still going strong, but his ability to soothe her had faded for the moment, so she twisted the volume all the way down before reaching across the console to open the glove compartment.

“Is that…Is that a disposable camera?” Jon stood back, observing her as she moved around the joined vehicles and snapped picture after picture with a small smirk on his face.

“I’m glad you find this so funny.” Kneeling down, Patti took several pictures of the fender bender, and then backed up to get a few from a distance so there couldn’t be any confusion over who was at fault. “By the way,” she said as she peered down the lens. “How did you manage to plow into me in the first place?” She lifted her head to take his measure. “You don’t look high or drunk. Are you blind or just plain stupid?”

Jon’s eyebrows lifted and he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his slacks, mulling over her words. “Wow.” He huffed a disbelieving laugh and his tongue poked out to swipe across his bottom lip. “I got a completely different impression of you the other night.”

Camera in hand, Patti crossed her arms over her chest and popped her hip out. She narrowed her eyes dangerously. “And what impression would that be exactly?”

He opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it as if thinking better of it. He dropped his head to mask his smile. “Just forget it. Forget I said anything.” Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his wallet. “We should exchange information. For insurance purposes,” he clarified when she continued to stand there, staring holes through him. “Unless you don’t want your car fixed?”

Grudgingly, Patti skirted by him to dig into her purse for her information. As she rummaged around in the old saddlebag, her phone went off. She grabbed her wallet and made her way back to where Jon stood waiting for her as she answered the call.

“What do you want, asshole?” she barked as she held out her insurance card. Jon’s blue eyes lifted to hers quizzically as he took it. She ignored him.

“I’m coming by later to get my stuff,” Kyle told her.

“Yeah, that’s not going to work for me,” Patti said as she jotted down the license plate and insurance I.D. on a piece of scrap paper. Kyle had wisely left her alone the first couple of days after they broke up, but he’d been blowing up her phone since late last night. She hadn’t bothered to listen to any of the twenty-seven messages he’d left, figuring she didn’t owe him a damn thing. Now, she was in a hellish mood, and who better to direct it at than the ex-boyfriend.

“Why not? I got a key. You don’t even need to be there.”

“Because I don’t want you in my house, that’s why,” Patti snapped, and then cursed, scribbling out the mistake that he’d caused her to make and started rewriting the numbers. “Look, give me a day or two and I’ll box your stuff up and drop it by your place while you’re at work.”

“Sorry, that won’t work for me,” Kyle said, tossing her words back at her.

All he accomplished was inciting her rage. “You know what doesn’t work for me? Seeing my boyfriend screwing some bitch with mile-fucking-long legs!” Jon was staring at her now. Shifting enough to keep him in her peripherals, she leashed what she could of her anger and spoke cheerily through clenched teeth.

“Fine, I changed my mind. Go ahead and come over later.” And that’s when the leash snapped and she lost her tether on sanity. “You can pick out what’s left of your shit from the burning pile of rubble on my front lawn!” She ended the call and squeezed her eyes shut, taking several deep, cleansing breaths to calm herself. She really wasn’t an angry person. She was actually quite nice, docile, even. It wasn’t her fault that the men in her life always seemed to draw out her inner bitch.

“Boyfriend?” Jon asked warily as she stuffed her phone in her jeans pocket and thrust his card back at him.

“Ex-boyfriend,” she growled, returning her card back to her wallet.

“I feel sorry for him,” he said, his eyes dancing with mirth.

“You would,” Patti said in disgust. She pivoted on her heel and marched back to her car.

“Whoa, what did I say?”

Patti chose to ignore him. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer,” she called over her shoulder as she slid into the driver’s seat, snapped the door closed and cranked the engine. She didn’t have a lawyer, and without a job, there was no chance of her ever having one. Still, making the idle threat was a knee-jerk reaction and at the very least, it made her feel marginally better.

“Are you all right to drive?”

Patti’s head snapped up, surprise coloring her cheeks red when she suddenly found herself looking into Jon’s brilliant blue eyes. “Excuse me?” She leaned to the side, disturbed by his proximity. He had one arm propped on the roof while the other rested comfortably against the window frame. If he tried to pull anything, she figured she had about two point five seconds to roll the window up. She might not snap his neck, but he’d develop one hell of a kink while they waited for the cops to arrive.

“I asked if you’re okay to drive.”

“I’m fine,” she said sharply.

He flashed that sexy smile of his that twisted her insides, and extended his hand. “You know, I think we got off on somewhat of a bad foot the other night.” Patti thought back to the slutty women who’d shown up at her table and couldn’t disagree. “Hi, I’m Jon Bradshaw.”

On reflex, Patti placed her hand in his, momentarily distracted by its warmth and strength as it enveloped hers. “Patti Jacobs,” she said in what may or may not have been a breathy voice.

“Is Patti short for Patricia?” Jon inquired. Patti nodded. “Well, then, Patricia, it was nice meeting you, again. I only wish it could have been under better circumstances. Sorry about your car.”

She shrugged, some of her earlier anger dissipating. “Yeah, well, I should probably be apologizing to you. I’m pretty sure my car won the battle.”

Jon glanced back at his mangled vehicle, his expression darkening. “Well, that’s what insurance is for. I’m just glad we’re both okay.”

“Mm, silver lining,” Patti said, bobbing her head in agreement. She hadn’t missed the haunted look that passed over his face. She was curious what it meant, but she wasn’t about to ask him about it.

“Silver lining.” Jon smiled down at her. Tension was still evident in the crinkles around his eyes, but it was already fading. “Listen, this is probably a little unorthodox, considering I just rear-ended you.” Patti smirked as her mind practically jumped head first into the gutter.

“That came out wrong.” He straightened, rubbing the back of his neck as he composed himself before leaning into her window again. “Would you like to go to dinner with me?”

Patti nibbled her lip, considering his offer. “I don’t know if that would be wise,” she said slowly. “I just got out of a relationship.”

“Well, lucky for me, I usually prefer my dates to be unattached. Nothing dampens an evening more than having to put down a jealous boyfriend.”

“Confident are we?”

“Obnoxiously so.”

Patti couldn’t stop the stupid grin from spreading across her face. Despite her reservations with…well, men in general, how did a girl say no to that? “When and where?” she asked before she could come to her senses and change her mind.

“I have a few things to take care of first, and then I’ll call you.”

“You don’t have my number,” Patti pointed out.

Jon backed toward his car, a playful smile curving his lips. He flashed the piece of paper he’d taken her information down on, and said, “Actually, I do. Be seeing you.”

Slumping back in her seat, Patti shook her head. What the hell was she doing? The last thing she needed to be doing was rebounding, but she was also in desperate need of a distraction. If she was lucky, this guy just might give her one.

“Oh, and Patricia?”

Patti twisted in her seat, hanging her head out the window. She raised her eyebrows in question.

“I don’t know what all that was about on the phone, but for what it’s worth, I think you have fantastic legs.” He winked at her and turned away to head back to his car.

A true smile burst across Patti’s face and she bit her lip to keep from giggling. Yep, Jon was definitely going to be a distraction.

Checking the traffic, Patti glanced in her rearview mirror before pulling away. Jon stood beside his mangled BMW with his phone pressed to his ear. His lips moved as he spoke to who she assumed to be a tow truck driver, but his eyes stayed pinned on her. He lifted his hand at her and Patti felt the heat creep back into her cheeks as she maneuvered her way back on the road feeling buoyancy she hadn’t felt in ages.