Mabe's Burden (22 page)

Her sisters followed her, begging her
to come back, but she couldn’t stand to look at them. The hurt was
too strong. She backed out of the driveway, tires squealing as she
roared down Washington Avenue. She drove to the pub, but parked in
a back alley several blocks down. No sense in anyone finding her
car.

Mabe stomped into the bar through the
back door. Jake handed her two Styrofoam containers of food.
“Here’s your dinner.”

She smacked the containers to the
floor.

“
Hey! What the
hell?”

“
Hand me your keys,” she
demanded.

“
Like hell. You come in
here, throw my food on the floor, and then demand my keys? I don’t
think so.”

Tears burned in her eyes. She looked up
at him. “Please?”

He stopped short. Without saying
another word, he pulled his keys from his pocket. “Come on,” he
said.

She followed him up the stairs to his
apartment over the pub. He unlocked the door, holding it open for
her. She crossed the threshold. She sat on the couch with her head
in her hands. Her shoulders quaked with harsh, wracking
sobs.

“
Hey, hey, hey.” Jake sat
next to her, pulling her into his arms. “It’s okay. Whatever it is,
I’m here.”

Mabe cried until she ran out of tears.
No way had she seen this one coming. To find out the man she
thought she was falling in love with was really someone totally
different had knocked her off her game. No wonder he’d put such
pressure on her to sell the pub. Angry with herself for being so
stupid, she pounded her fists on her thighs.

“
What’s wrong, honey?” He
grasped both her hands in his.

“
I’m so stupid,” she
sobbed.

“
You are many things, but
stupid is definitely not one of them. What’s got your panties in
such a wad? You act like you’ve lost your best friend.”

A fresh batch of tears
started.

“
Shit. I’m no good at this.
Want me to get one of your sisters?”

“
No!” The violence behind
her words startled even her.

“
Okay.” He drew out the
word. “Maybe you better start from the beginning and tell me what’s
going on.”

“
Aaron is Rocko Toreni’s
nephew. Both my sisters knew about it and didn’t tell
me.”

Jake pulled away. He glanced down into
her face. “Wait. Isn’t Toreni the guy—?”

“
Yep. The one and only Vegas
mobster we owe money to.”

“
I’ll be damned.” He sat for
a moment. “Are you sure?”

“
I saw a picture of him in
Vegas with his mother. The caption read her name was Evelyn Toreni
Shaw. Mara found it on the Internet, I guess. She had it hidden in
her room. I found it while I was looking for my makeup.” The tears
formed again. “Damn it, Jake. I was falling in love with
him.”

He blew out a breath. “Oh,
boy.”

“
Yeah.” She leaned her head
on his shoulder.

He wrapped an arm around her. “Listen.
Aaron seems like a straight up kind of guy. Maybe there’s an
explanation for all this. Just because he’s kin to a mobster,
doesn’t mean he is one.”

“
Then why did he want to buy
the bar so badly?”

He stared straight ahead for a few
seconds then sighed. “I don’t know, but from what Meg told me, he
offered you way more than it’s worth. So if he was dirty, why would
he?”

It was her turn to think. “I don’t
know. But he still lied to me. He could have told me once we
started to get close.”

“
You think he feels the same
way about you?”

She sniffed, wiped at a tear. “I
thought so. I mean it seemed like he did. We’ve been getting along
great. I was starting to really feel it was becoming way more than
just sex. I trusted him, you know?”

His cheeks flushed, but he nodded.
“What was his reaction when you confronted him with it?”

“
You mean after I slapped
the shit out of him?”

Jake winced. “Ow, damn.”

She took in his
expression.
Am I sorry? Hell no! I deserve
better than this. He’s lucky I didn’t kick his sorry ass all the
way down the street.

“
You don’t lie to the people
you love. Ever. That’s why I’m pissed at those two hags I have for
sisters, too. They knew who he was. Have known for longer than I
care to think about. They didn’t even bother to tell
me.”

“
Think about it.” Jake slid
to one end of the couch, pulling her back against him. “If it were
reversed and you’d found out something about Mara’s boyfriend,
would you have told her?”

“
Yes!”

He tapped her on the hand.
“Really?”

She sighed. “No, probably not until I
knew for sure what the whole story was.”

“
There you go. I’m sure they
felt the same way. Also, you’ve been dealing with a ton of other
stuff over the last several weeks with Shane’s passing and the
issues with the pub. Maybe they wanted to see if Aaron would come
clean before they had to tell you.”

She mulled his words over, staring at
the swirled plaster on the ceiling. It really was a great building.
She’d spent many years in this small apartment as a child before
they’d bought the house on Washington. She remembered sleeping on
the floor staring up at the patterns, imagining they were clouds
she could float away on. She wished the same today, but she knew
she couldn’t run from the pain this time. Especially when it came
to her sisters. She tilted her head back, glancing up at her
long-time friend. “Maybe you’re right. At least about my sisters.
But it still doesn’t excuse Aaron.”

“
Okay, let’s go back to my
earlier question. How did he react when you confronted him with the
picture?”

She tried to press through the hurt, to
think about Aaron’s reaction, but she couldn’t. She dropped her
chin to her chest laying her head against Jake’s shoulder. “I don’t
know. I don’t want to think about it. I just want to lie here a
little while. Do you mind if I stay on your couch
tonight?”

“
I’ve got to close, so I
don’t mind. What do you want me to tell your sisters when they ask
me where you are?”

“
You can tell them where I
am, but tell them I don’t want to see them. I’ll come back when I’m
ready. If that son of a bitch comes into the bar, you throw him out
on his ass. I never want to see him again. Ever!” A fresh batch of
tears slid down her cheeks.
Damn him. Damn
him for ripping my heart out and stomping all over it. That lying
sack of shit
.

He slid out from behind her, kissed her
forehead and propped her back up with some pillows. “I’m going to
head back downstairs.” He placed the phone receiver on the table by
the couch. “Call me if you need anything. I’ll clean up the
fantastic dinner I made for you, maybe bring you up something else
later on?”

Mabe blushed and swiped at her eyes.
“I’m so sorry. I feel like such a bitch. Want me to come down to
help clean up?”

The corners of his mouth twitched.
“Nah, I’ll get it. You rest. Go ahead, wallow in
self-pity.”

She sniffed. “Thanks. I know I can
always count on you.”

He reached out, clasped her offered
hand, and kissed the top of her head. “Always.” He left her to her
grief.

Once his footsteps receded down the
stairs, she rested her head on the pillows. How did she ever let
herself get sucked in by Aaron Shaw? Now it made way more sense why
he’d been so secretive whenever she’d asked about his family. She’d
spilled her guts about her background—although he’d probably known
most of it already. Her life was an open book to him, but he was a
complete mystery to her. The cat was out of the bag. And she wasn’t
at all sure how she felt about it.

Chapter
Eighteen

Jake sliced the smoked brisket,
settling the rich meat on the toasted hoagie roll. He added grilled
onions, a slice of smoked cheddar, then slipped it under the
broiler. When the cheese melted, he set the sandwich on a plate,
added a pickle with an order of fries. “Pick up!”

He slid the plate onto the metal shelf,
grabbing the next ticket. The back door swung open to the other two
O’Banyon sisters.

“
Have you seen Mabe?” Meg
asked.

He nodded, dropping another handful of
fries in the fryer.

“
Well?” Mara
demanded.

He twisted, stared down both sisters.
Meg took one step back, but Mara never moved. His heart skipped a
beat as he held her icy blue gaze. Damn she was pretty, but it
would be nice if her heart wasn’t colder than Antarctica. “She’s
upstairs.”

Both women raced to the back
stairs.

“
Hold on a minute!” He spoke
firmly.

They skidded to a stop, turning
simultaneously. Mara narrowed her eyes at him. “What?”

“
I want to talk to you two
for a minute.”

At least Meg had the decency to look
guilty, but her sister continued to stare at him defiantly. “We
need to talk to Mabe. This is none of your business.”

“
It became my business when
she showed up here torn to pieces. After crying on my shoulder for
more than an hour, she’s upstairs resting. She doesn’t want to see
anybody.”

“
Who died and made you
gatekeeper?” Mara snapped.

“
Your sister did.” He moved
between them and the door. “Look, what goes on in your own home is
your business, I agree, but when a woman who’s been like a sister
shows up at my door, her heart broken, I tend to get a little
protective. Just go on home. Give her some time. Or if you’re of a
mind, I could use some help tonight. We got busier than I thought
we would.”

His move to distract them didn’t work.
Mara tried to get around him, but he placed a hand firmly on her
shoulder. Her blonde hair brushed his cheek as she whirled to face
him.

“
Let me go,” she ground out
through clinched teeth.

“
Mara,” Meg interjected.
“He’s right. Let’s just let her have some time. She’s taken a
pretty hard blow.”

“
Uh...Sisters...Duh,” Mara
countered.

“
I’m sorry for saying so,
but you two are part of her misery.”

Meg sighed, her shoulders sagging. “I
know. We should have told her what we knew sooner, but we didn’t
want to break her heart.”

“
I thought Aaron would tell
her. But he didn’t.” Mara gestured at the door with a wild wave of
a hand. “Now look what we’ve got. It’s not us she needs to be mad
at.”

“
I wouldn’t say mad
exactly,” Jake kept his tone steady. “More hurt. Just give her some
time. You know she’s safe, so just leave her be until she comes
down. If I know Mabe, by tomorrow morning she will have mustered
enough grit to cope. She might not be back to her old self, but
she’ll manage through it.”

Meg turned and went back to the
kitchen. She grabbed a green apron from the peg on the wall,
slipped it over her head. “Come on, Mara. Let’s go see what we can
do to help.”

Mara glared at Jake but didn’t argue.
He caught a brief expression of regret along with a touch of
sadness in those baby blues, but it disappeared quickly. He knew
she didn’t like him, but, he hoped for Mabe’s sake she was a more
loving sister. He wondered when she would go back to New York. Not
soon enough for him, with her fancy ideas for making food no one
around here could even pronounce, much less have any inclination of
eating.

Mara snatched an apron from the wall on
her way to the grill. She ripped a ticket from the machine. “Bacon
burger with fries,” she read aloud. Reaching for the fry basket,
she drained it then dumped the contents into the salting pan. She
grabbed a few more handfuls of freshly sliced potatoes from the
cutting board by the fryer. She tossed them in the basket and
dropped it in the bubbling peanut oil.

Jake had to admit—although
begrudgingly—her idea of fresh potatoes instead of the frozen fries
he’d been using had been a good one. The peanut oil had made a
difference, too. Although he didn’t see much difference in the
taste himself, the customers were raving about them. It rankled
him, she’d been right again. He didn’t have the same fancy training
she had, but no one ever complained about his cooking. He didn’t
see the need for all the fancy frills, but that was just
him.

She moved through the
kitchen with a calm, cool confidence. She was nothing if not
efficient. After slapping a freshly made hamburger patty on the
grill, she peeled a few more potatoes, sliced them into fries—all
within a few minutes. He admired the way she worked in a kitchen,
but she didn’t have to come in like the Queen of England, taking
over all the time. This was
his
kitchen after all.

Sliding over to the ticket machine, he
grabbed the next order. He began breading some wings he’d had
soaking in a pan of cold milk. They labored silently side-by-side,
filling the orders until they’d caught up with the machine. Meg
manned the bar. When she entered the kitchen about an hour later,
her pale face held a strained expression. She plopped down on a
nearby chair.