Angel Falls (Angel Falls Series, #1) by Babette Jongh (inspiring books for teens txt) 📗

“Jake,” I threatened, “Do I need to pull over and deal with you?”

“Do what you want,” he replied in a voice full of loathing, as if I’d deliberately sabotaged his entire school career. “I don’t care. You’re not my mother.”

I decided to take the path of no resistance and drove the rest of the way to Ben’s without responding. Jake simmered with fury while both girls sat in the back seat and wailed. Their distress fed on itself until it reached epic proportions. He got madder, they cried louder, and I hunched over the steering wheel and drove. I pulled into the driveway ready to scream.

Ian’s black car was parked in the drive.

I’d never been so glad to see anything in my life.

My desperation melted away at the sight of him getting out of his car, leaving in its place a quiet sense of rightness. He looked like a fallen angel, dressed all in black. A sexy-as-hell smile tilted up the corners of his mouth.

I parked next to Ian. Jake slammed out of the car and threw his backpack down on the driveway. Maryann gathered her things, tears pouring down her cheeks. I took Amy out of her car seat, set her on her feet, and reached in to get the stuffed Benjamin Bunny that had fallen to the floor. Jake stormed up and snatched Benjamin, the car keys, and Amy’s hand. “Come on, Amy. I’ll take you inside.”

Maryann slumped behind them, dragging her sweater on the ground. I stood alone with Ian in the drive feeling as if I’d just been mauled by a pack of hyenas.

He opened his arms to me and I slid my hands around his hard middle under his open leather jacket.

“Having a bad day?” Ian tightened his arms around me.

“I don’t know what happened,” I whined. “They all just exploded at once.”

“Ahhh,” he said, as if that explained everything.

“God, you smell so good.” I pressed my face into his shoulder. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“Mmmm.” He laid his cheek against the top of my head. “I’ve missed you, too. When can I take you away from here?”

“Tomorrow sometime. Depends on what flight Ben can get. I wish he’d get the knack of planning ahead.”

Wisely, Ian didn’t respond to my whining complaint. “Call me when you get home.” Ian tipped my chin up with a finger and kissed me, a long, lingering kiss that reminded me exactly what I was missing. “Save the rest of your weekend for me?”

“Mmmm.” I kissed him, letting him know that I’d follow him home now, if I could. “I can hardly wait.”

“Aunt Casey!” Maryann stood at the front door. “The computer’s not doing right. I turned it on, but the screen won’t do anything.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.” I held Ian close one more time, inhaling one more infusion of his comfort and strength before heading inside.

“Do you need my help?” Ian offered.

I was on the verge of saying yes when Amy bolted onto the front porch, wrestling with the snap front of her jeans. “Casey! I have to potty! Hurry!”

Ian held his hands up in surrender, clearly deciding this kind of trouble was out of his league. He chuckled and turned me toward the front door, giving my behind a pat to get me going. “Have fun.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I woke Saturday morning with Amy’s arms and legs flung over me like a starfish on a rock. Sun shone through the bedroom window even though a steady rainfall pattered on the roof. The rich, chocolatey aroma of coffee called out to me. Easing myself out from under Amy, I padded into the kitchen. Ben stood at the counter, pouring coffee into a mug. Gilded by the rain-diffused light coming through the window over the sink, he belonged in a Maxfield Parrish painting.

After all these years, he still looked like the man I’d once fallen in love with.

It was I who had changed, and I wondered how much.

Lizzie sat at Ben’s feet, her expectant gaze turned toward him. She pawed at his jeans-clad leg.

“Yeah, yeah, dog. I see you.” He tore a chunk off the bagel he was eating and handed it to her.

I waited for the familiar feeling of guilty, reluctant attraction to grab me, but it didn’t. Instead, and maybe even more disturbing, my heart felt like it had been filled with warm honey. I realized, with a flash of intuition, how Melody must have felt every time Ben came home from a business trip.

As if she somehow stood here, inside my body, showing me what I could have if I wanted, I felt my heart expand with the comfort and security of a deep, abiding love that had endured years of changes and come back stronger with each one. “Ben, you’re back. When—”

“I got a late flight.” His voice was gravelly from lack of sleep. “Got back around three in the morning. Slept on the couch.”

Lizzie looked around at me and I scowled at her, stalling for time while I tried to absorb my strange shift in emotion. “Some watch dog you are.”

She grinned at me briefly, then waggled her little stub tail and returned her attention to Ben. I love you, but he has bagels.

Too bad life isn’t as simple for people.

Ben patted Lizzie on the head and gave her the last bite of his bagel. “She knows her people, don’t you, girl?” He glanced over at me, looking almost the same as he’d looked when we were in high school. Taller, more muscular, but with the same handsome face I’d once loved. I could easily see how it might have been if I’d taken the other path, if I’d made the choice to stay in Angel Falls with Ben.

I knew, without a doubt, that I could pick up the thread I’d dropped and move on as if the missing chunk in the middle had never happened. Was that what I wanted? I didn’t