Some Things Never Change (WIP) Chapter 2

Four years.

She hadn’t seen him in four years. During that time she had gotten married and divorced, moved away and back home again and given birth. She was a completely different person, now. She was no longer some stupid country girl that fell for cowboys, she was a successful businesswoman, and she was wiser about men. She was a mother; she didn’t have time for men.

So, why did seeing him again stir up emotions that she hadn’t felt in years? Why was she completely unable to concentrate on anything all afternoon?

She knew why. He was every bit as handsome as she had remembered. It was just a big fat lie to say that she hadn’t thought about him. In fact she thought about him a lot. But, she had never expected to actually see him again.

She remembered clearly the last time they spoke. How angry he had been at her, how she hung up the phone crying, it was all replaying in her head like it had just happened less than a minute ago. The way his rough voice sounded when he pleaded with her to reconsider and to give it one more shot. The way she had wanted so badly to tell him that she loved him and wanted more than anything to be with him. The sound of his harsh sigh that rang through the phone line when she told him that she had already made up her mind and she couldn’t come to him. The sadness in his voice when he told her that he understood, when she knew that he didn’t.

In the last four years she hadn’t questioned her actions, not once. At least, not until today. She was staring out the window of her office, lost in thought. She didn’t even hear her office door open.

“What’s up?” Emma, her cousin and best friend asked.

Elizabeth jumped and twirled in her chair. She smiled at Emma and then at the three-year-old standing next to her.

“Hi!” Elizabeth exclaimed, holding her arms out to receive the child lunging for her. “How was your day?”

The little girl just smiled at her before burying her head in the crook of Elizabeth’s neck and wrapping her short arms around her.

“You looked like you were lost in thought.” Emma said, dropping the pink Hello Kitty backpack on the floor and slouching into the chair across from Elizabeth’s desk.

Elizabeth nodded and pulled her daughter into her lap. She ran her fingers through the child’s thick brown hair and looked back up to Emma.

“Do you know who the new Chief of Oncology at St. Francis’s is?” Elizabeth asked.

Emma’s face gave it all away. A bright smile and sparkling eyes. “Yeah, I know who.” She laughed.

Elizabeth frowned at her. “Well, thanks for warning me.” She said. “I nearly fell over when I saw him.”

“I’ll bet. How did he look? Is he still as gorgeous as he used to be?”

Elizabeth didn’t think she should dignify that with a response. He had looked good though. He had a few lines around his mouth and at the corner of his eyes, but his hair was still dark brown and laid in thick waves, his silver eyes could still look right through her, and his shoulders were even broader than they used to be. Of course, he was still arrogant, domineering, and discourteous.

“Hey, Karen. What did you do at pre-school today?” She asked, trying to change the subject.

Karen leaped off of her lap and quickly retrieved a piece of paper; rolled into a neat tube, from her pink back pack.

“Look, Mommy.” She said as she unrolled the paper and held it up for her mother to see. “I made it today.”

Elizabeth studied the masterpiece that consisted of crayon marks and star shaped stickers. “It’s beautiful.” Elizabeth said, shifting her focus to Karen’s own set of silver eyes, which were sparkling in the fluorescent lights of her office. “Let’s put it right here on my bulletin board.”

Karen nodded her approval and held it against the cork while Elizabeth placed thumbtacks at each corner of the artwork. She winked at the little girl and then swiveled her chair back around to face Emma.

“So, what’s your plan?” Emma asked.

“Plan for what?”

“What’s your plan for Jake Callahan.”

“I do not have any plans that include him.” Elizabeth replied.

“Oh, come on, you’re bound to run into him. He’s Pops’ doctor, and Sperry isn’t that big of a town.” Emma stated. “I know you well enough to know that you are thinking of ways to avoid it, right now.”

Elizabeth smiled. “I can’t avoid him. Like you said, he’s Pops’ doctor. All I can hope for is that we are able to move past the things that happened between us and have a mature relationship.”

“Right. Because, when it comes to Jake, you’re really good at being mature.” Emma drawled out.

Emma’s sarcasm wasn’t lost on Elizabeth. Emma was right. She had made some very bad decisions in the past where Jake was concerned, but now wasn’t the time to think about it, much less try to change things.

She wasn’t even sure that she wanted to change things. She had made a life for herself without him, or any other man, and she liked the way things were.

She glanced up at the clock. It was already ten past five.

“I gotta get going.” Elizabeth said. “Thanks for picking Karen up for me.”

Emma nodded as she lifted herself out of the chair. “No problem. Are you going to be out at the ranch this weekend?”

“Yeah.” She replied. “We’re on our way out there now. Grandma said that she wanted us out there for supper. Are you bringing the kids out?”

“Not this weekend. We have back to back basketball games, the pinewood derby for the cub scouts, and I want to get up to the hospital to sit with Pops for awhile.”

Elizabeth nodded, then stiffened. “Hey, you won’t say anything to Jake if you see him, will you?”

Emma pressed her lips together and raised her blonde eyebrow. “I have kept your secret for four years, what makes you think I’d say anything now?”

Elizabeth shrugged. “You’re right, sorry.”

Emma tousled Karen’s hair and then waved at Elizabeth on her way out the door.

Elizabeth gathered her paperwork into neat stacks and sat them in the center of her desk. She glanced over at the little girl that was happily sitting on the floor playing with a rubber band that she had found. A quick sigh escaped as she stood and shrugged her coat on.

Jake Callahan.

There was no way to avoid it. He was home. She had only seen him for a few moments this afternoon, and she had been completely obsessed with it for the rest of the day. She couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling in her stomach, that her whole world was about to be turned upside down.

She was bound to see him from time to time, and she was probably going to react in much the same manner every time. Plus, there was that one other, teeny-tiny, little thing. The secret she had kept for four years. The reason she had left him in the first place.

***

Jake slammed his socked foot into one of the many unpacked boxes still stacked in his apartment and cursed into the pain of his stubbed toe. He kicked the box in his frustration and winced when the exact same pain was repeated. He actually considered picking the box up and launching it across the room, but stopped himself and fell into the brown leather sofa in his living room with a frown.

He had no idea why he was so irritated. He had been all afternoon. He had left the hospital when he finished his charts, stopped at the gym and tried to work out but had a little trouble concentrating on it, so he headed home after stopping for take-out.

He let out a thick sigh and glanced around the empty apartment. It wasn’t much, just a place to sleep as long as he was here. It was all he needed. He supposed that he could unpack the boxes, he had been here long enough, but that seemed like lot of work and not a lot of reward for his efforts, so they had remained stacked in piles throughout his home.

His eyes, quite by accident, fell on a certain box at the bottom of one of the piles and the word written in black marker stood out like a neon light. ELIZABETH.

That was just a coincidence, he decided. The fact that he had inadvertently glanced at the box with her name on it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he had just seen her this afternoon. Definitely not.

Why did he even still have a box labeled ELIZABETH, he wondered as he threw the boxes on top of it to the side. He picked up the small box and carried it back to the sofa where he tossed it on the coffee table and glared at it. He didn’t open it immediately, he leaned back and rested his hands on his stomach while he glared at it, trying to remember what was in that box.

When was the last time he had even seen her? He tried to remember. Sometimes it felt like all of the years were blended together into one really long memory, but the vision of her standing in the airport, walking away from him, was clear enough.

It was as clear as a photograph. She had a fresh tan from the week on the beaches of Mexico, her hair pulled back and sunglasses perched on the top of her head. He would have paid closer attention had he really believed that it was going to be the last time he saw her for four years.

It had been such a great week. They arrived at the Cancun resort within minutes of each other. She was still sitting in the lobby when he strolled through the doors. The sparkle in her eyes and the grin that she wore were so inviting that he wasn’t sure he would make it up to the suite he had reserved at an unbelievably high price. But, cost wasn’t an issue if it meant that he would spend the next seven days, and nights, with Elizabeth.

It’s funny how things change. Now, he would actually pay not to have to see her. She changed her mind as often as she changed her clothes. For seven nights she had been a smoldering temptress, making his fantasies come to life in the ocean view suite. Then on the day of their departure she had turned to ice again, telling him that what they had would never work and that they just weren’t meant to be.

That was her mantra. She had been saying that to him for years, and she never really meant it, because she always let him back into her life, and into her bed. This time, however, she must have meant it because as soon as he returned to Florida where he had a thriving medical practice, he had called her to tell her how much he had enjoyed the trip.

She was distant and reserved on the phone, and ended the conversation by asking him not to call any more. He called anyway. He called and he called, begging her to reconsider, to move to Florida with him. He even considered selling the practice and moving to Chicago, where she was living at the time, if that would better his chances of being with her.

Eventually, she stopped answering the phone, even had her cell phone number changed. Jake was confused and disappointed, to say the least, but he was devastated when he got a call from his mother.

At first, he was worried that something had happened to her or his brother, John, when he heard the solemn tone of her voice. When her words finally registered with him, he sunk into the chair he had been standing next to with the words “Elizabeth got married last weekend.” reverberating in his ears.

As time went on, his heart break turned to anger and later to repulsion. If she was so selfish, so cruel, so coldhearted to spend a week in Mexico with him, all the while planning to marry another man in just a few weeks, then he was better off without her. He actually felt sorry for the poor bastard that did marry her.

Over the last four years, Jake had convinced himself that he didn’t need the lightening-quick mood swings, the hard head, and the way she completely distracted him. Plus, no good could come from how much she knew about him. She could play him like a fiddle if she so desired, and he hated that.

However it took only one glance at those long legs and he had been overcome with memories of having those legs wrapped around him, and he didn’t even want to think about her eyes, or that hair.

So, she was still an attractive woman. She was also still the woman that had damn near destroyed him, several times. Well, he’d learned from his mistakes. He wouldn’t let it happen again.

He kicked the box with heel of his foot and let it fall to the far side of the coffee table, out of his sight, and reached for the television remote.