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  “I’d better get home,” she said. Her tongue felt thick and her voice didn’t sound like her own. She knew that the whiskey was taking hold of her.

  “Let me help you,” Jaylene offered.

  “No. You’ve done enough. I must have bored you to tears. Thanks for the drinks and for listening to me.” Her words came out slow and slightly slurred.

  “I think you’ll change your mind once you step off that stool,” Jaylene said knowingly.

  Rachel placed her hands on the bar and slowly slid off the stool. Her legs felt like jelly. She tried to remove her hands from the bar but her legs refused to support her and buckled.

  Jaylene’s strong arm quickly came around her shoulder steadying her. “Let me give you a ride home.”

  Rachel wanted to protest, but the room began to spin and she would have collapsed to the floor if Jaylene hadn’t been there to steady her.

  “Come on,” Jaylene said holding her firmly by the shoulders and guiding her to the exit.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jaylene eased Rachel onto the bed and gently laid her head against the pillows, then removed Rachel’s shoes.

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  “I don’t know. If this damned room would stay still long enough for me to focus.” She closed her eyes, but it didn’t seem to help only making her stomach violently lurch. “I feel so sick!”

  Jaylene laughed. “It will eventually quit spinning. I promise.”

  The phone rang, but Rachel didn’t care. Right now, the way she felt, she didn’t care about anything except getting rid of the burning in the pit of her stomach. Maybe that would make the room stop spinning. She quickly covered her mouth, knowing she was going to throw up. Even though violent upheavals raced through her body, searing its way up her throat, her stomach refused to let go of its contents.

  “You’ve got dry heaves. Those are worse than actually throwing up.” Jaylene handed her the wastebasket. “Just in case.” She winked.

  The phone rang, but Rachel didn’t move.

  Jaylene picked up the receiver.

  “Rachel, thank God you’re home! Are you all right? I’ve called at least a dozen times. I’ve been worried sick about you.”

  “It’s not Rachel. It’s Jaylene, but Rachel’s home and safely tucked into bed. She had a little bit too much to drink tonight.”

  “Keep your filthy hands off her, Jaylene,” Angela warned. “If you hurt her I swear I’ll—”

  “You’ll do what?” Jaylene taunted. “She’s the one who let me bring her home. Why do you care anyway? According to Rachel, she’s free and single. She needed a friend tonight and guess what? I was there and you weren’t.”

  “Dammit, Jaylene. Rachel knows I’m out of town on business. I would have been there for her if I could have been. You don’t know what she’s been through. Don’t take advantage of her in her condition.”

  “She told me everything. Sounds like you didn’t offer her much in the way of friendly support in her time of need. What kind of friend are you, Angela?”

  “Just stay away from her. She’s too good for you. I swear if you hurt her in any way—”

  “You’ll what? Your idle threats don’t scare me, Angela.” Jaylene laughed. “Don’t hurry home, Ang, on Rachel’s account. You’re not needed around here.” She noiselessly placed the phone in its cradle.

  “Who was that?” Rachel mumbled.

  “Nobody important. Just a wrong number,” Jaylene replied as she took a cool washcloth and laid it over Rachel’s eyes. “Try to rest. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

  “I hope so,” Rachel moaned.

  “I promise you will. Now try to get some rest,” she said.

  In the morning, Rachel opened her eyes to a harsh bright sunlight streaming into her room making her quickly shut them again. Her head throbbed dully feeling twice its normal size.

  Jaylene tiptoed into the room carrying a tall glass. “Here. Drink this. It’ll make you feel better.”

  Rachel tried to sit up. “Oh my head,” she moaned. Her hands shook as she reached for the glass.

  “Let me hold it for you.”

  “What is it?” Rachel grimaced at the strange looking concoction. Her stomach was still queasy and looking at this strange mixture made her feel even worse.

  “Just my own invention. It’s guaranteed to cure any hangover. Drink up. I promise it’ll make you feel like your old self in no time.”

  Rachel hesitantly sipped at the drink, shuddering at the taste. “It’s terrible!”

  “Come on. Drink all of it,” Jaylene prodded.

  When Rachel succeeded in finally draining the glass, Jaylene set it on the night side table.

  “Thank you for helping me out last night.”

  “No thanks necessary. You were a friend in need and I’m just thankful that I was there.”

  “Me, too. I don’t know what would have happened to me if you weren’t.”

  “Well, I was so we needn’t worry about the what -ifs.”

  Rachel agreed. “Where did you sleep last night?”

  Jaylene grinned. “On your sofa. It’s not too bad,” she teased. “A little bit lumpy here and there but I managed.” She stretched her long arms. “Do you mind if I grab a shower?”

  “No, of course not.” Rachel laid her head back against the pillows. She hoped that Jaylene’s concoction would soon kick in. Her eyes were heavy and still refused to focus to their full capacity. Her head continued to pound, but at least her stomach felt slightly better, but sore after she’d spent most of the night combating dry heaves. The only bright side to her physical discomfort was that she felt too rotten to think about Kerri or much of anything for that matter. All she wanted to do was sleep. She closed her eyes and was drifting off when the ringing of the telephone jangled her nerves searing into her pulsating temples. “Damn,” she mumbled. She heard the shower and knew that Jaylene wouldn’t hear the phone. She didn’t want to pick it up. It suddenly stopped. She waited for the answering machine to pick up, but whoever was on the other end of the line didn’t leave a message. She sighed heavily, but then it rang again. She had to stop the incessant ringing. If she didn’t answer it would probably continue until she did.

  She groaned as she reached for the phone. It slid from her hand and she quickly retrieved it.

  “Rachel, is that you?” Angela anxiously asked. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes. Sorry, I dropped the phone.”

  “You sound awful. You must have really tied one on last night.”

  “My first and last time,” Rachel pledged.

  “I’m relieved that you got home okay.” She hesitated briefly. “Rachel, this might not be the proper time, but there’s something I need to tell you.”

  Jaylene stepped into the room with a towel draped around her body. Rachel’s eyes traveled to the firm and muscular legs then to Jaylene’s bare arms. Two small tattoos adorned Jaylene’s wide shoulders. Both were of small birds. Rachel squinted, but couldn’t make them out.

  Jaylene saw where Rachel’s eyes had rested and moved closer. “They’re love birds,” she said with a grin. “I’m going to get a big one across my back.”

  “Rachel! Are you still there?” Angela’s voice called.

  “I’m sorry. Jaylene was just telling me about her tattoos.”

  “Jaylene’s there?”

  “She just got out of the shower,” she explained. “I don’t know what she fixed for my hangover, but I’m feeling better than I was a little while ago.” She smiled at Jaylene.

  “She spent the night then?” Angela’s voice grew quiet.

  “Yes. If it weren’t for her, I don’t know how I would have gotten through the night. She was a lifesaver.”

  “I…I’ll let you get back to what you were doing. I was just worried about you. Goodbye.”

  “Angela, wait!” Rachel heard the dial tone in her ear.

  “How’s Angela doing?” Jaylene asked.

  Rachel
’s eyebrows drew together. “She didn’t sound like herself. Maybe I should call her back. She wanted to tell me something. She sounded upset.”

  “Why call her back?”

  “I’m concerned about her.”

  “She wasn’t concerned about you last night,” Jaylene quickly reminded her. “You even told me that.”

  “I probably misinterpreted what she said considering I wasn’t exactly in a very stable emotional state when I talked to her. After all, what was she supposed to do? If she was home she would have been here in a flash.”

  “Don’t count on it.”

  Rachel’s eyes narrowed. “I think I know her well enough to know that she would have been,” she said defensively. “She’s a good friend.”

  Jaylene sat on the edge of the bed. “But she wasn’t here and I was.” She took a strand of Rachel’s tousled hair and ran it through her fingertips. “Any woman in her right mind would give her eye teeth to be with you.”

  Rachel grew uncomfortable with Jaylene’s close presence. She put her hand on Jaylene’s and gently tugged it away from her hair. “I don’t know about that, but even so I can’t have the woman I want.”

  “Kerri?”

  Rachel nodded. “After everything sinks in and I can sort it all out maybe I’ll be able to understand what she was telling me.”

  “And in the meantime?”

  “I’ll take things slow and try to heal. That’s all I can do.”

  “I’d like to help you if you’ll let me.” Jaylene moved closer letting the towel drop from her body exposing her firm round breasts. “I can help you to forget all about Kerri.”

  Jaylene’s breasts were much smaller than Rachel thought they would be, but since Jaylene was always clad in her leather jacket, she’d never seen much of her form. She looked into Jaylene’s eyes and realized that she didn’t care what Jaylene’s body looked like clothed or unclothed. She wasn’t interested plain and simple.

  Jaylene’s eyes smoldered with lust as she moved even closer her naked breasts seductively brushing up against Rachel’s arm.

  Rachel stiffened.

  “What’s the matter? I can help you forget all about everything.” Her voice was low and husky. “I can make you feel good again,” she whispered running a fingertip over Rachel’s arm.

  “No.”

  Jaylene smiled. “I can tell by the way you’re looking at me that you really mean yes.” Her finger moved to Rachel’s cheek, down her neck and to her chest where it lingered lazily between her breasts.

  Rachel roughly grabbed her hand. “When I say no I mean no.” Her eyes sparked. “You’d better go.”

  Jaylene sat staring intently at her, but made no effort to move. “Why?”

  “Because if all you’re trying to do is get me into bed it’s not going to work.”

  “What do you want? Flowers and candy? Do you want to be courted? Come on, I like you, Rachel, and I can tell that you like me, too.”

  “I need a lot more than liking someone before I sleep with her.”

  She laughed. “Come on. Are you telling me that you’re just an old-fashioned country girl? I don’t buy that.”

  “What if I am?”

  “Then maybe it’s time you changed.”

  “I don’t want to change. I value my morals and integrity.”

  “Ah, what you mean is that you have the hots for Angela. Is that it?”

  “That’s not what I mean, but since you brought Angela’s name up, tell me the truth about your involvement in Karen and Angela’s relationship. I want to know what happened.”

  “I’m sure Angela has already filled you in with her twisted version.”

  “Tell me your version,” she demanded. “I want to hear it from you what really happened.”

  Jaylene ran a hand through her short wet hair making it spike up. “Karen and I were attracted to one another and we acted on our feelings. There’s nothing more to tell. It’s all in the past.”

  “How could you do that to Angela?”

  Jaylene let her breath out in a rush. “Karen wasn’t exactly an unwilling partner. I gave her what she craved. Obviously Angela wasn’t satisfying her in that department or she wouldn’t have come panting to me,” Jaylene said defensively.

  “Did you love her?”

  She squinted. “No. It was never about love with us. We just filled one another’s sexual needs. There’s nothing wrong with that,” she said pointedly.

  “There is when the people involved are in a relationship with someone else. It’s not morally right. Angela was your friend.”

  Jaylene shrugged. “That’s a matter of opinion besides it was Karen’s decision to start something with me.”

  “You were also involved with someone.”

  “Yes, but she was too needy. She suffocated me.”

  “Why did you ask Karen to move in with you if you didn’t love her?”

  “What is this…the third degree. I feel like I’m on trial. Let’s knock off the questions and get down to business.”

  “Answer my question.”

  Jaylene rolled her eyes. “Karen had no where else to go. I’m not so cold-hearted that I’d see her living on the streets. She wanted to stay with Angela, but Angela has this crazy notion that once a cheat always a cheat. She doesn’t give second chances.”

  “Why should she?” Rachel’s cheeks burned. “They’d been together for years. If I were in her situation I would have reacted the same way Angela did.”

  A puzzled expression crossed Jaylene’s face. “That’s not what you said last night. You were pining for Kerri after you told me she’d cheated on you.”

  “My situation is entirely different.”

  “How so?”

  “Kerri believed that we were broken up.”

  “Even if that were the case, you were willing to take her back. Wouldn’t it have bothered you even just a little knowing she’d slept with someone else?”

  She took a deep breath. “Yes, once I cleared my head enough to really think about it, it definitely would have caused problems in our relationship. I suppose I would have wondered about her and the other woman and if it had meant more to her than she was saying. But none of that matters now because she has moved ahead and is building something with this woman. So whatever I think here on in is moot.”

  “So now that you’ve thought about it just a little you’re saying that it will be easier to get over her?”

  “No, it’s never easy to get over someone who shared so much of who you are. I’m hurt, but I have to look at everything objectively. Last night I was too emotional to even think straight. My heart was broken and all I wanted to do was escape the crushing pain. Kerri has moved on and I have to accept that she will no longer be a part of my life. Deep down I’m crushed because she did sleep with someone else so I intend to spend the day trying to put myself in Kerri’s shoes as Angela suggested last night I do. I couldn’t think straight last night, but now my mind isn’t so foggy.”

  Jaylene shook her head back and forth. “Angela again. It always comes back to her. What is it about her that makes you constantly defend her?”

  “I wasn’t fair to her. I don’t know what I expected her to do. I was acting like a selfish spoiled child and I had no right to jump down her throat.” She picked up the phone.

  Jaylene gently placed her hand over Rachel’s. “Don’t call her. You and I can start something special together and make our own memories. We’ll forget all about Kerri and Angela and just concentrate on ourselves.” Her eyes turned sultry. “I want you, Rachel. I wanted you the first time I saw you at The Barstel.”

  “For how long would you want me, Jaylene? Maybe for a few romps in the sack until someone new comes along? Could you offer me total fidelity and honesty? Can you offer me a future?”

  “How do you know how you’ll feel in a year from now?” Jaylene countered. “People change.”

  “Yes, they do and some not for the better,” she replied sharply. “I know that w
hen I’m with someone I want and hope it will be forever. Sometimes things do happen to prevent that, but the bottom line is that I enter into a relationship with the proper expectations. I couldn’t be with that person if I didn’t feel love in my heart for her. I won’t be a one-night stand for anyone. I want true love. I want the woman I’m with to only have eyes for me and not be scanning the room for a new conquest every time we go out.”

  Jaylene chuckled. “You don’t know what you’re missing. Experience isn’t a crime. Neither are harmless flings.”

  “I don’t need experience, Jaylene. When I’m with someone I’m totally in love with all our lovemaking comes from the heart and all the experience in the world can’t come close to exploring and learning together. That’s what being in love is all about. I don’t think you’ve ever experienced that and I feel sorry for you.”

  “One night with me and you’ll be begging me for more,” Jaylene boasted. “I’m deadly serious. Why do you think women want to be with me?”

  “Luckily I’ll never find out. Where are all of those women who want you so badly? Go get one of them. The funny thing is that every time I’ve seen you at The Barstel I’ve never seen anyone swarming all over you. You only prey on those you can’t have. It’s all a game to you.” Her eyes narrowed angrily. “Please get dressed and leave.”

  Jaylene stood up and let the towel fall from her body. “You’re making a big mistake. Tell me you’re not tempted.”

  “I’m not.” Rachel looked away in disgust.

  Chapter Sixteen

  All week Rachel left messages for Angela, but Angela never returned her calls. She threw herself into her work even volunteering for extra hours just to avoid coming home to her lonely apartment. Each night she looked at Angela’s darkened windows her own heart feeling as empty as Angela’s home was. She missed her. She didn’t realize how much until she couldn’t get in touch with her. She was cut off from Angela’s soft soothing voice.

  She still mourned Kerri but it was different now. She’d had plenty of time to think. They had drifted apart long before Rachel had come to the city, but she’d been so wrapped up in her own life that it had never occurred to her that she was the one who had shut Kerri out. Then when she moved and after they’d been apart for weeks, she’d selfishly expected Kerri to leave her life behind to follow her without giving a thought to how Kerri really felt.