CHAPTER SEVEN
Skipper was delighted to see Ellie when she walked through the door, and jumped up and down demanding her immediate attention. She sat on the floor and played with him for a few minutes.
“Okay, boy. It’ll be just a minute and then I’ll take you outside.”
She picked up the phone receiver and heard the insistent beeping that she had a message. This was yet another odd thing in an already odd day. Ellie rarely received calls, and when she did it was usually a telemarketer trying to sell something. She entered the pass code and tensed as she heard Jake’s voice.
“Ellie? Are you there? Geez, I’m so dumb. You’re probably at the shop. I’d call you there, but you’d probably just hang up on me. Look, I wanna talk to you, Ellie. There are some things we need to talk about. Call me.”
The slur was so slight that no one else would have been able to tell it was there, but Ellie could. Jake had been drinking. Again. She wondered if he had gone to work at all that day, or if he had passed out somewhere in a drunken stupor. Then she wondered why she was concerned at all. It wasn’t her problem. She hoped that by now he was passed out somewhere and would forget that he had called. She hoped.
She leashed Skipper and started out on their evening walk, following the same path that they had taken that morning. She needed the fresh air, and the cool evening breeze was refreshing. She thought about David and how he had managed to turn her life upside down within the space of one day. She went over their conversations, going over every word in her head several times looking for hidden nuances.
She couldn’t quite put her finger on why, but it seemed like she had known David for a long time. She couldn’t remember ever feeling like that with anyone. It was strange, and that could be part of the reason talking with him had made her so jumpy. It wasn’t in her nature to trust something that came so easily. There was usually something nasty hidden underneath.
In the end, she concluded that it had all been innocent enough, and she did genuinely like him. The fact that he was smokin’ hot was a nice benefit.
As she and Skipper made their way around the lake, she looked at the stately homes that lined the street facing the lakeshore. Some were more like cottages, but some looked like huge Italian villas and southern plantation houses transplanted to the urban Minnesota landscape.
The houses were beautiful, and many of them were still dark in the growing twilight, their owners not yet home from work. What stories those houses could tell, Ellie thought. She had always been a bit of a romantic. She imagined women in ball gowns, and their escorts in their crisp tuxedos doing waltzes across a brightly lit dance floor. They would have secret rendezvous in the rose gardens with nothing more than stolen kisses to cool their ardor during a time when romance and chivalry were alive and well. Ellie was reminded of her dream from earlier that morning and she smiled.
Ellie knew that Linda lived in one of these exquisite mansions on the other side of the lake. Linda didn’t talk much about what her husband had done for work when he was alive other than “he did very well for himself and our family.”
Ellie was surprised to feel butterflies of excitement in her stomach when she thought about Linda’s little event. She’d never been to a real dinner party before, and it wouldn’t be so bad to get dressed up for once. Plus David was going to be there, and although she didn’t know exactly what she felt for him yet, the idea was ripe with anticipation. Perhaps she might even go shopping for something new to wear.
Later, with Skipper curled up in her lap, she pulled a blanket tight around her shoulders and stared into the fireplace. It was one of the few amenities that the small apartment offered. The big old houses seemed to have a fireplace in every room. Ellie sipped some tea and thought about her past.
The embers beneath the flames glowed and she felt overwhelmed by the black depression that seemed to be her constant companion. She didn’t know how she could have messed everything up in her life so badly. She thought about her parents, and felt that they would be terribly disappointed in her. She felt like a complete failure. There were a few bright spots: her shop, her dog, and her friends, but she still felt empty. She wondered if that may be why her encounters with David had affected her so strangely. Since she was eight years old she had wanted nothing so desperately than to belong and be loved.
Tears started to stream down her face. She knew deep down inside that she had never loved Jake, at least not the way you are supposed to love the man you are going to spend the rest of your life with. It was her horrible little secret. When they’d met he’d been so confident and carefree about life, which was the complete opposite of Ellie. She had been rigid, intense, and conservative. They’d met when she was twenty-five and he had just turned thirty. She’d never really even had a boyfriend before him and the attention of an older man had been flattering and a bit empowering. But still she had felt deep down in her bones that it couldn’t last.
How was she supposed to know that Jake’s appearance of being carefree was actually recklessness? That his confidence was actually a daredevil’s taunt against the universe? She had been completely unprepared for the unending rounds of emergency room visits as Jake seemed to be testing every physical limit of his body and constant worrying about what Jake would do next. But it was when he started whispering to himself in the middle of the night that she knew he was becoming unhinged. She had always felt like she was waiting for someone, and she had been a fool to think that Jake Coulter was her knight in shining armor.
It had been the dream of the normalcy of marriage, of settling down and having a family, that had propelled her forward in the relationship. Those were all she had ever wanted since she was little. After both of her parents passed away when she was eight, leaving her alone in a very scary world, she had been shuttled between foster homes for the rest of her childhood. She had been fortunate that she hadn’t suffered abuse or neglect. The families had been kind, albeit distant, and she had grown up a loner. It had been so long since she had felt that sense of belonging, to anyone or anything, that she had forgotten what it was like. She craved it. When Jake came along her defenses had been weakened from years of a solitary existence, and she had caved.
Ellie thought about her earlier walk, and her daydreaming of what life would have been like if she had grown up privileged and happy in one of those beautiful houses. She sighed. That romantic daydreaming side of her made her feel incredibly self-indulgent. She was too old for thoughts like that.
Skipper yipped in a puppy dream and startled her out of her musings. She set the mug down on the table beside her and gently shifted around the little dog. She padded in slippers over to her bookcase. Another world seemed much more welcoming than her own reality right now.
She ran her fingers across the bindings, slowing as she came across several historical romances. Linda had practically forced them on her a few months ago, telling her that they would do her some good. She felt silly the first time she actually read one, but then they became addictive. She was embarrassed to admit that she had added a few to the collection on her own. She pulled one of the paperbacks off the shelf and returned to her oversized armchair by the fire.
“We’re all allowed our guilty pleasures,” she explained to Skipper, who was awake now and staring at her. “Cut it out. Quit looking at me. You can’t make me feel bad.”
Skipper cocked his head as if saying, “I didn’t say anything.”
Ellie opened the book and shut out reality, if only for a short while.
The phone woke her from a deep slumber. The fire was only soft embers now, dying a slow death. She glanced at her watch. It was three a.m. She had a feeling she knew who it was, and considered letting it ring. But what if it was something important?
She moved Skipper off her lap and walked to the phone. She looked at the caller ID, but it said “Not Available.” She picked up the receiver.
“Hello,” she said warily.
“Stupid woman,” was the snarling reply.
/>
Ellie instantly regretted answering the phone. “Jake?” she said. “You are really pushing it now.”
“Who do you think you are? I gave you EVERYTHING. And even that wasn’t good enough for you!” Jake’s voice was angry and his words slurred worse than usual.
“I’m hanging up, Jake. I’m not going to do this again,” she said. She hated the quiver in her voice that gave away her anxiousness.
“I’ll come and get you. Mark my words. You’re MINE.” The line went silent with a click.
Ellie realized she was shaking. She had thought the phone calls were over and now he had called two nights in a row. She went to her door and made sure the lock was securely fastened. Her breaths came in short, rapid gulps.
She didn’t think Jake would ever follow through on his threats, but if his drinking had gotten out of control again, she couldn’t be sure. She considered calling the police, but she didn’t think they’d do anything unless Jake actually showed up at her door. She didn’t want to agitate the situation any further. She just wanted Jake to forget all about her and leave her alone.
Ellie closed her eyes and forced herself to take a deep breath. She leaned against the door frame. Skipper was by her side a moment later, wagging his tail and looking up at her expectantly.
“No, it’s not time to get up yet,” she whispered to him. “Besides, I don’t think it’s the best idea for us to be going outside at this time of night. There may be monsters out there.” Skipper’s tail stopped and he looked forlorn as she moved away from the door.