Hot Pink Heels (The Street Series) (20 page)

Chuck could see her point, but he still wasn’t willing to allow Amanda to put herself in that kind of danger. They’d heard most of the shouting match between Jackson and Amanda through their open window, including Jackson’s declaration of love.

Hearing his son’s admission sent Chuck into overdrive, and he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of his future daughter-in-law throwing herself into such a dangerous position, never mind the fact that she’d come from that life just a few short weeks ago.

“Well, I think they’ve settled things for the time being,” Laura said, coming up beside Chuck. “I don’t think she’s going anywhere tonight.” She leaned her head on his shoulder, the love she’d had for him for 42 years even stronger than it had been the day she’d married him. She loved him for his protective nature, despite his gruff appearance.

She heard the front door open and close again and she turned to leave. “Laura,” Chuck said quietly. She stopped, turning back toward the man she’d loved since she was 14. “That’s our future daughter out there, I just know it.”

“I feel the same way,” she said sweetly, but she shook her head and quietly left the room.

He loves me, he really said that
.
And I went and sucker punched him.
She’d thrown herself on the bed after shutting the door behind her. She’d helped Laura prepare supper earlier and it was in the crock pot, but she didn’t feel like eating right now. She was experiencing twin feelings of giddiness and anger over both Jackson’s declaration of love and his insistence on keeping her from helping Whitney.

How could he tell her wha
t to do? How could he believe she would just sit there at the house like a good little girl while her only friend in the world was about to make the ultimate payment for Amanda’s choices. Whitney had no idea what was coming and Amanda felt trapped.

Speaking of trapped, Jackson had looked like a trapped animal when he’d admitted his feelings for her at the top of his lungs. He’d said the words, or rather shouted them, but it was hard to feel all warm and squishy inside when she remembered he’d only really said them because he was so frustrated. How long would he have waited to share his love with her if they hadn’t argued? Would he
ever
have said anything at all? She knew he was still struggling with her decision to have the abortion, but hey, she was still upset about it too.

Pushing thoughts of the abortion aside, she focused on the situation at hand. She heard Jackson talking to Laura in the hallway, followed by a knock on her door. “Amanda, it’s Jack,” he said. “Can we talk?
Please, I just want to talk, not try to convince you to stay or go.”

Amanda was off the bed and about to open the door before she pulled herself up short, reminding herself to play it cool. He was the one who was exposed, his feelings laid out for her to examine. She’d made no such declarations, and she wouldn’t be saying anything anytime soon.

Leaning against the door, she listened to the voice she’d come to love. She couldn’t face him right now, because she couldn’t decide if she was going to shout at him some more or jump into his arms and kiss him silly.

“Amanda, are you awake?” She heard his sigh, followed by his footsteps retreating down the hall. She turned to lean her back against the door as she played with the necklace
Jackson had rescued for her.

She had to get to Whitney, there was just no way she could stand it if something terrible happened to her because of the choices Amanda had made. She sat on the bed to think. When she figured it out, she began to put her plan into action.

An hour later, Amanda heard a knock at the door again. She was prepared to ignore it again, but then she heard Laura’s voice. “Amanda, honey, I brought you some supper,” Laura said.

Amanda opened the door and Laura brought in a tray of steaming veggies and lean ham, complete with a biscuit and some honey butter. She set the tray down on the desk, but she didn’t miss Amanda’s sudden movement to cover the slip of paper on the desk. Nonchalantly, Amanda slid a book over the paper, but not before Laura saw the first few sentences.

Pretending not to notice Amanda’s movement or the letter, Laura turned to face her. “
How are you doing, hon?” Laura took her hand in the all-too-familiar manner. “I’m not going to pretend we didn’t hear you and Jack arguing, but I won’t try to tell you what to do.”

Relaxing, Amanda squeezed the older woman’s hand before sitting at the desk. “This looks delicious,” she said, ignoring Laura’s question.

“Amanda,” Laura said, her tone requiring a response.
Damn, how can she do that to me already
? Amanda was afraid she couldn’t keep her mouth shut if she started talking.

“I’m fine, Laura,” she said, purposefully stuffing her mouth with the ham. Laura didn’t miss the way Amanda was dressed in her original little mini skirt and sheer top, and she also noticed the pink heels had made a reappearance.

“I hope you know how much we care,” Laura said. “We’d hate to see you hurt, but I understand how you feel about your friend.”

“I’m sorry, but what do you know about my life, or about having only one friend in the whole world,” Amanda questioned, some of her brazenness returning.
It must be the heels, because Amanda felt more like herself than she had in days. Standing, she towered over Laura. “You live here in the perfect suburbs and have your perfect lives and you have no clue what life is like in the real world.”

As soon as she said the words, Amanda wished she could take them back, but despite the hurt she saw in Laura’s eyes, the older woman refused to back down. She drew herself up to her full five feet, which was plenty shy of meeting Amanda eye to eye.

“Amanda, Jackson told me what you want to do, and although I’m not in favor of it because of the danger it presents to you, I do admire your plan,” Laura smiled. “You’re willing to lay down your life for your friend, and I think we both know what that means for you if you do.” She looked pointedly at Amanda.

Amanda looked away, unable to maintain eye contact with the mother of the man she was in love with. She felt like Laura could see into her soul and she’d been stripped bare.

“Whitney and I covered for each other,” Amanda said. “She may not have been the best friend in the world if I had been living any other life, but she was there for me.”

Laura squeezed her arm before leaving the room without another word. Amanda was left with her thoughts and her vegetables. Forking up a piece of perfectly steamed broccoli, she considered Laura’s words.

Hours later, Amanda listened for any noises in the house. She’d heard Jackson leave earlier, although he’d knocked on her door again one more time before finally giving up for the day. The hallway was dark as she tiptoed from the bedroom.

Amanda entered the kitchen and felt along the wall for the keys to Chuck’s car. She’d seen them hanging on a peg near the doorway earlier that evening. She felt the keys just moments before they dropped to the floor with a loud jangle. “Dammit,” she said, reaching down to feel around for the keys.

Finding them, she stood to her feet just in time to realize Laura was sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee cooling next to her.

“Oh,
Laura, my god, you scared me half to death,” Amanda shrieked, grabbing her chest in surprise.

“Where are you going
Amanda?” Laura sipped her coffee calmly while she watched Amanda’s struggle to come up with a story in the shadows.

“I’m going back,” Amanda said simply. “I’ll bring Chuck’s car back, I promise.”

“I could care less about the car,” Laura said, her hand rock steady as she returned the mug to the table. “I’m more interested in the sweet little note you were going to leave for my son before you left. How were you going to explain this to him?”

“Laura, we’ve talked about this,” Amanda started. “I can’t just leave Whitney.”

“You know better than any of us what that man is capable of, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you go off and get yourself killed,” Laura said.

Amanda’s shock was evident in the slump of her shoulders. “Jack would never forgive me if I let you sneak away in the middle of the night,” Laura continued.

Amanda sat at the table, defeated. She’d never thought Laura was a pushover, but she was seeing a whole new side of the woman. “Why do you care so much?” Amanda questioned.

“My son cares about you,” Laura began. “Chuck already thinks of you like a daughter, and
I care because I believe God wants you back.”

“Wow, you’ve really got a screw loose,” Amanda laughed. “God wants me back, huh?”

“Amanda, I know you’ve had a rough couple of years, maybe made a few bad decisions, but deep down, I know this isn’t who you really are,” Laura said, once again covering Amanda’s hand with her own. “You wouldn’t treat me with the respect you do if you hadn’t been brought up right. You wouldn’t be so worried about a friend, or so concerned about Jack. Don’t you see? You want to help your friend so much you’re willing to give up your own life to save hers. That is exactly what Christ did for you.”

“Laura, you know what, you’re right, I’ve heard all this before, and there was a time when I might’
ve believed it, but now I’ve seen enough of people to know it’s a bunch of crap,” Amanda sneered.

“Really?
Crap?” Laura leaned forward, her eyes sparkling in the moonlight shining through the window. “Then why did Jack risk his neck to go back to your place, and why did Chuck jump right in to help?”

“Jack has a thing for me, I get it, that’s why I
’m so good at what I do,” Amanda said. “Chuck just went along because he loves his son.” Sighing, she stood again.

“Jack has more than a
thing
for you, but I’ll have you know that he would’ve come back for you even if he thought you were the ugliest thing on the planet, because he knows that God thinks otherwise about you,” Laura informed Amanda, rising when she did. “It wasn’t his guilt that brought him back to look for you or sent him to your place to get your stuff. It was his belief that God has bigger and better plans for your life.”

Amanda just shook her head. She didn’t want to get into this again and dredge up her past, those days of Sunday School and dresses and memorizing verses, but she couldn’t help one that popped into her head:
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Thinking suddenly of the choices she’d made, including the most recent choice to
end her baby’s life, she figured there were some sins that were beyond even God’s love. “Laura, I appreciate what you’re trying to do,” Amanda said. “Really, I do, but it won’t work, because it’s too late for me. I made some choices that can’t be undone.”

“Amanda, honey, if you’re talking about the baby, you’re wrong,” Laura said softly. “God knows what you did and he knows how you’re hurting from the choice you made. No one is ever a lost cause.”

“I’m tired,” Amanda announced, ready to get out of the conversation. She headed down the hall, but turned back for a moment. “You can go to sleep now, Laura. I promise I won’t leave until I talk to Jack again.”

Laura smiled, but when Amanda closed the door to her room, she put Chuck’s keys in her pocket and headed back toward her bedroom.
Can’t be too careful
. She added his keys to hers on the dresser.

Despite the urgency she felt about Whitney, Amanda slept like the dead, and Laura knocked on her door at nine in the morning, waking her. She swept in before Amanda was fully awake, pretending like nothing had happened the night before.

“Amanda, dear, you need to get up,” she said, opening the curtains and standing near the bed. “Clarissa will be here in less than an hour to take you to brunch.”

She knew she wasn’t completely coherent yet, but she could’ve sworn Laura said
Clarissa
was taking her to brunch. “Okay, I’m sorry, what did you say?” Amanda sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“Clarissa called this morning to ask if Jack had passed on the message about picking you up at 10 for brunch,” Laura said, opening the closet door and rifling through the clothing hanging there. “Let’s see, I know this was Melanie’s, but everything else of hers just seems to fit you like a glove, so I think you should try it on.”

Laura turned, holding up a dress in flamboyant colors that just screamed out “notice me” with it’s pretty diagonal ruffles and simple vee-necked top. “The weather will be perfect for this outfit, and you can probably squeeze into the shoes that match, or your pink heels would even complement this dress quite nicely,” Laura rattled on, ignoring the look on Amanda’s face.

“So you really said that Clarissa is coming to take me to brunch?” Amanda was out of the bed now, not even noticing how Laura was already helping her out of her nightgown and into the dress.

She looked down, surprised to see the dress fit her perfectly, and Laura was right, it was very flattering on her figure. “Wait a minute, you do realize she’s Jack’s girlfriend, and a brunch with her might be just as dangerous as going to get Whitney?”