by Allison Rios
“We better get going. Thanks for your help, AJ.”
“Anytime. If you need anything, let me know.”
“By the way, stranger, where did you say you were from?”
“New York. You ever been there?”
“Come around again sometime and I’ll tell you.”
She smiled as she walked towards the driver’s side, suddenly turning straight-faced as she caught Joseph’s glare. After the night before, she didn’t want to add fuel to the fire.
AJ opened the passenger door for Rose, who hopped up inside and into her booster seat. He shut the door with a smile, smacked the door, and Addie began pulling away.
AJ smiled and waved before looking up at Joseph, visibly angry and still standing in the doorway staring right at AJ.
He smirked at Joseph to get a rise out of him, keeping his eyes locked on the drunkard while backing towards the bed and breakfast. Shaking his head a couple times, he turned and kept walking.
“Have a nice day, asshole.”
Nobody ever told him he had to be nice to everyone, all the time.
**************************************************
The shower felt nice, the water washing away the sweat and memories of the previous night’s dream. AJ’s mind was running non-stop, images of Addie and Joseph. He didn’t understand what she saw in the guy, and it made his heart race to think about how Joseph had treated her the evening before. He didn’t understand because he’d never had these emotions about someone. He knew that he’d been led to this little town and perhaps it was to heal Addie from the pain Joseph was inflicting.
As he ran the soap over his arms, he looked down at his tattoos. They were reminders of times in his life that he felt were important - a cross, a flower and a sun. All images he felt were meaningful along his journey. They covered from his shoulders to his elbows, and he didn’t keep them hidden. These images were engraved into his skin, having already been engraved onto his soul, and they reminded him of his strength and the journey ahead.
As he walked into the kitchen, he wondered how this worked. Did he make himself breakfast? He’d never stayed at a bed and breakfast before and he’d been making his own meals for years. Before he could reach the fridge, he heard Helen’s voice.
“AJ, don’t you touch a thing! This is my livelihood, cooking for people like you. What do you want? I can make anything!”
“Uh, just eggs and bacon is fine, Helen, really. And thank you.”
He wasn’t picky. Anything not made in the microwave sounded delicious. As Helen began pulling out pots and pans, AJ found himself leaning on the kitchen counter. He rolled up the sleeves of his navy blue button down revealing his strong forearms.
“Come on! I don’t get to cook for outsiders all that often. Give me a challenge! Look at those muscles – you need some good food to keep those up!”
“Surprise me then,” he said, with a laugh. “I’ve heard whatever you make will be great.”
“Well then, you’re in for a treat!”
There were pans everywhere and she melded her moves into a perfect harmony as the metal dishes clanked out a chorus of joy to be used again. An egg cracked here, a griddle covered with butter there. She had the system down pat.
“Maybe when you’re done helping Matthew with that truck, you can get to work fixing his muscles. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like those in ages. You look like the star of an action movie!”
He blushed, debating whether to roll down his sleeves. He didn’t have the muscles for attention. He had them because it was either work out or risk losing himself in a vice like drinking or drugs. Working out had seemed safer and less costly. He pulled out a stool and scooted up to the counter which, like the rest of Lee, looked like it hadn’t been updated in years. Somehow though, the feel fit.
He watched as Helen continued cooking, adorned in her paisley print apron which was already covered in flour. She moved with grace and he could tell she’d been doing this for as long as she could remember. Everything was perfectly in sync, too. He had never been able to make bacon, pancakes and eggs at the same time without burning one and having the other two cold by the time the whole meal was done. The fact that it all flowed so easily for her amazed him.
When she was done, she placed the plate of food on the counter and slid it across in front of him. She wiped off her hands and then placed them firmly on the counter, excited to watch him take a bite of her home cooking.
“Bacon, French toast and a vegetable omelet, which should be a good, hearty start to your morning!”
AJ smiled, said thank you, and took a bite. It tasted scrumptious. The French toast was perfect, and he could barely finish chewing long enough to tell her so.
“Delicious. Every bit as good as they told me it would be.”
And he meant it. Helen was delighted and watched for another moment before heading over to start cleaning up.
AJ finished up, thanked her again, and helped to wash dishes even though she put up an argument. It gave Helen a chance to grill him with the same questions everyone had been asking him - what he was in town for, where he came from.
Then she asked something no one had in a very long time.
“What about your mother? Do you need to call her? We have a phone here you can use any time you want.”
“That’s very kind,” he said, not wanting to ruin the smiles they were sharing with a sad story. “I’m going to go head on out and find Matthew if he’s around. Said he’d point me in the direction of a job. It’s awfully nice of you all to do.”
“Anything to help a friend. He’s probably out in the garage, tinkering around with that truck again. Now that it’s working, he’ll want to make it into a sparkling, new race car or show car or something, just you wait and see.”
AJ found Matthew and together they headed into town to see about getting AJ that job as a mechanic. Bob the mechanic was nice enough although he seemed a little disgruntled at hiring an outsider – especially one from a big city. He threw a couple questions and quizzes AJ’s way. When he was satisfied enough with the answers, he grunted and muttered that the job was his. AJ couldn’t help but think the guy probably didn’t have much of a choice since no one had volunteered for the job anyway.
AJ agreed to start first thing the next morning, and when Matthew offered him a ride back to the B&B he said he preferred to walk around and get the feel of the town a bit. Matthew headed back, and AJ started walking down the street, taking in the shops and the people. It was a Saturday and the kids weren’t in school, so they were running around and heading in and out of some of the shops. He headed in to the little grocery store to pick up some snacks for his room. He knew Helen would be upset if she knew, yet he felt guilty for eating all their food even if he was paying rent. They asked for so little money. He knew she’d never let him help buy groceries.
As he came out of the building with the brown paper bag in his hands, the warmth of the noon sun hit him and reminded him jeans were probably a bit much to wear this time of year. He saw her out of the corner of his eye as she kicked the truck and let out a word he assumed most ladies down here wouldn’t utter in public. She had already proven she wasn’t most ladies.
He walked towards her, sandwich in hand and half smiling at her feisty nature. His groceries rested nicely into the back of her truck.
“Need some help?” he asked, leaning one strong arm against the red metal and taking a bite of his sandwich. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.” He couldn’t help but smile around her. Even angry she was, as he called it, intriguing.
“Is it your job to rescue damsels in distress? Because there’s none of those here or are you just following me around and hoping to rescue me like a stray puppy?”
Her voice was agitated. She took a deep breath, looked at the ground and sighed.
“Sorry, AJ, just a bit frustrated. Didn’t mean to be so rude.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Do you need some help?”
AJ was going to make her swallow her pride and ask. He didn’t know why, but it was fun to watch her squirm. He’d long ago stopped looking at people as people, instead seeing each person as another manikin with the same look and feel. It felt good to see beyond the figures of people and begin to really notice them again.
“Yes. Please, and thank you sir. Is that what you want to hear?”
She hated saying it. She was exhausted and only wanted to get home and take a nap. She was tough. It was like she was challenging him to back down.
AJ just looked at her for a moment with the smirk still on his face which only seemed to irk her further. Before she could change her mind he slapped a more serious look on his face.
“Let’s take a look.”
He set the sandwich on top of his groceries and walked to the front of the truck. Addie stood near, her brown hair pulled back now into a messy bun and her face pink from a mixture of anger and the sun. Arms crossed in front of her chest, he could tell she wasn’t happy.
“You can call, what’s his name, Joseph? You can call him instead if you want.” AJ couldn’t help bringing the asshole up. He wanted details.
“Lot of good that would do me. The only thing he’s good at is eating.”
She laughed a little. They both did.
“No, really, he couldn’t fix a car for a million bucks.”
AJ just watched her. He liked the way she smiled, the way her hair fell in her face and the way she tucked it back behind her ear. What he wanted to ask her was why she was with him then, but he held back. It almost slipped off his tongue before he was able to stop it. He knew asking her such a personal question wouldn’t result in a good outcome.
He fiddled around under the hood for a few minutes before spotting a loose spark plug and quickly resolving the issue, at least that one. He noticed that the truck was pretty beat up inside and would need more repairs sooner rather than later.
“This should get you home. You’re probably going to need some real work on this pretty soon, or it won’t be running at all.”
“That’s why I don’t take it to mechanics,” she responded, walking away from him towards her door. “They always tell me something I don’t want to hear. Like something that is gonna cost me money. I can’t pay when I don’t have it!”
“Luckily, you’re talking to the town’s newest mechanic. And I just happen to live next door, so it seems like we could work something out.”
“I wasn’t asking for a handout!”
She found AJ aggravating. She spent most of her time shying away from most people in town as they seemed to think of her as a leper for having a baby as a teen. The last thing she wanted was pity on top of the looks and gossip she already contended with.
“I’ve taken care of myself and my little girl for as long as I can remember. I don’t need some stranger to fix things for me.”
“I wasn’t implying you needed a handout.”
He was beginning to remember why he hadn’t struck up conversations with people in so long. Everything he said seemed to be misconstrued thanks to his penchant for joking around. He walked over to her door and leaned on her window, the same way she had on that dirt road the day before.
“Maybe I need something from you and I was trying to work out a fair trade, so I don’t look like a beggar.”
“What could you possibly need from me?”
She let a smile loose, this time genuine and not forced. She wasn’t sure why this stranger was so enticing to her. He made her angry, happy, and a myriad of other things all rolled into one and she didn’t understand it.
“How about a tour of town? I don’t know anyone except for you. Kind of. Might be nice to get a little tour and meet some people.”
“We’ll see.”
She turned the key in the fluttering ignition and listened as the engine turned. She had to admit, it was a tempting deal. The truck needed a lot of work, and an entire year’s worth of toil in the field probably wouldn’t cover the costs even if she had no other bills to pay.
She turned to look at him, and her hair fell forward across her face again. AJ reached in and tucked it back behind her ear, his fingers brushing lightly against her skin, causing a flash of images in his mind that were far too fast to see and make sense of. He pulled back, and she looked at him with confusion. She couldn’t comprehend exactly what she had just felt because those surges hadn’t rushed through her since Rose’s father. It scared her a bit. This man was a stranger.
“Better go,” she said. “Time to pick up Rose, so I guess I’ll see you around.” She sped off down the road.
AJ watched her pull away – a sight he was beginning to find familiarity in - and then turned in the opposite direction towards his temporary home. He thought about asking Matthew for a ride but figured the walk might do him some good. It was only a couple miles, and the run earlier hadn’t worn him out. It felt good to get some exercise again.
He realized it would have been nicer with his sandwich, which was still in the back of Addie’s truck, along with his other snacks.
He smiled. Just another reason he could go talk to her.
**************************************************
Addie pulled up to her grandmother’s house to pick up Rose. Only 25, she had lost her mother years ago. She didn’t talk about it much because in a small town, everyone knows everything about everyone. It was no secret her mama was a bit of a loon and had passed away while locked up in a psych ward. Mostly, Addie didn’t talk about it because she was scared that those genes would be passed onto her and Rose. She figured not saying it out loud would keep it from happening. Plus, if she didn’t talk about it, it just didn’t exist.
Her grandmother Jane, a young 70, was out watering her flowers with little Rose at her side. She couldn’t remember a time when her grandmother hadn’t taken care of them. She was more of a mother than her birth mother and Addie loved her as such. She stood and watched for a moment from the car window before she opened the door and swung her boots onto the dirt and up to the house.
“Where’d you get those shorts, Woodstock?”
Gram proudly displayed the smirk on her face, her gaze never straying from the flowers she was watering. She loved giving Addie a hard time.
Addie leaned in to kiss her on the cheek, grasping both her shoulders as she did so.
“Love you too, Gram. And yes, I thought the ones from this decade weren’t nearly short enough, so I took my magical pickup truck back in time to a place where they were.”
“Smart ass.”
“Mom, Grandma Jane let me pick some flowers for you!” Rose said excitedly, bouncing up and down before running towards the house to get them. “They’re in the vase, I’ll be right back!”
“The flowers are gorgeous out here, Gram.”
Addie admired the spread. Each year, Gram’s garden grew bigger and better with the blue, pink, purple and red flowers blending together into a beautiful living painting.
“You always have the best garden in town.”
“That I do,” Gram replied with a wink. “It’s all because of the mud and fertilizer, my own special mix.”
Turning to look right at Addie, she broached a subject that tended to make both their skin crawl.
“Speaking of mud and fertilizer, how’s Joseph?”
“Give it a rest Gram. He’s fine. He’s a good provider.” He wasn’t, but those were the only words that came to mind in her defense.
“You’re a good provider. You don’t need him.”
“He’s good company. Why do you want me to be alone? I don’t want to be lonely.”
“Being alone does not make you lonely, dear. Look at me. I’ve been without your granddad for 20 years, and I’m happy as a lark!”
“Don’t tell me you don’t miss him.”
While Gram was one of the happiest people on the planet, Addie knew she missed his love dearly. Preparing for a lecture of some sort Addie boosted herself up onto the bro
wn stone wall surrounding the garden, kicking her legs as if she were eight years old again.
“I do miss him. Every day. But that doesn’t mean I’m lonely. I have friends, I have a beautiful family.”
She stopped watering long enough to turn around and face Addie, putting her granddaughter’s chin into her weathered hand.
“I’d rather live with both of those things than with a man who treated me poorly.”
“Gram, you’ve never seen him do anything mean.”
“Not personally, but the town talks and people see. Good, God-fearing people who don’t lie. They don’t like seeing him treating you like you’re nothing.”
“Gram, drop it.”
Addie was getting frustrated now. She didn’t particularly care for Joseph either. She liked not being alone. It was pretty slim pickings in a town this small; even smaller when you had a baby at 17.
“Okay, okay. Tell me instead about this new boy in town. I hear he’s been around you quite a bit.”
“This town really does know everything. He’s just a newbie in town and needs some showing around.”
“I heard from Patricia down at the café that he is one fine male specimen.”
Addie rolled her eyes.
“Gram! Stop talking about it. He’s a stranger! He could be a mass murderer for all you know and you go around talking like he’s a prince. You haven’t even met him. He can be kinda rude.”
“Rude is a step above fertilizer, dear,” Gram said, winking again.
There was silence as Addie tried to change the tune of the conversation. There was a thought though that she couldn’t get out of her mind.
“Gram, have you ever been shocked, so to speak, when someone touched you? Not just the electrical kind, but…I don’t know how to explain it; a jolt just goes through you like a bolt of lightning.”
“Depends. Was it Joseph or stranger?”
“For the sake of argument, let’s say stranger.”
“I’d say it probably was the same feeling I had when I met your Granddad. It feels like an awakening. Like you know there is something to this person. Like there are fireworks.”