a different way than you or I.” She wiped the tear that suddenly appeared in her eye and fell down her cheek.
Dave’s mouth dropped open at her passionate defense of the man he was slowly growing to hate. “Don’t you understand? He’s not from ‘good’ people, Jade!”
Jade stood up, unable to contain her disgust any longer. “Angelo Donati doesn’t need to be from ‘good’ people to make it in this world. He’s done it all on his own without the help of anyone around. And without the support of family and friends apparently.” She looked around and noticed that others were silent. “Regardless of whether I have a personal relationship with Mr. Donati, he deserves our friendship and our care. We’re southerners!” she stated emphatically. “And if anyone from our community had been in the same position as Angelo was in as a child, how would we have treated him?” She glared angrily at the other patrons, feeling Angelo’s pain and confusion even decades after the loss of his parents. “Well I can guarantee that he wouldn’t be put into foster care! Emma,” she pointed to the woman sipping herbal tea with concern in her eyes, “you know you would have made your chicken soup because it has been proven to heal everything from ear infections to heartache.” She turned to Norma who was nodding her head. “And you would have made sure he ate biscuits and gravy every morning, telling him with a hug that he needed his energy if he was going to grow up. You did that for me after my father died.”
She looked around at the people staring at her, her heart breaking for the man who had lost so much at such a painfully young age and yet had overcome all the obstacles life had presented to him. She looked down at Dave and shook her head. “Shame on you, Dave! That’s not how we treat people in our community. We don’t reject people because they might be bad. We embrace them and make sure they don’t go bad. We help them out and care for them. We might gossip too much and cook with a bit too much bacon, but that’s because…” she wasn’t exactly sure why everyone cooked with bacon and stumbled.
“Because it makes everything taste better, dear,” Norma piped up, filling in the silence.
The rest of the room nodded their head and Jade laughed, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. “I guess you’re right.” She turned back to Dave. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with Angelo. But I can guarantee that you and I are never getting back together.”
With that, she stormed out of the coffee shop, hearing others cheer her on. She didn’t stop though, too eager to get home and face this new information Dave had given her about Angelo.
His past suddenly made his present make sense. The man “wanted” her, but he wasn’t the marrying kind. When she’d asked if he was going to propose to her, he’d reared back, shaking his head.
“Not the marrying kind!” she grumbled, walking rapidly down the street, her head bowed and anger building up inside of her. “Bad husband material!” she stomped around the corner.
“He just doesn’t think he’s lovable,” she realized, stopping in the middle of the street. A car honked at her and she snapped her head to the left. “Oh!” she gasped and realized that she was now blocking traffic. She hurried across the street and stood on the sidewalk. Her mind whizzing through the ideas. He really didn’t think that she could ever love him. The idea was so tragic, especially since she’d just discovered how deeply she truly did love him. Her whole heart was bursting with the way she was feeling for the exasperating, wonderful, sweet, kind, gentle and terrifying man.
But did he love her?
She suspected that he did. She thought about all the sweet things he did for her like taking care of her animals, making sure she didn’t trip while they were walking, sweetly pouring wine for her and making her laugh while they sipped that wine.
The man might not know it, but he was in love with her! She laughed and practically skipped down the block.
She made it all the way down the street, her eyes barely seeing where she was going and her mind not really sure where she was until she showed up at Angelo’s house, standing on the newly renovated patio. The pool water was sparkling